The Complete Enneagram: 27 Paths to Greater Self-Knowledge

by Beatrice Chestnut

In consciously letting go of attachments, their belief in their separateness, and their need for control, Fives can allow themselves to connect to the abundance that is available to them in the larger, interconnected world of nature and other people.

Self-Preservation Fives can travel the path from avarice to nonattachment by taking the risk to relax boundaries and barriers to connection more often, and by making more efforts to share their feelings with other people, even when it opens the door to fear or anxiety.

People with this subtype can usefully work to notice how their beliefs about what’s possible or desirable in relationships and in the world hold them back from getting the recognition or support that might help them grow.

Rather than becoming fixated in resignation, challenge your sense of what’s possible and imagine all the ways you might allow yourself to grow and expand if you didn’t f...

Remind yourself that you can open up to letting more people in more deeply and more often and still maintain a healt...

Wake yourself up to ways in which you might be “living little,” and realize that you don’t necessarily have to ma...

Open up to seeing ways you might share your gifts with the world if you were to spend more time outs...

THE FIVE POINT REPRESENTS the ways we close ourselves off to contact with the world as a way of staying safe and in control.

The Five path of growth shows us how to transform our fear of fear and impulse to withdraw into the will to share more of who we are and connect in deeper ways with ourselves and others.

In each of the Type Five subtype personalities, we see a specific character who teaches us what is possible when we can turn our fearful desire to remain separate and contracted into a fully awake ability to connect with who we are and what we may become, thereby engaging more deeply in the flow of lif...

TYPE FOUR REPRESENTS THE ARCHETYPE of the person who experiences an inner sense of lack and a craving for that which is missing, and yet can’t allow for the attainment of what might provide satisfaction. This archetype’s drive is to focus on what is lacking as a step to regaining wholeness and connection, but through an over-focus on the experience of a flawed self they become convinced of an inner deficiency that prevents fulfillment. While this entails an understandable frustration with regard to deprivation, an overidentification with the frustrated, deprived state leads to an inability to take in that which would provide fulfillment.

This Four archetype can also be found in Jung’s concept of the “shadow,” defined as “the inferior parts of the personality.”1 While Type Threes overidentify with the persona, or the positive aspects of ourselves we highlight in the “public face” we show to the world, Type Fours overidentify with those parts of ourselves we’d rather others don’t see. Although Fours may also recast their sense of deficiency as being “special” or “unique” as a way of valuing themselves on a surface level, they identify with a deficient self more than an idealized self.

Type Fours are thus the prototype for that part in all of us that feels dissatisfied with who we are. We all have the capacity to feel bad about what we see as our flaws, and to grieve and long for what we see as lacking in our lives. We can all become depressed in the face of feeling inadequate when we don’t fit the idealized image of what we believe we have to be to get the love we want. This archetype thus represents the tendency we all have to develop an “inferiority complex,” which makes it difficult to feel good about ourselves and take in what is good from the outside.

THE ARCHETYPE OF THE FOUR POINT represents the way we all fear abandonment when we feel imperfect and focus on our flaws as a way to control or defend against loss in a world that seems to require us to be special to be loved.

The Four path of growth shows us how to transform our longing and suffering into a sense of confidence in our inherent lovability so that we can wake up to a fuller experience of who we are and what we can be.

In each of the Type Four subtypes, we see a specific character who teaches us how equanimity can allow us to value our emotional truth and essential wholeness, thereby furthering our own evolution through the alchemy of self-obser...

TYPE THREE REPRESENTS THE ARCHETYPE of the person who seeks to create an image of value and success, and to gain the admiration of others, through active efforts in both work and appearance. This drive provides defensive protection in a world that rewards achievement and attractiveness and emphasizes what things look like on the outside.

This archetype also exists as Jung’s concept of the “persona,” the individual’s “system of adaptation to, or the manner in which he assumes in dealing with, the world.”1

Type Threes are the prototype for the way in which we all adopt a personality as an external public face in order to survive in the world and mediate between the inner self and the social environment. It is the model for the desire we all have to “put on a good face” or wear a social mask as a means of both protection and a marketing effort. This archetypal stance prioritizes looking good and matching social ideals of value and status as a way of feeling accepted and earning approval.

THE THREE POINT REPRESENTS THE WAY we all focus on and identify with a persona we mistake for our true self in a world that seems to reward a socially acceptable image.

