Structure of the Enneagram
Axes
Triad of Passions
Head - Fear - Schizoid
Heart - Vanity - Hysteroid
Gut - Indolence - Anti-intraception
Hornevian Triads
Triad of Love
Axes
X-axis
The symmetry between the left and right side of the enneagram is not only one of social
introversion/extroversion: it also constitutes a polarity of rebellion/seduction. The right side is
more social or socialized (seduction); the left, more antisocial (rebellion). This is the same
polarity that exists between hysterical and psychopathic, both studied by Eysenk.
Y-axis
From The Enneagram of Society
There also exists a polarity between the upper and lower parts of the enneagram of characters.
We may speak of a polarity of tough-mindedness and tender-mindedness in relation to the degree
of intraception or inwardness. Characteristically, the lower region of the enneagram is that of the
“poor of spirit”; i.e. of those who are in contact with their sense of lack at the heart of their
being. At the opposite (upper) pole are to be found those who have turned a deafer ear to their
inner hurting, and who therefore feel immensely more satisfied. In contrast, Enneatypes IV and
V (in the lower region of the enneagram) are those who are fashionable in psychoanalysis:
borderline and schizoid personalities. These are, one could say, the “borderline,” the most
problematic. Or more precisely, the problem-ridden, in contrast to the characters of points VIII,
IX and I, whose secret problem is not having problems. The case of these characters that science
considers so pathological serves to illustrate the theoretical formulation of equivalence among
them. The “poor of spirit” (a term which in the original Aramaic would translate literally as
“lepers”) are those who seek more intensely—and those who seek a lot, find.
From Character and Neurosis
Finally, there is a contrast to be observed between the top and the bottom of the enneagram.
While type IX, at the top, represents a maximum of what I have called a defensive
extraversion-i.e., an avoidance of inwardness-that goes hand in-hand with contentedness, the
bottom of the enneagram represents a maximum of inwardness and also discontentedness. We
may say that those at the bottom of the enneagram never feel good enough or satisfied enough,
regard themselves a problem, and are also identified as pathological by the outside world, while
type IX is a position where the individual is least likely to make a problem of himself or appear
pathological to others. A common feature links type IX to both type IV and type V, however:
depression. Between type IX and type IV depression proper is the common Ennea-type V may be
regarded as depressed too, in terms of apathy and unhappiness, yet the most visible commonality
between type IX and type V is that of resignation: a giving up of relationship in V, a resignation
without the outer loss of relationship in IX (a resignation in participation), that gives the
character its self-postponing and abnegated disposition.
Notes for Interpretation - Not from Naranjo
The top triad are extroverts in that they don’t look inward, but this is differentiated from social
introverts and extroverts. The social extroverts lie on the right side of the Enneagram with the
Heart triad, and the social introverts lie on the left side of the Enneagram with the Head triad.
This is why E4 may commonly be introverted characters, as is the case with SO4, because they
are also at the bottom and thus hyper-intraceptive. This is also why E7 is known as a “secret
introvert” despite their hyper-manic nature. They are introverted by nature of being a Head type,
but their proximity to hypo-intraception creates a more extroverted disposition.
Type Adjacence
In Enneagram each type is the make-up of the types that are adjacent to it, and as such, will share
traits and properties of these adjacent types. This means that each triad of passions is first driven
by its central parent type, and every type in that triad will relate to the parent type. In the heart
triad the parent type is E3, in the head it is E6, and in the gut it is E9. Then the types next to the
parent type will have aspects of another triad, like an E4 will be a part of the heart triad and then
share some aspects with the head triad because of it’s adjacence with E5.
For example, the position of ennea-type I between ennea-types IX and II in the enneagram
invites a consideration of how perfectionistic character is not only “anti-intraceptive” but also
proud. Indeed the word pride is sometimes used specifically to describe the aristocratic and
haughty attitude of the perfectionist rather than the attitude of the type here designated as
“proud,” whose priding is not so much to be respectable and admirable but to be needed, loved
and exalted as very special.
