The Enneagram is a SELF OBSERVATION tool , based on an ancient geometric figure that closely parallels every process in the universe, including the evolution of consciousness and also the evolution of “All That Is” (i.e., the combined physical, mental, emotional and spiritual Cosmos). When used for personality assessment, the enneagram highlights for each of nine points, the difference or “out of balance” between the “current personality” state and the potential “maximised individuality” state.
What is said about the Enneagram?
Editors note: Enneagram authors are using the following words to define the approach a person is using to interact in life situations. Personality "types", main strategy, personality style, etc.
Business Week
"You've never heard of Enneagrams? This system of personality analysis, once faddish pop psychology, is becoming a personnel tool for corporate America." -
Esquire:
"What sets the Enneagram apart is that it contains such detailed, useful information about what drives us to behave as we do. It's valuable not just for those seeking to understand themselves but also as a source of insights into one's friends, colleagues, and even enemies."
Newsweek:
"Now after lurking on the fringes of mysticism and pop psychology for more than 20 years, the Enneagram is turning mainstream and respectable. Last year the Stanford University School of Business course called "Personality, Self-Awareness and Leadership" focused on the Enneagram for the first time; the class proved so popular that it will be expanded from 40 to 50 students next winter. The CIA now uses the Enneagram to help agents understand the behavior of individual world leaders. The U.S. Postal Service recently turned to the Enneagram to help employees resolve conflicts. Clergy from the Vatican signed up for an Enneagram seminar last year. And the First international Enneagram Conference, with 1,400 participants who came to Palo Alto, Calif., from as far away as Japan, was cosponsored by Stanford Medical School's department of psychiatry."
Contra Costa Times
"The apparent universality of the Enneagram is a big part of its attraction. People use it to improve themselves and their relationships. Many psychologists and marriage counselors swear by it. Members of the clergy and business managers use it to understand their congregations and subordinates. It is even accepted by academics." -
Yoga Journal
"As a guide to human character, behavior and motivation, it has no equal. More practical than typologies derived from conventional psychology, the Enneagram provides a clear and easily recognizable map of nine distinct personality patterns. For most people, it simply rings true." -
The Enneagram of Personality, as described on http://www.enneagramcentral.com is, so far as this web site is concerned, primarily a self assessment tool, as provided on http://www.enneagramcentral.com/testa.htm The diagram does also provide for an intellectual understanding of how the energies of life are always motivated towards an improved state of balance and knowingness. It also provides a basis for understanding how everything within the universe balances itself.
( quote from the enneagramcentral.com ) Authors have different approaches to the enneagram. Some examples are:
Don Riso says that the enneagram information alone is transformative. His books reflect this conviction. In his new revised Personality Types he has more than 100 adjectives describing each type with more and more detail, dissecting each type into nine levels of development. He says "Personal growth consists to a great degree with becoming aware of the patterns that we have inherited from our parents and early caretakers. With increased consciousness, we can find better, more effective, and more satisfying ways to live." So to encourage transformation, he describes types more carefully.
Tom Condon uses the enneagram only as a map. He doesn't claim any transformative power for the map. He uses the tools of change he has developed in NLP. His NLP and Hypnosis training makes him suspicious of much of spiritual conversion material. His tools bring about small incremental changes. He says the wholesale changes snap back or the compulsion just takes another form. He uses the tools of Ericksonian hypnotherapy to that end. His audio cassette package, Waking from Trances, is excellent as a description of how our styles are trances.
Patrick O'Leary comes from a scientific approach, does not like the term trance (mostly because of popular connotations) and tries to present the enneagram as objectively (i.e., behaviorally) as possible. But he doesn't claim much transformative power for the information. The change comes from elsewhere.
Defining your Enneagram "operation point" is not defining what YOU ARE but how you operate. What is the frecuent style you use to confront the stimulus of your environment. It signals what is the "strategy" you use most frequently. In a certain sense, saying "I am a Four," is misleading. It would be more precise to say, "I use strategy Four."
"How old is that enneagram strategy?" Are you acting like a ten year old, a four year old, or what?
Take the ENNEAGRAM TEST and use it for SELF OBSERVATION. With this tool in hand you may then select the most appropiate disciplines needed to balance your performance and aquire LIFE MASTERY.
ENNEAGRAM TEST
ENNEAGRAM PERSONALITY TYPES
