The Wisdom of the Enneagram

by Don Richard Riso

The Thinking Triad has lost touch with the aspect of our true nature that in some spiritual traditions is called the quiet mind. The quiet mind is the source of inner guidance that gives us the ability to perceive reality exactly as it is. It allows us to be receptive to an inner knowing that can guide our actions. But just as we are seldom fully in our bodies or in our hearts, we seldom have access to the quiet, spacious quality of the mind. Quite the contrary, for most of us, the mind is an inner chatterbox, which is why people spend years in monasteries or in retreats trying to quiet their restless minds. In personality, the mind is not quiet and not naturally “knowing”—it is forever trying to come up with a strategy or a formula so that it can do whatever it thinks will allow us to function in the world.

“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that’s waiting for us.” JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Type Five responds by retreating from life and reducing their personal needs. Fives believe that they are too frail and insubstantial to safely survive in the world. The only safe place is in their minds, so they stockpile whatever they believe will help them survive until they are ready to rejoin the world. Fives also feel that they do not have enough to “bring to the table” to meet the demands of practical life. They retreat until they can learn something or master some skill that would allow them to feel safe enough to come out of hiding.

The types of this Triad represent the three ways children might attempt to negotiate the separation phase and overcome dependency. Sixes look for somebody like a father-figure, someone who is strong, trustworthy, and authoritative. Thus, Sixes deal with the loss of inner guidance by seeking guidance from others. They are looking for support to become independent, although ironically they tend to become dependent on the very person or system they use to find independence. Fives are convinced that support is unavailable or not reliable, so they attempt to compensate for the loss of inner guidance by mentally figuring everything out on their own. But because they are “going it alone,” they believe they must reduce their need for and attachment to anyone if they are going to break away and be independent. Sevens try to break away by pursuing substitutes for their mother’s nurturing. They go after whatever they believe will make them feel more satisfied and secure. At the same time, they respond to the lack of guidance by trying everything—as if by the process of elimination, they could discover the source of nurturance they are secretly looking for.

The Positive Outlook Group is composed of types Nine, Two, and Seven. All three respond to conflict and difficulty by adopting, as much as possible, a “positive attitude,” reframing disappointment in some positive way. They want to emphasize the uplifting aspects of life and to look at the bright side of things. These types are morale-builders who enjoy helping other people feel good because they want to stay feeling good themselves (“I don’t have a problem).

Ken Wilber, a pioneer in developing models of human consciousness, has pointed out that any complete psychological system needs to account for both horizontal and vertical dimensions. The horizontal dimension alone describes only the characteristics of the types; for a system to be complete, however, the vertical element must be taken into account, which is what the Levels of Development do.

It is almost impossible to make generalizations about the types without taking the Levels into consideration, because as each type deteriorates down the Levels, many of its characteristics become their opposite. For instance, healthy Eights are the most big-hearted and constructive of the types. They provide the circumstances in which others can flourish and be strong. But the opposite is true of unhealthy Eights: full of rage and feeling that the world is against them, they are extremely destructive and hard-hearted. Healthy and unhealthy Eights will seem so different from each other that they may seem to be two different types. Furthermore, because people range within the Levels of their type, no single trait will always be true of a type. It is therefore unwise to

type anyone on the basis of a handful of traits, since all of the behaviors associated with each type change at different Levels of Development.

We can also understand the Levels as a measure of our degree of freedom and awareness. In the healthy range, we are increasingly free from the constraints of our personality structures, as well as the habits and mechanisms of our ego. We are free to be in the moment, to choose, and to act with spontaneous wisdom, strength, and compassion, among other positive qualities.

As we spiral down the Levels, however, our freedom is increasingly constricted. We become so identified with our personality mechanisms that we are entirely driven by them, resulting in more suffering for ourselves and others. We become more and more out of touch with reality, with our capacity to make balanced assessments of our situation, and with our ability to stop the avalanche of our ego compulsions. And if we should deteriorate into the unhealthy range, we have almost no freedom of choice

whatsoever. Perhaps the only freedom we have in the lower Levels is the ability to choose to go on in the same destructive patterns or to reach out ...

Thus, at their most profound, the Levels are really a measure of how connected or disconnected we are with our true nature.