Oppositional Poles
In addition to the relationships of neighborhood and those mapped by the lines in the
enneagram's "inner-flow," we may see also relations of opposition in the enneagram: just as types
I and V stand at opposite ends on a straight line, so do the characters type VIII and type IV, and
along the horizontal axis, type VII and type II
Pseudo-Social Pole - EII and EVII
Social, in name only, and antisocial, in a hidden way. These are rebellious and hedonistic
characters who put on a compliant front, while secretly enacting their rebellion through
inappropriate seduction. The II-VII axis is called the oral-receptive, for true as it may be that it is
type VII that best corresponds to Abraham's oral-optimist, histrionics are not only "oedipal" but
oral-receptive as well.
Sado-Masochistic Pole - EIV and EVIII
The IV-VIII axis is called the oral-aggressive axis; for true as it may be that it is mostly the
frustrated and complaining type IV character that has been called oral-aggressive, the
characteristics of ennea-type VIII are deserving enough of the appellation.
Opposite to envy on the enneagram, lust may be said to constitute the upper pole of a
sado-masochistic axis. The two personalities, VIII and IV, are in some ways opposites (as these
terms suggest), though also similar in some regards, such as in the thirst for intensity. Also, just
as a masochistic character is in some ways sadistic, there is a masochistic aspect in the character
of lust; and while a sadistic character is active, a masochistic disposition is emotional: the former
reaches out without guilt towards the satisfaction of its need; the latter yearns and feels guilty
about its neediness.
Just as the envy-centered character is the most sensitive in the enneagram, ennea-type VIII is the
most insensitive. We may envision the passion for intensity of ennea-type VIII as an attempt to
seek through action the intensity that ennea-type IV achieves through emotional sensitivity,
which here is not only veiled over by the basic indolence that this ennea-type shares with the
upper triad of the enneagram but also by a desensitization in the service of counter- dependent
self-sufficiency.
Possessive Pole - EI and EV
I am calling the I-V axis the "anal" axis of the enneagram, inasmuch as both the schizoid
character and the obsessive compulsive character may be said to be "anal" in terms of the
descriptions of Freud and Jones, as I am discussing in the first and second chapters of this book
respectively.
If the gesture of anger is to run over, that of avarice is one of holding back and holding in. While
anger expresses greed in an assertive (even though unacknowledged) way, greed in avarice
manifests only through retentiveness. This is a fearful grasping, implying a fantasy that letting go
would result in catastrophic depletion. Behind the hoarding impulse there is, we may say, an
experience of impending impoverishment.
Yet, holding on is only half of ennea-type V psychology; the other half is giving up too easily.
Because of an excessive resignation in regard to love and people, precisely, there is a
compensatory clutching at oneself—which may or not manifest in a grasping onto possessions,
but involves a much more generalized hold over one’s inner life as well as an economy of
resources. The holding back and self-control of avarice is not unlike that of the anger type, yet it
is accompanied by a getting stuck through clutching at the present without openness to the
emerging future.
Just as it can be said of the wrathful that they are mostly unconscious of their anger and that
anger is their main taboo—it may be said of the avaricious that their avarice is mostly
unconscious, while consciously they may feel every gesture of possession and drawing up of
boundaries as forbidden. It might be said that the avaricious is internally perfectionistic rather
than critical of the outer world, but most importantly the difference between the two ennea-types
lies in the contrast between the active extroversion of the former and the introversion of the
latter, (the introversion of a thinking type that avoids action)
Also ennea-type I is demanding while ennea-type V seeks to minimize his own needs and claims,
and is prone to be pushed around in virtue of a compulsive obedience. Though both types are
characterized by a strong superego, they are like cops and robbers respectively, for the former
identifies more with its idealized superego-congruent self, while ennea-type V identifies with the
overwhelmed and guilty sub-personality that is the object of super-egoic demands.
The polarity between pathological detachment and the attachment of holding-on echoes the
polarity in ennea-type I between anger and an over-civilized compulsive virtue. Neediness in
ennea-type V is deeply hidden in the psyche, behind the veil of indifference, resignation, stoic
renunciation. And just as perfectionism nurtures the anger that sustains it, we may also say here
that the prohibition of needs (not simply from their satisfaction but even from their recognition
within the psyche) must contribute to the impoverishment of life that underlies the urge to hold
on.
