Originating from the Greek word [Ennéa = Nine] and Gram representing a diagram, the Enneagram of Personality refers to nine categorizations of interrelated personalities depicted in a diagram.
The Enneagram is a tool used to assess one’s personality type based on core fears and desires. The structure of the Enneagram identifies nine basic personality types that are interrelated, each with its unique way of relating to the world. It explores why you think, feel, and behave in particular ways, rooted in these innate fears and desires.
The insight provided by this tool recognizes nine very different yet inherently valid views of reality by uncovering the reasons behind how you and those around you process emotions, thoughts, and behaviors.
The Types:
- The Reformer
- The Helper
- The Achiever
- The Individualist
- The Investigator
- The Loyalist
- The Enthusiast
- The Challenger
- The Peacemaker
The Enneagram theory strongly believes that humans have innate dominant personality types, something they are born with. It also advocates for the changing nature of human behavior, which is heavily influenced by the environment and experiences. Therefore, it is natural for a person’s personality to evolve even with slight changes in their surroundings. However, the dominant personality type remains the most significant throughout the person’s life.
Enroll in Enneagram courses online by clicking here.
For instance, if a person’s test results show Type 5 (The Investigator) as the dominant personality, but the person also scores highly in other categories like Type 8 (The Challenger), it simply means that the person’s innate personality type is The Investigator with traits of The Challenger.
In fact, everyone can relate to other types alongside their dominant personality type, and this does not affect the accuracy of the test. Overall, a person embodies aspects of all personality types, but the one with the highest score, which is unchangeable, represents the personality type they are born with.
The Enneagram was originally designed and developed with the goal of human development in mind, integrating this into modern psychology.
Because the structure and purpose of the tool are oriented around the human psyche, it primarily focuses on an individual’s way of thinking, feeling, and behaving in relation to their core fears and desires.
For example, if a person is a Type 4 (The Individualist), their defining traits would include being perceptive, imaginative, and passionate, with negative traits like being melancholic, dramatic, and narcissistic. The driving force behind these traits is a combination of their fears and desires. The general desire for this personality type is to demonstrate their uniqueness through their talents, and this desire is fueled by a fear of having no identity.
Understanding the Enneagram:
Although the Enneagram is structured into numbers, it is a mistake to extract a hierarchy from it. Even though the personality types are numbered from 1 to 9, there is no hierarchy suggesting a superior or ultimate personality type. This categorization highlights personality types that are universally found and experienced.
Example:
Type 9 (The Peacemaker) is neither greater/superior nor lesser/inferior to Type 1 (The Reformer). They are very different from each other, but since the tool functions on the factor of relatability—where one person may relate to more than one personality type—both types can relate to each other, yet they will have fundamental differences.
The Enneagram can be divided into three centers, which are functional points: Instinctive (Behavioral), Feeling, and Thinking. Each center contains three personality types tied to a primary emotion when processing any situation.
- The Instinctive Center includes Types 8, 9, and 1 (The Challenger, The Peacemaker, and The Reformer).
- The Feeling Center includes Types 2, 3, and 4 (The Helper, The Achiever, and The Individualist).
- The Thinking Center includes Types 5, 6, and 7 (The Investigator, The Loyalist, and The Enthusiast).
For example, emotions like rage and anger are tied to the Instinctive Center, embarrassment is tied to the Feeling Center, and fear is tied to the Thinking Center.
The Enneagram is also a tool for human development. Along with assessing personality types, it provides insight into the triggers and areas for improvement within our personalities. Even though the dominant personality type is unchangeable, one can introspectively work on countering the negative traits that come with their personality by focusing on what needs to be changed or developed.
