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TRANSCRIPT
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Copyright Jean Adeler 2009-2014
Structural Enneagram
Personality Explained
By Jean Adeler
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Structural Enneagram 2
Contents
Structural Enneagram and Conventional Enneagram....... 3
Personality as Perspective............................................................ 4
Developmental Path .......................................................................... 4The Six Perspectives ......................................................................... 4
Perspective Seven .................................................................. 4Perspective Five ..................................................................... 5Perspective Eight ................................................................... 6
Perspective Two .................................................................... 6Perspective Four .................................................................... 7
Perspective One ..................................................................... 8Binaries ............................................................................................. 8
The Seven-Five Binary .......................................................... 9The Two-Four Binary .......................................................... 10The Eight-One Binary ......................................................... 11
Combination Perspectives on the Triangle ..................................... 12
Personality as Structure............................................................... 13Personality Dynamics ..................................................................... 13
The Nine Personality Structures ..................................................... 14The One-Two Structure ....................................................... 14
The Two-Three Structure .................................................... 14The Three-Four Structure .................................................... 15The Four-Five Structure ...................................................... 15The Five-Six Structure ......................................................... 16The Six-Seven Structure ...................................................... 16
The Seven-Eight Structure ................................................... 17
The Eight-Nine Structure ..................................................... 17The Nine-One Structure ....................................................... 18
Personality Types with Wings................................................... 19One-wing-Two, The Servant-Leader .............................................. 19
Two-wing-One, The Altruist ........................................................... 20Two-wing-Three, The Giver ........................................................... 21Three-wing-Two, The Motivator .................................................... 22Three-wing-Four, The Achiever ..................................................... 23Four-wing-Three, The Individualist ................................................ 24
Four-wing-Five, The Artist ............................................................. 24Five-wing-Four, The Visionary ...................................................... 25
Five-wing-Six, The Observer .......................................................... 27Six-wing-Five, The Guardian ......................................................... 28Six-wing-Seven, The Loyalist......................................................... 28
Seven-wing-Six, The Enthusiast ..................................................... 29Seven-wing-Eight, The Excitement Seeker .................................... 30
Eight-wing-Seven, The Rebel ......................................................... 30Eight-wing-Nine, The Boss............................................................. 31
Nine-wing-Eight, The Mediator ...................................................... 32
Nine-wing-One, The Peacemaker ................................................... 33One-wing-Nine, The Idealist ........................................................... 34
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Structural Enneagram 3
Structural Enneagram and Conventional Enneagram
The Structural Enneagram is a fundamentalrethinking of the Enneagram model of personality. The
conventional Enneagram is a system of nine personalitytypes organized on a graph called an enneagram, or
nine-part figure.As an adaptation of that well-known personality-
typing system, the Structural Enneagram introduces
several new features, among them:
Specification of the underlying structures ofpersonality.
More-accurate, two-number structures as opposedto the old single-number types.These and other modifications of the Enneagram modeladd exponentially to its explanatory value and useful-ness.
The basic Structural Enneagram still looks like the
illustration above, although its parts may have differentmeanings. For example, in the conventional Enneagram,the lines connecting numbers map a direction of
integration, while in the Structural Enneagram some ofthe lines are repurposed to map a developmental path,
the order in which certain perceptual and cognitive
abilities arise in childhood.For those wishing to break out of personality traps,
the conventional Enneagram's vague recommendationsto behave more like the type in one's direction of
integration are replaced by a better understanding ofhow and why such traps exist. This information can helpin devising a plan of action for personal growth.
Even at the surface level of delineation anddescription of types, the Structural Enneagram's
innovations are quite extensive. For example, while theconventional Enneagram describes nine personality
types with the option of assigning a wingthe type oneither side of the dominant typethe StructuralEnneagram makes wings an essential factor in
personality typing.The principal new elements of the Structural
Enneagram are as follows:
6 Perspectives that form the building blocks ofpersonality
9 personality structures corresponding to pairs ofadjacent numbered points
18 type-plus-wing personalitiesMoreover, the Structural Enneagram model exposes thedynamics of personality, consisting of three separatemoments that drive the personality. In short, the
Structural Enneagram understands the Enneagram to benot merely an organized collection of personality types
but also a dynamic model of the underlying structure ofpersonality.
A Note on Language Choices
People are more than their personality types. Yet it
gets tiresome repeatedly reading phrases like a personhaving Structural Enneagram type Eight-wing-Seven.So instead of spelling the idea out in eight words, I might
shorten it to three: Eight-wing-Seven.In a sense, the Eight-wing-Sevenness of a person
can be said to have its own, autonomous agency, actingwithin, and at times almost independently of, the whole
person. In that sense, it can be true to say that Eight-
wing-Seven does something or thinks something. We allhave occasions (probably many more than we would
care to know) when some unconscious or automatic partof us takes over. So, although I never mean to imply that
personality is the whole of a person, I will use thisshorthand throughout.
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Structural Enneagram 4
Personality as Perspective
At the root of personality is Perspective. The wordperspective has multiple meanings: it is worldview;
point of view; perceptual position; and mental posture
relative to yourself, others, and the environment. In theStructural Enneagram, Perspective is contingent upon
many factors, among them, physiological capabilitiesand constraints, psychological drives, accidents of
personal history, cultural contributions, and (largelyunconscious) linguistic structures.
The six points on the enneagram hexadthe six-pointed star shapemark the Perspectives modeled by
the Structural Enneagram. (The points on the triangle
will be covered later in this section.) The typical patternsof underuse and overuse of these six Perspectives add
up to nine personality structures and eighteenpersonality types.
Developmental Path
I believe that five of the six lines connecting thepoints on the hexad trace a developmental path,beginning with Perspective Seven and ending at One.The origins of Seven are in infancy, and One is the most
sophisticated Perspective and probably the last to beadded.
This model assumes a norm in which, in the course
of growing up, almost everybody acquires and is able toperform all six Perspectives, but everybody also favorssome Perspectives over others. A stable pattern of lesser
use of some Perspectives and greater use of others iswhat determines a personality type. But the common
principle uniting all six Perspectives into a wholeandthe justification for systematizing themis that your
use of each of these Perspectives contributes somethingto your sense of identity, to your selfhood.
The Six Perspectives
The six Perspectives that undergird the personalitiesof the Structural Enneagram are listed here in the positeddevelopmental order, which can be traced on the aboveenneagram figure by starting at Seven and following in
the direction of the arrows, stopping at One.
Perspective Seven
Perspective Seven is the state of being as onewith
people and thingsthe state of being immersed in theenvironment. I also use the NLP term associated to
name this state. From an associated position, youexperience yourself as if inside the scene, using yoursenses to see, hear, feel, smell, and taste what is going
on around you. This applies whether the experience ishappening now, is being recalled, or is only imagined.
When you are in an immersed state, your emotionsare activated. While riding a roller coaster, you areexcited and scared. While giving a speech, you are
nervous. While serving on a jury, you becomepassionately vengeful in sympathy with a murder
victim's family. You eagerly await the final game of atournament.
An amusing illustration of Perspective Seven isfound in the opening paragraph of Edmund Morris's
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Colonel Roosevelt, a biography of Theodore Roosevelt.1The former president is on an African expedition:
Sitting above the cowcatcher, on anobservation bench rigged for him by BritishEast Africa Railway officials, he feels the thrust
of the locomotive pushing him upland fromMombasa, over the edge of the parched Taru
plateau. He has the delightful illusion of being
transported into the Pleistocene Age.Here TR, as if a part of the train, coursing through the
African landscape, eager for excitement, inhabits theSeven state to the utmost.
I believe that a sort of proto-Perspective Sevenarises in infancy, at the personality's first emergencefrom the nurturing maternal matrix, probably at around
six months of age. Before that, although infants may
have a definite temperament, there is little to suggestthat they have a sense of themselves as individuals. Selfand environment are a unity.
Once they do begin to develop a sense of being
different from the environment, they still experiencethemselves as a reflection of it. To a large extent, the
state of the environment is the state of the self. Theirbudding sense of identity is wrapped up in what theysee, hear, and feel. If the world is orderly and pleasantand they are well-fed, then they are composed. If theworld is chaotic and noisy and the diaper is clammy and
the child hungry, then everything falls apart. Babies
selfhood, like their emotional state, reflects theirimmediate circumstances.And their experience is holistic. They dont draw
fine distinctions. The world is either good or its bad at
this moment, although whats bad now may change to
1Edmund Morris, Colonel Roosevelt(Random House, 2010),
3.2In previous accounts, I used the NLP term dissociatedfor
Perspective Five rather than detached. However, since in
good in a flash. Either way, they are completelyabsorbed in the experience.
