The Complete Enneagram: 27 Paths to Greater Self-Knowledge

by Beatrice Chestnut

Inspiring passion in someone else is their way to fix everything in life. In line with this, they may have a self-image of the “ideal lover.”

Naranjo has suggested that in the “highly emotional and romantic [Two] character, ‘help’ translates as ‘emotional support,’ and on the whole, the personality is better evoked through ‘lover’ than ‘helper.’”

ULTIMATELY, THE PATH OUT OF THE TWO TRAP of abandoning yourself to gain approval consists in having compassion for the part of you that needs to be loved, getting to know your “real self,” and learning to love who you really are.

Twos benefit from asking themselves continually, “What do I really need?” and “How am I feeling?” Unaware Twos may believe that having their feelings will automatically mean alienating others, and they may also be afraid of feeling their painful emotions.

Twos are typically more comfortable being the power behind the throne, but moving to Eight invites them to initiate more and to take the risk of leading and acting proactively rather than always reacting. Crucially for Twos, moving to Eight also means learning to be more direct and assertive as opposed to using indirect means to get needs met and sugarcoating messages to make them go down easier.

By consciously drawing on the strengths of Type Fours, Twos can expand their access to their authentic emotions, reclaim a healthy ability to self-reference (to balance out their disproportionate focus on others), and accept and express their needs with more confidence.

The Two move to Four can help Twos relax in the knowledge that honoring their emotions and desires can support, rather than thwart or threaten, their ability to form positive relationships.

TYPE ONE REPRESENTS THE ARCHETYPE of the person who seeks to be good and do “the right thing” to satisfy an urgent need to be virtuous and responsible and to avoid fault and blame. This drive provides a defensive protection in a world that demands and rewards good behavior and punishes bad behavior.

Type Ones are thus the prototype for that part in all of us that strives to match high standards of good behavior as a way of proving ourselves worthy and avoiding blame or fault.

Their specific “superpower” can be seen in their high integrity and the passion and dedication they bring to the fulfillment of their ideals and the pursuit of high standards.

they get in their own way by overdoing their focus on virtue and thus undermine their own self-confidence, balance, and inner peace through over-control, self-repression, and excessive judgment.

Type One belongs to the “body-based” triad associated with the core emotion of anger and a focus of attention related to order, structure, and control. Although Type One is a body type, the focus on judgment and standards can make Ones seem more head focused, energetically.

With each “wrong” impulse, the One’s fixation with being correct and avoiding fault is in conflict with a natural and spontaneous impulse, instinct, or feeling. This conflict is frustrating, and the critical function that maintains it is relentless.

Ones often report that they experienced pressure early in life to do something well or correct at a time when they were too young to take on the burden of this responsibility. The experience of criticism from parental figures or others creates an anxious sense in the young One that there is a “right way” to do things.

The coping strategy of adhering strongly to sound rules, routines, and standards of behavior provides the One with inner cohesion and security, as well as protection from criticism.

The One child denies this frustration through overcompensating in the other direction. She unconsciously turns away from the anger and frustration, displacing the energy of this emotion into efforts to be excessively good.

Ones also internalize a “parental” voice that functions thereafter as an internal critic or coach. This coping strategy of proactively criticizing oneself and trying to do things correctly prior to coming under parental scrutiny can avoid outside criticism and punishment.

An example of reaction formation as an active defense might be the One’s automatic tendency to be excessively nice to someone with whom they are actually angry or dissatisfied. Or reaction formation might turn a rising feeling of envy at another’s success into an expression of admiration for them. Through reaction formation, any emotion can be denied (unconsciously) by bringing forward its “bright side” opposite.

The mental habit of judging against an inner ideal goes beyond just discerning right and wrong or good and bad. Through the inner critic, a Type One habitually assesses better or worse (and why) in everything they compare to this ideal.

Whether the person instinctively directs this impulse more inward, toward society, or into personal relationships, the focus of attention remains on striving for flawlessness in order to avoid criticism and pain.

What we commonly think of as overt aggression is more prominent in other types, such as Eights and the Sexual subtypes of Sixes and Fours. Type Ones experience and express anger more as resentment, frustration, self-righteousness, or irritation.

Ones report that they most often feel resentment, a kind of low-level, background, tamped down anger that things aren’t as they should be.

The repressed or “sullen” form of anger is the side of the Type One personality that most people might not notice. Far from being a violent or disruptive personality, the One’s underlying passion of anger actually ends up fueling an over-controlled or over-civilized character.

For example, a Type One person focused on her own imperfection may believe that she is unworthy and inadequate even when the evidence in how she lives her life shows that she is actually successful in many ways and more than adequate. Her cognitive mistake is that she can and should be doing better, even though objectively she always does her best to be ethical and diligent.

