I just bought this book “The Everything Enneagram Book” by Susan Reynolds. Some years ago when I was working at Boeing, the resident psychologist used Enneagram in our group to help everyone understand each other better. As a result, when I chanced upon this book at the bookstore I thought to myself that I just simply have to get it. And it has shown me further insights into some things, which I had thought to be the case for a while now.
The book claims that our personality is a result of wounding. As a child is growing up, he/she learns from his/her parents and the environment what works, what does not, and what hurts. This learning formulates the child’s Ego, and hence his/her personality eventually. The Ego is what Freud describes as the balancing force between the Id and the Ego. This has been described a little in a recent previous post. This is also the basis for Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development. He states that as a child grows up to become an adult, he/she goes through 8 stages of challenges which the person would confront and hopefully master. For more information on this please visit here.
The book also says that there are nine different Enneatypes, or broad categories of personality (for reasons of brevity, those interested more about the Enneatypes should try googling for “Enneagram” or get a book about it to know more about the different Enneatypes). These 9 different types can be further generalized as having 3 main centers of intelligence – Affective, Theoretical, and Effective. (Note: I take no credit for the snips immediately following this paragraph, they are taken directly from the book)
- Affective center : To achieve healthy, perfect union with others, the universe, and with spirit; to understand the stages of human development that create maturity and wholeness.
- Theoretical center : To develop creative vision and open you up to the real meaning of life; to be fully conscious of the true nature of self and others.
- Effective center : to motivate and energize you to actively live your life as it was intended-according to your true purpose and vision; to actively create and complete the work you are meant to do.
These were the abilities afforded us by nature, but unfortunately the book goes on to lament that we “limp along married to the illusion” that we are just fine. And that most of our problems are generated externally. Thus, we inappropriately use these centers of intelligence to as follows (Note: I take no credit for the snips immediately following this paragraph, they are taken directly from the book) :-
- Affective : To manipulate your-and others’-way of feeling, including emotions within relationships
- Theoretical : To think, plot, and make intellectual decisions limited to our narrowly defined universe.
- Effective : To protect and preserve our physical body and achieve our basic needs, no matter the cost to others.
These “perversions” has such a knell of truth about them that I cannot help but want to share this information. Long time readers of this blog will probably remember a few previous postings along this same line of thought. It feels eerie and scary, but it is the truth.