Phallic Pole - EVI and EIII
In contra-distinction to the characters discussed thus far, I think that ennea-type VI and
ennea-type III may be called phallic-though all but the counter-phobic type VI can also be
regarded as inhibited phallic, while type III is, in its cockiness, a form of a converse, "excited"
version of the phallic disposition.
Reckless, resolute, self-assured, and narcissistic--excessively vain and proud. The failure to
resolve the conflict can also cause a person to be afraid or incapable of close love.
Adjacent Poles
The characters mapped in the six and nine corners of the enneagram stand, each of them, like in
point three, between a polarity. While it is a polarity of sadness and happiness at the right side
corner (IV-II), it is a polarity of aloofness and expressiveness at the left side (V-VII), and one of
amoral or anti-moral and over-moral at the top (VIII-I).
Morality Pole - EVIII and EI
We shall now tackle a third group—which includes Enneatypes I (Anger) and VIII (Lust)—made
up of two aggressive characters: recognized aggression in one case (EVIII) and negated
aggression in the other (EI). Both EI and EVIII are domineering and are driven by a desire to
conquer. But whereas EVIII takes an antisocial stance, such that rebellion against social norms
acquires a positive value, the aggression in EI is rationalized.
Triad of Passions
Head Heart Gut
The view of the “anatomy of neurosis” that the enneagram presents us demonstrates that the fear
of the Freudians and the “lie” of the ancient rabbis are equally highlighted in importance;
anxious inhibition and falsification of self, inauthenticity or vanity.
This view is highly consistent with what is implicitly present in the minds of modern
psychotherapists—who have received the inheritance of Freudian and Humanistic psychology.
Freud’s theory of neurosis essentially has anxiety as its core concept, so that behavior may be
defined as neurotic when it signifies an expression of something motivated by anxiety. The
existentialist current in psychotherapy, on the other hand, is based on its vision of neurosis as a
loss of authenticity. These two viewpoints are difficult to separate, however, since there would
be no motivation for covering up if there were no wish to flee from anxiety via this mechanism,
and it is difficult for fear not to be accompanied by treason against oneself, i.e. a loss of
authenticity. This relationship is acknowledged in the representation of fear and falseness as
symmetrical points that are joined by a line on the enneagram.
But these two pillars of neurosis—fear and inauthenticity—are understood according to the
enneagram as components of a triad. A third cornerstone in the building of neurosis—as we have
already seen—is inner laziness, a cognitive inertia, indolence. To call it, following Gurdjieff,
“the devil of self-calming” has the virtue of making the person responsible for his or her
unconscious.
The interconnections shown between these three points (in the form of sides of the triangle)
constitute what we may call psychodynamic connections, so that each may be said to underlie the
next in a sequence mapped by arrows between them in a counter-clockwise direction. If we read
this psychodynamic sequence starting at the top, we may say that a lack of the sense of being
(implicit in the psychological inertia or "robotization" of sloth) deprives the individual of a basis
from which to act, and thus leads to fear. Since we must act in the world, however, as much as
we may fear it, we feel prompted to solve this contradiction by acting from a false self rather
than (courageously) being who we are. We build, then, a mask between ourselves and the world,
and with this mask we identify. To the extent that while we do this, we forget who we truly are,
however, we perpetuate the ontic obscuration that, in turn, supports fear, and so on, keeping us in
the vicious circle.
These are, therefore, the three cornerstones of the structure of the ego or personality: fear,
vanity, and indolence or inertia of consciousness, presented as a loss of inwardness; also known
as schizoid, hysteroid, and anti-intraceptive. The vicious circle of the three constitutes a
dynamic theory of neurosis. “Dynamic” because each of these entities constitutes an energy
focus from which a certain type of action proceeds, as well as because the tripartite theory
includes the metadynamic view: a dynamic of reciprocal transformation among the three basic
neurotic motivations.
Head - Fear - Schizoid
With an orientation to thinking.
The angle on the left entails an introverted disposition (V, VI and VII)—although in Enneatype
VII (EVII), the underlying introversion is compensated by superficial sociability.
