Recap of the January 14th Spirit of the Enneagram Class

Well, tonight's class is off, so perhaps you'd like to stroll down memory lane with a recap of the class we did two weeks ago.

First, we went around the circle talking about our efforts at self-typing. There were a 4 and a 6 in the room, and someone who is probably a 5 but might be a 1, and someone who is probably a 1 but might be a 5, plus a type 2-or-9-why-not-split-the-difference-and-call-it-1, and someone who tests 3 or 7 or 8, but who is probably really a 6, and you get the picture. Luckily, the Enneagram itself is better than any Enneagram test. (If you've got your type narrowed down to a few, check out www.enneagraminstitute.com.misid/ . There, you can click on the matrix for distinctions between two types. To get the full info, you have to register as a member, but it's free to do so.)

Next, as a means of introducing/ reinforcing some characteristics of the types, I presented The Enneagram of Cute Puppies, with the following descriptions:

1. The Stickler -- upright, neat, and attentive. Wants to be good.
2. The Giver -- a nice, sweet dog who wants to be loved.
3. The Achiever/ Performer -- wants to win at the dog show. Shows off his ribbons.
4. The Tragic Romantic -- a melancholy puppy who longs to attract a rescuer.
5. The Thinker/ Observer -- a watchful dog with an overdeveloped head center.
6. The Questioner -- a high stung, nervous, but very engaging little dog. (At this point, Mary Beth told an engaging little story about a hyper little dog.)
7. The Enthusiast -- just wants to run and play.
8. The Boss/ Challenger -- thinks he is a big dog already.
9. The Mediator -- a sleepy dog who doesn't mind being put in the middle of a bun.

Then, we talked about the Enneagram's structure -- particularly, it's organization into triads. You can read all about it here.

This material corresponds with pages 49 - 94 in The Wisdom of the Enneagram.

Highlights of the International Enneagram Association Annual Meeting

Mary Beth and I are just back from the IEA's annual conference, healed, refreshed, and ready to blog about the Enneagram. In upcoming blog posts, I plan to take you through what happened at the conference day by day, but here are some of my personal highlights:

• I felt, for the first time, that I was part of a worldwide community of Enneagram enthusiasts, and that this enthusiasm might be leading somewhere.


• I heard a fairly clear history of the modern Enneagram and gained a better understanding of the issues that are in dispute. Until now, these matters have been quite obscure to me.


• I witnessed, firsthand, some conflict between the Arica Institute and, like, everyone else, but there was some conflict resolution. And hugging.


• I heard the surprising history of a very important book.


• I finally understood the law of seven well enough to explain it to others.


• I ran into old acquaintances from another Enneagram workshop and got to argue about the types of the characters from Sex and the City with them.


• I found that, at times, Mary Beth's hair can look even weirder than mine.


• I remembered why I liked meditation in the first place.


• I heard a teacher acknowledge some of the problems with Enneagram typing and propose an innovative solution.


• I learned that, much like American 4s, Australian 4s also talk with fake British accents.


• I heard about the Genneagram.


• I saw some famous Enneagram teachers bust a move on the dance floor.


• I was privy to a plot to take over the world.

There will be plenty more on all of this later. Perhaps Mary Beth will even chime in. (Nudge, nudge.)

She Said, She Said

You may have noticed that these two recent posts (How to determine your Enneagram type: some recommendations and Self-typing advice from Cindi) deal with the same topic, but don't include the same information. There's a reason for this: when I told Cindi I was writing on this topic, we agreed she would write on the same subject without being tainted by reading what I wrote. This will be a recurring feature: She Said, She Said.

You may also have noticed that our take on the matter did disagree. (I said I start by giving a person three tests and seeing if a pattern emerges; Cindi said this way lies madness. Cindi said she starts by suggesting they read an introductory book cover to cover, but that some people won't; I -- agree.) I have sent the series of three email tests to people who live far away or who I want to get some info on immediately, but I've had good luck with lending out The Wisdom of the Enneagram, too. SOME people both will read it, and can see their type from reading it. To be specific, one was clearly a 5, read the book, and said he was a 5. Another seemed like a 1 to Cindi and me, read the book, said he was a 3, Cindi and I said have you considered 1, he said yeah but I'm a 3, we said ok, and he turned out to be a 3 -- big-time. Another friend I lent it to said he was a 1, and I realized he was right (I had been suspecting 6, but 1 fit better.) But there have been others who have taken the book but not been able to determine their type. I think some types have a harder time hearing "The ringing bell" Cindi talks about. I know I did!

