About Fours

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: From The Enneagram Movie & Video Guide : Copyright 1994 by Thomas Condon : http://www.thechangeworks.com/cwproducts/videoguide.htmlFours : FAMOUS REAL-LIFE FOURS : Photographer Diane Arbus, Painter Francis Bacon, John Barrymore, Charles Baudelaire, Ingmar Bergman, Poet John Berryman, Director Peter Bogdanovich, Marlon Brando, Richard Brautigan, Jackson Browne, Raymond Burr, Singer Kate Bush, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Prince Charles, Kurt Cobain, Leonard Cohen, Judy Collins, James Dean, Robert De Niro, Johnny Depp, Neil Diamond, Isak Dinesen, Novelist Michael Dorris, French novelist Marguerite Duras, the music of Pink Floyd, the cultural aura of France, Judy Garland, Martha Graham, Singer Nanci Griffith, Billie Holliday, Julio Iglesias, : Michael Jackson, Janis Joplin, Naomi Judd, Harvey Keitel, Jack Kerouac, Jessica Lange, Poet Philip Larkin, Charles Laughton, T. E. Lawrence, John Malkovich, Marcello Mastroianni, Author Mary McCarthy, Carson McCullers, Rod McKuen, Thomas Merton, Author Yukio Mishima, Joni Mitchell, Jim Morrison, Morrissey, Edvard Munch, Liam Neeson, Mike Nichols, Stevie Nicks, Author Anaïs Nin, Nick Nolte, Laurence Olivier, Edith Piaf, Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allen Poe, Novelist Anne Rice, Arthur Rimbaud, : Françoise Sagan, Poet Anne Sexton, Percy Shelley, Simone Signoret, Playright Neil Simon, Singer Paul Simon, Edna St. Vincent Millay, August Strindberg, Singer James Taylor, Spencer Tracy, Liv Ullmann, Vincent Van Gogh, Suzanne Vega, Author Robert James Waller, Alan Watts, Orson Welles, Australian novelist Patrick White, Elie Wiesel, Tennessee Williams, Virginia Woolf, Neil Young. : : INTRODUCTION : Like Ones, Fours compare reality with what could be. While a One will look for imperfection about them and maybe have a desire to correct what's wrong, Fours often turn away from reality and live in their imaginations, feelings and moods. : Along with Twos and Threes, Fours share the tendency towards vanity and image-confusion but they can express it paradoxically. Fours are more likely to identify with an image of defect especially as it confers on them a quality of uniqueness or exempt specialness. A Four might, for instance, bemoan their inadequacy to succeed in the everyday world, but within this complaint there could be a subtle quality of boasting. This is usually driven by a self-image that is romantically tragic but also elitist. They may take pride in what is unique or defectively unusual about them. : Because of the strength of their emotional imaginations, people with this style are often described as artists. Many of the world's most accomplished artists have been Fours and nearly all people with this style need or find creative outlets. Otherwise, Fours work in all kinds of occupations, although they will try when possible to make their work creatively interesting. : Awakened Fours tend to be idealistic, have good taste and are great appreciators of beauty. They filter reality through a rich, subtle subjectivity and are very good at "metaphorical thinking," the capacity to make connections between unrelated facts and events. The Four tendency to see things symbolically is enhanced by their emotional intensity. This creates raw artistic material that almost has to be given form. Self-expression and the pursuit of self-knowledge are high priorities for people with this style. : Fours value the aesthetics of beauty as much as they are attuned to the tragic nature of existence. When healthy, people with this style work to transmute the pain of living into something more meaningful. This can be done through creative work of all kinds. Fours are excellent at articulating subjective experience, and can be fine teachers and psychotherapists in this regard. They may also be empathetic friends, able to take in and understand the dilemmas of others and especially be willing to listen to a friend's pain. : When more defensive or entranced, Fours begin to focus on what is unavailable or missing in their lives. They can become negative and critical, finding fault with what they do have, seeing mainly misery in the present. They then turn inward and use their imaginations to romanticize other times and places. Fours can live in the past, the future - anywhere that seems more appealing than here. "The grass is always greener on the other side." Entranced Fours fall into a habit of envy for whatever it is they don't have now. : The need to be seen as someone special and unique may become more neurotically pronounced too. Fours can seem very in touch with their feelings but their defensive tendency is to translate authentic