A few more descriptions for instinctual variants of Nines.



Self Pres 9

Attention becomes fixated on secondary sources of gratification.

Nines have a habit of replacing essential wishes (needs) with unessential substitutes, such as too much food, too much TV, or elaborate hobbies or interests.

All nines have a tendency to replace essential goals with unessential substitutes, but self pres 9's can develop a voracious attachment to the replacement.

Preoccupied with physical comfort, maintaining habits and satisfying appetites.

A sense of personal security is associated with substitute, which is most commonly food, travel, TV, collecting.

Find immediate relief in zoning out on food or books/magazines/movies. Easily becomes a couch potato, vegging out with the newspaper, chips and a drink.

Store up a supply which clams them.

Collects things which are never used, but are there in case needed.

Cutting off a supply of the replacing substitute can feel life threatening because it represents the focal point of a holding patter that expends surplus energy in a predictable way.

An appetite for the substitute habitually appears when there is time and energy for a personal agenda.

Security minded 9's don't realizing they're shelving a personal agenda when they're gripped by an appetite like shopping fever. The rising interest in indulging an appetite doesn't feel lazy. It feels exhilarating. Something interesting to do that pulls you out of ambivalence even though it means a lack of commitment to yourself.

Strategy for getting along is to ask as little of life as possible.

Can have a love of the minimal and enjoy the repetition of known routines.

May be physically slow moving.

Consume food and drink for anesthesia.

May have large appetites or drug addictions.

Likes to collect objects and information. Sometimes has trouble throwing things away because they can't decide what really matters to them.

Appetite emphasis (in all matters, not just food, hunger can be satisfied but not appetite).

Very attached to rituals of watching TV, reading, working on the computer, sleeping long hours, going to movies, and so on. Feel anxious when anything interferes with routines.

Resignation is somaticized. Obesity is a passion. Tend to be big and have a paunch (or thin yet substantial with 1 wing emphasis on health). Focused on wants of this world. "I eat therefore I am". Is a yearning for love. Feeding and having instead of being. Economic values, bankers, economist, creature comforts. Like a steamroller, more aggressive but doesn't know it. Certain unawareness of others.

Pleasant easy going 9. Doesn't ask much from life. Built for comfort not speed. Simple pleasures-that can be relied upon. "The best surprise is no surprise". Slow inertia. Difficulty in mobilizing self on what really matters. Focus instead on comforts. Compensation for stuffing real desires. Sloth-take what comes along. Believe they can't get what they really want. Zone out in chairs. Least ambitious but often talented. Dry sense of humor. Comfortable, no hassles.. Puttering, routines, busy work. Pleasant complacent mood. Unhealthy prone to addictions, predilection to additions/overweight. Apathetic. Couch potato.

With 1 wing can have emphasis on health matters. Thinner. Holistic approach. Obsessive about health foods, herbal remedies. Metaphysical orientation.

The self pres 9 wanted this study to reveal they felt much stronger than Enneagram authors described them, as they do not go without their essential needs in life. They did however, explain that they were usually unwilling to be in a conflict to have their needs met. The stated that they would say "okay" and then privately make sure they got whatever it was they wanted, describing this as the power of patience, persistence, and resistance. Many of them were reluctant to share this aspect of their survival strategy because it went against their image of being the kind and loving peacemaker. Nevertheless, they wanted to break the stereotype of being percieved as the "non-person", clarifying that outwardly they may be soft but that on the inside they were hard as nails.

Can have a strong connection to 6. When appetites won't be satiated, tends to focus on feelings of fear and doubt about needs ever being met.

Everything metaphysical has to become a physical instead of being theoretical. Holistic methods/medicine. Yoga. Health foods, herbal remedies etc. "Heal yourself through the earth".

Value resides in belief that what is to be had is in the real world.

Talks a lot-occupy space by talking. Talk to fill a void.

Invasive. Overwhelms through good intentions "are you hungry?"

Goes along with the program outwardly, secretly makes sure all essential needs are met.

Will not go without food or comfort for long.



Sexual 9

Union is the desire to completely merge oneself with a mate.

Total merger with a partners inner agenda.

Unite, Melt, or merge with significant others.

Finding personal identity through taking on the life of another's as their own.

Nines can absorb another's life into their own.

"We are the same being"

Personal goals are surrendered in favor of the needs of another such that the beloved emerges as the focalizer of life.

Get lost in other person.

Thoughts and feelings seem synonymous rather than separate.

Union is the sense of living a mutual life rather than an individual one.

Union is the sense of mutual existence rather than being a separate individual.

The reactions of the pair are so merged that the partnership could be described as "inseparable"

Union provides focus and energy. Lazy about their own direction. Nines' partners can focalize effort and become the reason for being.

Can be listless and sluggish when not involved.

Feelings of being overlooked and disregarded vanish in a psychologically undivided state.

Focused on an ideal of romantic union.

Perceive the feelings of others more clearly than their own, clairsentient, and physically sense exactly what the other loved on is going through.

Psychic connections very astute.

Make their partner happy and become happy themselves through the reflection of this happiness.

The preoccupation can also extend to an absorbing wish to unite with the divine.

High expectations of partner.

Prone to jealousy.

Can also deny partner's flaws and idealize them to stay in union.