As in all the characters of the mental area of the enneagram, the nuclear defense mechanism is
splitting, which produces a disconnection between feeling, thinking and instinct. Splitting derives
from a need to process everything on mental planes and territories, creating a mental separation
of these areas of life into mental objects so that they can be managed properly. It is as though
they are deliberately and consciously elaborating all areas of life to themselves, so what they
want to know is what information everything communicates (and to know in general). However,
the fields of emotion (heart) and corporeality (gut) become distorted because they are not meant
to be transmuted into mental territories, causing the head type to be disconnected from these
areas of life and submitting them to an unnatural conscious program.
In the corporeal territory, there is a split between the mind and the body, as if the body obeyed
automatically and abruptly to mental commands and to the tyranny of thought, without a true
sensory awareness of actions. It is disconnected from the action necessary to experience the
world as it is.
In the emotional territory, they avoid contact with their emotions and repress their natural
instinct, relying on the ability to understand intellectually. The fact that schizoids seem less
loving is valid both for those who experience this from the outside and for schizoids themselves.
While hysteroids, the right wing of the Enneagram, find it easy to fool themselves with respect to
their own capacity to love, it is more difficult for the more schizoid of the characters to fool
themselves than anyone, and they may suffer acutely as a result of their incapacity truly to relate
to others. It is true that, nuclearly speaking, all the mental enneatypes (5,6,7), in the face of
affective frustration, prefer to withdraw into their own self-sufficiency and give up, unlike the
emotional characters, who impulsively seek the relationship, in an ambivalence more or less
conscious between clinging and hatred towards the beloved affective figure
Their defense moves away from the other two triads, and their schizoid introversion becomes
more noticeable as they go to their mental caves to relax by not having to act (gut) or serve the
other (heart).
Their primary neurotic issue is their gazes are turned inward, to their thoughts, and they do not
use their sight too much because they are afraid of not seeing enough. Contemplation is a
fundamental aspect of transformation: looking without thinking, investing energy in an aesthetic
sense in nature, in others. Obviously it is less easy with people, since the encounter with the
other unleashes the false idea that we should act, that we cannot be there and simply stare. They
must "lose their mind", reconcile with the instinctive part and need to place pleasure at the top of
the altar of his values.
Social Ill
Points V and VII, on the left, have to do with information, since schizoid characters devote
themselves to the acquisition of knowledge and oral-optimists to communication. Experts on
social change say that the great change in our age (the “third wave” that Toffler spoke of, which
he compares in importance with the revolution of the neolithic period) is that which has
developed in the information sphere, a power that has entered into competition with the anciens
régimes. The world cannot stay the same with the information we now possess, since just as the
truth is liberating for the individual, so knowledge can cure us of myths and collective
superstitions, as well as of the inertia of the system itself. Hence the theme of the ills of the
world seems to me to be worthy of this exploration; to remedy them, as in the case of the ills of
the soul, we need to know them.
Heart - Vanity - Hysteroid
With an orientation to feeling.
The dramatic and socially extroverted characters (II, III and IV) are located in the area of the
angle on the right.
The primeval fear, even before not being worthy of being loved, is to not be seen. Disappear
from the sight of the other, it means death. At the same time, your homework is to see the other,
who he only takes into account in relation to himself. The heart triad is concerned with whether
or not attention is being directed towards them, and falsify their identity through a “mask” whose
survival is more imperative than the real person, and this is done by selling the image to look
good. In doing so, real identity begins to die. This entails an unconscious notion of insignificance
which is often called an avoidance of shame, because they do not think they are worthy to be
loved for who they really are, and need the false identity to gain this love. However, the love one
receives from disingenuity must also be disingenuous itself, creating a dimension of deceit. They
deceive the other with their image, and themselves with the belief that their image is real.
Disconnect from the other two triads creates a disposition more concerned for the way things
appeal, whether that be the appeal of their own image or the images of others, because they play
a social game with personas as tokens, and this perception of appeal also provides insight into
the emotional dimension of life. This can make them empathetic characters, but can also lead to
oversensitivity, manipulation, and even insensitivity (‘indifference’ is still a feeling state). They
think in emotions and waves of feelings, such as the emotional facets of neediness, desperation,
aggrandizement, approval, and love which become the emotional reactions of hurt, anger, and
sadness with the confrontation of rejection and invisibility.
