Why the Enneagram is negative | INFJ Forum

Why the Enneagram is negative

KazeCraven

KazeCraven

Graduated from Typology : May 2011
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Aug 9, 2009
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In case you haven't already been made aware:

Helen Palmer said:
Sacred psychology sees personality as a false-self system. The "true self" is spiritual in nature. It was overshadowed in early life when attention turned to meet the needs of survival. Over time we identified so strongly with the characteristics of our type, and came to rely so heavily on conditioned perceptions, that we forgot our true nature and "became" our personality, or false self. The Enneagram is a psychology from sacred tradition that is based on nine personality types, which, from the perspective of the true, or spiritual, self, are nine illusions about life; and that illusion is the natural starting place for both psychological and spiritual growth.
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Above is a quote from an author who has written at least a couple of books about the Enneagram.

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Above is an image from here: http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/extendedsample.asp?flash

The enneagram institute shows that at the highest level of development we self-actualize and stop identifying with our type-specific self-image. This one still sounds like our most developed level is type influenced, but it is clear that we must overcome most of our personality to get there.
 
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which, from the perspective of the true, or spiritual, self, are nine illusions about life; and that illusion is the natural starting place for both psychological and spiritual growth.

woah, that's fascinating. i knew the enneagram had an insubstantial basis, but i didn't realize to what extent. that description makes it sound almost like a religion.

then again, the MBTI isn't exactly concrete science either.
 
Moved to enneagram subforum.
 
Enneagram is based on inherent fears. That's of course going to be a negative starting point. However, how people handle, compensate for, and overcome those fears is also the basis for Enneagram, so it's essentially a negative to positive system.

Enneagram is also based on a volume of conjecture and assumption with very little scientific evidence, so it's easy to equate it to religion. MBTI is similar, in that there is a lot of conjecture and assumption, but there is much more scientific evidence supporting the MBTI as well as a scientific approach to the system which includes acknowledgment of the possibility of error for a multitude of reasons. I'm not saying MBTI is perfectly valid by any means, just that it's more scientific in approach, while agreeing that Enneagram is more 'religion' in approach.
 
April said:
which, from the perspective of the true, or spiritual, self, are nine illusions about life; and that illusion is the natural starting place for both psychological and spiritual growth.

woah, that's fascinating. i knew the enneagram had an insubstantial basis, but i didn't realize to what extent. that description makes it sound almost like a religion.

then again, the MBTI isn't exactly concrete science either.
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Yeah, I don't really care for the Enneagram anymore. All I know is that the path of a type 4 seems the most motivating to me, so I learned to actively seek depth and intensity (both of emotion and experience). Whether or not I am actually a type 4 is unimportant to me, especially considering the goal is transcendence of type anyway.
 
KazeCraven said:
Yeah, I don't really care for the Enneagram anymore. All I know is that the path of a type 4 seems the most motivating to me, so I learned to actively seek depth and intensity (both of emotion and experience). Whether or not I am actually a type 4 is unimportant to me, especially considering the goal is transcendence of type anyway.
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Exactly what I was thinking about today. The best feature of the Enneagram was to get me to analyze my motivations. I'm motivated by a need to be loved, a refusal to be controlled, and a deep core of idealism. It doesn't matter which of these is the most affecting, nor if it fits neatly into any of the boxes. The benefit is having taken a deeper look into a part of myself that I don't normally notice.
 
Of course, we are not types. We are people, far more complicated than personality descriptions. I think many here already know that. We are simply using it as a tool to get a better understanding of ourselves - take what we find useful and then figure out how it can help us improve and develop.

i mean, it doesn't have to be all or nothing you know. :)
 
April said:
which, from the perspective of the true, or spiritual, self, are nine illusions about life; and that illusion is the natural starting place for both psychological and spiritual growth.

woah, that's fascinating. i knew the enneagram had an insubstantial basis, but i didn't realize to what extent. that description makes it sound almost like a religion.

then again, the MBTI isn't exactly concrete science either.
Click to expand...

People certainly seem to use it like religion, thats for sure.
 
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