Another scenario involved multiple relationships. Searching for a fused connection.

Sound melancholy sometimes like 4's.

Can't decide between 2 people sometimes (triangulation).

Can be fickle because easily disappointed.

Difficult for them to leave a relationship because it's like leaving themselves.

Union (much more merging beyond sex) Spiritual unions.

I like the feeling of being in union with a lover, family member, friend, mentor, famous person, guru, pet, nature, or the divine.

When not in a relationship, melancholy yearning to be in one.

Sweet and shy. Gain a sense of being through the other. Alpha/Omega. Union/fusion. Contact allows the awareness of difference.

Can't create a space where there are differences, so no individuation. Lack of freedom to be oneself.

Becomes lost in others. Lose tension. Merge with those who have qualities like aggressive types. Living vicariously through others. Merge with one more vital-mine by association-want others to rub off on them. Idealize others-security. Seek a complete partnership. Romantic can resemble 4's. Can become critical and demanding if others let them down. Other becomes center of gravity.

Compliments and insults to other are equal to self. No individualization. Central object relations. Cinderella Wishful thinking.

Unhealthy-disassociation, depressed, lack of sense of self. Self functioning of past relationship. Reversion back to ideal union. Deep fantasy breaks.

The sexual 9 wanted to explain the experience of merging. They felt it was important to note that it happens automatically without their conscious intent, and as they become the other, the tension dissolves. It is only through merging with others that they can begin to discover who they are and what they want. First they merge and then they begin to say, "me, not me". It is only through the process of union that they find out what is "not me" and discover "me". They can fight for loved ones as "compliments and insults directed toward those with whom they have merged are felt as if directed toward them".

Often can only feel a sense of self with the desired other.

When totally merged with the other, has difficulty determining where self ends and the other begins.

I need time alone to discover who I am.

Contain someone's energy-merge until reason not to-invalidation.

Merges with other to discover self. Who am I?



Social 9

Social 9's gravitate toward groups and then have conflicts about joining or staying apart.

Social 9's are inclined to join groups and to attend on a regular basis without making a full inner commitment. The question stays open. Ambivalence is constant.

9's are either totally aversive to joining groups, often expressing their ongoing search for personal goals with the inner question "Do I belong here or not?"

Some social 9's stay basically uninvolved but hang out on the groups edge.

There is an attraction to the energy of people doing something together, which provides a pleasant distraction but also provides a constant background of energy that the 9 can dip in and out of.

Can enjoy group energy and interests but may be also aware of the group's expectation. These the 9 will both play along with and resist.

High energy feelings are molded and contained by familiar group activities. A defined activity presents goals, procedures and an ongoing timetable that demand a predictable expenditure of energy. You know what you are going to do, how long it will last, and who will be there.

Gravitate toward groups with meetings and agendas that allow memebrs to participate at a low level of energy and take responsibility and leadership when they have energy to burn.

Participate in group activities can be comforting way to feel included and loved.

It can also be the place of greatest laziness for social 9 because the energy that could be spent in meeting personal agenda is shunted instead of taking part in social activities.

High energy feelings can be molded and contained by the requirements of group activity. A defined activity presents goals, procedures and an ongoing timetable that demand predictable expenditure of energy.

Groups are often structured with meetings and agendas that allow members to participate at a low level of energy, or to assume responsibility and leadership when they have energy to burn

Gregarious but may start resit being heavily influenced, to compensate for their sense of lost identity.

Can sometimes resent how the group doesn't really see them.

May fixate on what others think of them

May resent the group and may make fun of it.

When immersed in a group. social 9's can lose themselves, trying to become all things to all people.

Participation (careful to avoid the center, don't want to get really involved)

Community emphasis on participation.

Frequently there is a lot of activity.

May get caught up in roles-stronger connection to 3.

In addition to wanting to further causes, I join groups in order to structure my time, to soak up energy and become enlivened, to see how I can best fit in, and to discover where to direct myself.

Participation comes from group. Being a part of and bonded to a group. More gregarious. Desire to be something bigger. Narrow view-local, peasant mentality. Doesn't go beyond limits (the hobbit).

Avoids conflicts. Participating withdrawn type. Tries to go along with plans. Likes to be involved with others. Don't like expectations placed on them. Doesn't want to be overloaded. Mediators. Balance interests. Most passive-aggressive. Difficulty saying no. What is expected of conscious of others opinions of them. Want to be respected. Afraid of not blending in. Anxious about losing identity. Participate from fringe. Fear of embarrassment-ruled by need to protect oneself from embarrassment. Difficult separating goals from social milieu. Can be scattered and disenchanted. Resigned and depressed. Neediness masked by emotional flatness. Doesn't want center stage.

Social 9's did not feel slothful and often strongly identified with 3's because they were "very busy" and constantly on the go with lots of energy. However, they described their energy as dispersed and diffused without being focused on a single goal. Some felt that they were w workaholics and didn't sleep much at all. The more extroverted social 9's stated that they "belonged to groups to find themselves through connection and shared interest with others." Nevertheless they were reluctant to take on too much responsibility to avoid conflict. They would rather be a member of the board of directors than be in charge. The social 9 felt universally connected to everything and had the most difficult deciding on a type.

Interest tend to be diverse to minimize time invested in one area.

Can be very active in groups or social causes.