Type One’s striving for perfection while focusing so much on flaws binds his or her understanding of “self” to this struggle to improve an endlessly imperfect world.

The patterns and habits that arise out of the coping strategy of proactively criticizing in light of specific standards of quality or perfection create a circular “trap” that Type Ones act out consciously and unconsciously.

Thus, Ones’ efforts to prove themselves acceptable and lovable ends up reinforcing their false belief in their imperfection and unlovableness.

Ones can often be perceived by others as inflexible or rigid, which is a natural consequence of their tendency to over-control themselves and the things they say and do.

Ones endeavor continually to be virtuous. Unlike other types, who have other kinds of primary motivations and may enjoy being “bad,” Ones orient themselves toward being good citizens and doing the right thing.

Because they believe they are always right, they can be overly critical and punishing of themselves and others, but rationalize their harsh treatment as correct or justified. Ones can also be highly sensitive to criticism. It can be hard for them to hear sincere feedback from others because they are already beating up on themselves or fearing critical messages.

Ones thus have a blind spot about the downside of their tendency to criticize. In particular, they often fail to see and own their highly positive qualities.

In the quest to perfect themselves, Self-Preservation Ones believe it’s bad to be angry and so make a virtue of being tolerant, forgiving, and sweet whenever possible.

Constant fretting is used to 1) attain perfection, however small; or 2) avert misfortune, however large; or 3) free themselves from blame, however slight.

They tend to own up to their failings (sometimes too readily) and are forgiving when others admit guilt or apologize. Partners can feel criticized and held to impossibly high standards, but can also count on Self-Preservation Ones to be extremely reliable and trustworthy.

The Social One is less of a perfectionist and focuses more on being the perfect example for others of the right way to be.

This character tends to be a cooler, more intellectual type, in which the main characteristic is control. However, the anger of the Social One is not completely repressed, because there is an equivalent of anger in their passion for being the owner of the truth. In this subtype, anger gets channeled into an overconfidence about being right or “perfect.”

A Social One tends to persist in a particular way of doing things that she thinks is right, despite others having evolved into doing it a different way.

Social Ones have the sense that demonstrating and modeling what they are teaching is equally or more valuable than what that say.

This is the Type One who resembles Type Five in that this character can be more introverted and may seem a bit “above it all” and emotionally detached.

But while Fives focus primarily on conserving energy and resources, Ones focus more on making things perfect and their anger is closer to the surface.

This is the only One subtype that is explicitly angry and so is the countertype of the three One personalities. The Sexual One is impatient, can be invasive, goes for what he or she wants, and has a sense of entitlement. These Ones have an intensity of desire fueled by anger that motivates them to want to improve others.

Unlike the Self-Preservation Ones, these Ones don’t question themselves as much. Instead they are concerned more with making others into the people they think they should be. These Ones are avengers; they are not afraid of confrontation.

Sexual Ones have two sides: a more playful side oriented toward pleasure and an aggressive, angry side. Pain is the emotion they repress the most and the one they find most difficult to show.

But Eights and Ones differ in that Ones are “over-social” and Eights are “under-social.”

The One touching on this connection between virtuousness and self-worth might also be able to observe the underlying resentment or anger that comes from having to maintain this constant control. But anger fuels what many Ones readily see as “bad behavior,” leading directly to guilt, worry, pain, and regret.

The first step for Ones is to try to stop being so hard on themselves. Their constant striving for improvement paradoxically keeps them fixated and resistant to real growth. They will often fight this, because self-correction is at the heart of their survival strategy, but having greater acceptance of and compassion for themselves is crucial to their development.

The Inner Flow growth path for Type Ones brings them into direct contact with the challenges embodied in Type Four: allowing for greater range and depth of feeling, more melancholy and longing, and greater creativity and self-expression (instead of just following the rules). Not surprisingly, Ones often report that they find being in contact with Four traits painful and uncomfortable.

Navigated consciously, a One can use “the move to Seven” developmentally to re-establish a healthy balance between responsibility and relaxation. Ones can focus on the qualities of this child-security point to recognize and understand their early need to repress the irrepressible Seven qualities.

Self-Preservation Ones can travel the path from anger to serenity by slowing down and noticing where anxiety and worry come from, and when, how, and why these feelings arise. If you are a Self-Preservation One, unearth any and all beliefs you have in your “badness” or imperfection and challenge them: they aren’t true!

Social Ones can travel the path from the Vice of anger to the Virtue of serenity by reminding themselves that there is no ultimately right or perfect way in the world of the conditioned personality.