Personality enneagram and enneatypes: what are they?

What are enneagrams for and what aspects of our personality do they try to explain?

Among the fields covered by psychology, for decades the study of personality types has been personality types and media coverage for decades.

This is partly the reason why, both inside and outside this science, many proposals for the classification of personality types have appeared, which are nowadays quite well known. Among them are the personality enneagram and its classification by enneatypes..

What is the personality enneagram?

The personality enneagram is difficult to define in one sentence, because it has many facets. That is why the explanation of what it is will be given throughout this article.

Its clearest and easiest facet to approach from the beginning is the following: the enneagram is a circle with nine lines.. This one:

In fact, the term enneagram refers to this nine-pointed geometric and circular figure in which the enneatypes are represented.

This figure represents the second most easily understood facet of what the enneagram is. The enneagram is, in practice, a personality classification system. As such, it puts forward some categories that theoretically can be used to explain the tendencies and propensities that define the habitual behavior of the enneagram. that define people's habitual behavior.

These categories with which we try to classify the different types of personality by means of the enneagram are the enneatypes, which are numbered from 1 to 9. Thus, each person could be defined by an enneatype, which would gather the characteristics in which the person stands out the most.

The enneatypes

• Enneatype 1Perfectionism. This is a category that applies to people who are particularly demanding in what they do and who strive to get closer to an ideal version of themselves.

• Enneatype 2Helping tendency. This Enneagram piece describes people who are devoted to helping others and who undervalue their own needs.

• Enneatype 3Enneatype 3: the quest for personal success. It applies to people with a tendency to narcissism who constantly seek to give a good image in the eyes of others. They like to show off and make their aesthetics speak in their favor to cover their insecurities.

• Enneatype 4Artistic sensitivity. These are people who see themselves as part of a very special story, and their way of perceiving things tends to be imbued with a strong emotional charge that makes them tragic and melancholic. In addition, they are individualistic in nature and like to think of themselves as unique individuals differentiated from the rest.

• Enneatype 5Investigative spirit. Describes very rational and dispassionate people, with great interest in objectively understanding the reality around them. They tend not to talk much about themselves or their emotions.

• Enneatype 6Enneatype 6: attachment to rules and tendency to distrust. What characterizes this enneatype is the propensity to abide by the rules and to question any logic of action that deviates from them. If they are separated from these norms, they are very insecure and fall into constant doubt.

• Enneatype 7Enneotype 7: tendency to enthusiasm and outbursts. People described by this enneatype are in a constant search for pleasure, which causes them to abandon their long-term plans with some frequency. They tend to be good-humored and refuse the possibility of commitment in order not to have to regret losses.

• Enneatype 8Attachment to the feeling of justice. Describes people who like to be in control of the situation and who devote a lot of effort to make those who do wrong pay the consequences. They tend to be self-confident and confident in their judgment, which puts them in a position to offer protection to others.

• Enneatype 9The Enneatype 9: peacemaking and mediating spirit. People who Excel in this aspect tend to shy away from conflict and, in general, show a passive attitude. They prefer to focus their actions on consensus and avoid stridency in their behavior. In addition, they leave important decisions to others.

Shifts within the Enneagram

According to the logic that is usually attributed to the functioning of the enneagrameach person can be explained by the enneatype that best suits him or her.. However, if certain atypical circumstances were to occur, the context could cause the person to begin to act similarly to a person defined by another enneatype, i.e., his or her personality would experience a shift.

The directions in which one could shift from the starting point of one's enneatype are explained in the lined circle, in which the 9 enneatypes of the personality enneagram are represented. Thus, enneatype 1 (perfectionist) could move to position 4 (artist) or 7 (enthusiast), and each of these other enneatypes, in turn, can also move to two others. These lines would also serve to indicate the possible routes of personal development that each person can take depending on the enneatype from which he or she starts.

Why the Enneagram is not a personality test

What we have so far, as explained, is a personality classification system and a proposal about how transitions from one personality type to another are made. This, in the absence of knowing whether there is research to support the usefulness and robustness of this method of classification, and without knowing how the scores of each person in each enneatype could be measured, does not seem far-fetched. But there is a reason why the enneagram cannot be considered a personality test: it relies on pseudo-ideas.It is based on pseudoscientific ideas.

Although the enneagram accounts for different personality types, it is neither a personality test nor is it, in its entirety, a tool that can be used by psychology if certain guarantees of effectiveness are expected. The reason is that it is not a simple system of classification of psychological characteristics but goes much further, because it is based on a belief system based on esotericism and magical thinking. it is based on a belief system based on esotericism and magical thinking..

This means, among other things, that the personality enneagram and the formulation of the enneatypes not only rest on presuppositions about the functioning of mental processes, but also start from a supernatural vision of what exists and is part of reality.

Thus, for example, it is said that the enneagram can serve to explain our personality, but also to discover the basic mistakes we make in our lives and how we can grow spiritually. This is something very relevant: among the Enneagram's raisons d'être is that of being an instrument for the spiritual development of the person, serving to identify the essential problems that affect us daily... and all this, without having to give detailed information about what things affect us, in what context we live, with whom we relate to, etc.

Playing with ambiguities

The reason why these powers are attributed to the use of the enneagram is that it supposedly reflects the way in which invisible cosmic forces structure the functioning of reality and, of course, of ourselves. That is to say that the usefulness of the enneagram is excused under a layer of metaphysics explained on the basis of inaccuracies..

The enneatypes represent these cosmic forces that govern the functioning of the universe, and to demonstrate this, we appeal to the mathematical curiosities that appear when playing with the numbers represented in the scheme of relationships between enneatypes represented by the enneagram. For example, if we divide the number 1 by 7 (the magic number) the result will be 0.142857142857, that is, the succession of numbers shown in the figure starting from enneatype 1 and ending with 7.

These "magical" properties of the numbers are universal (they are fulfilled in any situation), and the enneagram finds in these numbers a way of linking with the essential, which goes beyond the context of the context.which goes beyond the context and can only be explained in a very abstract and confusing way.

Conclusions

Like the ancient Pythagoreans, Enneagram proponents use numerology to try to establish links between the mystical nature of numbers, people and the environment in which they live, exposing mathematical curiosities and assuming the existence of supernatural connections between the structure of the human mind and the workings of the cosmos.They do so by exposing mathematical curiosities and taking for granted the existence of supernatural connections between the structure of the human mind and the workings of the cosmos.

As a tool, the enneagram is not scientifically useful because it is not designed to be tested and to make it possible to detect flaws in its functioning. All it offers are vague explanations that could describe virtually anyone. Therefore, its system of classifying personality types is arbitrary, although that does not mean that one can find satisfaction in seeing oneself through the descriptions of oneself that it offers.

Neither the enneagram was born with the purpose of generating scientifically valid knowledge, nor its method of application has anything to do with the principles that govern psychology as a science. However, among the supposed virtues of this tool is the possibility of offering solutions to major life problems based on a system applicable to all people, regardless of their context. After all, we are all supposed to be subject to the same cosmic forces.

Bibliographical references:

• Gurdjieff, G. I. The Enneagram.

• Palmer, H. (2014). The Enneagram. Barcelona: La liebre de marzo.

• The Essential Enneagram