Time to reset, relearn, refresh with a primer on the absolute basics brought to you by Stackemup Typology (enneagram-side). This thread goes over the gestalt for each enneagram character type and gives a thumbnail sketch as to some of the inner logic of each character type. I also include DSM correlations.
Gestalt: The Type's Instinctive truth; principle of unity
Core Vulnerability: the type's Kryptonite
Type 2: the seductive gestalt.
Type 3: the self-confident gestalt.
Type 4: the masochistic gestalt
Type 5: The self-sufficient gestalt
Type 6: the self-protective gestalt.
Type 7: the rebellious gestalt.
Type 8: the aggressive gestalt.
Type 9: the leisurely gestalt.
Type 1: the rigid gestalt.
Type 2: The Seductive Gestalt
Core Strategy: Winning people over
Core Distortion: “I am not capable of validating myself.â€
Area of fixation: Manipulation
Core Action Set: adapting themselves to others in the anticipation that they will be rejected if they do not and approaching interpersonal relations through “maneuvers.â€
DSM Correlate: Histrionic Personality Disorder
Core trap: encroaching on people’s boundaries and trying to coerce them into doing things that will make the two feel validated.
Core Vulnerability: Rejection; indifference.
1 wingers are altruistic, serious, argumentative and often outspoken. 3 wingers are charming, fickle, and clingy.
Type 3: The Self-Confident Gestalt.
Core Strategy: Outshining others
Core Distortion: “I am a superior being.â€
Area of fixation: Expansion/Fantasy
Core Action Set: putting others on notice that they are a superior being and admiration their due, that others need to be rolling out the red carpet for them.
DSM Correlate: Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Core Trap: Weaving together new fantastic rationales for their circumstances in order to recast themselves as the star.
Core Vulnerability: disdain from others
2 wingers are hyper-competitive, bragging, skilled at gamesmanship, and political (they know how to work and motivate people).
4 wingers are poised, calculating, efficient and oriented towards outward self-improvement.
Type 4: the Masochistic Gestalt.
Core strategy: Emotional Intensity
Core Distortion: "I am an Ugly Duckling; defective"
Area of fixation: Self-Absorption
Core Action Set: [withheld for the time being]
DSM Correlate: Masochistic Personality Disorder
Core Trap: [withheld for the time being]
Core Vulnerability: [withheld for the time being]
3 wingers seek emotional intensity through overdramatization. 5 wingers seek emotional intensity through sensitivity and refinement.
Type 5: The Self-sufficient Gestalt.
Core strategy: To know everything
Core distortion: “There’s a gulf/separation between my mind and the physical world around me.â€
Area of fixation: conserving energy
Core action set: Avoiding intimacy so as to stay detached and outside the action
DSM Correlate: Schizoid Personality Disorder
Core Trap: Observing and collecting information that has little to no practical value.
Core Vulnerability: Intimidation
Core Weakness: Relationships
Core Passion: Avarice. Avarice is a withholding of the self from relationships.
4 wingers are antagonistic, provocative, and delight in demolishing conventionally held ideas. 6 wingers are comprehensive, pin ideas on people like bulletin boards and invent concepts/interpretations that keep reality aligned with their cerebral landscape.
Type 6: The Self-protective Gestalt
Core strategy: Deterrence/defense; being on-guard and ready to fend off an attack
Core distortion: “The world is a dangerous place. I will be mistreated, duped or harmed in some way.â€
Area of Fixation: Rivalry; vendetta
Core action set: Exculpation of guilt onto others and the projection of hostility.
DSM Correlate: Paranoid Personality Disorder
Core Trap (s): Falling behind the 8-ball due to a life pattern of interpersonal conflicts.
Core Vulnerability: Being outnumbered or outmatched
Core Weakness: Distrustfulness
Core Passion: Cowardice. The passion of cowardice manifests either through phobic or counterphobic behavior. Remember that counterphobia is not the opposite of cowardice but an aggressive version of it: i.e. stealing victories, piggybacking on others, blindsiding, back-biting, strength in numbers.
5 wingers are over-partisan, habitually shift blame, scan for deeper/hidden meanings to confirm their suspicion of ill-will, and are quick to call out to the authorities for intervention. 7 wingers are pugnacious complainers, make mountains out of molehills, engage in assertive bluffing (the "all bark and no bite" approach), and are more prone to panic attacks.
Type 7: The Rebellious or Non-conforming Gestalt
Core strategy: doing whatever one wants
Core Distortion: “God is against me. I am against God.†God is anything that can inhibit one's gratification.
Area of Fixation: Having a large variety to choose from
Core Action Set: Being unrestrained and disrupting the social ethic; acting out.
DSM Correlate: Antisocial Personality Disorder
Core Trap: Habitually putting wants ahead of needs and cheating the present moment for more pleasure believing it can be made up for at another time.
