Posted by Ronnie on July 29, 1999 at 10:42:31:
In Reply to: Re: Wing basics for beginners posted by Tal on July 29, 1999 at 07:54:39:
You're a five, aren't you?
I don't usually try to proof myself by using complex senteces and explaining each and every point to the finest detail, and I'm no system builder either. I'll leave that to others. So, what I said wasn't "nine types exist, everything else must be true too", rather that if you use those nine types, wings, directions of integration and disintegration and levels of "healthy, average, unhealthy" you must accept to fact about wings. Otherwise the whole system just collapses. If you look at a brick wall and pull some bricks out of it, the whole thing falls down. It's either one whole brickwall, or then just a bunch of bricks and something else built with them.
Practically all I see as true about the enneagram comes from my personal
experience, what I've seen in myself and other people when I've dealt with them. To me the enneagram is just a tool for understanding people, I wouldn't be interested in it just as a system for very long.
Finally, the answer to your question:
I said "without explaining very well why those thinking otherwise are wrong". In another words, if it works, don't fix it. If you see why it doesn't, fix it and show others what's wrong about it. If you just say "it ain't working, man" and just go away to get a beer or a cup of coffee, you're not helping much. (Helping is important. *L*) Yet in another words, if you have a better theory and can prove it, that's advancement. If you have a theory you've figured out just because you gotta have one of your own, with little validity to it, well, I suppose you know what I mean.
I've seen that the wing theory I've mentioned seems to work, so I don't have a need to start monkeying around with it.
Ronnie