For example, the Wake-up Call for Nines is the tendency to avoid conflicts by going along with people. As Nines become more identified with their particular ego structure, they say yes to things that they do not want to do, repressing themselves and their legitimate needs and desires until conflicts inevitably occur.

THE HEALTHY RANGE In this range, although the ego identity is in place, it is worn lightly, so to speak, and expresses itself beneficially in the world.

“We have to become somebody before we can become nobody.” JACK ENGLER

Simply stated, liberation happens to the degree that we no longer identify with our ego. Aspects of it may well still exist, but they are no longer the center of our identity. However, the ego must be restored to its natural balance and functioning before real and lasting liberation can be achieved. At this stage, the person has let go of a particular self-image and worked through his or her Basic Fear and has expanded his or her awareness to act rightly on the Basic Desire. All of these processes take balance, wisdom, courage, fortitude, and enough psychological integrity to withstand the anxiety involved in the dissolution of the ego identity.

When we arrive at the Level of Liberation, it usually comes as a big surprise to find that we already have the very qualities that we have been looking for. We become aware that they were present all along, but that we were going about looking for them in the wrong way. Just like Dorothy at the end of The Wizard of Oz, we discover that we were closer to realizing our goal than we imagined. Everything we need for our transformation, everything we require to be complete human beings, is available to us in our Essential nature and always has been. In fact, at Level 1, we actually achieve our Basic Desire. Once we understand this, our most burning question becomes how we can sustain this more open, vibrant state—or really, how we can allow it to be sustained in us. How can we continue to open ourselves to the action of grace?

It is important to understand that, from a certain perspective, the movement in the Direction of Disintegration is just another survival mechanism. Nature has equipped us with a number of useful “escape hatches” for our psyches so that we cannot easily become pathological. The Direction of Disintegration is thus a way of allowing some pressure to ventilate. Acting out gives us temporary relief and slows down a potentially more devastating descent into the unhealthy range of our basic type, but of course it does not solve our problems. After we have acted out, we will have expended a great deal of energy and will still have to face the same issues. Acting out simply allows us to postpone dealing with our problems until a later time. When our personality is under stress for a long period of time, we may begin to shunt so habitually that we may appear to be the type in the Direction of Disintegration. For this reason, people who have been suffering from emotional difficulties or major crises in their lives will often misidentify themselves as the type in their Direction of Disintegration rather than their basic type.

The Direction of Disintegration is unconscious and compulsive; it is the egos way of automatically compensating for imbalances in our psyches. Transformation in the Direction of Integration is another matter, however, because moving in the Direction of Integration requires conscious choice. When we are on the path of integration, we are saying to ourselves, “I want to show up in my life more fully. I want to let go of my old stories and habits. I am willing to be with the truth of whatever I learn about myself. No matter what I feel, and no matter what I find, I want to be free and really alive.”

As we learn to become more present, the positive qualities of the type in our Direction of Integration naturally begin to arise. When this happens, the limitations of the average range of our own type become painfully apparent. This gives us more incentive to stay with our practice and to recognize when we are slipping into the automatic compulsions of our type. Thus, we could say that the Direction of Integration represents the antidote to the fixated states of our type.

Similarly, Fives may frequently act out average Seven behaviors, letting their minds go into overdrive and becoming scattered. But in more secure circumstances, Fives can also act like average Eights, forcefully asserting themselves and their wills, if they are very sure of their relationship with the other person.

Movement to the security point is not a real integrative process but an instance of one part of the personality being replaced or supplemented by another. This is not the same as becoming more free and aware. The movement toward the security point for each type is, by definition, within the average Levels.

Although the movement in the Direction of Integration requires conscious choice, it is not accomplished by imitating the attitudes and behaviors of the type in that direction, especially not the average characteristics. For instance, if you are an Eight, it does not mean that you should start “acting like a Two,” baking cookies or opening doors for people. Imitating the behavior of the type in your Direction of Integration can actually make the personality “denser” since real transformation involves letting go of ego patterns and defenses, not adding new ones. This kind of behavior is doomed to failure.

We must always remember that the personality cannot solve the problems of the personality, and until our Essence is deeply felt and is guiding our activities, the personality can do little except to “not do” its old tricks.

