The Complete Enneagram: 27 Paths to Greater Self-Knowledge

by Beatrice Chestnut

According to the wisdom tradition associated with the model, personality is seen as a “false self,” necessary up to a point to interact safely in the world, but also the means by which we lose touch with our “true self”—which gets buried in the background as our “false self” comes to the forefront to deal with life. According to the Enneagram, while the false self or personality is the “problem,” in that we get so identified with it and mistakenly think it is all of who we are, it is also the vehicle for getting back to the true self. As we learn to see through the automatic functioning of the false self or conditioned personality, we can learn to let it drop or we can work with it more consciously so that we become less fixated on a narrow perspective and become more creative and flexible. As such, the Enneagram contains a vision and a path for breaking out of old habits and realizing your true potential.