What is the Enneagram?
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The Enneagram is a dynamic, multi-dimensional system for understanding nine personality types, their core motivations, and the lens through which each of the nine types / points of view makes sense of the world, their interactions and experiences. It illuminates the relationship between essence and personality, and how the loss of mindfulness or presence moves us away from our inherent heart-centered virtues and towards and ego fixation that presents as distortions in our thinking, feeling and actions.
The Enneagram is ultimately about self-awareness and reawakening our connection with our essence, and its unique expression through each of the nine core points. It helps us accomplish this by advancing our understanding of the nine core personality types/points of view, each with their own gifts and challenges, relationship needs and preferences, pathways for emotional and spiritual growth, leadership and communication styles, as well their own fears, and response in security or reaction in stress. |
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Does this system 'label' people? |
The Enneagram is not about labeling people or putting them in a box. It is about deeply understanding people from their own point of view. While the Enneagram says there are only nine different core viewpoints, it profoundly honors the diversity of individuals by recognizing that there is an infinite variety of particular stories that align within the context of these universal stories.
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What is the origin of the Enneagram? |
As an oral tradition that was not written down until recently, it’s hard to know its actual origins. The Enneagram is said to have appeared in some form in Asia and the Middle East thousands of years ago. The most likely origin is that the Enneagram is a Sufi tradition, the mystical branch of the Muslims.
While it continues to evolve in its use throughout the world, its modern usage was particularly influenced by its being taught through three individuals: G. I. Gurdjieff, a mystic and spiritual teacher in Europe in the 1930’s; Oscar Ichazo, a philosopher in South America who taught a systematic approach to inner growth based on wisdom he accrued in Asia, and; Claudio Naranjo, an American psychiatrist born in Chile who studied with Ichazo, and then in the 1970’s brought the Enneagram to the United States. Naranjo is considered a pioneer in integrating psychotherapy with spiritual traditions. Since these three individuals, contemporary use of the Enneagram has advanced through the work of many and particularly Helen Palmer-psychologist, David Daniels-clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford Medical School, and Don Riso and Russ Hudson-Enneagram scholars and authors attributed with systematizing the Enneagram and therefore forwarding early research on its viability within modern psychology. |
Are we born with our Enneagram point? |
While it seems impossible to answer this question for sure, experience more than suggests that our Enneagram point is inherent in our structure (an acorn can only turn in an oak tree) and not something that develops over time in reaction to our environment. Environment will only determine how much we will thrive. Observing babies makes the point even more clearly; they come into the world with very different personalities. While it is true that nurture can perhaps, on the surface, make you appear to be a different point, one’s underlying structure will eventually reveal itself.
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Does a person’s Enneagram point change over time? |
No. There is an inherent structure (fundamental way of paying attention) that we generally do not transcend. While we may have moments of expanded awareness, we always return to our particular fundamental way. The intention is to evolve in our particular worldview so it becomes less constricting, less habituated. In reducing our reactivity we have more choice in our actions and behaviors. Additionally, with awareness and non-reactivity we engage in the higher aspects of our Enneagram point while simultaneously integrating the higher aspects of a particular pattern of all the points on the Enneagram.
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Is it possible for a person to be more than one type on the Enneagram? |
People sometimes feel like more than one point of view because they identify with behaviors associated with different viewpoints. Closer scrutiny, which looks to core motivation, always brings us back to the realization that we are one point. As people evolve they become more inclusive in their ability to understand and incorporate diverse viewpoints, which helps them develop the higher aspects of their own Ennegram point.
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How does the Enneagam differ from Myers-Briggs? |
The MBTI describes perceptual styles, how people relate to the world, while not identifying what motivates them. The Enneagram is a comprehensive framework that describes people’s core motivations in addition to their psychological, spiritual, and behavioral gifts and challenges. This provides a potentially deeper level of understanding of both the self and others, which in turn supports increased receptivity and reduced reactivity.
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How does the Enneagram compare with the personality structures proposed in American psychology? |
The Enneagram is compatible with the personality structures described in traditional psychology with some significant differences. First, traditional psychology tends to pathologize personality, whereas the Enneagram is far more descriptive. The Enneagram implies no judgment and is value-neutral. It also implies movement and nuance. By including the idea of “wings” (the point on either side of your core point), stress and secure points (the points you move to in stress and security), and subtypes (emphasizing our primary concern is self-preservation, connection or belonging), the Enneagram seems to be an especially inclusive, dynamic tool for understanding self and other.
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Where is the Enneagram currently being used? |
The Enneagram is currently used worldwide in an array of settings including business, psychology, medicine, coaching and spiritual direction. It is also being taught in universities. The International Enneagram Association currently lists 16 schools with graduate and undergraduate / credit and CEU courses in the Enneagram including: Adams State College, Antioch University, Claremont School of Theology, Georgetown University, John F. Kennedy University, Loyola University, Oakton Community College, Pfeiffer University, St. John Fisher College, St. Mary's College of California, Stanford University, UCLA Extension,UCLA Medical Center, Xavier University, Unity School of Religious Studies, Viterbo University.
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