Although we all retain some access to PerspectiveSevens immersion in experience, only an infant could
possibly sustain this proto-Perspective Seven for any
length of time. Once we acquire language and theability to partialize, we will always, to some extent,stand out from the world in our own minds.
Uncontaminated Perspective Seven will never again bepossible. But as the personality matures and adds other
Perspectives, the associated, Sevenish point of view willcontinue to provide a space for being as onewith people,things, and experience.
Perspective Five
At around 18 months of age, children noticeably
begin to acquire Perspective Five. Using thisPerspective to conceptually distinguish themselves fromthe maternal environment, they pull themselves up from
passivity, helplessness, and dependency.Whether or not you adopted Perspective Five as a
prime component of your personality structure, youhave it available to you. It is a skill set that allows youto get some distance on your environment and to avoidfeeling that situations and people are swallowing upyour individuality.
When using Perspective Five, you are detached2, orobjective, as opposed to losing yourself in your
experience. As you are somewhat removed from the
scene, you occupy an observer space, so to speak, fromwhich you see and hear what is going on over there. This Perspective allows you to be less
personally involved and more analytical. If, for
example, you were objectively evaluating an orange
psychiatry dissociation has all negative connotations,in
order to avoid confusion, I've dropped the term.
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maybe you're going to serve fruit salad to guestsyoumight rate its acidity or notice that the juice tasted
sweeter than usual. Enjoyment of the orange has beensubordinated to observation.
When you are detached, your feelings are more
under your own control and less contingent uponcircumstances. While riding a roller coaster, you may
become curious about the physics of the cars staying on
the pitched track. While giving a speech, you mayevaluate the audience reaction. On the jury in a murder
trial, you can dispassionately weigh the evidence for andagainst the charges.
The developmental aspect of shifting from the
associated to the detached perspective is well illustratedin an account written by psychoanalyst Jeanne Lafont.3A four-year-old girl is being treated. On a rainy day,Lafont asks the girl to look out the window and then
draw what she sees. The girl grasps the pencil in her fistand performs rain by dotting the paper. According toLafont, most children at that age take a step back from
the scene of rain and draw vertical lines depicting thedrops falling.
In dotting the paper as if the pencil were the rain,the girl is taking the perspective of the rain itself; this isPerspective Seven, associated. Drawing rain as verticallines requires detached Perspective Five.
By training her patient on how to enter the detached
state, Lafont reverses the condition that had brought thegirl into therapy. Cognitive therapy does somethingsimilar, teaching the person stuck in all-good or all-badthinking to step back and observe a more nuancedreality.
Perspective Eight
The child once having attained some degree ofdistance from the maternal environment, with
Perspective Five, the pendulum again swings in mom'sdirection. With the arrival of Perspective Eight, the child
locks into a mother-child dyad, a bonded state steepedin the fantasy that identity is a function of holdinganother's attention. If you believe you are necessary tomother, then you can be sure she will not lose you.
This is also a time of ego expansion. Children of
three and four can be at their most aggressive anddemanding. And, of course, they are becoming evermore self-aware.
Under Perspective Eight, self-identity is founded ona subject-object relationship. This is a common
distinction in psychology, but you can also think of
3Jeanne Lafont, ed. by Ellie Ragland, The Inherent Twisting
of the Gaze, (Re)-Turn: A Journal of Lacanian StudiesVol.
4, Spring 2008: 127-134.
subjectand objectin grammatical terms borrowed fromthe parts of the common English sentence structure:
subject-verb-object. The subject does something thatinvolves an object. I love youI am the subject. Youlove meI am the object.
While under the influence of Perspective Eight,people of any age try to earn and maintain the positiveregard of the other. For those who are Eight-dominant,a recognition-seeking strategy also plays a pivotal role
in self-identity and motivation, as will be discussed inthe descriptions of individual personality structures and
types.As with the other five Perspectives, you never
outgrow Perspective Eights mode of being, even if you
don't express it as a major life theme. While holdingsubject position, you love, lead, follow, assert, motivate,
convince, desire, see. In object position, you are desired,punished, rewarded, valued, taught, led, loved, seen.Whether the other is giving you attention or wanting
attention from you, Perspective Eight secures a sense ofidentity via the recognition and desire of the other.
Perspective Two
Perspective Two connects you to other people'sdesires. It often involves the use of what NLP calls other
positionaprojecting of consciousness into the spaceof the other in order to imagine, from their point of view,
what they think. I tend to discuss this perspective interms of the others desire because I think the main thingyou want to know about others' thoughts is what they
want, and most particularly what they want from you.When straightforwardly expressed, Two-con-
sciousness is centered squarely in the other. Some would
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call it thinking with the heart. It's an empathy that makesyou feel connected to and responsible for each other.
This direct sort of Two-consciousness dominates in thealtruistic and caring types.
Thinking psychoanalytically, we see that Per-
spective Two develops when children recognize that themother desires something other than them. As the
psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan said, her gaze is turned
elsewhere. As every mother knows, younger childrenoften find it totally unacceptable if her entire attention isnot trained on them. But it does happen. By school age,children solve this problem by putting themselves in her
place in order to find out what she wantshow she
wants them to be. Maybe, by giving her what she wants,they can draw her gaze back in their direction.
But at some point, in the logic of the buddingpsyche, even this much attention can begin to pose a
problem. There might be danger in attracting andholding the gaze of the mother. Practically speaking,there is the danger of being overwhelmed by the duty of
fulfilling her desire. Not to mention the dawningrealization that if you are able to project yourconsciousness into her mind, then she can do the
reverse. She can possess you with her thoughts!Granted, you probably don't remember thinking this.
Nevertheless, that this fear of possession is both real andintense is evidenced by its frequently showing up as thetheme of horror movies, such as Invasion of the BodySnatchers. Lacan depicted the fantasy of the possessive
mother by the sinister image of the praying mantis.Given the danger of psychological engulfment and
possession, you would think that we would all bespurred to abandon Perspective Two at the firstopportunity. But there is a paradoxical reason to cling toa strategy of monitoring the mother's thoughtslet us
say, her mental condition. A mothers excessiveneediness or negativity may activate childrens sense of
responsibility for her happiness for the simple fact thathaving an unhappy mother threatens their well-being.
Complicating matters, children may feel they have tocompensate for a father who is missing or otherwise not
doing his job of keeping the mother off their back. Butwhatever the reason behind a stuck Two pattern, it keepsthe mother (and, later, any other) nearby, while at a
reasonably safe distance.For you, this childhood drama may have been less
intense and is long since forgotten, but it nevertheless
left you with a highly useful ability to project yourconsciousness into other position and emerge with
invaluable information. How else could you know howyour audience is responding to you? Or what yourmarket will buy? Or even how to love?
Perspective Four
Mental separation from the mother is at long last
possible with the acquisition of Perspective Four. Ratherthan remaining in thrall to the task of giving the motherwhat she wants (in order to remain in some measure the
object of her desire), children at some point identifymore with their own drive for autonomy and self-
creation.
Perspective Four is a turning inward to ask, Who amI separate from other people, and what do I want for
myself? Such questioning promotes creative thinkingsince, without the (m)other to show you who you are and
what to want, you have to discover new reference points
for yourself.But the crucial first task of Perspective Four is to
cover over, to repress, the Perspective Twosenmeshment with the mother. From Perspective Four
you insist on your difference from others. You begin tocreate your personal version of reality, a version that willeventually hook into some set of truths in the larger
world, beyond the family.
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Perspective One
In ways large and small, personality types that relyon Perspective One are principled reformers. Theynotice where people and institutions are not living up to
standard and try to rectify the situation. Moreover, theynotice where family or societal norms lack justificationand try to change them.
It appears that the acquisition of Perspective Onemight begin with the young person's decision to
somehow embrace a principle, quality, or worldviewthat is not well-represented in their family. They
experience firsthand the family's deficiency, forexample, a lack of education. Then, probably withoutgoing through any formal or even conscious
deliberation, they begin to identify with a principle, or
purpose, that, if realized, would fill the lack. So onechild determines to become the first person in the familyto finish college. Another leaves the city and buys afarm.
Since Perspective One is rooted in a sort ofjudgment on your family's shortcomings, it becomes a
way of distinguishing yourself, a way of individuatingthrough self-improvement.