Core Vulnerability: Immobilization; restriction
Core Weakness: Commitment
Core Passion: Gluttony. Gluttony is like a "roving eye" as if to bely their insatiable desire to consume everything in sight with no restriction on how the seven will take it.
6 wingers find stimulation through relationships, are monkey-minded in debate, and have a generalist grasp on many different subjects. 8 wingers are bold, adventurous, and see life more in zero sum terms.
Type 8: The Aggressive Gestalt
Core Strategy: Dominance.
Core Distortion: “Might makes right.â€
Area of Fixation: Exercising Power
Core Action Set: Enforcing submission from underlings through violent and threatening language or behavior….pushing one’s self to the front of the line through ruthless expedience and being able to inflict pain instrumentally without remorse or guilt. Picking off the competition. Never backing down from a fight.
DSM Correlate: Sadistic Personality Disorder
Core Trap (s): acting with total impunity after having established power through fear.
Core Vulnerability: Eights are out of touch with vulnerability due to the defense mechanism of denial.
Core Weakness: Weakness is like a pit of despair that eights are wired to avoid falling into.
Core Passion: Lust. Because the eight employs the defense mechanism of denial, they are out of touch with being human. Lust fills that space with an appetite/enjoyment/pleasure for prevailing over others in the rough and tumble.
8w7s are always on the move in the conquest of more territory. They exercise power through more subversive means. 8w9s are heavily involved in the consolidation of their own territory. They exercise power through more traditional means.
Type 9: The Leisurely Gestalt
Core Strategy: Seeking support and offering support
Core Distortion: This point on the enneagram has no built-in distortion.
Area of Fixation: Merging
Core Action Set: Seeing things form multiple perspectives, having a disregard for black and white thinking and reflexively finding unity in conflicting stances.
DSM Correlate: Dependent Personality Disorder
Core trap: Going with the flow and staying merged with the agenda of others
Core Vulnerability: Separation.
Core weakness: Inner clarity.
Core Passion: Sloth. The passion of sloth is akin to self-forgetfulness, going on autopilot, falling asleep to one’s will, so to speak.
9w8s have a natural social charisma they use to reach their own objectives but also to make friends and help others reach their own goals; alliance-building. 9w1s have a more emotionally unexpressive and solemn manner, are capable of seeing reality without pretensions to mask it with and bear through these weighty concerns with one's nose to the grindstone. 9w1s are also critical and more drawn towards constant debate, but, in contrast to 1w9s, are just as sharp and unsparing on themselves.
Type 1: The Rigid Gestalt
Core Strategy: Control
Core Distortion: “Somebody must be punished for the world’s imperfections and flaws.â€
Area of Fixation: Retribution
Core Action Set: Preoccupation with argumentation, standing up for one’s convictions, and conforming one’s own behavior to an ideal. Finding ways to restrict others in order to correct bad behavior and seeking to right perceived wrongs through the proper channels.
DSM Correlate: Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder
Core trap: Stewing in one’s anger.
Core Vulnerability: Humiliation; being depicted in an unfair light
Core weakness: Not letting go.
Core Passion: Wrath. Wrath is essentially hate. Ones wind up in the passion of hate because their anger over perceived wrongs has gone unresolved. As a result, the anger has metastasized into something worse and the object of that anger is no longer just the one who caused the anger.
9 wingers show contempt/disdain for the parts of reality that don't conform to their strong moral principles/ideals and high regard for those that do (the ideological fanatic)…2 wingers are conscientious, like to accomplish stuff through hard work, and ground their connections to others with empathetic concerns.
Gestalt: The Type's Instinctive truth; principle of unity
Core Vulnerability: the type's Kryptonite
Type 2: the seductive gestalt.
Type 3: the self-confident gestalt.
Type 4: the masochistic gestalt
Type 5: The self-sufficient gestalt
Type 6: the self-protective gestalt.
Type 7: the rebellious gestalt.
Type 8: the aggressive gestalt.
Type 9: the leisurely gestalt.
Type 1: the rigid gestalt.
Type 2: The Seductive Gestalt
Core Strategy: Winning people over
Core Distortion: “I am not capable of validating myself.â€
Area of fixation: Manipulation
Core Action Set: adapting themselves to others in the anticipation that they will be rejected if they do not and approaching interpersonal relations through “maneuvers.â€
DSM Correlate: Histrionic Personality Disorder
Core trap: encroaching on people’s boundaries and trying to coerce them into doing things that will make the two feel validated.
Core Vulnerability: Rejection; indifference.
1 wingers are altruistic, serious, argumentative and often outspoken. 3 wingers are charming, fickle, and clingy.
Type 3: The Self-Confident Gestalt.
