The enneagram

I keep thinking it's Saturday, or Friday, or anything except Wednesday, really. That's actually great news, because it means I'm practically getting a 5-day weekend. Yes, I am going to work on Friday, but I will be spending most of it in a recording studio. It will probably feel like more of a field trip than actual work. Speaking of work, I think that psychological examination went well. It was more of a conversation about my experience, likes, and dislikes than anything else, and I wish that people asked questions like that in preliminary job interviews. I won't found out for sure if I'm in until my company tells me, but I think I'm fine.

And speaking of psychology, I am delving into personality theory once again. I had a gift certificate to Borders, stumbled on a book about the enneagram (any-a-gram), and couldn't help myself. I think my interest in these typology studies is twofold: 1.) It helps me understand the motivations and preferences of other people better and build more harmonius relationships, and 2.) It helps me define myself and feel like my mix of traits is not actually that different from everyone else's. The enneagram is based loosely on Jung (remember that Myers-Briggs stuff?) and breaks personalities into 9 main categories that each express a distinctive and habitual pattern of thinking and emotions:


It's not meant to put people into boxes, but rather to help break them out of them. Once you recognize the patterns in yourself and others, you can work on improving those relationships. You should relate more to one type than to the others once you take the test and get into the descriptions, but most people can relate to a little something in all of them. The descriptions can get rather complicated and involved, too, because the main types can also be broken down into...well, ALL of this. I'm getting there in my research. :) I think it's fascinating.

My test results didn't tell me anything except that I am kind of all over the board, since I never got the same result twice and identified strongly to several of the descriptions. I'm split between 4 (artist/individualist) and 9 (peacemaker), basically, but after some digging, I may lean toward 9 a little more. Apparently, "the Nine is sometimes called the crown of the Enneagram because it is at the top of the symbol and because it seems to include the whole of it. Nines can have the strength of Eights, the sense of fun and adventure of Sevens, the dutifulness of Sixes, the intellectualism of Fives, the creativity of Fours, the attractiveness of Threes, the generosity of Twos, and the idealism of Ones. However, what they generally do not have is a sense of really inhabiting themselves—a strong sense of their own identity. Ironically, therefore, the only type the Nine is not like is the Nine itself." Go figure.

More specifically, I might be a 9 with a 1 wing, which turns out to be the same type as none other than Barack Obama (and Reagan). No wonder he struck such a chord with me and, by the same token, made (makes) so many people skeptical of him. I mean, the following description is not exactly what most people think of when they hear "politician." This is how I see myself at my best, though:

"In the role of perfect mediator, the Nine's idealized self takes pride in taking the complaints of others seriously, in understanding real differences between people, and in understanding why others are upset and concerned. The Nine also takes pride in being able to see areas of common ground and working toward achieving reconciliation, and in believing that reconciliation can only be gained by cooperation.

Nines take pride in their healing touch, their ability to forgive and forget, their good-naturedness, and their likability. They also take pride in the support they give to others so that the others can thrive. They see themselves as bestowers of unstinting love and generosity to those significant to them.

Nines take pride in their candor, their uncommon common sense, their extraordinary simplicity and guilelessness. They see themselves as having no ulterior motives, no pretensions, no large egos to protect or inflate, no concern for status or prestige, no desire to impress or condemn others. Hence, they believe that they speak with the honesty of a child and the wisdom of an adult.

Nines see themselves as easygoing and have taboos against being competitive and calling attention to themselves. They take pride in their ability to bring out the best in others by creating nurturing environments. For them, that is why they are successful. But, as the Nine sees it, though they have contributed so much to everyone's welfare, because they eschew competition and calling attention to themselves, others underestimate their contributions and take them for granted."

Of course, I haven't just been reading about myself, but describing others in this way would be inappropriate for my blog. I don't know about you, but I am pretty enthralled by this stuff. Well, since I am staying in on this freezing cold and windy night, it is time to curl up on the couch with some apple cider and finally watch Once, a movie I've been meaning to get around to forever.