The struggle to discover ourselves isn’t only that you or I do. This struggle is as old as human existence. All of today’s personality tests are developed as a consequence of this struggle. Same like MBTI & other personality tests, the Enneagram has matured after centuries of refining and reorganizing knowledge and efforts to give it a sensible structure.
Let’s understand the Enneagram personality test.
Who developed the Enneagram Personality Test?
Oscar Ichazo was roaming around to find the meaning of life. Born in Bolivia he moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina to know his inner self. There he founded a school and joined with experienced psychologists to learn about psychology, spirituality, and personality. After years of effort, gathering, and systemizing everything that he could get on human psychology he developed the Enneagram framework to discover the personality of people.
Ichazo believed that we transform from essence to personality. Our essence is perfect, balanced, and united, but when this essence turns into the personality by life experiences, it takes the shape of personality. It simply means that all human beings have the same essence but different personalities. Ichazo’s ultimate aim was to develop any system by which he could understand the differences in the people. It was this aim that resulted into development of Enneagram.
What is Enneagram?
Enneagram is a geometric figure that is used to visually represent 9 personality types and their connection with each other.
Its basis is a circle that holds the whole figure. At this circle, nine points are marked — the idea of nine was taken from Plato’s 9 divine forms. Plato believed that these nine are fundamental qualities of humans because they cannot be further broken down.
After marking 9 points, 3, 6, and 9 are joined to form an equilateral triangle. Then an irregular hexagon is constructed by joining (1–4–2–8–5–7).
- Circle: The circle represents unity in human beings. It means that by nature all human beings have the same potential.
- Triangle: The triangle represents the law of three.
- Hexagon: The hexagon represents the law of seven.
The Enneagram is derived from the works of Pythagoras. George Gurdjieff (1800s), a Russian spiritual teacher, used to teach it to his followers in the form of sacred dance. By the dance movements, he used to tell them the meaning of its collection of symbols and the processes it represents. But Gurdjieff didn’t develop any proper personality system. It was lchazo who later used Enneagram as the basis of his personality system.
Core Parts of Enneagram Test
Let’s understand the core parts of the Enneagram test.
1. Basic Personality Type
The concept of basic personality type is almost similar to Meyer’s Briggs Personality Type. But MBTI has 16 personality types, whereas, the Enneagram has 9 basic personality types.
These nine personality types are marked on the circle from 1 to 9.
- The Reformer (1)
- The Helper (2)
- The Achiever (3)
- The Individualist (4)
- The Investigator (5)
- The loyalist (6)
- The Enthusiast (7)
- The Challenger (8)
- The Peacemaker (9)
The proponents of the Enneagram fundamentally believe that these 9 personality types are fixed and can’t change over time: means if you are a helper at the age of 18, you can’t turn to achiever at the age of 40. They further believe that we are born with one dominant personality type — not that we acquire personality type during childhood, instead, we are born with it. This means that personality type is part of our genetic code.
Enneagram also holds that there is no superior or inferior personality type. All types have a neutral value — every personality type has respective strengths and weaknesses. They have some peculiar ways of dealing with people, places, and things.
2. Centers
Second core part of the Enneagram is centers. Centers means all nine personality types are separated into three compartments.
Instinctive Types fall in the first compartment: 8–9–1 types are instinctive types. These 3 types express, control, or suppress their instincts. For example, if a challenger (8) is treated rudely and as a result he becomes angry, he will vent his anger by speaking loudly or moving physically.
Feeling Types fall in the second compartment. 2–3–4 are feeling types. They express, control, or suppress their feelings. For example, if Helper (2) feels shame, he will try to be good with others and will focus on his positive feelings and repress his negative feelings.
Thinking Types fall in the third compartment. 5–6–7 are driven by thinking types. They express, control, or suppress their thinking. For example, if Investigator (5) faces fear, he will try to get more information to feel secure.
3. Wings
The third core part of the Enneagram personality test is wings. The wing is the tilt of a type to its neighboring type. For example, if your wing is 3w2 and your type is 3, it means that some of the characteristics of your personality match to type 2. You can also have balanced wings which mean you are closer to both of your neighboring types
4. Levels
One of the distinctive aspects of Enneagram is its levels introduced by Don Riso in 1977.
Levels divide a person’s personality into a healthy, average, and unhealthy state. Suppose, you have type 4 personality and 4w3 wing, and your brother also has the same type and wing. It is still possible that you are in a healthy state and your brother is in an unhealthy state. You being in a healthy state might be more emotionally stable and mentally clear, while your brother could be anxious and emotionally reactive.
Below are further sub-divisions of levels:
The Continuum of the Levels of Development:
Healthy
- Level 1: The Level of Liberation
- Level 2: The Level of Psychological Capacity
- Level 3: The Level of Social Value
Average
- Level 4: The Level of Imbalance/ Social Role
- Level 5: The Level of Interpersonal Control
- Level 6: The Level of Overcompensation
Unhealthy
- Level 7: The Level of Violation
- Level 8: The Level of Obsession and Compulsion
- Level 9: The Level of Pathological Destructiveness
The weakness of the Enneagram Test
No doubt Enneagram is one of the most popular personality tests to understand your personality and explore its various aspects. But it has some weaknesses that you must know.
Complex: You can give the Enneagram test — that’s simple. You can also understand the result explanation and relate it to you. But if you try to understand its structure, origins, and basis, it is too difficult. It is a composite of too many ideas.
Mystical Origins: Why are there 9 types? Why not 5, 15, or 20? The only answer to it is because Plato believed there are 9 divine qualities which cannot be further broken down. Why a triangle is drawn to connect 3–6–9 not a square to connect 4 types? because it is the law of three.
George Gurdjieff used to teach the Enneagram to his followers as a series of sacred dance steps but there was no scientific basis to it. It was a kind of mystical system to which he gave a better form to have more impact on his followers.
Type Name: Some people may dislike them to be called as helper or investigator. So giving a name to a particular type, or even giving a number couldn’t satisfy some. Unlike Enneagram, MBTI associates people with 4 letters which is a more reliable way.
Originally published at https://personty.com.
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