At the same time, Perspective One involves heedinga call emanating from the world beyond the family.Maturing means being pulled away from parents by the
larger reality and interacting with it in a meaningful way.
Again, a major premise of Structural Enneagram isthat all normally functioning people use all six
perspectives. We all use Perspective One. We are allprincipled. Yet some personalities rely more heavily on
Perspective One than do others. This will be explainedmore fully in the next section, Binaries.
Binaries
The six Structural Enneagram Perspectives arefurther organized into three binary pairs. A binary is awhole with two parts that stand in polar opposition to
each other. Here, the opposition is between relationaland individuated Perspectives.
As illustrated in the above figure, the three binary
pairs are Perspectives Seven and Five, Perspectives Twoand Four, and Perspectives Eight and One.
As shown in the following table, at one end of each
pole are the relational Perspectives, and at the other endare the individuated Perspectives:
BinariesRelational Pole Individuated Pole
Immersed inexperience Seven-----Five
Detached fromexperience
Oriented toothers desire Two-------Four
Oriented toown desire
Identifies inrelation toothers
Eight------OneIdentifies withprinciple
These three binaries represent mutually exclusivetakes on three critical issues. The Seven-Five binarydeals at bottom with the state of being either inside oroutside your environment. The Two-Four binary locatesdesire either in the other or in the self. And the Eight-
One binary locates the source of identity and purposeeither in the other or in an ideal self. This source ofidentity, in turn, determines how we channel desire.Although it appears that almost everyone is capable of
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taking all six positions, at any given moment only oneposition in each pair can be occupied.
And yet, it turns out that a certain sort of access tothe relational Perspectives is absolutely necessary to theefficient functioning of the individuated Perspectives.
Unconscious access to Perspective Seven undergirds theability to perform normally from Perspective Five, andso on. But to prove this would require an extended
argument, one that I hope will unfold over time (perhapsin future revisions of this paper). Now to an explanation
of the Structural Enneagram binaries.
The Seven-Five Binary
Over time, your preferred stance with regard to thetwo Perspectives of the Seven-Five binary determinesyour baseline mental and emotional states for the reason
that it determines how you position yourself relative toyour cognitive and physical environments. You cancontinually immerse yourself in experience, which I
also call being associated (Perspective Seven), or youcan step outside of experience and detach (Perspective
Five),4 or you can switch between the two asappropriate.
Distinguishing Perspective Seven from Five is firstand foremost a matter of determining whether you areexperiencing a situation from the inside or the outside.
Relational Perspective Seven gives the sense of beinginside, or associated to, experience, while individuated
Perspective Five gives the sense of being outside it, ordetached.
Perspective Seven is the recommended state if you
want to really feel something, from having fun andbeing happy to enduring an authentic moment of grief
and sadness. It's also essential if you are to be able topop into someone else's emotional atmosphere for amoment, if you want to understand or get into rapport
with that person.Perspective Five could release you from having to
take on the mood of the moment. It would allow you tofeel objective, or curious, or peaceful, regardless of what
4The associated and detached states are closely related to
extraversion and introversion, respectively.
is going on outside you. But for those habitually stuckin Seven's worldview and unable to detach, having fun
and being happy are absolutely necessary states to bepreserved at all costs. Because of this they develop anastonishing talent for denial. Denial is a skill that is
usually understood in its pejorative sense, but it comesin handy whenever its not a good time to focus onhardships; in this sense, denial can also be called
optimism. Yet, to carry on frenetically, pretendingeverything is great, ignoring all evidence to the contrary,
is to risk an eventual, devastating incursion of the darkside of life.
A variant of the Sevenish penchant for refusing to
deal with the negative is talking about it too much. Tooff-load all your disturbing thoughts onto another
person tries the patience of the listener and spares youfrom facing them yourself.
Normally the Sevenish experience is modulatedthrough an entire personality structure encompassingseveral easily accessible Perspectives. But for the
person in the grip of Seven, not being able to make anobjective, nuanced assessment of reality means that the
world seems pretty much either all good or all bad. (Thisis sometimes called good-bad splitting or justsplitting.) If the world goes all bad for people stuck inSeven then they flip over from denial into wallowing in
pain. Everything is horribleto use a word I hear a
lot from a distressed Seven-wing-Eight.People stuck in Perspective Seven often seem to
have their heads in the clouds. They may find thatpeople actually tell them things like, You need to comedown to earth. Not that they dont try to get themselves
grounded, even if by proxy. For example, someSevenish men seem to collect women, who may
represent something of nature for them. Or Sevenishmen and women may use pets to help them getgrounded. Cluttering is often a problem since, from
Perspective Seven, relating to material things can givethe impression of being connected to physical reality.
One Seven-wing-Six told me she simply couldnt putclutter away or else her things might disappear, and thisthought was deeply unsettling to her. All of her thingshad to be out in the open where she could see them.Throwing out even useless junk provoked extreme
anxiety. Her professional work was carried out in thesublime realms of energy and spirits, but the ever-
present signs of her existence in the material worldapparently helped to ground her.
The alternative is to shift into the Five pole of the
Seven-Five binary. Standing apart from a person, place,or situation, you reach detachment. You can perceive
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patterns that could not be seen from the inside. You canremove your emotions from the scene and merely
witness. You can evaluate things objectively.Obviously, each position, Five and Seven, has its
merits. It has been recommended that we associate to
positive experiences and detach from negative ones.Common language testifies, for example, that grievingmust be gone through but we are not to wallow in
it. So individuated Perspective Five is often consideredto be the more mature and adaptive of the two
perspectives in painful emotional contexts: we do saywe achieve objectivity. Yet it is apparent uponreflection that both perspectives of this binary are
absolutely necessary in all matters of the heart. Youknow that you must be immersed in experience, in themoment, to enjoy being with another person, and yetyou periodically detach in order to view the situation
from the outside, if you want to avoid any number ofatrocious outcomes.
And it's the same with intellectual pursuits.
Perspective Five probably initiates the process ofreasoning, analyzing and synthesizing patterns. But
once you have taken in a certain amount of informationon a topic, you can move seamlessly and intuitively
back and forth from associated to detached states.You just can't do both at the same instant. And the
state you favor will constitute the foundational factor of
your self-concept and personality.
Perspectives on ExperienceSeven Five
Relational
AssociatedInside
SubjectiveParticipant
ExtraversionFluentUninhibitedEnthusiastic
Individuated
DetachedOutside
ObjectiveObserver
IntroversionHesitantInhibitedDiscerning
The T-chart is suggestive of some of the basicdifferences between Perspectives Five and Seven. This
chart is neither exhaustive nor exact. Each of thedescriptors refers to how the individual interacts withexperiences, including experiencing people and things.
In coming sections I will introduce and discusspersonality structures. All of the personality structuresare influenced by the Seven-Five binary in some way.The following information is provided as a reference
point.
Personality Structures and the Seven-Five BinarySeven Five In Flux
Two-ThreeSeven-EightThree-FourSix-Seven
Five-SixEight-NineFour-FiveNine-One
One-Two
Of the nine structures, four include the relational,
Seven Perspective, four include the individuated FivePerspective and one has a more complicated relationshipto Seven and Five.
The Two-Four Binary
The most telling distinction between the poles of theTwo-Four binary is the location of desire in either selfor other. Personalities incorporating Perspective Twoare prone to a bit of mindreading, paying attention to
what they imagine the other person wantsalthoughtheir reply to the other's desire may amount to either a
direct response to it, an interpretation of it, or a defenseor rebellion against it. Personalities relying instead onPerspective Four pay more attention to their own
desires, through introspection. Even so, they may not goafter what they want due to interference coming fromfactors related to other perspectives.
Most of us never lose the ability to empathize thatcomes with Perspective Two, and that is obviously agood thing. But, unfortunately for personalities that are
wedded too tightly to Perspective Two, total attention tothe others desire precludes healthy attention to theirown. No matter how rewarding or necessary theirPerspective-Two strategy may be, they eventually oroccasionally crave separation from the other
separation such as Perspective Four offers.Some Two-types say thats when the fear of
abandonment kicks in. This fear is often attributed to thefathers literal or emotional abandonment. And the
problem is exacerbated by a mother who either does not
know what she wants or who fails to obtain what shewants and for whose desires the child feels responsible.
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Structural Enneagram 11
Later, this habitual willingness to consider theothers desire is extended beyond the mother. Although
Two-types may not always respond positively, they dotune into the others demands and preferences.