The Three path of growth shows us how to transform vanity into hope.

By showing us the importance of learning to dis-identify from a limiting “acorn shell” personality, no matter how attractive or socially brilliant, the Three path of awakening through hope guides us in shaking off our outer coverings, breaking open to our real feelings, and becoming the “oak tree-Self” that we are meant to be. In each of the Type Three subtypes we see a specific character who teaches us what is possible when we can turn our vanity into a fully awake ability to let go of the need to ma...

TYPE TWO REPRESENTS THE ARCHETYPE of the person who seeks to please others as a way to evoke affection. The drive to win others’ approval through indirect methods, such as seduction and strategic giving, is a way to obtain emotional and material support without having to ask for it. This strategy also provides a way to try to get others to take care of you while still defending yourself against the pain of having someone important reject a direct request to meet a need.

Type Twos are thus the prototype for that part in all of us that adopts an elevated or idealized view of ourselves and our ability to make others like us. A tendency toward self-aggrandizement or self-inflation undergirds the Type Two’s persona. Twos often appear boundlessly and indispensably generous, helpful, attractive, and supportive. The false self that Twos model is one seeking to create positive connections with others through an attractive and inviting front.

The natural strengths of Type Twos include their genuine ability to listen to others, empathize with their feelings, and meet their needs. They are usually cheerful, optimistic, warm, and friendly.

Twos are naturally practiced in the art of using positive communication to create rapport. They can be very diplomatic and skilled at delivering messages in ways that people can hear.

Twos’ particular “superpower” is that they can be excellent friends and will often go to great lengths to take...

Twos operate on the usually unspoken assumption that “if I take care of you, you will take care of me.”

Type Two is sometimes called “The Giver” or “The Helper,” but they don’t offer their “help” consistently or unconditionally to just anyone. Fundamental to this type is an often-unconscious habit of strategic giving to make people indebted to them.

Twos naturally feel compelled to give to others, and they often believe they do so in a sincere and straightforward way. But the pattern of this personality is to give as part of a calculus in the service of seduction, self-elevation, and self-interest. Self-awareness for them involves recognizing how much of their giving reflects insecurity about their own perceived worth and lovability, rather than a simple desire to help without expectation of reward.

It would be a mistake to assume that all generosity and service Twos offer is strategic. Likewise, though, we can’t overlook the amount of attention Twos consciously devote to winning friends and cultivating influence.

Twos are good at finding ways to get what they want, often indirectly, through manipulation. Or prevarication. Or even creative orchestration.

Twos can be quite bossy and powerful at times, especially when stressed, when operating behind the scenes, or whe...

Pride is the passion—the specific emotional motivation—of the Type Two. “Pride” in this sense does not mean the healthy, good feeling we have about ourselves as when we “take pride in” a job well done. Rather it is the false pri...

Naranjo describes the passion of pride as “a passion for the aggrandizeme...

Pride as a “passion” is the unconscious need to puff yourself up so you can be exactly what...

It can be hard for Twos just learning their type to see that “the pride system” goes in two directions: inflation and deflation. Often, Twos are more conscious of feeling insecure and wanting approval (and never getting enough), than they are of inflating their self-image or taking on more than they can handle.

The tendency for Twos to inflate their self-image with a fantasy of attractiveness or indispensability eventually runs into a reality that doesn’t square with this puffed-up, false sense of self.

Since “what goes up must come down,” deflation results, and Twos adopt a diminished image of themselves as being excessively flawed and totally inadequate or unattractive in the eyes of others.

When criticism, rejection, exposure, or failure punctures the Two’s inflated prideful stance, Twos may feel embarrassed that they ever entertained a pu...

Type Twos retain the belief that responding to others’ needs is good and expressing your own needs is bad.

I am not lovable as I am.

can only get affection or care by seducing others into relationship through meeting their needs and being the person they want me to be.

If I express my real feelings, desires, and needs (the core attributes of my real, unlovable self), I w...

I don’t have as many needs as other...

Not having many needs myself, it’s easier to sacrifice my own needs in the service of meeting other people’s needs (and making them happy...

Conflict produces bad feelings and disapproval and risks damaging relationships, ...

I know how to make people like me. My ability to make people like me ensures my ...

Most people like happy people who flatter them and ...

Most people don’t like needy people who cause trouble or create conflict by expressing negativity, ...