Type Three: The Performer

Personality Identification

What do I want most?

• I want to be noticed, to be admired for doing things well.

What is most important to me?

• It is important that others see me as being successful.

What is the worst thing that could happen to me?

• The worst thing that could happen to me is that I fail at something and other people find out.

How do I see myself (on a good day)?

• I am self-confident, competitive, attractive, a winner.

Path of Peace: Three (Performer) looks to Six (Defender)

A healthy Three accepts the burden of its innate goodness and assimilates into society, becoming committed to others like a healthy Six, becomes sensitive to others' feelings like a healthy Four, becomes cooperative like a healthy Nine, and selflessly generous lik a healthy Two.

Path of Storms: Three (Performer) looks to Nine (Peacemaker)

An unhealthy Three loses all sense of self like an unhealthy Nine, becomes elitist ethically -- exempting itself -- like an unhealthy Four, becomes cruel like an unhealthy Six, and develops the arrogant, manipulative selfishness of an unhealthy Two.

A Counseling Approach

• Yes, true security is having good friends and to be loyal and honest with them, otherwise we get lonely and scared.
• Yes, when we "join the human race" and come to accept ourselves as ordinary human beings, we come to understand and appreciate how others feel.
• Yes, we feel much better about ourselves when we are honest with ourselves and others instead of taking shortcuts to success and pretending that we are different than we really are.
• Yes, being an honest and generous person feels much better than pretending and being selfish.
• Yes, you have great gifts and others will look up to you and try to imitate you, so it is very important that you see success as being a hardworking, caring, and honest person. This is what will make you a truly admirable person.

Rev. William J. Callahan, S.J.

The Enneagram for Youth
Counselor's Manual
Loyola University Press, 1992, 156 pages