Self-Typing Advice from Cindi

When people ask me how they can determine their Enneagram type, I almost always give the same advice: go out and get a really good book on the Enneagram, one with really detailed type descriptions, read it cover to cover, and pick out the type that seems most like you. Pretty simple, huh?

Well, almost everyone rejects this advice in favor of either: (a) taking every Enneagram test they can find and getting conflicting results [this way lies madness], (b) attempting to apply whatever out-of-context remark they happen to hear about a person of any of the types to themselves (i.e., "If that guy's a 7, then I'm not one! He's a Republican!"), or (c) some combination of a and b. It can go on for years.

I recognized my type (5 - the Observer) upon reading Helen Palmer's book The Enneagram in Love and Work; a friend of mine recognized his type from Riso and Hudson's Understanding the Enneagram. You could also use Palmer's The Enneagram: Understanding Yourself and Others in Your Life or Riso and Hudson's Personality Types. These are all serious, detailed works that do a good job of capturing the gestalts of the types.

Here's how it works: You read various type descriptions, you might even recognize some of the people you know in them, and you think, "Oh, how horrible! Why, if I thought like that, everything would be all screwed up! I mean, behaving that way is just gonna make it impossible for you, or anyone else, to win." And then, you come upon something different -- a perspective that doesn't seem so bad. In fact, it just seems true.

Everyone IS always interrupting you, just as you're about to discover something really important! (type 5) Those bastards ARE always taking from you and never giving back! (type 2) The world IS falling apart because no one ever cleans out the lint tray! (type 1)

But strangely enough, this perfectly reasonable way of looking at the world is written out here, along with eight other worldviews that suck. And you don't see what sucks about it, at least not at first, until it hits you. That's your type, and it's just as bad as all the others. And you've been doing it relentlessly for a long, long time. The sinking feeling in the stomach. The sick feeling. The ringing bell.

These epiphanies can also occur while you are listening to a teacher describe your type. I am happy to report that, when last we taught, Mary Beth and I were able to induce the sick feeling of recognition in several of our students.

These approaches work because they are holistic -- they give you more or less the whole thing all at once, the sum as well as the parts. A good description is thorough, nuanced, and anecdotal. Recognizing yourself in it is like identifying with a character in a book or a movie. You might be of a different age, sex, race, life situation, and political affiliation than that character, but somehow you just know that, at an archetypal level, that person is like you.

Enneagram tests often fail because they are too analytical and too straightforward "I am an avaricious person. Strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree, or strongly disagree?" How's a person supposed to respond to that? Plus, there's no guaranteeing that the test-taker will believe his or her results, since, if the question is faulty, he or she might not even fully believe the data he or she fed the test. Garbage in, garbage out.

I am interested in developing more holistic approaches to typing. I am sure I will be blogging about them, at length, soon enough. In the meantime, you might try the method shown above. If the spinner lands on zero, you have to promise to go away and amuse yourself with Myers-Briggs typology exclusively for at least one year. Then, you can spin again.

Anyone near Palo Alto?

I thought I would pass along the news that Enneagram teacher and researcher Katherine Chernick Fauvre is starting a new weekly study group on January 9th. Mary Beth and I participated in an online conference with Katherine and her husband David Fauvre a while back. We were impressed with their insights and the patience they displayed as we tried to determine a friend's type with their help. I participated in another of their online conferences and heard some stuff about instinctual subtypes that seemed to make sense -- quite a feat, but this area is actually one of Katherine's research specialties.
The new study group will meet on Wednesday evenings in Palo Alto, California. There are 6 sessions and the cost is $240. You can learn more about it by visiting the Enneagram Explorations site and clicking on "workshops".
Even if the location and/or cost of this workshop is prohibitive, there are still plenty of reasons to visit Enneagram Explorations. Free content includes slide shows on the types and subtypes, the Enneacards Sampler (This is the short version of Katherine and David's typing test. It got me right and Mary Beth wrong, which is par for the course. Stay tuned for more thoughts on how to actually go about determining your Enneagram type), and an interesting discussion board.