The Enneagram is a powerful and dynamic personality system that describes nine distinct and fundamentally different patterns of thinking, feeling and acting.
The word “ennea” is Greek for nine and “gram” means model or figure. Hence, the Enneagram is a diagram or star with nine points representing the nine personality patterns. Each of these nine patterns is based on an explicit set of perceptual filters that determine our worldview. Underneath each of the nine patterns is a basic proposition or belief about what you need in life for survival and satisfaction.
As you discover your personality type and the underlying basic proposition, you also will discover what motivates you, your coping strategy and keys to personal development. Read the brief descriptions of the nine types that follow, then click on any of the numbers on the Enneagram diagram below to start the tour of the nine Enneagram types.
This two-minute excerpt is from David Daniels' video interview with Regina Meredith of Conscious Media Network.
Click here to view the full 50-minute interview that covers the Enneagram essentials, ranging from basic type descriptions to the neurobiology of the Enneagram and the Universal Growth Process taught in our Narrative Tradition trainings.
Brief descriptions of the nine Enneagram types
Enneagram Type 1: The Perfectionist believes you must be good and right to be worthy. Consequently, Perfectionists are conscientious, responsible, improvement-oriented and self-controlled, but also can be critical, resentful and self-judging.
Enneagram Type 2: The Giver believes you must give fully to others to be loved. Consequently, Givers are caring, helpful, supportive and relationship-oriented, but also can be prideful, overly intrusive and demanding.
Enneagram Type 3: The Performer believes you must accomplish and succeed to be loved. Consequently, Performers are industrious, fast-paced, goal-focused and efficiency-oriented, but also can be inattentive to feelings, impatient and image-driven.
Enneagram Type 4: The Romantic believes you must obtain the longed for ideal relationship or situation to be loved. Consequently, Romantics are idealistic, deeply feeling, empathetic and authentic to self, but also dramatic, moody and sometimes self-absorbed.
Enneagram Type 5: The Observer believes you must protect yourself from a world that demands too much and gives too little to assure life. Consequently, Observers seek self-sufficiency and are non-demanding, analytic/thoughtful and unobtrusive, but also can be withholding, detached and overly private.
Enneagram Type 6: The Loyal Skeptic believes you must gain protection and security in a hazardous world you just can’t trust. Consequently, Loyal Skeptics are themselves trustworthy, inquisitive, good friends and questioning, but also can be overly doubtful, accusatory and fearful.
Enneagram Type 7: The Epicure believes you must keep life up and open to assure a good life. Consequently, Epicures seek pleasure and possibilities, and are optimistic, upbeat and adventurous, but also can avoid pain and be uncommitted and self-serving.
Enneagram Type 8: The Protector believes you must be strong and powerful to assure protection and regard in a tough world. Consequently, Protectors seek justice and are direct, strong and action-oriented, but also overly impactful, excessive and sometimes impulsive.
Enneagram Type 9: The Mediator believes that to be loved and valued you must blend in and go along to get along. Consequently, Mediators seek harmony and are self-forgetting, comfortable and steady, but also avoid conflicts and can be stubborn.
Enneagram Worldwide provides rich, reliable and authoritative information on the Enneagram. Read about the Value of the Enneagram in your personal development, satisfaction and fulfillment, and learn how our teachings in the Narrative Tradition offer a unique and personally transformative experience of the Enneagram.
Determine your type by taking the validated paragraph-based, user-friendly Essential Enneagram Test. You can either order The Essential Enneagram book or complete the online version (registration required). This test gives you exact probabilities of your most likely type and alternative possibilities.
There are many opportunities to explore the Enneagram without registering on this site. Or if you choose to go even deeper into the Enneagram, you may register for unlimited access to more extensive material. (See Additional learning opportunitiesbelow.)
Here is a partial list of what you can experience with no registration required:
Tour the Nine Types and see video clips of representatives of each type. Discover the lost essential quality, compensating belief, attention/coping strategy, trap, diving energy, avoidance, strengths, paradox, path of development and ultimate task of each type.
Watch free video clips of representatives of each type speaking for themselves in the Narrative Tradition.
Explore the Key Themes and Basic Proposition™ of each type. Learn about the coping or survival strategy that each type developed because of core beliefs, the central issues for healing and the accompanying six growth commitments for each type.
Apply practices for the integration of personal and spiritual development in Practices for Growth for each type.
Learn about our psychological-spiritual curriculum and workshops with Helen Palmer in the Enneagram and Spirituality.
Discover the path to fulfilling relationships in the Enneagram in Relationships. Read Dr. David Daniels’ monthly column for more insights into the role of the Enneagram in improving relationships.
Gain insights about how the Enneagram can benefit you at work in Enneagram at Work.
Discover the path to fulfilling relationships using the Relationships Matrix™, which allows you to navigate among all 44 relationship pairs. These type pairings illuminate the fundamental preoccupations that underlie each type and the challenges, synergies and dynamics among each type pair.
Review type differentiators that show the shared characteristics and the key distinguishers among every type, 35 comparisons in all. These descriptive differentiators not only help you to confirm your type, but also provide clear distinctions between all types, to help you deepen your understanding of the Enneagram and gain more awareness about yourself and others.
Listen to David Daniels interview panels for each type in the Narrative Tradition on VoiceAmerica Internet radio.
