Blogflux directoryGetting the shame off ... Enneagram subtypes
Posted by Alyce Barry at 6/17/2007 9:21 AM 
Categories: Links and resources, Writing, Enneagram and human personality, Shame and shamelessness
Categories: Links and resources, Writing, Enneagram and human personality, Shame and shamelessness
I've been blogging on my personal blog this morning about Enneagram subtypes.
Understanding my Enneagram type and subtype has always been, for me, been a powerful way to take shame off who I am. And I use it regularly to help my clients as well.
Your Enneagram type (there are nine) reflects a set of strategies you used to navigate your early emotional environment.
Your subtype (there are three), I've come to believe, reflects the way you found to learn and succeed.
In case you're concerned that the Enneagram is a system of pigeonholes, rest assured there's a lot more complexity to it than just this, especially when you consider wings. Even with just types and subtypes, there are 27 types of people. When you double that by the two wings, you get 54 types of people. And of course you have to take into account, in addition to Enneagram type, a person's birth order, national, regional and ethnic identities, religion, and many other factors.
What I wrote about this morning was the way each of us tends to "roll our eyes" about the subtypes other than our own. I'm a self-preservation subtype (of Six), so I tend to roll my eyes about the sexual and social subtypes, the former for not being able to keep their pants on and the social for not being able to be alone.
Sexual subtypes tend to roll their eyes about the others not "going for the gusto," for not being "juicy" enough. Social subtypes tend to roll their eyes about the others not caring enough about the world situation or for not being "involved."
It came up for me this morning in thinking about a woman I know who is in a severe depression right now. I believe her to have a different "array" of the subtypes than I do. What it means, bottom line, is that she adores being in groups and feels bereft without them. That is, she doesn't enjoy being alone the way I often enjoy it. And that's complicating her recovery because she's both drawn to being in groups and repelled by attending, most likely because of the shame she feels about who she is and the depression she's in.
Understanding my Enneagram type and subtype has always been, for me, been a powerful way to take shame off who I am. And I use it regularly to help my clients as well.
Your Enneagram type (there are nine) reflects a set of strategies you used to navigate your early emotional environment.
Your subtype (there are three), I've come to believe, reflects the way you found to learn and succeed.
In case you're concerned that the Enneagram is a system of pigeonholes, rest assured there's a lot more complexity to it than just this, especially when you consider wings. Even with just types and subtypes, there are 27 types of people. When you double that by the two wings, you get 54 types of people. And of course you have to take into account, in addition to Enneagram type, a person's birth order, national, regional and ethnic identities, religion, and many other factors.
What I wrote about this morning was the way each of us tends to "roll our eyes" about the subtypes other than our own. I'm a self-preservation subtype (of Six), so I tend to roll my eyes about the sexual and social subtypes, the former for not being able to keep their pants on and the social for not being able to be alone.
Sexual subtypes tend to roll their eyes about the others not "going for the gusto," for not being "juicy" enough. Social subtypes tend to roll their eyes about the others not caring enough about the world situation or for not being "involved."
It came up for me this morning in thinking about a woman I know who is in a severe depression right now. I believe her to have a different "array" of the subtypes than I do. What it means, bottom line, is that she adores being in groups and feels bereft without them. That is, she doesn't enjoy being alone the way I often enjoy it. And that's complicating her recovery because she's both drawn to being in groups and repelled by attending, most likely because of the shame she feels about who she is and the depression she's in.
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