Enneagram

I’ve studied the Enneagram for some time, and I’ve learned that there are many people who either aren’t interested in personality typing, don’t want to be “put in a box”, or think it’s a load of hooey. That’s fine with me. It took me a while not to get defensive, but I only wanted others to be able to see it for what it was: a tool. The Enneagram helped me greatly by helping me understand that I am a product of my experiences (I know this is a “duh” thing for many, but you have to figure it out sometime); and allowed me to let go of my… well, guilt about being the way I am. It helped me form language around the things that make me an individual, and the flaws I see that I’d like to change, or somehow “redirect”.

It also helped me understand the dynamics of my relationship with my parents. I’m a One, my Mom’s a Nine, and my Dad’s an Eight. Now I have a better understanding of why me and my Dad often butted heads, and why my Mom was always caught in the middle. Our “surface desires” seemed to match sometimes, but our motivations were different. I cannot stress enough that personality type models are tools. If you are manipulated by them, then they are not being used correctly. If you react to something about yourself that a model happens to point out, then there’s no harm in looking deeper, if you want. It’s also my understanding from books on the Enneagram that each person is a combination of all the types, which supports the idea that everyone is individual. It doesn’t put everyone into one of 9 types, rather some place on a very long spectrum. I also like how it suggests different characteristics of a person depending on their state, whether they are “moving” in a positive direction (growth), or negative (stressed).

Here are a couple websites:
http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/
http://www.9types.com/