The Enneagram

[Arch]

Anyone into this symbol around here?

For personality or other reasons?

 

 

I'm mostly into the personality aspect of it, though I'm aware it has other uses.

(I also know my Jungian type, ISFP aka MBTI, but this is mostly about the enneagram)

 

I myself has a tritype of 9w1, 5w4, 2w3, subtype Sx/Sp.

I mostly think of myself as a nine body type, but the mind/image crossover of 5w4 is very prominent, and I'm beginning to tap more into my image 2w3 also.

Of course people have all 9 types, but the enneagram is mostly a negative system pointing out ones dark areas.

Meaning that the types one doesn't have is more free from problems.

These 3 have been the source of the biggest hangups and issues in my life so far.

 

Anyway, enough about me and my take on the symbol and system.

What are your type?

How do you interpret it?

[EmpyreanKnight]

This is very interesting. Can you recommend to us some credible sites that can expound on this topic? If it has some resources that will help us identify our types, then all the better. :)

[Arch]

This is very interesting. Can you recommend to us some credible sites that can expound on this topic? If it has some resources that will help us identify our types, then all the better. :)

 

Sure, this site is good to get an overview of the basic types.

 

I also recommend the book "The Wisdom of the Enneagram", I've found it very useful myself.

There are other books, but that one stands out in my memory as the best.

 

Other than that this forum is more or less dedicated to personality systems

and have a lot of resources and people who can be very helpful.

Including me, though at this time, I don't feel like merging my identity on these two sites.

This is sort of a fresh start for me.

 

As for tests I've found them not very helpful, as the enneagram is about deeply reflecting on who you are,

not on others measuring superficial traits via a serverside script.

[EmpyreanKnight]

Thanks for the links, Arch! I bookmarked them, and once I read them I'd definitely post my insights here. :)

 

A friend has a bunch of books on personality types, and I'd ask if she has a copy of The Wisdom of the Enneagram. Just googled some more books on the topic and there are quite a lot of them. I didn't know that this subject is rather popular.

 

As for tests I've found them not very helpful, as the enneagram is about deeply reflecting on who you are,

not on others measuring superficial traits via a serverside script.

 

It's good that you said this. I'm rather wary of online tests. I was warned that the MBTI quizzes that flit around the internet are not entirely accurate, and that it's best if you're tested by a qualified professional. I do have some misgivings about the issue of objectivity if you're left to determine your own personality type tho. I guess I'd have to read on it first.

[Arch]

Thanks for the links, Arch! I bookmarked them, and once I read them I'd definitely post my insights here. :)

 

A friend has a bunch of books on personality types, and I'd ask if she has a copy of The Wisdom of the Enneagram. Just googled some more books on the topic and there are quite a lot of them. I didn't know that this subject is rather popular.

It is a good alternative to religion in some senses, a whole psychospiritual system.

 

As for tests I've found them not very helpful, as the enneagram is about deeply reflecting on who you are,

not on others measuring superficial traits via a serverside script.

Yeah the issue with objectivity in these systems is that at the end of the day, there mostly are none.

Basically waiting for neuroscience to catch up to several hypothesis made in the beginning of the 1900's by Freud and Jung.

Sadly depite people thinking we are far along, we are still scratching the surface on that side of it.

Which leaves us theories backed up with varying amounts of facts with a good measure of interpretation in between.

 

As Freud put it:

"Since we can't wait for other sciences to give us the drive-nomenclature,

it is much more useful to try, what light a synthesis of the psychological

phenomena can throw on these fundamental biological riddles.

Let us make ourself comfortable with the possibility of being wrong,

but let us not hold back from rigourously pushing forward with the first assumption."

Freud 1914, The Term Narcissism

If you want an alternative with more recent science backing, then you are better off reading about Attachment theory.

 

Anyway the way you go about it is through subjective reflection,

where you try to understand yourself in relation to opposites of various kinds.

Very advanced and pointed opposites in some cases, but still opposites.

It becomes an excercise in trying to see past ones biases and as the greeks put it, "Know thyself!"

The types are helpful guidelines in what directions one can reflect and expect to come up with useful distinctions.

 

It sometimes boggles my mind how many hours I've spent reading about this stuff.

Fortunately to me it has been very useful, and I use it daily both at work and in private.

But, I won't pretend the road there was easy, this stuff can be frustrating and hard to get ones head around.

Yet only when one understands what type one is and why, does the real benefits begin to manifest.

For no other reason than that one better understands what it means to be oneself,

and what that means in relation to other people.

One gains a theory of ones own mind and the mind of others.

 

It may not be perfect, but I've found that it beats all the assumptions I held previously,

one cannot argue with an improvement, even though it probably could be improved even more

in say 300-400 years when science actually catches up...

[Vasixlisa]

This symbol is confussing me - can you explain, what it means or how to read it?