I was confused by the article at first because I found the explanations of the centers of intelligence to be misleading. For example, at first, I thought that Question #1 was about body types, and even though I'm a 9w1, I identified more with the statements in #1 than in #3. Also, in Question #2, Head Center, it says, "You trust your own analytical abilities in every situation" which sounds 5"ish" but doesn't address the 6 or 7. 6s have difficulty trusting themselves, which is why they tend to rely on something outside of themselves for support and guidance. The use of the phrase "the intellectuals among us who rely on logic" is also misleading because that also sounds like a 5sidentificationwith logic as an "intellectual", which is not necessarily the same as Head Intelligence. A 7 for example can be highly attuned to her nature, body, and her emotionsanduse her head center intelligence to plan for the next fun and engaging thing to distract from pain or security of needs.
Overall, I think it's helpful to use the centers of intelligence to narrow down the types, but I did not find the descriptions covering the major themes of the triads to be helpful because they focus too narrowly on one type's experience.
I think the author put it well when he said, "The Enneagram typing system isn’t trying to measure every aspect or facet of your personality. What it does is identify an underlying motivational factor that is ubiquitous and ever-present." When we observe our patterns of acting, thinking, and feeling, it's not always clear at first what the underlying motivation is. The point of the Enneagram is not to define or explain everything we do, and the way people present themselves in a variety of ways means that typing is not always easy.
It's a blog article so I get that it's not trying to explain the whole Enneagram system in one go, and its complex system. But I wanted to point out that the intention is good and but I found the first part to be oversimplified.
Something I found really helpful for understanding and finding types is to talk about how they all have core fears and core desires. This has been extremely helpful for me in understanding one's type as much as the triads.
Hana Shoup (not verified)says...
I was confused by the article at first because I found the explanations of the centers of intelligence to be misleading. For example, at first, I thought that Question #1 was about body types, and even though I'm a 9w1, I identified more with the statements in #1 than in #3. Also, in Question #2, Head Center, it says, "You trust your own analytical abilities in every situation" which sounds 5"ish" but doesn't address the 6 or 7. 6s have difficulty trusting themselves, which is why they tend to rely on something outside of themselves for support and guidance. The use of the phrase "the intellectuals among us who rely on logic" is also misleading because that also sounds like a 5sidentificationwith logic as an "intellectual", which is not necessarily the same as Head Intelligence. A 7 for example can be highly attuned to her nature, body, and her emotionsanduse her head center intelligence to plan for the next fun and engaging thing to distract from pain or security of needs.
Overall, I think it's helpful to use the centers of intelligence to narrow down the types, but I did not find the descriptions covering the major themes of the triads to be helpful because they focus too narrowly on one type's experience.
I think the author put it well when he said, "The Enneagram typing system isn’t trying to measure every aspect or facet of your personality. What it does is identify an underlying motivational factor that is ubiquitous and ever-present." When we observe our patterns of acting, thinking, and feeling, it's not always clear at first what the underlying motivation is. The point of the Enneagram is not to define or explain everything we do, and the way people present themselves in a variety of ways means that typing is not always easy.
It's a blog article so I get that it's not trying to explain the whole Enneagram system in one go, and its complex system. But I wanted to point out that the intention is good and but I found the first part to be oversimplified.
Something I found really helpful for understanding and finding types is to talk about how they all have core fears and core desires. This has been extremely helpful for me in understanding one's type as much as the triads.