On the other hand, personalities that use
individuated Perspective Four are only too happy leavesuch responsibility for the other behind in order tofollow their own desires. They will be far more
autonomous, and even self-absorbed compared tosomeone who favors Perspective Two.
Of course, it is quite possible to be balancedbetween Perspectives Two and Four, to switchseamlessly back and forth between them. Only you cant
do both at the same time. Most people lean noticeablytoward one or the other.
The following T-chart is suggestive of some of thebasic differences between perspectives Two and Four. It
is neither exhaustive nor exact. Each of the descriptorsrefers to how the personality is oriented to other people,especially as concerns the location of desire.
Perspectives Relative to the OtherTwo Four
Relational
Others desireEmpathy
HeartConnectedGiving
ServingFear of aban-
donment
Individuated
Own desireIntrospection
LibidoSeparateCreative
Self-sufficientNeed for autonomy
In coming sections I will introduce and discusspersonality structures. All of the personality structuresare influenced by the Two-Four binary in some way. The
following information is provided as a reference point.
Personality Structures and the Two-Four Binary
Two Four In Flux
Two-ThreeSix-SevenFive-SixOne-Two
Three-FourEight-NineFour-FiveNine-One
Seven-Eight
All of the personality structures are influenced bythe Two-Four binary in some way. Of the nine
structures, four include relational Two Perspective, fourinclude individuated Four Perspective, and one has a
more complicated relationship to Two and Four.
The Eight-One Binary
Finally, personality hinges on a choice regarding theEight-One binary: whether to form an interpersonalidentification and motivational strategy or an
individuated one. The Perspective-Eight self-conceptand purpose come primarily from relationships andinteractions with other people, while the Perspective-
One self-concept and purpose emerges from arelationship to ideas and principles. This distinction is
important in that these two Perspectives control not onlyhow people conceptualize themselves but also how theyexpress themselves.
Keeping in mind that all normally developedpeople, in other words, almost all of us, use both of thesePerspectives. However, people do display a marked
preference for one or the other. Since Eight-types forman identity out of others' reactions to them, they respond
to interpersonal factors such as power, status, andhierarchy. For One-types, on the other hand, since anidea in mind is the guarantor of their existence, self-
activation occurs in response to thought-impressionssuch as standards, spiritual beliefs, principles, mission,
purpose, and ideals. They are motivated to thought andaction by something other than what will cause others toaffirm their existence.
Perspectives Relative toIdentity and Motivation
Eight One
Relational
Interpersonal
Recognition
RoleHierarchical
Worldly
Individuated
Principled
Being right
PurposeUnique
Idealistic
The T-chart is suggestive of some of the basicdifferences between perspectives Eight and One. It isneither exhaustive nor exact. Each of the descriptors
relates to the individuals source of identity andmotivation.
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Structural Enneagram 12
In coming sections I will introduce and discusspersonality structures. All of the personality structures
are influenced by the Eight-One binary in some way.The following information is provided as a reference
point.
Personality Structures and the Eight-One Binary
Eight One In Flux
Seven-EightEight-NineTwo-ThreeThree-Four
One-TwoNine-OneFive-SixSix-Seven
Four-Five
All of the personality structures are influenced bythe Eight-One binary in some way. Of the ninestructures, four include the relational, Eight Perspective,four include the individuated, One Perspective, and onehas a more complicated relationship to the two.
Combination Perspectiveson the Triangle
A crucial difference between Structural Enneagramand the conventional Enneagram of personality is
Structural Enneagram's redefinition of the points on thetriangle as combinations of the six points on the hexad.
The triangle points, Nine, Three, and Six, arederived from the hexad in the following way:
Six Single and Three Combination PerspectivesSingle
PerspectivesCombinationPerspectives
One and Two combine at point Six.
Seven and Eight combine at point Three.
Four and Five combine at point Nine.
The depiction of the combination perspectives throughthe triangle is what makes it possible for the Structural
Enneagram to depict nine personality types out of sixPerspectives.
Recap
The Structural Enneagram dictates that each of its
nine personality structures be assembled out of two orthree of its six Perspectives. It is axiomatic that a givenpersonality will not include both Perspectives in the
same binary since both cannot be expressedsimultaneously. We have seen the logic in this: you cant
be both associated (Seven) and detached (Five) in thesame instant; similarly, you cant be impelled by theothers desire (Two) and at the same time divorced fromit (Four); nor can you be guided simultaneously byconsiderations of power relationships (Eight) and an
ideal principle (One).The very existence of personality is being redefined
here as the reality that, within each binary, you arebound to favor one side over the other. Although anevolved person might be flexible enough to switch
easily back and forth between both poles of all threebinaries, most people will have home positions that theyoperate out of most of the time, and by definition
personality stems from the relative balance ofPerspectives in habitual use.
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Personality as Structure
Each of the Structural Enneagrams nine personality
structures is a combination of two or three of the sixPerspectives. The following table lists these com-
binations:
SixPerspectives UnderlieNine Personality Structures
PerspectivesPersonalityStructure
One + Two One-Two
Two + ThreeSeven + Eight)
Two-Three
Three + Four(Seven + Eight + Four)
Three-Four
Four + Five Four-Five
Five + Six(Five + One + Two)
Five-Six
Six + Seven(One + Two + Seven)
Six-Seven
Seven + Eight Seven-Eight
Eight + Nine(Eight + Four + Five)
Eight-Nine
Nine + One(Four + Five + One)
Nine-One
One-Two means a personality structure thatcombines Perspectives One and Two. The fullydifferentiated personality type could be either One-
wing-Two or Two-wing-One. Since the points on theStructural Enneagram represent Perspectives rather than
types, personality structures are depicted as the arcs, orsections, between the points. Thus, personalitystructures are continua formed by varying weights of
two or three Perspectives.The personality structure is typically tilted to favor
one of the two or three Perspectives that comprise it.
Seven-wing-Eight means Seven is the prevailingPerspective. But the structure name Seven-Eight does
not specify the prevailing Perspective. Seven-Eight isthe combination of two Perspectives and encompasses
both personality structures Seven-wing-Eight andEight-wing-Seven.
Similarly, a Three-Four personality structureincludes both personality types Three-wing-Four andFour-wing-Three. The relative strengths of Perspectives
Seven and Eight, which make up Combination
Perspective Three, are not captured by the Three-Four
arc.
And, if it were possible to have a single-Perspectivepersonality structure, then the arc, or continuum, would
be reduced to a point coequal with the singlePerspective.
Personality Dynamics
In the descriptions of personality structure and typethat follow, one of the points of discussion will be
personality dynamics. Each personality structure has itsown dynamicits own movement through experience.These movements are triggered by psychological drives.
(Psychological drives are a source of the theoryunderlying this model but are not covered in this
document.)
Parts of the Personality Dynamic
Perspectives/Binary Function
Seven or Five Mode of being in the worldTwo or Four Source of desire
Eight or One Channel of expression
The aspects of personality dynamics that are
emphasized by the Structural Enneagram are 1) a modeof being in the world, 2) a source of desire, and 3) a
channel of expression. These aspects correspond to thebinary pairs of the six Perspectives.
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In the Structural Enneagram model, once drive istriggered, it sets out from a state, or mode of being in theworld (Perspective Seven or Five). Drive then takesshape as a desire, seeming to emanate from either theother (Perspective Two) or the self (Perspective Four).
It is then processed through a motivational channel thatinvolves your self-identity and sense of purpose
(Perspective Eight or One). Unfortunately, there can behiccups in the flow of drive. And some of those hiccups,along with other personality dynamics, will come up in
the individual structure descriptions that follow, as wellas in the type descriptions in the section after that.
The Nine Personality Structures
Following are descriptions of the nine StructuralEnneagram personality structures. Recalling that these
structures are represented by the arcs between pointsaround the enneagram circle, note that the list begins
with the One-Two structure and continues around thecircle to Nine-One.
The One-Two Structure
The One-Two structure includes individuatedPerspective One and relational Perspective Two.
Perspective Twos empathy for others is either
turned to direct service to individuals or sublimated intosocial forms of service such as running charities,
performing business support functions, teaching, and
promoting political causes.Since Perspective Ones idealism tends to turn
thoughts and actions toward more abstract and universalrather than personal themes, thinking turns to howthings ought to be.
