Unlike other personality systems you may have encountered, the Enneagram
personality system is a numerical system which categorises people into nine
basic personality types. Although it is common
to find a little of yourself in all nine of the types, one of them – your basic
personality type - will stand out as being the dominant one. The Enneagram
system has very real-world value as large
organizations and corporations have been known to use it as a means of anticipating
individual's reactions to certain situations which may be stressful.
Throughout a person’s lifetime, his or her basic personality type will
not change. What will happen is that
as you grow and develop, certain traits may soften or become more dominant. The
descriptions of each of the personality types are gender-neutral and universal.
Why numbers? The Enneagram uses numbers to designate each of the types
because numbers are value-neutral. They provide an unbiased, shorthand way of
indicating a lot about a person without passing judgment. One important thing
to note is that the numerical ranking of the types is not significant. No one
personality type is superior to the other – each has its own assets and limitations.
Interestingly though, each personality type can be perceived as more
desirable than the others in a specific culture or group. For example, in
Western society, one particular type may be more desirable, not because of the superior value of a particular type but
rather because it has the qualities which that particular society rewards.
Each personality type can be summarised in four-word sets of traits. Bear
in mind that these are merely highlights and in no way represent the full
spectrum of each type.
Type One is
principled, purposeful, self-controlled, and perfectionist. Type Two is demonstrative, generous, people-pleasing, and possessive.
Type Three is adaptive, excelling, driven, and image-conscious.
Type Four is expressive, dramatic, self-absorbed, and temperamental.
Type Five is perceptive, innovative, secretive, and isolated.
Type Six is engaging, responsible, anxious, and suspicious.
Type Seven is spontaneous, versatile, distractible, and scattered.
Type Eight is self-confident, decisive, wilful, and confrontational.
Type Nine is receptive, reassuring, agreeable, and complacent.
