What is your enneagram type?

[Pallas]

E1. A few years, and no real doubt. Sometimes people complicate the shit out of it with tritypes and other garbage because they're trying to make a perfect fit for themselves and see it as a static kind of type. But like Fox pointed out it's about fears and motivations, and it's also about health. Health is dynamic, and you don't need tritypes or even wings to understand how you are, have been, and may be within your type based on health and outlook. If you're trying to find your tritype, then imo you're doing it wrong, and you'll get a lot more out of it if you go more basic.

Instincts (and wings) can be useful imo in understanding other people and where they're coming from, but everyone and their dog thinks they're sx, or wants to be so I ignore what ppl claim their instinct is, and judge for myself. It helps me be less annoyed with some people when I recognize it's an instinct thing and so understand a bit more why they're doing what they're doing.

It's not about "making a perfect fit for yourself" though. It's about having detailed psychological maps. Plus, people have a tendency to score pretty high on each of one from the head, heart, and gut centers, and if you know someone's a 4, and their boss makes unfair demands on them, you can't predict how they'll act, but if you know if they have 8, 9, or 1 Gut, it's pretty easy.

[squark]

It's not about "making a perfect fit for yourself" though. It's about having detailed psychological maps. Plus, people have a tendency to score pretty high on each of one from the head, heart, and gut centers, and if you know someone's a 4, and their boss makes unfair demands on them, you can't predict how they'll act, but if you know if they have 8, 9, or 1 Gut, it's pretty easy.

Meh. From what I've seen from the vast majority of people using the enneagram, they don't even care about the health and growth aspect and focus on pinning themselves down in this overly detailed and useless way. You want to use it to predict other people's behavior? Ok, good luck, but that's not how most people are using it.

[Pallas]

Meh. From what I've seen from the vast majority of people using the enneagram, they don't even care about the health and growth aspect and focus on pinning themselves down in this overly detailed and useless way. You want to use it to predict other people's behavior? Ok, good luck, but that's not how most people are using it.

Not really. You can do that fine without it (you can also heal and grow fine without it. You don't really need theory for dealing with either yourself or others on a day-to-day level, guys). I would probably have to write an essay on what all I'm doing for people to get it.

[squark]

Not really. You can do that fine without it (you can also heal and grow fine without it. You don't really need theory for dealing with either yourself or others on a day-to-day level, guys). I would probably have to write an essay on what all I'm doing for people to get it.

I never said anyone needs any theory. . . My point was simply that the way I see most people using the enneagram has little to do with application of the theory in any kind of practical sense and so hardly matters at all. It's like trying to pinpoint and describe the precise colors in a person's eye, just to describe them, and nothing else. If you are applying it in some way to get a use out of it - good, and I wish you luck. I don't really care what you're doing with it, but write your essay if you'd like.

[Pallas]

I never said anyone needs any theory. . . My point was simply that the way I see most people using the enneagram has little to do with application of the theory in any kind of practical sense and so hardly matters at all. It's like trying to pinpoint and describe the precise colors in a person's eye, just to describe them, and nothing else. If you are applying it in some way to get a use out of it - good, and I wish you luck. I don't really care what you're doing with it, but write your essay if you'd like.

Yeah, I would agree with that. Their application is looking for an identity, and really almost anything you could do would be a better way to find an identity than just labeling yourself with a string of really dry-sounding numbers and letters, then trying to act like some description out of a musty old book written by a crusty old psychologist. The identity thing is why some people will just sort of snap back (as opposed to actually discussing anything) if you "retype" them (as if you had the power to change their actual type or even their widely agreed-upon type all by yourself. I'm sorry but I'd only like to have that kind of power ). I won't write an essay, I was just trying to hint at the kind of absurdly complex nature of what exactly I'm going for.