What is not immediately apparent in this structure iswhere One-Twos stand with respect to their physical and
interpersonal environment. Is their personality usuallyabsorbed into the world through Perspective Seven orlooking on objectively from Perspective Five? I believe
that One-Twos would prefer to maintain detachedPerspective Five, but that certain situations toss theminto a negative-Seven state of anger or despair.
One-Twos' personal evolutionary path requiresthem to overcome their particular difficulty with holding
Perspective Five. This will be apparent in their choice ofgoals that calls for sustaining objectivity, even in the
face of externally or internally generated conflict orcriticism.
The Two-Three Structure
Since Perspective Three is a combination ofPerspectives Seven and Eight, the Two-Three structurecomprises Perspectives Seven, Two, and Eight. Becauseall three Perspectives lie at the relational ends of theirrespective binaries, Two-Three is the most relational,
least individuated of the nine structures. The result is anoutgoing and charming personality that is rather too
dependent on the reactions of others.
Two-Threes rely on Perspective Seven, whichmeans that they turn their attention outward rather than
inward, so in order to feel good they are dependent onthe environment and the people in it to support andnurture them. Given a supportive environment, Two-Threes are free to be their engaged and enthusiasticselves.
Their direct expression of Perspective Two makesthem interested in other people and eager to give themwhat they need and want: attention, love, entertainment,gifts, or assistance. In return they might draw to
themselves the loving gaze of the other.The presence of Perspective Eight means that Two-
Threes need the positive regard of important others inorder to be fulfilled. Status is important to them, and
they are likely to achieve it by hitching their wagon to astar.
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The Three-Four Structure
The Three-Four structure combines individuatedPerspective Four with relational Perspectives Seven andEight to make a highly achieving, adaptable, creative,
and individualistic person. (As explained in the previoussection, point Three unites Perspectives Seven and
Eight.)
Having Perspective Seven in their makeup makesThree-Fours passionate and engaged. Perspective Fourmakes them look to their own desire rather than allowthemselves to be controlled by what others want from
them. On the other hand, having Perspective Eightmakes Three-Fours crave the positive regard of others,so they will strive to excel and to control their image.
Dynamically, the Three-Four process looks some-thing like this. Three-Fours have in mind someobjective, the achieving of which might reward themwith recognition or improved status. But this objective
needs to align as much as possible with their own desirefor self-expression rather than coming from somebodyelse or from society.
Thoughts of achieving a particular objective ignitetheir drive. They then set out from the associated Sevenstate, which means that Three-Fours will throw
themselves into the project and get swept up in it. AsFour-types, they will prefer to act creatively, not always
following procedure. Unless some external factor stopsthem, they will probably achieve their goals because
they are not internally inhibited or conflicted about self-imposed goals, as long as those goals are consistent with
their own values.
The Four-Five Structure
Four-Fives are creative, introspective, and cerebralindividualists. They can at times be alienated, isolated,
and avoidant.Perspective Five, the quality of being detached and
observant, contributes intuition, introspection, andinsight to this personality structure. But too much of this
cool Perspective may also make it difficult to fullyengage with people and experience. Having PerspectiveFour in the personality makes Four-Fives artistic, anti-conventional, and original. Too much Four and they
become merely eccentric.
Both Four and Five are individuated rather thanrelational Perspectives. Behind a habit of detachment(Five) lies an original drive to break away from whatfeels like the engulfing influence of the familyatmosphere and to stand out from the environment. And
behind a move toward self-expression (Four) lies a
drive to cut the apron strings and release the need toplease the mother. With two individuated Perspectivesand no relational Perspectives, Four-Five is one of themost autonomous personality structures in the StructuralEnneagram. (Nine-One is the most autonomous.)
Four-Five is one of the three personality structures
that at first glance appear to involve only twoPerspectives rather than three. (The others are Seven-Eight and One-Two.) As stated earlier, the dynamics ofthe Structural Enneagram model require three
Perspectives to complete a personality structure. Four-Five has Perspective Five as its mode of being in the
world and Perspective Four as its source of desire butlacks a secure Perspective on identity, which eitherEight or One would provide.
But Four-Fives do not effectively use either Eight orOne to self-activate and complete projects and bring
them to market. If Four-Fives had settled at Perspective
Eight, then they would have been Eight-Nines andwould have been motivated by the drive to be a leaderand, moreover, to be recognized as a leader. InsteadFour-Fives have shifted away from Eight and are
attempting to use Perspective One.When they do succeed in holding Perspective One,
then they are like Nine-Ones, motivated by a sense ofpurpose to act and achieve completion. Furthermore,any time Four-Fives attempt and fail to self-activate
through Perspective One, they tend to fall back onto a
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disempowered position, becoming someone who caneasily be thwarted by criticism and aggression (real orimagined). This appears to be the pattern of those Four-Fives who are conflicted about bringing their creationsto the world.
Consequently, Four-Fives lives too often appear tobe a roiling mass of unfulfilled desire. Lacking the
effective motivational strategy that either Eight or Onewould provide, their output may consist of partiallyfinished projects and products that never hit the market,
especially if they are acting independently, without anemployer or agent of some kind to motivate them. To
self-actualize, Four-Fives need to either consolidatePerspective One in their skill set or recruit or berecruited by another person or agency to manage andrepresent them.
Lacking these resources, they revert to their
characteristic ego defense: avoidance. This could meanthey withdraw from the world or simply that they
withdraw drive. The ultimate withdrawal of drive, shortof suicide, is depression.
The Five-Six Structure
The Five-Six structure includes CombinationPerspective Six, which unites Perspectives Two andOne, so this structure comprises individuated
Perspectives Five and One plus relational PerspectiveTwo. The result is a personality that may be described
as contrarian.
Perspective Five makes Five-Sixes detached fromthe environment. This does not mean they are either
uninterested or disinterested. Perspective Five stillleaves people free to be involved and concerned. They
simply remove themselves from the immediacy ofexperience and observe it, more or less objectively. Thismakes these personalities good investigators.
Having Perspective One means that Five-Sixes areidentified with and motivated to action by a guiding
principle. They are not particularly concerned withstatus, if that means compromising their principles. Tosome degree they are always going to be reformers.
Their Five and One components are usually prettyobvious. Its Perspective Two that you may have trouble
seeing in some Five-Sixes. Thats because, althoughthey are focused on the others desire rather than their
own, they may be quite suspicious of the others valuesand motives. Or they may simply believe that they know
better what the othershouldwant.
The dynamics of this structure are as follows: Five-Sixes observe what already exists (Five) and what
people seem to need (Two). They then compare thesefindings to their own guiding principles to see whatought to be said or done, and that is what they do (One).
The ranks of Five-Sixes include many lawyers,investigative journalists, investors, philanthropists,
inventors, scientists, and philosophers.
The Six-Seven Structure
In the Six-Seven structure, the combination of
relational Perspectives Seven and Two and individuatedPerspective One produces an engaged, reasonably
stable, and genuinely nicepersonality, albeit one that isprone to anxiety.
Their accustomed use of Perspective Seven makes
Six-Sevens throw themselves into life, but they do notnecessarily come across as extraverted. The more Seven
in the personality, the more they turn their attentionoutward.
Perspective One makes them identify with a guidingprinciple, and they will often build a career around it.
Although their Seven and One components areusually straightforward and obvious, their expression of
perspective Two may be indirect and not immediatelyapparent. Unlike Two-Threes, Six-Sevens are notnecessarily helper types in that they don't typicallyrespond directly to others' needs. Rather, they apply
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Structural Enneagram 17
their own principles to deciding what the other shouldwant and then try to provide that.
The dynamics of this structure are that Six-Sevensstart out from an associated position (Seven), engagesome objective having to do with the other's needs
(Two), and then do something that is consonant withboth the other's desire and their own principles (One).
This often means bringing some value such as laughter,order, or harmony to a situation that lacks it.
The Six-Seven structure is home to people in a
number of occupations. Many business people, lawyers,comedians, actors, physical therapists, and medical
doctors share this structure.
The Seven-Eight Structure
The Seven-Eight structure includes two relational
Perspectives, Seven and Eight, and has not comfortablysettled on either Perspective from the Two-Four binary.
This structure produces aggressive, determined, oftenrebellious individuals who run the gamut from John F.Kennedy to Idi Amin.
Perspective Seven makes Seven-Eights cravematerial things and experiences that they can either find
themselves or lose themselves in, depending on theirstate of mind.
Perspective Eight adds an element of confidence,
tenacity, and intensity. Underlying these characteristicsis a need to be admired and elevated in status.
