Should anything even be said about Enneagram type 6s since they are so contradictory?

[Azeroffs]

Every single enneatype is defined by a particular fear—one so deeply rooted that a person usually doesn't realize it. Hence what causes the various types to act out in the stereotypical ways they do. You're missing the point of the E6 fixation.

I get that, but 6s actually feel paranoia. They are afraid of things in general. All types have fears, but they aren't having problems with fear itself. (except other head types)

[Azeroffs]

the head triad is also known as the fear triad, and six is in the center of it. Why do you think that that's a mischaracterization?

[Creepy-male]

Both E6s I know are constantly worried about everything, I don't see how that's a mischaracterisation on Azeroff's part.

Are you referring to theory or experience?

[Azeroffs]

I always call it the anxiety triad, which is different from fear.

It's a mischaracterization because every enneatype can be defined by a central fear. So why would we say E6's central fixation is fear itself…? That doesn't explain anything about what's really going w/ the E6.

But what's the root cause of the worrying? That seems the more interesting/important part to me, and something oft-ignored about E6.

Both.

It's just semantics.. but either way 6s are characterized by paranoia and fear caused by uncertainty and unreliablity. Heart and Gut types have their central fears, but they aren't characterized by fear. 9 is a good example of that.

It might be more clear to say that head types are motivated by fear. The other types are not. The gut and heart types are motivated by anger and shame respectively.

[Creepy-male]

This is painful to watch. Honestly it is.

EDIT

Azeroffs: "Here's my clumsily worded observation."
Ashton: "Cool. Now let me completely derail the discussion by engaging in a nitpicking contest with you over semantics, completely missing the point."

[Azeroffs]

Uh, yeah they are. Take my etype for instance—E8s are characterized by a fear of vulnerability. That's effectively the nexus upon which everything about the E8 rests. Taking this into consideration then, how is E8 any less characterized by fear than E6… ?

I get what you're saying... but eights aren't primarily dealing with the emotion of fear is what I'm saying. They don't go about an average day feeling fear and responding to it in the way that head types do.

Also, for me, it's more about hypervigilance than paranoia.

That's a good way to put it, but I wouldn't say that paranoia is a bad way to describe it either. How would you say they are different exactly?

[Creepy-male]

Woot, someone else got my words out for me

Okay, another example. We can agree I'm a Nine. In the loosest possible sense, my fixation is around the "fear" the my little inner happy bubble is going to be disrupted. Yet, day-to-day, neither I, nor any other Nine, is a very fearful or anxious person.

[Azeroffs]

Of course they don't respond to it the same way head types do (since they're not head types), but that doesn't mean it isn't there. Usually the sensation of fear gets circumvented by the type's standard defense mechanism, before awareness of the active fear can register upon the psyche—i.e., in my case, say if someone I'm close to hurts me, I'll typically get angry and yell and tell them to fuck off and die or something like this. It's a way to avoid the sense of vulnerability and feeling of weakness towards that person, because that isn't some shit I want to acknowledge.

Same story with other types. The 'fear' gets redirected into some other kind of mental state or action, to avoid coming to terms with it. Most head types don't feel actively afraid per say—some form of anxiety kicks in instead to cope in its place. E5s minimize and analytically cut off from the world. E6s get hyper-vigilant and what not. E7s re-frame and re-drect their thoughts towards more enticing possibilities. So on, so forth.

If you want to call it anxiety, that's fine. I can agree with that.. but, I'll just point out that if you're wanting to get technical, all the types feel some form of anxiety from their central fear as well. It doesn't really matter what you call it. I don't think there's any disagreement between what we're saying or any misunderstanding of the theory anyway.