Posted by bev on July 31, 1999 at 19:25:03:
hello anybody and everyone or whoever
i have been giving some serious thought to some discord i feel about the enneagram...i am wondering if it is just me or have others had similar thoughts... i have been studying and reading the enneagram for the past eight or nine years.. i am a 4w5 or 5w4 ... i can never make an absolute delination...however, i have come to realize that as long as i am aware of self in differing situations...a clear distinction is not that necessary...i want to both to know myself and to understand my world
anyway, my discord stems from experiences i have had with other types, in particular, 2's... experiences that were harmful to me and to which they, never gave any additional attention nor were upset by... two's are often described as empathic...whether healthy or not..empathy, to me is best described as being able to feel as another feels... to begin with i do not think this is possible as we can only feel what we imagine what others feel based on our own life experience of similar feelings,...i can never truly feel the depth of someone elses emotions.. i can only imagine.. i prefer to espouse a similar view as Carl rogers ..... empathic understanding...anyway.. in my experiences with these twos... one male and one female, neither actually were empathic but were attempting to impose/project their emotions on me... i should feel as they did about the situation... it was very artificial and felt dismissive to me.. which neither of them appeared to notice... am i confused in my understanding of the two type or is it my 4 haughtyness "how dare they not see my feelings as unique or different from theirs?"
some comments would be appreciated...it's one of those life mysteries i would like to understand... as i work with both these people...on a daily basis...
bev