The 9 Enneatypes

If you are new to the Enneagram, it is important to understand that it is not always straightforward to identify one’s type.  We can be blind to what motivates us, and tests are often ineffective at distilling what drives our behavior.  I do recommend the following test as a starting place in the discovery process:  The Essential Enneagram Test in online or in book form.

In other personality type systems, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and others, answering questions on the test about your behavior and feelings can tell you where you sit on a binary spectrum.  Unfortunately, the Enneagram typically requires more inner scrutiny and reflection.  This discovery process can sometimes be uncomfortable, because we want to understand who we are and what we can do with it.  And striving to be radically honest about what’s at the core of our “way” can also be a very rich and rewarding process.

The descriptions below are condensed pictures of the nine different energies that we all have access to in our human-ness.  One of these is our “home base,” the point of view we default to.

The celebrity examples below are not claiming to be accurate for or validated by the individuals listed.  They are included to help give a sense of the archetypal energy of the types.  The cultures listed are similarly generic, debatable, and meant to give a taste of an ethos rather than a deep description of those cultures.