Their primary neurotic issue is that their gaze is turned outward to the social world of which they
are very personally involved, being unable to consider it from a rational and detached mental
dimension and for what it really is in the corporeal. Thoughts and beliefs are distorted into only
thinking and sharing the things that would get them approval, and the body is distorted into
trying to create an appearance that conveys the inner idealized image to other people. This can be
seductive movements, expressive dressing styles, professional styles, fluid intonations, abrupt
intonations, loud intonations, etc. they are focused on the image each of these things convey.
In order to cultivate their real self they must be able to get rid of their deceitful image and
dissolve it with themselves, they must identify with and realize the body as independent, as well
as develop a detached rationality to really consider truth.
Social Ill
Points II and IV, together on the right wing of the Enneagram, correspond to female characters,
and given the fact that the millennial character of our establishment is patriarchal, a great deal
may be expected from the actual process of balancing of the sexes. The political balance between
both will surely contribute to balancing our inner world, the family world of the generations to
come—and vice versa. The moment the family evolves from a quasi-tyrannical model to a
heterarchical structure of beings that relate to one another healthily, we shall have taken the most
significant step—I believe—towards a democratic and balanced political world.
Gut - Indolence - Anti-intraception
With an orientation to action and kinesthetics.
What is characteristic of the three characters that are represented at the top of the enneagram (I,
VIII and IX) is their interest in not looking towards the subtle world of life experiences; a
non-inwardness that goes hand in hand with active extroversion.
The defense mechanism of all the gut types is forgetfulness through action. The impulse to action
allows them not to be in contact with their emotions and not to allow himself time for the psychic
elaboration of what happens in their inner world and in the relationship with the external world.
This derives from an excessive identification with the body, and the body's instinctual impulses,
becoming lazy towards cultivating subjectivity. They have a special attunement to the wisdom of
the body and the natural rhythms of life. Because the body thinks in a realm of impulse, they are
operating at a non-verbal and irrational level, moving towards pleasure and away from pain, or
the transmutation of pain into pleasure, and the awareness of this dynamic in the real world
creates an awareness of justice and morality based on effect.
Laziness of consciousness may be expressed either as spiritual sloth or more broadly as
psychological sloth: a not wanting to know what is happening, not wanting to realize. It is
expressed as a chronic self-distraction from oneself, accompanied at the same time by paying
exaggerated attention to the outside world. An indolent position with respect to life is that of a
heavy or excessively inert, over-stable psyche; its loss of subtlety and spontaneity culminates in
robotization. On the behavioral plane, this lack of inwardness results in excessive inertia,
phlegm, or passivity; at the most intimate level, alongside the forgetting of self, a loss of life.
This is an act of self-dehumanization.
They don't often abstract things into complex mental and emotional objects, but regard the world
of motion and instincts as the decisive factors of reality. Even though what they are most
dissatisfied with lies in the unconsciousness, their inner self, there is a subtle dissatisfaction with
reality in the sense that their experience of it is “incomplete.” In this way they are subtly resisting
the effect the outside world has on them by separating the self from what is not the self, creating
a thick insular barrier nothing passes through, and they mistake this freedom from intellectuality
and emotionality as giving them the autonomy to act.
With every type on the enneagram there is an ontic-obscuration of being, but the gut has an
added anti-ontic disposition due to an ignorance of the two triads necessary for looking at things
from a top-down perspective. They have difficulty considering their position in the mental and
emotional dimensions, they simply exist in the corporeal. In order to cultivate themselves they
must open up to their own subjectivity in order to create a true appreciation and saturation of
their experience.
Social Ill
If we look panoramically at the sphere of capital social pathologies, we see that those characters
situated at the vertices of the triangle of the Enneagram, as well as the neighboring points to IX
(sociocultural inertia), find their institutional echo in the world, constituting its establishment.
We may talk of the social system that the “patriarchal system” as a whole supposes: a corrupted
military-industrial-bureaucratic-financial complex that has turned more and more against life.
Hornevian Triads
Courtesy of [@Ethee] on PDB
Triad of Love
Courtesy of [@Ethee] on PDB
