6 Wing 8 Enneagram

[Etta Lesniak]

Insome way, Enneagram wings bring humanity to its dominant profiles. Far from being just consistent definite types, humans are contradictory and full of chiaroscuro features that provide them with density and depth. What best defines humans are their stories, and there are plenty of movement and internal collisions within them. The Enneagram type with its wings is a whole personality story that best portrays who you are. Are you ready to listen to it? I bet you are!

The core type is your Enneagram type, the one that sets the pattern and defines how you relate with the environment and build your relationships. At the same time, you also have a dominant wing, which is one of the two enneatypes located at your core type sides. One of them has more influence than the other. We could say that the dominant wing is a second artist that offers a final touch to the original work.

Enneagram 2 Wing 1 is The Servant. This subtype is an interesting balance between the giving nature of TWOs with the objectivity and interpersonal skills of ONEs. This blend makes them very generous without forgetting about themselves, and helpful without losing sight of their own needs. That moderate manner is typical of this subtype but they can also be very self-critical when not balanced.

This kind is known for withdrawing entirely to their inner world to make amazing discoveries. They surf brain waves that constantly break onto new knowledge shores. In this wing, 4s freshen up their mood by updating some events related to their feelings and the outer world. They are usually very disconnected from the environment; the 4 wing plays its role by connecting them with reality.

This is a subtype that definitely loves to be around people, just chilling out and having a good time. While other types tend to withdraw into themselves to avoid their problems, The Buddy goes off and gets distracted to face them. This type knows how to have fun without forgetting important commitments, which they take seriously. They are also protective and witty, and when they feel in danger, they can get suspicious. Their main challenge is choosing which battles to fight.

The Bears care a lot about protecting their people and creating bonds with full awareness of their surroundings. They are realistic and tough when they need to be. They face life and challenges with their heads up, backed up by the perfect blend of power and calm determination. This constant state of alertness can be exhausting, so they have to learn to trust and flow with the cycles.

This explanation covers the basics that you will need to understand how the Enneagram works, and will be especially helpful for beginners. As you will see, only a few simple concepts are needed to begin your journey of self-discovery. The Enneagram, however, is ultimately subtle and complex, as you will appreciate the more you use it in your life. For additional guidelines, consult Personality Types, 27-55, and for further clarifications Understanding the Enneagram, 11-30.

The Enneagram Structure

Your Basic Personality Type

The Centers

The Wing

The Levels of Development

Directions of Integration (Growth) and Disintegration (Stress)

The Three Instincts

Typing Yourself and Others

Draw a circle and mark nine equidistant points on its circumference. Designate each point by a number from one to nine, with nine at the top, for symmetry and by convention. Each point represents one of the nine basic personality types.

The nine points on the circumference are also connected with each other by the inner lines of the Enneagram. Note that points Three, Six, and Nine form an equilateral triangle. The remaining six points are connected in the following order: One connects with Four, Four with Two, Two with Eight, Eight with Five, Five with Seven, and Seven with One. These six points form an irregular hexagram. The meaning of these inner lines will be discussed shortly.

From one point of view, the Enneagram can be seen as a set of nine distinct personality types, with each number on the Enneagram denoting one type. It is common to find a little of yourself in all nine of the types, although one of them should stand out as being closest to yourself. This is your basic personality type.

Thus, the overall orientation of our personality reflects the totality of all childhood factors (including genetics) that influenced its development. (For more about the developmental patterns of each personality type, see the related section in the type descriptions in Personality Types and in The Wisdom of the Enneagram. There is a discussion of the overall theory in Understanding The Enneagram, 67-70).

If taken properly, our questionnaire, the Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator (RHETI version 2.5), will identify your basic personality type for you. This short section is included so that we can have a basic understanding of the types in our discussion without having to go to the longer descriptions in the next section.

As you think about your personality, which of the following nine roles fits you best most of the time? Or, to put it differently, if you were to describe yourself in a few words, which of the following word clusters would come closest?

Thus, each type has a particular way of coping with the dominant emotion of its Center. We can briefly see what this means by examining each type, Center by Center. In the Instinctive Center, Eights act out their anger and instinctual energies. In other words, when Eights feel anger building in them, they immediately respond to it in some physical way, raising their voices, moving more forcefully. Others can clearly see that Eights are angry because they give themselves permission to express their anger physically.

Ones attempt to control or repress their anger and instinctual energy. They feel that they must stay in control of themselves, especially of their instinctual impulses and angry feelings at all times. They would like to direct these energies according to the dictates of their highly developed inner critic (superego), the source of their strictures on themselves and others.

In the Feeling Center, Twos attempt to control their shame by getting other people to like them and to think of them as good people. They also want to convince themselves that they are good, loving people by focusing on their positive feelings for others while repressing their negative feelings (such as anger and resentment at not being appreciated enough). As long as Twos can get positive emotional responses from others, they feel wanted and are able to control feelings of shame.

Threes try to deny their shame, and are potentially the most out of touch with underlying feelings of inadequacy. Threes learn to cope with shame by trying to become what they believe a valuable, successful person is like. Thus, Threes learn to perform well, to be acceptable, even outstanding, and are often driven relentlessly in their pursuit of success as a way of staving off feelings of shame and fears of failure.

Fours attempt to control their shame by focusing on how unique and special their particular talents, feelings, and personal characteristics are. Fours highlight their individuality and creativity as a way of dealing with their shameful feelings, although Fours are the type most likely to succumb to feelings of inadequacy. Fours also manage their shame by cultivating a rich, romantic fantasy life in which they do not have to deal with whatever in their life seems drab or uninteresting to them.

In the Thinking Center, Fives have fear about the outer world and about their capacity to cope with it. Thus, they cope with their fear by withdrawing from the world. Fives become secretive, isolated loners who use their minds to penetrate into the nature of the world. Fives hope that eventually, as they understand reality on their own terms, they will be able to rejoin the world and participate in it, but they never feel they know enough to participate with total confidence. Instead, they involve themselves with increasingly complex inner worlds.

No one is a pure personality type: everyone is a unique mixture of his or her basic type and usually one of the two types adjacent to it on the circumference of the Enneagram. One of the two types adjacent to your basic type is called your wing.

It is, of course, necessary to identify your basic type before you can assess which wing you have. Besides indicating your basic type, the Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator may also indicate your wing. Even so, the best way to understand the influence of your wing is to read the full descriptions of your type and its wings in Personality Types. You can also read the descriptions of the two types adjacent to your basic type and decide which best applies to you.

To understand an individual accurately, it is necessary to perceive where the person lies along the continuum of Levels of his or her type at a given time. In other words, one must assess whether a person is in their healthy, average, or unhealthy range of functioning. This is important because, for example, two people of the same personality type and wing will differ significantly if one is healthy and the other unhealthy. (In relationships and in the business world, understanding this distinction is crucial.)

At each Level, significant psychological shifts occur as is indicated by the title we have given to it. For example, at Level 5, the Level of Interpersonal Control, the person is trying to manipulate himself and others to get his or her psychological needs met. This invariably creates interpersonal conflicts. By this Level, the person has also fully identified with the ego and does not see himself as anything more than that: the ego must therefore be increasingly defended and inflated for the person to feel safe and to keep their identity intact. If this activity does not satisfy the person, and anxiety increases, he or she may deteriorate to the next state, Level 6, the Level of Overcompensation, where their behavior will become more intrusive and aggressive as they continue to purse their ego-agenda. Anxiety is increasing, and the person is increasingly disruptive, and focused on getting his needs met, regardless of the impact on people around them.

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