feeling into melodrama. They could be full of lament and nostalgia, demanding recognition yet rejecting anything good they get from friends. They might also grow competitive and spiteful, unable to enjoy their own successes without taking away from the achievements of others. : An entranced Four could be moody or hypersensitive while beginning to act exempt from everyday rules. Buoyed by their sense of defective specialness, they might give themselves permission to act badly, be selfish or irresponsible. They may refuse to deal with the mundane and the ordinary, reasoning that they are different and not of this world anyway. Entranced Fours incline towards feeling guilty, ashamed, melancholy, jealous and unworthy. : Deeply entranced Fours can inhabit a harrowing world of torment. They may be openly masochistic and extravagant in their self-debasement. The lives of spectacularly self-destructive artists often reflect this kind of scenario. : At this point, a Four could become unreachably alienated. Stricken by a profound sense of hopelessness, they can sink into morbid self-loathing and suicidal depression. Their "differentness" is now seen in entirely negative terms and they banish themselves into a kind of exile. The desire to punish themselves and others is also quite strong. : Fours have a specific defense that comes up a lot in movies, especially love stories. It's called "introjection," and it means carrying someone around inside of you in your imagination and feelings. A Four will introject a loved one, usually someone idealized and out of reach. Their beloved is romanticized from afar but the Four feels the absent person to be present. They then have a kind of relationship with their fantasy of the other person. : : FOURS IN THE MOVIES : Unlike Three performers, who play themselves in movies, real-life Fours mostly play Enneagram styles other than their own. Performers with this style are almost always considered character actors and actresses. : A list of Four performers includes some very creative people from movies past and present: John Barrymore, Charles Laughton, Spencer Tracy, Laurence Olivier, Marlon Brando, James Dean, Liv Ullmann, Simone Signoret, Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Nick Nolte, John Malkovich. All of these performers are capable of movie star roles but they generally are somewhat different from film to film. : Note the above list is almost all male - I'm sure there are more Four female actresses but for some reason I didn't find that many. Some who are known for Fourish roles - Meryl Streep for instance - have other Enneagram styles in real life. : Younger Four performers tend to play the style a little more often, usually in roles as misunderstood teenagers. The condition of feeling different, lonely, self-conscious and tormented, is well represented by performers like James Dean (Rebel Without A Cause) and Winona Ryder (Beetlejuice, Mermaids). : Another kind of movie story that strongly favors Fours is about unrequited love. Usually the Four is the lover-from-afar (Blume In Love, Out Of Africa, New York Stories) but sometimes the roles are reversed. In movies like From Noon Til Three, Cherry 2000 and The French Lieutenant's Woman, the Four is loved from afar by someone else. Usually the Four doesn't notice because they are too self-absorbed or preoccupied with someone else that they are in love with from afar. : The other noteworthy type of role that especially applies to Fours is that of the Melancholy Monster. Stories like The Phantom Of The Opera, Cyrano de Bergerac and The Hunchback Of Notre Dame are exactly about Four psychology. The deformed hero is driven to hide his true feelings because of shame over his disfigurement. He's a pure-hearted romantic under the defect but unable to expose his real feelings or function normally. Note that these stories are from France, a very Fourish culture. : Other examples include lovesick vampires (Bram Stoker's Dracula) and the occasional mutant (Danny DeVito, Batman Returns). Anjelica Huston does a comic reversal of this motif as Morticia in Addams Family Values; she's deeply weird but believes she's normal. : The most obvious type of Four role, of course, is of the artist. These range from the tormented to the struggling to the fulfilled. The list includes: F. Murray Abraham, Amadeus; Anne Bancroft, The Turning Point; John Barrymore, Dinner At Eight; Judy Davis, Impromptu; Tom Hanks, Punchline; Maria de Medeiros, Henry And June; Jack Nicholson, Five Easy Pieces; Nick Nolte, New York Stories. : Fours and Sevens conflict a lot in the movies that follow. For a movie where they get along see Addams Family Values.

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