As rebellious types, Seven-Eights would at firstappear to have entirely rejected Perspective Two as a
home position, but, in fact, they have not. Rather, Seven-Eights are heavily embroiled in Perspective Two, beinglargely incapable of unplugging from the other and
consistently using individualistic Perspective Four, nomatter how much they would like to do so.
5Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson, Personality Types:
Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery, Rev. ed.
(Houghton Mifflin, Boston), 1996, p. 295.
Instead, Seven-Eights use Perspective Two todiscern what the other wants, and then, by applying
powerful strategies of influence, manipulate thesituation to either win people over or bring them to their
knees.Riso and Hudson write about [personality type]
Eight's destructive antisocial tendencies,5 but thischaracterization really only applies to Seven-Eights, notto Eight-Nines. These tendencies often trace back to
Seven-Eights' antipathy toward a mother whom theyexperienced as neglectful or withholding or whose love
was given conditionally.The dynamics of the Seven-Eight structure are as
follows. Starting from an associated position (Seven),they find out what the other wants and generally do theopposite (inverse of Two). What happens after that will
depend on whether their actions win the esteem of othersor land Seven-Eights in trouble.
As adults, Seven-Eights form very close bonds withanother person, only to sometimes become vindictiveafter the honeymoon period, if the other fails them in
some way. All their rebellion is a misguided effort toclaim independence. If Seven-Eights were able to
follow the example of Three-Fours in letting go of theiremotional enmeshment with the (m)other, then theywould succeed in creating a separate identity.
But then who would lead the revolutions?
The Eight-Nine Structure
The Eight-Nine structure is individuated on twofronts, Perspectives Five and Four, and relational on thethird, Perspective Eight. Eight-Nines are leaders.
Being skilled in the use of Perspective Five, Eight-Nines are ordinarily objective rather than being caughtup in the moment.
Using Perspective Four, they look to themselvesrather than to the other for inspiration. (This most
certainly does not mean, however, that they areincapable of taking Perspective Two. Most Eight-Ninesare warm and engaging. True leadership requires greatfacility in taking the other's point of view.)
However, with Perspective Eight in their makeup,their self-esteem is a function of how others recognizethem, so they are motivated to win the respect of
competitors and the admiration of others in their tribe.Eight-Nines recognize a hierarchy of authority, and theywant to earn a place high up in it.
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Structural Enneagram 18
The dynamics of the Eight-Nine structure are as
follows. Starting from a detached position (Five), theyturn inward for a plan (Four), then get others to followthem in carrying it out (Eight).
Because they do enjoy being the linchpin betweenthe little guy and the higher authority, Eight-wing-Nines
become good at managing, and particularly good atdelegating. Ronald Reagan, a Nine-wing-Eight, had areputation for appointing capable people who agreed
with him in principle and leaving them alone to do theirjobs. The movie director Robert Altman, probably anEight-wing-Nine, prided himself on casting good actorsand trusting them to interpret their roles without his
interference.
The Nine-One Structure
The Nine-One personality structure is the mostindividuated, least relational in the Structural
Enneagram model. All three component perspectives,Five, Four, and One, lie at the individuated poles of their
respective binaries. This means that Nine-Ones form themost self-possessed personalities. Consequently, theymay be perceived by people with more interpersonal
structures as being overly detached or cool.
Perspective Five gives Nine-Ones their raw powersof observation as well as the impetus to bring somethingof value to the world.
Perspective Four gives them a mental posture ofseparation and difference from others. They look tothemselves rather than to others to determine what
should be done.
Added to the other two individuated Perspectives,
Perspective One increases Nine-Ones' air of inde-pendence and intellectual self-reliance. They consult
their own principles and goals rather than relying onexternal demands to direct their actions. Nor are theyparticularly motivated by the prospect of recognitionfrom others. Rather, they take it as an obligation torespond to the call to bring their ideals into
manifestation.From being so individuated, Nine-Ones develop a
talent for looking beyond individual interest to the largerpicture. From this comes a unifying point of view thatmakes them think more sociologically than other types.
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Structural Enneagram 19
Personality Types with Wings
The conventional Enneagram assigns one personality type to each numbered point around the circle and allowsfor an optional adjacent wing, with the wing referring to collateral parts of the personality. Although the Structural
Enneagram adopts the conventional Enneagram practice of calling the secondary number a wing, this model does notactually recognize a single-number type. Wings are considered to be integral to the personality type. Consequently,
personality types are always identified by two numbers rather than one.
The 18 Structural Enneagram personalities are listedin this section, in the order that they appear around the
enneagram circle, starting with One-wing-Two andending with Nine-wing-One.
One-wing-TwoThe Servant-Leader
Perspective Two's empathy with individuals joinswith One's idealism to form Servant-Leaders, peoplewho are concerned with improving the human
condition. They are compassionate, caring nurturers andmanagers, as well as advocates for the underdog.
Since the dominant Perspective of this type is One,
One-wing-Twos will seek to evince the principlesdictated by the higher self. That is why we see in well-
developed people of this type characteristics such as
nobility, a sense of mission, impassioned striving,orderliness, and intelligence.
Perspective Two, the heart position, is the secondaryposture for One-wing-Twos. Because of their relianceon Perspective Two, even though they typicallygravitate toward a leadership role, they will lead withcaring and generosity.
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Structural Enneagram 20
Hillary Clinton, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jerry Brown,Mario Cuomo, Emma Thompson, and Martha Stewart
probably have personality type One-wing-Two.Where the others desire meets the judgment of the
ideal self, One-wing-Twos purpose appears. As Bill
Clinton said of his One-wing-Two wife, Shes got thebest combination of mind and heart Ive ever seen.
Yet heart does not always figure prominently in thistype's public image. Obviously, the heavier influence ofmind (One) has something to do with this.
As suggested above, when advocating or workingon behalf of reforms, it is sometimes preferable to avoid
getting too emotionally invested in the process. One-wing-Twos probably do better when practicingdetachment (perspective Five), and they may sabotagetheir causes by becoming overly attached to specificoutcomes or taking things too personally.
Moreover, when One-wing-Twos lose their normalreserve, they seem unnatural and incongruent to
onlookers. On occasion, Hillary Clinton has beenaccused of having a meltdown. She may tear up or getmelodramatic. She can become overly controlling and
what anti-feminists delight in calling shrill. These areclearly moments of reverting to associated Perspective
Seven when she should have stayed in Five, the observerstate.
I have a hypothesis that because One-wing-Twos
want to help people they may attach themselves tospouses and employers who actively solicit their
assistance. This dynamic would make both parties feelloved and appreciated. Potential partners would tend to
be people with an Eight component since they likemaking demands on others. Bill and Hillary Clinton fitthis picture since he is a Three-wing-Two (Seven plus
Eight plus Two).Among the liabilities for One-wing-Twos is that
they can be perfectionistic, impatient, emotionallyconstricted, judgmental, inflexible, and intolerant.Furthermore, they can fail to match up to their own high
standards in any number of ways. But the loss ofPerspective Five under stress and the simultaneous slideinto negative-Seven is the biggest risk for this type.
Two-wing-OneThe Altruist
Through helping others, Altruists combinePerspective Two's generosity with One's principles to
demonstrate unconditional love. Unfortunately, they canbe other-oriented to self-destructive extremes.
You can recognize people of this type by theirwarmth, encouragement, and overall air of acceptance.
They enjoy giving smiles, hugs, compliments, andgratitude.
Probable examples of personality type Two-wing-One are Florence Nightingale, Mother Teresa, andDesmond Tutu. Tutu's Made for Goodness: And Why
This Makes All the Difference (co-written with hisdaughter Mpho Tutu) reads like a manifesto for the Two-
wing-One way of being.Other reported examples are John Bradshaw and
Danny Glover.
Two-wing-Ones' commitment to service springsfrom both the heart and the head. Since Perspective Twois the main influence, they have a real talent for helping
others. Although they may act in a quiet, personal way,their secondary Perspective, which is One, gives them asense of duty and purpose that may nudge them toward
business or community work rather than strictly familyservice.