The process of integration is not about what we “should” do—it is a process of consciously letting go of aspects of our type that block us. When we stop holding on to defenses, attitudes, and fears, we experience an organic unfolding and balancing as natural as the blossoming of a flower. A tree does not have to do anything to go from a bud to a flower to a fruit: it is an organic, natural process, and the soul wants to unfold in the same way. The Enneagram describes this organic process in each type. The type in the...

When we fully see, understand, and experience all the self-defeating blockages that have covered our Essential qualities, they fall away like dead leaves from a growing plant, and the fullness of our soul emerges naturally. Our soul, with all of the magnificent gifts that we see in the healthy range, is already here. Only our deeply ingrained belief in and attachment to the defenses of our personality—the resistance, self-image, and fear-based strategies of our type—prevent us from showing up and claiming our birthright.

PERSONALITY TYPE FIVE: THE INVESTIGATOR BASIC FEAR: Of being helpless, useless, incapable (overwhelmed) BASIC DESIRE: To be capable and competent SUPEREGO MESSAGE: “You are good or okay if you have mastered something.”

Behind Fives’ relentless pursuit of knowledge are deep insecurities about their ability to function successfully in the world. Fives feel that they do not have an ability to do things as well as others. But rather than engage directly with activities that might bolster their confidence, Fives “take a step back” into their minds where they feel more capable. Their belief is that from the safety of their minds, they will eventually figure out how to do things—and one day rejoin the world.

Thus, for their own security and self-esteem, Fives need to have at least one area in which they have a degree of expertise that will allow them to feel capable and connected with the world. Fives think, “I am going to find something that I can do really well, and then I will be able to meet the challenges of life. But I can’t have other things distracting me or getting in the way.” They therefore develop an intense focus on whatever they can master and feel secure about. It may be the world of mathematics, or the world of rock and roll, or classical music, or car mechanics, or horror and science fiction, or a world entirely created in their imagination. Not all Fives are scholars or Ph.D.’s. But, depending on their intelligence and the resources available to them, they focus intensely on mastering something that has captured their interest.

Thus, Fives do not expect anything from others, except to be left alone to pursue their own interests unimpeded by anyone else’s demands or needs, especially their emotional needs. It is as if they were saying, “I won’t ask much from you if you don’t ask much from me.” Independence—or perhaps more accurately, nonintrusion—is therefore sought by Fives as a way of attaining safety and the feeling that they have control of their lives.

Not being intruded on also allows Fives the time to develop something “to bring to the table” when they eventually do feel ready to connect with others.

THE FIVE WITH A SIX-WING: THE PROBLEM-SOLVER Healthy Observation combined with organization and detail gives people of this subtype the ability to draw meaningful conclusions from miscellaneous facts and to make predictions based on those conclusions. They seek a niche that will provide security and that fits into a larger context. They are often drawn to technical subjects: engineering, science, and philosophy, as well as inventing and repair work. They can be cooperative, disciplined, and persistent and are more interested in practical matters than the other subtype. They can combine a talent for innovation with business savvy, sometimes with highly lucrative results.

Average Perhaps the most purely intellectual of all of the sub-types, these people are interested in theories, technology, and acquiring facts and details. Analysts and catalogers of the environment, they enjoy dissecting the components of a problem to discover how it works. Extremely restrained and private about their feelings, their attention is more directed at things than at people, although Fives with a Six-wing identify strongly with key people in their lives. Not particularly introspective, they prefer to observe and understand the world around them. They can be more argumentative than the other subtype and more defensive in their views. They tend to be aggressive and to actively antagonize people who disagree with them. Examples: Stephen Hawking Bill Gates Doris Lessing Bobby Fischer Laurie Anderson Brian Eno Jane Goodall Isaac Asimov Amelia Earhart Charles Darwin

THE WAKE-UP CALL FOR TYPE FIVE: RETREATING INTO THEIR MINDS

Whenever Fives feel overwhelmed by people or circumstances, instantly and reflexively they detach from direct engagement with their senses and emotions and retreat into their minds. In effect, they are trying to find a safe vantage point from which they can more objectively assess their situation. When Fives move into their heads in this way, they cease connecting directly with their experience and instead become more engaged with their mental commentary on the experience. They turn experiences into concepts and then see how those concepts fit in with their previous understanding of reality. For instance, a psychologist Five might be having a pleasant conversation with a friend and suddenly find himself considering the friend’s thoughts and feelings in the light of a particular psychological structure rather than listening to her. Another Five might spend most of her vacation mentally taking notes on the place for a novel she is working on rather than relaxing and enjoying the trip.

