Posted by K.B. on February 06, 2001 at 04:13:16:
In Reply to: Re: 9 Types and a lot more to go. posted by Mikko on February 06, 2001 at 00:07:38:
One side has it that the Enneagram doesn't fit everyone or that people are too complex to fit into one of nine types. The other side says that you can't label each personality to the degree I suggest. Why shouldn't we attempt to try? Let's take two 4w5's; one has a test score that goes 4-8-7-5-6-3-1-2-9 and the other is 4-9-5-1-6-2-8-7-3.
The first might be seen as a creative extrovert with a thinking side {perhaps an ambivert or someone who seems to have "mood swings"]. He or she probably creates his/her own fun and values creative exploits. Uses dominance to assure successful adventures. May be a manager with a "quirky" and choosy style, either you like him or hate him and vice versa.
His midpoint 6 acts as a lever and flashpoint as it protects his creativity from his biggest dread which is boredom. It is geared to go off to any perceived threats to his creative spark {without which life would be dull}. He is not very perfectionist, needy or status minded.
The second is a classic introvert. He is private and creative and tends to value his own company. His deep 5 thinking is often done to justify his 9 type of longings for a simple peaceful world, although not always.He also has a perfectionistic streak that is often based upon his ideal values and he is true to them as much as he can, not valuing any social change to his value system.
His 6 is also his lever and flashpoint, protecting in this case his creativity from his biggest dread which is that of unreality or lowering himself to "please the crowd" through the game of materialism or spending money to impress{among the many other things that 3 is noted for}. Let someone say for example "tease" him for wearing out of style clothes and the red flag goes up. Car commercials make him cringe. If he shows up with a gorgeous blonde, better believe he loves her because he doesn't care to impress the crowd with his "scoring ability".
He is not very needy nor does he have much of a fast lane side or an ability to lead.
These were both 4w5's according to Enneagram theory. A guy like Cory would throw his hands up and swear off the whole thing since these two guys seem so different. Others will get pseudo "mystical" and say in some vague way that "you have to look at more than one thing" to read correctly. But if we could only expand Enneagram to consider the entire test results {spectrum... but this doesn't have anything to do with color} and also look at the midpoint score, we could get something accurate here.
By the way this may seem vague or seem as if I stereotyped the types but it is only due to the lack of time I have to really expand on this. K.B.