Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery [Paperback]

The symbol for the enneagram is a circle with nine equidistant points drawn around the circumference, with 9 at the top, an equilaterial triangle drawn by connecting points 3,6,9, and another line by following this sequence, 1,4,2,8,5,7,1, which ironically is the sequence of numbers correlating to one-seventh, which is .1428571 repeated.

The concept of wings come in, which expands the nine types into eighteen different types, because one may be a mixture of two adjacent types, which is called a wing. For example, I am a 4W5, termed a Bohemian, meaning that traits that straddle both a Type 4 and 5 are in my makeup.

However, the most important thing Riso does is explaining the healthy traits in each type, and what happens when the unhealthy traits become emphasized. He lists nine levels, with levels 1-3 being healthy and psychologically balanced, 4-6 being average, where the ego starts to inflate and overcompensation begins, and 7-9 being unhealthy, dysfunctional to downright self-destructive and pathological. Someone at the latter 3 levels slides down to the personality next in the 1428571 sequence. For example, in my darkest hours, as a 4, I'll take on the characteristics of a 2. However, a healthy person will integrate to the number before. In my case, I'll integrate to a 1, meaning I'll be more opened up to people, and will either stay introspective or become outrospective.

In Chapter 14, he uses other psychologists works to further define the personalities. For example, he uses Karen Horney's "general neurotic solutions" (compliant, aggressive, withdrawn) and Freud's anal/oral/phallic, retentive/expulsive/receptive designations.

One thing he explains is translating Jung's intelligence and functional types into his typology. I'm duplicating this here, but this time using Keirsey's system, Horney's solutions, and Freud's designations.

2, Helper, ESFJ, ENFJ, compliant, a-exp
3, Motivator, no equivalent, aggressive, p-rec
4, Individualist, INFJ or INTJ, withdrawn, o-ret
5, Investigator, ISTP or INTP, withdrawn, o-exp
6, Loyalist, ISFP or INFP, compliant, a-rec
7, Enthusiast, ESTP or ESFP, aggressive, p-ret
8, Leader, ENTP or ENFP, aggressive, p-exp
9, Peacemaker, ISFJ or ISTJ, withdrawn, o-exp
1, Reformer, ESTJ or ENTJ, compliant, a-ret

Although he lists no equivalent for 3's, in looking at the examples of Type 3's, I noticed they were all celebrities, those in the Artisan type to use Keirsey's terminology, so SPs who may not be in Types 5, 6, or 7.

The appendix includes a diagram for each type, listing parental orientation, behaviours, attitudes, basic desires, and basic and secondary fears at the healthy, average, and unhealthy levels,
Riso also includes examples of famous people or characters from novels in each type. People like me include Edgar Allan Poe, Virginia Woolf, Bob Dylan, Johnny Depp, Joni Mitchell, D.H. Lawrence, and Yukio Mishima, so am I in good company or what?

Riso claims that not everyone's personality is totally set within one type, plus that's it's not THE panacea to becoming a whole individual. Rather, the Enneagram is a tool which helps people understand themselves as they are at their best and worst in the middle of a lonely, terrifying, and impersonal world.