Posted by Peter on November 25, 1998 at 14:34:43:
In Reply to: Re: Fours and Fives Thinking posted by Ilmar on November 24, 1998 at 08:41:05:
: I'm a Five like Peter; he's expressed my thoughts on the subject exactly. When I first came
: across Riso I thought he must be a Five or a One, because of his abstract schematics. Which
: shows the value of our social stereotypes. :)
Again, the mistake that I made...
: I read that Riso was a Four on this enneagram board. (Rohr says Palmer's a Six in his book, and a pupil of
: Palmer (Karen Webb) said so at an oral workshop). It does seem plausible to me, however, comparing his style
: of writing with other Fours. I don't like to associate beliefs with enneagram types,
: but there does seem to be a family resemblance between Fours in the way they write about theoretical matters.
: They tend to put their heart into one theory, so to speak. The head-type habits of examining all sides of
: an issue and of irony are uses of fear - good or bad according to context.
Interesting perspective there. I thought that my habit of looking at all of the angles, seeing what everyone else thinks about a subject, was something of a nineish thing - but I can see how 'fear' can motivate 5s, 6s and 7s to look at all of the angles, albeit in different ways.
Although, having said that, when I was younger I did tend to go into the 'pick a theory and obsess about it' mode...
: : Oh, Fives don't mind accepting that reality is rigid _at base_, and tend to be very keen on nice, structured sytsems - its just that every Five instictively 'knows' that surface 'life' is messy and complicated and unpredictable...
: Peter's on to something here. The enneagram writers that I like tend to look at deeper motivations and don't
: structure their accounts of surface behaviour.
Again, my experience... The enneagram is definitely about deep motivations... I'm attracted to the idea that the 'core' enneagram motivations have got quite a lot of 'surfacing' ('translating', perhaps?) to do before they actually have noticable effects, and that the same 'core' can 'surface' in a variety of different ways (the ever-present 'static' between the nice, ordered world of theory and the messy world of 'real life') - that you can have two very contrasting surface personalities, with the same key drives beneath them...
Peter