Enneagram of Personality

For other uses, see Enneagram.

Enneagram symbol
Enneagram figure

The Enneagram of Personality, or simply the Enneagram,[1] is a pseudoscientific model of the human psyche which is principally understood and taught as a typology of nine interconnected personality types.[2]

The origins and history of ideas associated with the Enneagram of Personality are disputed. Contemporary approaches are principally derived from the teachings of the Bolivian psycho-spiritual teacher Oscar Ichazo from the 1950s and the Chilean psychiatrist Claudio Naranjo from the 1970s.[2] Naranjo's theories were also influenced by earlier teachings about personality by George Gurdjieff and the Fourth Way tradition in the first half of the 20th century.

As a typology, the Enneagram defines nine personality types (sometimes called "enneatypes"), which are represented by the points of a geometric figure called an enneagram,[3] which indicate some of the principal connections between the types. There have been different schools of thought among Enneagram teachers and their understandings are not always in agreement.[3]

The Enneagram of Personality is promoted in both business management and spirituality contexts through seminars, conferences, books, magazines, and DVDs.[4][5] In business contexts, it is often promoted as a means to gain insights into workplace interpersonal dynamics; in spirituality it is commonly presented as a path to states of enlightenment and essence. Proponents in both contexts say it has aided in self-awareness, self-understanding, and self-development.[4]

There has been limited formal psychometric analysis of the Enneagram, and the peer-reviewed research that has been done is not accepted within the relevant academic communities.[6] Though the Enneagram integrates some concepts that parallel other theories of personality,[7] it has been dismissed by personality assessment experts as pseudoscience.[8]

  1. ^ (from the Greek words ἐννέα [ennéa, meaning "nine"] and γράμμα [grámma, meaning something "written" or "drawn") "Strong's Greek: 1121. γράμμα (gramma) -- that which is drawn or written, i.e. a letter". biblesuite.com.
  2. ^ a b "Enneagram Archives". The Career Project. Retrieved 18 April 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Page 569". in Ellis, Albert; Abrams, Mike; Dengelegi Abrams, Lidia (2008). "Religious, New Age, and Traditional Approaches to Personality". Personality theories: critical perspectives. SAGE. pp. 529–576. doi:10.4135/9781452231617.n17. ISBN 978-1-4129-7062-4. Ichazo has disowned Naranjo, Palmer and the other Jesuit writers on the Enneagram on the grounds that his descriptions of the nine types represent ego fixations that develop in early childhood in response to trauma.
  4. ^ a b Clarke, Peter (2004). Encyclopedia of new religious movements. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-203-48433-9.
  5. ^ Kemp, Daren (2004). New age: a guide : alternative spiritualities from Aquarian conspiracy to Next Age. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-1532-2.
  6. ^ Thyer, Dr Bruce A.; Pignotti, Monica (15 May 2015). Science and Pseudoscience in Social Work Practice. Springer Publishing Company. p. 49. ISBN 9780826177681.
  7. ^ "The Enneagram: A Primer for Psychiatry Residents",American Journal of Psychiatry Residents' Journal, March 6, 2020, pp. 2–5.
  8. ^ Sloat, Sarah (28 September 2020). "Why one popular personality test is "pseudoscientific at best"". Inverse. Retrieved 16 February 2021.