The childhood need to attend to the mothers desires(Perspective Two) carries over into adulthood, with the
mother's role being displaced onto others. Two-wing-Ones look after friendships and relationships of allkinds. Furthermore, like the other type in this pair, they
may attach themselves to Eight-types simply becauseEight-types are more than willing to play this game. Buthabitual overuse of Perspective Two can cause Two-
wing-Ones to lose themselves in the fantasy of beingable to satisfy others unrelenting requirements and
demands.Giving too much of themselves is always a risk with
this type. As illustrated in the biography of famous Two-wing-One, Florence Nightingale, somatizing is a
common defense against not being able to say no.Nightingale believed that God had called her to be a
nurse. In the nineteenth century, that vocation was not
acceptable in a young woman of her social class, yet shepersisted in spite of disapproval. Convinced thatmarriage would interfere with her ambitions, she
rejected at least one seemingly advantageous offer.Through of her experience of nursing soldiers in the
Crimean War, Nightingale revolutionized nursing carein both military and civilian hospitals of Victorian
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Structural Enneagram 21
England, and her influence spread around the world. Butshe eventually fell ill and became an invalid. Someobservers have thought there was an element of hysteriato her illness, which did, in fact, have the effect ofgetting her out of a lot of things she didnt want to do,
while still allowing her to dictate social and healthcarereforms from her bed.
When Two-wing-Ones allow the hopelessness ofothers eternal, unremitting need to get under their skinthey may spiral downward into illness, depression, or
escapism. Even as these strategies help them disengagefrom the others lack, they can prevent them from
fulfilling their own larger missions.And when frustrated, they may revert to the pattern
of absorbing and getting stuck in others' negativefeelings. A Two-wing-One woman had been going backand forth between two possible responses to a sticky
family situation for several days. She felt an obligationto travel to a distant location to support her mother and
other family members through a crisis, but she didntwant to become embroiled in their habitual negativity.Her Seven-wing-Eight mother had even told her not to
come, but that refusal of help was obviously part of adysfunctional pattern of her own.
When the daughter tried to think about her dilemma,she regressed into an inverse-Seven state and just feltdespondent. Using NLP, I guided her into the detached
Five state and asked her to examine objectively not onlyevery relevant scenario she could think of but also her
present experience of being unable to choose and feelingbad about it. By the time she completed the exercise, she
had already made a decision to go. She easily followedthrough on her decision. Once there, she found that her
presence was helpful to the family, and she was even
able to stay detached from the family drama, all ofwhich gave her a great sense of satisfaction.
Differentiations
On average, the givingness of One-wing-Twos isprobably a little less personal and more universalizedthan that of Two-wing-Ones. The former may be less aptto get caught up in the net of the others perennial
neediness.You also may be able to differentiate these types by
attending to the degree of warmth they emit. One-wing-
Twos are relatively more distant and cool; Two-wing-Ones are typically more emotive.
Two-wing-ThreeThe Giver
Givers are friendly, charming, and adaptable. Whilethey give all sorts of gifts, perhaps the common thread
is that Two-wing-Threes give the gift of making peoplefeel better. They have the warmth and social graces to
make people comfortable. This makes them welcominghosts and effective motivators. Many entertainers are ofthis type, but many more are the pillars holding up
families and organizations.Possible examples of personality type Two-wing-
Three are Lewis Carroll, Barbara Bush, and Kathy LeeGifford. Other reported examples are Barry Manilow,Sammy Davis, Jr., Kathy Bates, John Denver, and PatBoone.
Point Three is a combination of Perspectives Seven
and Eight.Two-wing-Threes are notorious for expressing
almost exclusively positive affect, at least in public.
Like most Sevenish people, they would prefer that thedark side be kept out of sight. And if they can add to the
happiness of others through their joyous, affirmative,and often passionate attentions, then the environment
becomes that much brighter. People of this type, alongwith their cousins the Three-wing-Twos, probablyinvented business networking and relationship selling.
With Two as the dominant Perspective, this type isopenly loving, friendly, and supportive. In fact, people
of this type adapt easily to the desires of their chosenother. Of course, anyone with any sense of self-
preservation does the same or pays for it in lost rapport,
lost sales, or lost influence of some other kind. But thistype ratchets up adaptability, turning themselves (or
what they have to offer) into the object of desire. At theextreme, some especially Two-heavy Givers mayhesitate to even say what they think for fear that it willcontradict what you want them to think.
This type also incorporates Perspective Eight,
which involves an identification with role or status, andTwo-wing-Threes are known for being status conscious.
Although we usually think of Perspective Eight as being
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Structural Enneagram 22
a power position, many Two-wing-Threes are willing tohold a subordinate role. If they think their own talentscant get them far enough, then they may hitch theirwagon to a rising star. This is the route of seductionrather than obvious power.
Beyond positive affect and gift-giving its hard tocharacterize this personality through typical behavior.
Two-wing-Threes may be active or inactive, attractiveor plain, depending upon whom they are wooing.
However, on occasion they will admit that their
particular adaptation to life has prevented them fromfully becoming themselves. They may feel thwarted in
their self-expression. They would like to be more selfishand creative. One Two-wing-Three told me she feels asif her creativity has been bottled up. Suppressed drivecan manifest itself as tension in the chest and abdomenor may be converted into illnesses that have a marked
stress componenthigh blood pressure, adrenal failure,spinal problems, and diabetes, for example.
Two-wing-Threes may on some level be aware ofwhen they are creating an image of themselves and notan authentic self. A Two-wing-Three of my
acquaintance acknowledges that many of her beliefsand attitudes really belong to her Eight-wing-Nine
husband and not to herself. To become more authentic,she would need to take on the perspective of the Three-wing-Four. However, if she made that shift, it would
cause friction with her husband, who does not want amore independent partner.
Three-wing-TwoThe Motivator
Motivators are exceedingly charming. They have aneed to be happy, and to accomplish that they also needthe people around them to be happy. Since they often
play the part that they believe will win the other over,they may be professional entertainers of one kind or
another. They are naturally enthusiastic people whoinfect others with their optimism and drive.
Combination Perspective Three incorporatesPerspectives Seven and Eight.
To the degree that Three-wing-Twos rely onPerspective Seven, they would like to expressexclusively positive affect: they know theres a dark
side, but ordinarily they dont see any point in givingvoice to it. I suspect that this is the most likely type to
believe that the most important thing in the world is to
be happy.Perspective Two influences them to think in terms
of giving and service to others. Three-wing-Twos likepeople and want to help and encourage them.
To the degree that they operate from PerspectiveEight they identify with role, image, status, and achieve-ments. This means they will probably be competitiveand compare themselves to others. Although peoplewith the Seven-Eight or Eight-Nine structure will often
be impelled to challenge others for leadership, Three-wing-Twos are more likely to challenge others for moral
authority: they want to influence how others think andbehave.
These three Perspectives come together to form thefollowing dynamic: The setting is a Sevenishatmosphere of being immersed and engaged in life.Three-wing-Twos want to be happy, so their
environment must be happy, so the people around themmust be happy, too. Then, from an Eightish need to winothers over to their point of view, they will givewhatever they think will make important others happy(Two). Often they will motivate people to achieve their
own happiness.This particular dynamic requires that Three-wing-
Twos craft a positive image of themselves. Negativitymust be brushed aside. Three-wing-Twos are always, ina sense, on stage, acting a role. This often means
attention to wardrobe, spending hours in the gym, andspeaking well, among many other possible factors.Maintaining an image can become a compulsion.
Probable examples of personality type Three-wing-Two are Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Mary Kay Ash,Mike Huckabee, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Cosby,Anthony Robbins, John Edwards, and Lance
Armstrong. Other reported examples are Elvis Presley,Burt Reynolds, Christopher Reeve, and Sylvester
Stallone.In everyday life you will recognize Two-wing-Threes as hosts, entertainers, and motivators. As
motivators, they typically try to inspire people to changeat a personal level rather than trying to make societal orinstitutional reforms. You can follow this pattern clearly
in Bill Cosbys career. He started out as an entertainerand has hosted a television game show. The Cosby Show
had an inspirational element and is credited with helpingto change white America's view of African Americans.
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Structural Enneagram 23
Currently, he is a motivational speaker and writer whoemphasizes personal boot-strapping rather thaninstitutional change.
Cosby also demonstrates that you cannot alwaysrecognize Three-wing-Twos by their dapper appear-
ance. He doesnt have to worry about his physicalimage. It is enough that he is a highly educated African
American role model who has become extremelywealthy and successful through his own efforts, and thatis the impression that matters to his current audience.
Three-wing-Twos may strive to demonstrate somevirtue, like Arnold Schwarzenegger, who achieved fame
as a model of fitness. Like motivational guru AnthonyRobbins, this personality works hard to acquire the skillsand success necessary to make a mark.