Over time, the Five’s mental associations, comments, and ideas begin to fit together into what we call the Inner Tinker Toy. This Tinker Toy can become the Five’s dominant reality—the filter through which they experience the world. Increasingly, adding new ideas, reconstructing old ones, and attempting to see how different parts of this mental structure might fit together become the main pastimes of Fives. Since they are successful at coming up with new ideas all the time, this becomes a powerful way to prop up their self-esteem and to defend the self. But moving their attention more completely into the Inner Tinker Toy causes Fives to abstract and conceptualize the world rather than experience it directly, and this inevitably leads to a loss of contact with Essential guidance. Simply put, playing with ideas gives Fives a temporary sense of confidence but not a solution to their

real problems in the real world.

Knowing a great deal about chess, however, is not sufficient if others in their circle learn as much; average Fives must either surpass everyone else in their understanding of the game or find another game to play: perhaps an obscure game played by the Incas, or a fiendishly complicated computer game.

While Fives are spending more time in their chosen pursuit, they are also aware of the many areas of life that they have not mastered. Being a brilliant physicist or a masterful writer of horror novels cannot entirely compensate for being unable to cook or drive a car or successfully engage in a relationship.

Fives feel as though there is not much of them to go around, and that the needs of others can easily deplete or exhaust them.

Actually, Fives are among the least materialistic of the types and are happy with very few creature comforts. They are avaricious, however, about their time, energy, and resources.

They are greedy for knowledge and for the means

of improving their skills and...

Fives often feel crowded and overwhelmed by the expectations of others. Further, since Fives feel easily intruded upon, they learn to protect themselves by emotionally withdrawing from people.

Average Fives often get locked into what we call preparation mode. They gather more and more information, or endlessly practice, never feeling that they are prepared enough to move into action. Fine-tuning and analysis bog them down in details so that they cannot see the forest for the trees. They never feel quite ready to put themselves on the line, like a painter who keeps painting but hesitates to exhibit, or the student who pursues one degree after another but does not want to graduate.

Fives are not necessarily conscious of their underlying anxiety. More often they simply feel that they are not finished with their project and require more space and time to fine-tune it. Since so much of their self-esteem rides on their projects, Fives are deeply anxious that their work will be rejected or invalidated by others. But always feeling that they need to prepare more can cause Fives to get stuck for many years. They may awaken one day to realize that they have not lived a life—they have been preparing for one. Basically, Fives get paralyzed by a recurring superego message that says, “You are good or okay if you have mastered something.” But how much knowledge do they need? Who or what lets them know that they have attained mastery and can now move into action? How is mastery sustained?

Unlike Fours, who long to be accepted while feeling like outsiders, Fives are not consciously anguished about not connecting with people. They are resigned about it and focus their attention elsewhere, feeling that their isolation is inevitable—just the way life is. (Tim Burton’s movie Edward Scissorhands perfectly describes the inner emotional life of a Five.) Their emotional needs and desires are deeply repressed. Beneath their defenses, this causes Fives pain, of course, but they are able to disconnect from their feelings about their loneliness so they can function.

Fives, like Nines, have trouble maintaining their sense of self and their own needs when in relationship with others. Unlike Nines, however, Fives attempt to regain their priorities and sense of self by avoiding people. Being in the company of others obscures their mental clarity and feels like a strain—even if they are enjoying themselves. For these reasons, average Fives come to see most personal interactions as draining. They feel that others want a response from them that they are unable to give.

Most Fives will also shun those who are trying to help them. (To be rescued is to have their helplessness and incompetence emphasized, reinforcing their Basic Fear.)

The Five’s strategy is to get through life by not asking much of it, while hoping that in return others will not ask much of them. (Unconsciously, they often feel that they do not have much to offer others.) They attempt to maintain their independence by minimizing their needs.