A Helpful Summary
Here's a final overview as you prepare to start your journey
What is the Enneagram?
Symbol with various meanings
Symbol in which your psychological and spiritual structures are summarized
Map of your inner self
Model that distinguishes nine personality structures
Method of practice for personal development
Method in which the path of development is different for each of the nine types
The benefits of using the Enneagram for development
Getting to know yourself and discovering who you are
Getting to know others and discovering how they’re different
Acknowledging recognition, acceptance, and appreciation for yourself and others
Allowing compassion for yourself and for others
Building a bridge between people so that they can have more understanding of, and for, each other.
Fostering meaning and appreciation of your life (including your past, your parents, and your ex, for example).
Connecting with yourself, which leads to connecting with others
Gaining an inner balance and becoming less easily unbalanced by outside forces
Experiencing inner peace
Becoming a freer person, with your happiness less dependent, or no longer dependent, on people around you or on situations, for example
Having more fun and pleasure in your life
Chapter 2
Before You Get Started
IN THIS CHAPTER
Right off the bat, I need to stress something: No single Enneagram type is better than another. The Enneagram approach doesn't judge when it comes to types; it only aims to deliver an appropriate and detailed description of the various ways in which people act in life. In this short (yet quite thorough) introduction, you get to know nine types of people who deal with the events that life throws at them — that’s nine descriptions of how they see and experience the world. You may recognize yourself in one of the descriptions, but keep in mind that you might not be a one-to-one match with your unique personality.
A Heads-Up
Before getting to know the Enneagram, check out a few notes I've put together on the best way to learn about it — including the best way to use this book as fully as possible.
What’s in a name?
One of the ways in which you can see that the Enneagram makes no judgment about types is that the types themselves were originally designated by numbers. When I talk about Type 3, for example, you probably have no idea what this term means and thus you have no judgment about it. It’s a name, nothing more or less. But how would you see it if I talked about the Enneagram Boss/Protector type or the Perfectionist type? You’ll likely instantly form an image of this person, and probably a judgment. As soon as people wrap an item inside a word, they call up a mental image of that item, often — unnoticed and unintentionally — along with a judgment. They consider the item good or bad, nice or not nice, and so on. Words have a positive or negative charge, whereas numbers are neutral. Some people, however, think that using numbers as names is annoying, precisely because the numbers are neutral and meaningless. No image appears, which makes it harder at first to remember the names. That’s why various trainers have named the types. Once these names call up images, they’re easier to remember when starting out with the Enneagram.
Seeing what's working inside of you
Descriptions of personality structures often consist of long lists of characteristics. Person A, for example, is described as extroverted, dominant, and direct, and Person B is seen as introverted, shy, and reserved. These descriptions probably evoke images in your mind, and maybe you also know people whom you would identify as Person A or Person B. You can list the characteristics of each of the nine Enneagram types in the same way. They refer to external properties — behaviors or aspects of attitudes that other people can perceive from the outside.
The descriptions of the Enneagram types, however, are much more detailed because they’re more about the mechanisms working inside of you. That’s why they can rarely be seen from the outside.
People who recognize themselves in the same type — making use of the same internal mechanisms — often express the type differently in their actual behavior. Also, conversely, two people who see themselves reflected in different types can behave similarly. In those cases, different motivations or drives lead to the same behavior.
HELP — I DON’T WANT TO BE CATEGORIZED!
Many people dislike designating personality structures by numbers.