Although the emphasis on image might imply thatThree-wing-Twos will always be superficial, that is not
the case. This strategy of projecting a positive image isnot only adaptive, it can also propel them toward true
personal growth. At the end of his acting career,Schwarzenegger expanded his talents toward childhoodfitness and nutrition programs and then into politics.
Before he could attract followers, Robbins had toimprove his own life in a substantial way through
practicing what he preached. I know a Three-wing-Twominister who has developed a deep spiritual practice.Three-wing-Twos' craving for admiration very often
propels them toward becoming authentically admirablepeople.
Differentiations
Two-wing-Three leans more toward being a hostand Three-wing-Two is more of a motivator: Two-wing-
Three Kathy Lee Gifford and Three-wing-Two OprahWinfrey are both televisions hosts, but Oprah almostalways has a self-improvement angle.
Three-wing-FourThe Achiever
Achievers are driven and resourceful people who
strive to create and control their own images and theirown lives in order to be recognized as exceptional. Theyare skilled at gaining rapport by fitting into their chosen
milieuexcept that theyre often the best at what theydo and the smartest guys in the room. Whether becauseof or in spite of all this striving, they are typically both
successful and likable.Since Combination Perspective Three unites
Perspectives Seven and Eight, this type incudes Seven,Two and Eight.
Perspective Seven makes Three-wing Foursenthusiastic and committed, and sometimes overlyemotional. When in balance, they can use PerspectiveFive (the other Perspective in the Seven-Five binary)quite effectively. But when something happens to make
them feel insecure, they double down on PerspectiveSeven
Perspective Four makes Three-wing-Fours indi-vidualistic and original. They want to distinguishthemselves in some way in order to give evidence of
their difference.
Perspective Eight influences them to want to havean audience and to be motivated by achievement. They
may be interested in teaching others how to do what theydo.
Three-wing-Fours earn success and recognition
through accomplishing self-determined goals, by beingthe best at something or projecting the best image.
Probable examples of personality type Three-wing-Four are Paul McCartney, Sting, and Taylor Swift. Otherreported examples are Johnnie Cochran, Michael
Jordan, Bryant Gumbel, Salman Rushdie, Andy Warhol,Richard Gere, Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie, Werner
Erhard, Andrew Cohen, David Copperfield, and BenKingsley.
Since Three-wing-Fours feel they have to work sohard for recognition, they often feel inauthentic. If theyshownot their real selvesbut their whole self, they
fear they may lose the love and respect of others. If evenin their own minds they identify too closely with their
image, this is, of course, the definition of narcissism.But healthy narcissism is an absolute requirement ofworldly success.Imageis properly thought of as merely
the atmosphere one creates around one's true self. Atbest, it's a projection of the true self into the
environment.Werner Erhard, who is reported to be a Three-wing-
Four, may embody the term checkered past, and somepeople who took his est training decry its indoctrinating,even brainwashing tone. But that doesnt detract from
the fact that he offered a toolkit of useful self-improvement tactics. And, if he is indeed a Three-wing-
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Structural Enneagram 24
Four, then perhaps his teachings would be especiallygood for that personality.
Some of his teachings involve loosening up thedependence on Perspective Seven and being morecomfortable with Five. This means cultivating a
willingness to look at the whole of reality and even tobe comfortably aware of the dark side. For example, in
an interview with John Denver, who was guest-hostingThe Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Erhardadvised that people get in touch with the person theyre
afraid they are. He then demonstrated a technique forgiving a space to evil. With Tom Snyder he talked
about looking at the big picture: Take the blinders offand look at it. Both interviews are available onYouTube.
If Three-wing-Fours make better use of PerspectiveFive to accept themselves warts and all, they may be
able to incorporate some of the better leadershipcharacteristics of Eight-wing-Nines and be less subject
to unwanted bouts of negative emotion.
Four-wing-ThreeThe Individualist
Since they view life as art, whether creating music,running a business, or putting together a wardrobe,
Individualists perform with flair. They win acclaim bybeing both original and outstanding.
As explained previously, point Three unitesPerspectives Seven and Eight.
Having associated Perspective Seven, Four-wing-Threes are engaged and engaging. They throwthemselves into life and try to set a positive tone. There
can be some emotional volatility if the environment isdifficult, but they will bounce back. Sometimes, whentalking to others, it seems as if they dont have a filter.
Although they have this penchant for getting caughtup in experiences, they are very independent when it
comes to deciding what to do with their own lives.Perspective Four makes them outsiders with the desireto create something unique. Ultimately, the thing theyare trying to create is a better version of themselves, and
they will go to great lengths of self-improvement andtraining to do so.
With their Eightish requirements for a good self-
image and self-esteem, Four-wing-Threes are sure to beboth affable and ambitious. If criticized, they developthick skin and try again.
One probable example of personality type Four-wing-Three is Cyndi Lauper. Other reported examples
are Tennessee Williams, Marcel Proust, E. M. Forster,Michael Jackson, Jessica Lange, Jeremy Irons, Paul
Simon, Naomi Judd, Steve Martin, Laurence Olivier,John Malkovich, and Judy Garland.
Differentiations
Sometimes you can tell the difference between the
two types in the Three-Four structure just by looking attheir clothes. Three-wing-Fours want to dress forsuccess, so they will usually prefer to look stylish butalso appropriate. Four-wing-Threes want to emphasize
their uniqueness, so their dress may appear costumey oreven eccentric.
Although they may be found in many lines of work,it is good if they can somehow utilize their knack for
being dreamers, poets, and artists. I know a Three-wing-
Four who is a minister, but not the kind that heads onechurch; rather, she travels, giving clever and profoundsermons at many churches. I know another who worksat a veterinary office and communicates with pets.
Four-wing-FiveThe Artist
The Artist is all about creating something new and
different. Four-wing-Fives dont fit in with the crowd.Quite the opposite. They are seldom moved by
convention, tradition, or the will of another, althoughthey may go along to avoid confrontation. Thisindependence shows up in Four-wing-Fives artisticcreativity, original thinking, or bohemian style. Notevery Four-wing-Five is literally an artist, but all bring
individuality and artistic sensibility to whatever they do.Self-expression above all!
People of this type are introverted, brainy,insightful, and enigmatic. Their individuality can stretchall the way to idiosyncratic self-absorption. They
alternate between cool and emotional. They areromantic dreamers as well as romantic philosophers.
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Structural Enneagram 25
Probable examples of the Four-wing-Fivepersonality type are Sren Kierkegaard, William Blake,Virginia Woolf, and D. H. Lawrence. Other reportedexamples are Hermann Hesse, Vincent van Gogh,Marlon Brando, Harvey Keitel, Johnny Depp, Joni
Mitchell, and Ingmar Bergman.
Four-wing-Fives are drawn to writing, painting,music, film, crafts, speculative philosophy, and thesocial sciences. They bring their imaginative talents towhatever role they find themselves in.
The thinking style of Four-wing-Fives is moresynthetic than analytic. I know a Four-wing-Five painter
who also has a Ph.D. in English, and she calls upon herknowledge of each to inform the other.
A clue that you may be dealing with a Four-wing-Five can sometimes be found in the colors of theirclothes. Since the dark side is never far from their
awareness, they may wear all black. Then again, many
wear violet, both because more conventional peoplehave in the past considered it unseemly to wear violetand because it is a color associated with transformationand growthself-creation being the psychological
object of all Four-wing-Fives' creative efforts.Four-wing-Fives dominant drive concerns the need
to sever a certain kind of connection with others.Imagining (and this would typically be unconsciouslyimagining) that you can offer others what they need to
be satisfied is just a way of allowing them to keep youon a string. Its called co-dependence. Fours of all types
insist, rather, on their separation from the other, and so
their whole lives emphasize being different.
Five-wing-FourThe Visionary
Five-wing-Fours, whom I call Visionaries, are
introverted, cerebral personalities who enjoy learning,theorizing, and innovating. They are often artistic,
intellectual, or scientifically oriented. No matter what
their field of endeavor, they are iconoclasts who bristleat authority. Under difficult conditions, they may
become reclusive.With Five as their dominant Perspective, Five-wing-
Fours are detached from their environment, which
means they are looking on as if from the outside ratherthan immersing themselves in the scene. Although they
may seem emotionally distant, they dont want to berejected by other people, so they strive to prove theirown worth and the worth of their ideas.
On the other hand, this striving is influenced byPerspective Four, which brings a need to assert their
individuality. So they try to be different, perhapsthrough cutting edge or eccentric social movements,