Posted by Garth on July 29, 1999 at 14:35:09:
In Reply to: Wing basics for beginners posted by Perciever on July 28, 1999 at 15:33:08:
Perciever:
You are right about wings. Although the concept of wings is simple, there seems to be a lot of confusion about them. What I have observed on this board is that a number of people tend to confuse their wing with types that share a common tendency with their own type. For example, I am a Nine whose One and Eight RHETTI scores are very low, but whose Four and Five are high. What these scores indicate is that I have a tendency to withdraw like Fives and Fours. It does not make me a 9/4 or 9/5.
The other common mistake that appears frequently is that people mistake either their disintegration point or their integration point for their wing. Using myself as an example again, I score high in Six, but this does not make me a 9/6. What this indicates is that I manifest a lot of the same personality traits that a Six does. This is very consistent with "traditional" enneagram theory.
Even though I score low in One, I have a One wing and it influences me in subtle ways. The interesting thing about wings is that they can be diametrically opposed to a person's primary type. Good examples are 9/8's, 1/2's and 5/6's. In fact, I think our wings may sometimes save us from our primary type.
Garth