Enneagram Lesson Four- Types 9-8-1
We continue our study on the Enneagram looking at the "Body" Center types.
Welcome to Lesson Four on the Enneagram!
When we started this journey, I wasn’t sure how many lessons there would be, but I’ve figured it out. :)
There will be a total of eight lessons concluding on Tuesday July 9th.
As a reminder, I write every non-holiday weekday, so I will be taking off this Thursday for Independence Day here in the USA. (To my subscribers from Great Britain, sorry for your loss 248 years ago.)
I’d encourage you to catch up if you’ve missed any of the lessons before diving into this one.
Today we begin looking at each of the nine types by focusing on the three types in the “Body” Center — 8, 9 and 1.
The Passions:
Each Enneagram type has a primary emotional driver. This is different from the instincts we discussed yesterday. Ultimately, your primary “passion” (type) will interact with your primary “instinct” (subtype) to place your entry level into the Enneagram at one of the 27 personalities.
The idea of passions is absolutely essential to understanding the Enneagram as a tool. The entire model is rooted in the idea that each of us lacks a fundamental emotional need. We have an unconscious hunger to fill that need and develop (or accept) a way of meeting those needs in a way that blocks us from true fulfillment. The “passions” for each type register to us as traditional vices. (Think of the seven deadly sins, for instance.)
The Enneagram’s greatest gift to us is taking our unconscious passions into the realm of consciousness. Once we do that, we can make changes in our lives from a deep level and stop trying to simply manage our own behaviors. We can become aware of our most inner motivations and make conscious decisions as to how we react to them.
There are many great books on the Enneagram, but I have found The Complete Enneagram by Dr. Beatrice Chestnut to be the most exhaustive and helpful to me. We are just going to be able to barely scratch the surface here. If you are interested in a deeper dive, I highly suggest that book. Much of the information I will be sharing over the next three posts is coming from Dr. Chestnut’s work.
The Body-Centered Types
Type 9
Nines seek to avoid conflict and create harmony. They focus their attention on others and their surroundings. They are often impressively tuned in to what those around them want, while not having a clear sense of what they want themselves.
Like all Body-Centered types, Nines are in the Anger triad, but tend to not express it outwardly. Their anger tends to be repressed and may come through as being more passive aggressive or stubborn. Or, they may have bursts of anger after it has built up for months or even years.
Nines are steady. The seek to bring peace into any room they enter. At their best, they are amazing mediators and peacemakers as they can easily see all sides of a situation. At their worst, they are easily manipulated by more dominant personalities in the name of keeping the peace or “not rocking the boat.”
Their “passion” is laziness. Nines lean toward inaction, most critically when it comes to their own self-development. Their laziness may be expressed more traditionally as a stubborn refusal to do certain things, but it is best understood in this context as a reluctance to do the inner work needed. They typically don’t want to look inside out of fear that it will disrupt the peace they have worked so hard to maintain with themselves and others.
Though it’s always a guessing game from afar, some would say that both Ronald Reagan and Barrack Obama exhibited signs of the Nine type.
Type 8
Eights are focused on power. They focus on who has control and who does not. They see the world in terms of strength. They want to be one of the strong ones — if not the strongest one. Weakness is deplorable to them. Eights tend to focus almost exclusively on the big picture and are often frustrated when any details stand in their way.
Unlike the Nines, Eights have easy access to their anger. They typically learn to use it to be perceived as strong and brave. More vulnerable feelings are deeply repressed or covered over by their anger and their unmoving belief that weakness is not acceptable. Eights typically believe they are always right and do not desire any feedback that differs from that.
Eights are loyal protectors, especially to those who acknowledge and need their strong energy. They tend to be relentless producers. They get stuff done, often becoming workaholics. However, at their best and most evolved, they can be fierce defenders of those they once dismissed as weak. They can channel their passion and power toward helping others, even becoming social reformers. Most would say Martin Luther King Jr. was an Eight. Some say that Mother Theresa was as well, though she could easily be a Two.
The “passion” of the Eight is lust. For the purpose of the Enneagram, lust is understood more broadly than sexual desire, though that can be part of it. The idea of lust here is that Eights desire excess and intensity through many forms of physical stimulation and seizing power wherever possible.
Type 1
Ones see errors and inconsistencies. They have a need for perfection and rightness. Ones develop an inner ideal of the way everything and everyone should be, including themselves. They gravitate toward structure. They like rules because rules help define what is right and wrong.
Driven by anger like the Nine and Eight, they tend to believe their anger is justified, but also bad. It should be tempered. Their anger can take on a myriad of flavors including resentment, constant criticism, a feeling of superiority (self-righteousness) and self-deprecation.
Ones are intense perfectionists, which can frustrate those around them and themselves. At their best though, their attention to detail and systems combined with their innate belief that it is a good thing to be a hard worker, can result in amazing trustworthy progress in any discipline or career.
The “passion” of the One is anger. This, in a sense, amounts to a double dose of anger for the One. It is nearly always repressed, though. Their constant ability to see the flaws of everything and every person in a flawed world nags at them. It is multiplied by their own realization that they themselves will never be perfect in the end.
Some have suggested that both Steve Jobs and Ghandi were Ones. Brene Brown and Richard Rohr, whom I quote here often, have both said that they identify as Ones.
Two thoughts for today:
Stay in the mindset that you are learning about all of this toward the goal of finding your own type. You will resonate with several as we go along. Just keep note of which ones. You will find some as the opposite of you. Note those as well. We are only one third of the way through learning about the types.
You may be feeling that this is a little more negative energy than you like. Why do I seem to be focused more on the negative attributes than the positive ones? Know that every type has a mature, grounded state that is remarkably wonderful. The world needs mature people from every type. You can and are becoming that by doing this work. But, the model is grounded in human weakness as its starting point. It’s easier and more reliable to type ourselves by identifying our deficiencies than our strengths.
Remember this is just a tool to help you improve! It isn’t perfect, but it’s helpful.
Tomorrow we look at the Heart-Centered types - the 3, 2 and 4.
See ya then.