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February 19 - May 19, 2023
This archetype’s drive is to defend against the experience of pain using intelligence, imagination, charm, and enthusiasm, and to avoid fear through an optimistic outlook.
Jung characterizes this archetype as the “Eternal Child,” who resists growing up as a way of trying to avoid taking on responsibility, along with its commitments, encumbrances, and difficulties.
Type Seven typifies that part of us that looks to the light as a way of avoiding the Shadow. This attraction toward positive feelings like excitement and happiness, and the difficulty of experiencing uncomfortable feelings like sadness, fear, or pain, is a universal human experience.
Sevens automatically retreat into their intellect to rationalize away difficult emotional states.
They actively seek out fun and stimulating experiences as a way of avoiding the darker side of life.
Sevens move and think at a fast pace, allowing them to outrun or outwit whatev...
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their talent for reframing “negatives” into “positives” can cause them to ignore important data that doesn’t fit their positive frame.
LOCATED ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ENNEAGRAM, Type Sevens belong to the “head-based” triad, associated with the core emotion of fear and a central concern with safety.
Although Sevens are part of the “fear triad,” they usually don’t act afraid and may not feel much fear at all. Within this group of three types, Sixes overdo fear, Fives stave off fear by skillfully avoiding it, and Sevens underplay their fear.
they have “synthesizing minds” that allow them to easily find links and commonalities among seemingly different subjects.
Sevens often report having had a good experience early in life, and most recall having a generally happy childhood.
Often there was a “fall from paradise” at a particular point in time, an experience that motivated the child to unconsciously cope with his fear by withdrawing back into an earlier stage of development in which he felt secure and omnipotent.
It also leads Sevens to develop skills and strengths like an active imagination, a positive temperament, and an inventive mind. But avoiding harsh realities makes it hard for Sevens to handle (or even register) difficult emotions in naturally challenging situations.
As Naranjo explains, the Seven most commonly had an authoritarian father “whose excessive dominance and sternness was experienced as lovelessness and not only contributed to an implicit judgment to the effect that authority is bad, but to the experience of an authority that is too strong to be met head-on.”
Based on their parental experience, Sevens get the idea early on that authority equals limitation and control from the outside.
In this way, as Naranjo suggests, Sevens “defend themselves through intelligence.”9
They automatically avoid dealing with the threat of immediate unpleasantness by thinking about what they have to look forward to. They develop a mental focus on future possibilities and options as a way of distracting themselves from a deeper fear of getting stuck in unpleasant feelings and being limited by circumstances beyond their control.
their primary defense mechanisms, rationalization and idealization. Rationalization as a defense entails finding good reasons for doing whatever you want to do, seeing things however you want to see things, or believing whatever you want to believe.
Sevens tend to be self-referencing.
Unconsciously motivated to avoid pain, they want to feel good and stay upbeat and so tend to overlook or downplay the negative data in the environment, instead focusing on what will help them stay positive.
Sevens sincerely believe that they can actualize all they can imagine for themselves—that they can attain whatever they aspire to.
Sevens’ resistance against constraints also takes the form of an intense dislike of routine chores like paperwork or housework, which are inherently constraining.
The Seven habit of avoiding boredom or stagnation also fuels a tendency toward multitasking. They usually have several things—lines of thought and activities—going at the same time.
Pursuing pleasure doesn’t lead to a satisfying feeling of contentment, because the strategy is mainly a defense against emotions Sevens don’t want to feel. Despite their desire not to be limited, they constrain their own emotional life by experiencing things “from the safe remove of their minds.”
Sevens can have a “maladaptive” or self-defeating belief in the need to stay positive.
the contents of the Seven’s inner world is their primary focus.
fixated Sevens can believe they are having deep experiences of love when in reality they are just skimming along the hedonistic surface of what is possible in a relationship.
However, because they dislike open conflict and the associated unpleasant feelings it may stir up, Sevens display more covert forms of rebelliousness.
Their rebelliousness is thus “not confrontive or direct, but sly.”22
Sevens would rather charm their way around a limiting authority figure through humor, intellectual manipulation, and seeming acquiescence than pick a fight that might lead to unpleasantness.
this makes Sevens the ideological forces behind revolutions rather than the activists.23 Generally, Sevens are kind and friendly people who “do not pay very much attention to authority and…implicitly assume authority to be bad.”
leads to difficulty in maintaining focus and self-discipline.
Sevens characteristically find it hard to focus on something for the full amount of time it takes to work from start to finish on something mundane.
They tend to be fast talkers and quick thinkers.
While Sevens put their conscious focus on levity, fun, and happiness, they may also be sensitive to to not being taken seriously by others. Their need to be “light” can make it seem to other people that they are “lightweight,” creating a situation in which they want to be seen as substantive and engaged but people perceive them as superficial or noncommittal.
The Self-Preservation Seven finds security through a gluttonous search for pleasure, satisfying opportunities, and cultivating a network of allies. The Social Seven expresses a kind of anti-gluttony by being of service to others. The Sexual Seven channels gluttony into an idealistic search for the ultimate relationship and the best imaginable experiences.
When the drive for self-preservation dominates, we see a Seven character whose gluttony motivates him to find security and opportunities for well-being in a close network of family members, friends, and associates. When the social instinct is prominent, we see a Social Seven who goes against gluttony by sacrificing his own needs for the good of others. And when the drive for sexual or one-to-one connection dominates, the Seven character is expressed through an exceedingly enthusiastic personality whose gluttony for pleasurable experiences creates a tendency to view reality in an extremely
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Self-Preservation Sevens express gluttony through the formation of alliances. They typically collect around them a kind of family network, in the sense of banding together with trusted others and creating a good “mafia” or partisan group through which they can get their needs met. They rely mostly on those they trust.
Self-Preservation Sevens always have their nose to the wind for good opportunities.
In seeking security, however, they can often confuse desires with needs.
the Self-Preservation Seven is the most sly, cunning, and pragmatic personality among the Sevens, while the Sexual Seven is more of a light-hearted enjoyer.
the Self-Preservation Seven is more actively flirty, seductive, and sexual than the Sexual Seven, who often focuses more on an imagined, idealized kind of communion than actual sex.
spiritual aspiration is not so common in Self-Preservation Sevens; they often reject religion and tend not to believe in anything. They’re more practical, more materialistic, and more rebellious than the other two Seven subtypes. They’re very cheerful and friendly, but also disconnected from their emotions.
Social Sevens go against the Seven passion of gluttony in that they consciously avoid exploiting others.
Social Sevens avoid focusing on their own self-interest or advantage by pursuing an ideal of themselves and the world.
Because of their enthusiasm and joyfulness, as well as their prominent desire to help and be of service, Social Sevens can look like Twos—but while Twos focus primarily on others and don’t have as much of a connection with their own selves, Social Sevens are still primarily self-referencing, not other-referencing, so they will usually know what they need, even if they decide to sacrifice it.
Individuals with the Sexual Seven subtype are gluttons for things of the higher world—for optimistically seeing things as they could be in the ideal world of their imaginations. Sexual Sevens are dreamers with a need to imagine something better than stark, ordinary reality.
the Sexual Seven takes refuge in this kind of ideal, positive experience as a way of unconsciously avoiding what might be unpleasant in life.
In terms of personal style, Sexual Sevens are people who like to talk a lot. They are verbose and excited by their own discourse, and their speech is characterized by a flow of “wonderful ideas and possibilities.”
They can also play the role of the carefree clown whom nothing seems to affect.