Core Strategy: Outshining others
Core Distortion: “I am a superior being.â€
Area of fixation: Expansion/Fantasy
Core Action Set: putting others on notice that they are a superior being and admiration their due, that others need to be rolling out the red carpet for them.
DSM Correlate: Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Core Trap: Weaving together new fantastic rationales for their circumstances in order to recast themselves as the star.
Core Vulnerability: disdain from others
2 wingers are hyper-competitive, bragging, skilled at gamesmanship, and political (they know how to work and motivate people).
4 wingers are poised, calculating, efficient and oriented towards outward self-improvement.
Type 4: the Masochistic Gestalt.
Core strategy: Emotional Intensity
Core Distortion: "I am an Ugly Duckling; defective"
Area of fixation: Self-Absorption
Core Action Set: [withheld for the time being]
DSM Correlate: Masochistic Personality Disorder
Core Trap: [withheld for the time being]
Core Vulnerability: [withheld for the time being]
3 wingers seek emotional intensity through overdramatization. 5 wingers seek emotional intensity through sensitivity and refinement.
Type 5: The Self-sufficient Gestalt.
Core strategy: To know everything
Core distortion: “There’s a gulf/separation between my mind and the physical world around me.â€
Area of fixation: conserving energy
Core action set: Avoiding intimacy so as to stay detached and outside the action
DSM Correlate: Schizoid Personality Disorder
Core Trap: Observing and collecting information that has little to no practical value.
Core Vulnerability: Intimidation
Core Weakness: Relationships
Core Passion: Avarice. Avarice is a withholding of the self from relationships.
4 wingers are antagonistic, provocative, and delight in demolishing conventionally held ideas. 6 wingers are comprehensive, pin ideas on people like bulletin boards and invent concepts/interpretations that keep reality aligned with their cerebral landscape.
Type 6: The Self-protective Gestalt
Core strategy: Deterrence/defense; being on-guard and ready to fend off an attack
Core distortion: “The world is a dangerous place. I will be mistreated, duped or harmed in some way.â€
Area of Fixation: Rivalry; vendetta
Core action set: Exculpation of guilt onto others and the projection of hostility.
DSM Correlate: Paranoid Personality Disorder
Core Trap (s): Falling behind the 8-ball due to a life pattern of interpersonal conflicts.
Core Vulnerability: Being outnumbered or outmatched
Core Weakness: Distrustfulness
Core Passion: Cowardice. The passion of cowardice manifests either through phobic or counterphobic behavior. Remember that counterphobia is not the opposite of cowardice but an aggressive version of it: i.e. stealing victories, piggybacking on others, blindsiding, back-biting, strength in numbers.
5 wingers are over-partisan, habitually shift blame, scan for deeper/hidden meanings to confirm their suspicion of ill-will, and are quick to call out to the authorities for intervention. 7 wingers are pugnacious complainers, make mountains out of molehills, engage in assertive bluffing (the "all bark and no bite" approach), and are more prone to panic attacks.
Type 7: The Rebellious or Non-conforming Gestalt
Core strategy: doing whatever one wants
Core Distortion: “God is against me. I am against God.†God is anything that can inhibit one's gratification.
Area of Fixation: Having a large variety to choose from
Core Action Set: Being unrestrained and disrupting the social ethic; acting out.
DSM Correlate: Antisocial Personality Disorder
Core Trap: Habitually putting wants ahead of needs and cheating the present moment for more pleasure believing it can be made up for at another time.
Core Vulnerability: Immobilization; restriction
Core Weakness: Commitment
Core Passion: Gluttony. Gluttony is like a "roving eye" as if to bely their insatiable desire to consume everything in sight with no restriction on how the seven will take it.
6 wingers find stimulation through relationships, are monkey-minded in debate, and have a generalist grasp on many different subjects. 8 wingers are bold, adventurous, and see life more in zero sum terms.
Type 8: The Aggressive Gestalt
Core Strategy: Dominance.
Core Distortion: “Might makes right.â€
Area of Fixation: Exercising Power
Core Action Set: Enforcing submission from underlings through violent and threatening language or behavior….pushing one’s self to the front of the line through ruthless expedience and being able to inflict pain instrumentally without remorse or guilt. Picking off the competition. Never backing down from a fight.
DSM Correlate: Sadistic Personality Disorder
Core Trap (s): acting with total impunity after having established power through fear.
Core Vulnerability: Eights are out of touch with vulnerability due to the defense mechanism of denial.
Core Weakness: Weakness is like a pit of despair that eights are wired to avoid falling into.
Core Passion: Lust. Because the eight employs the defense mechanism of denial, they are out of touch with being human. Lust fills that space with an appetite/enjoyment/pleasure for prevailing over others in the rough and tumble.
8w7s are always on the move in the conquest of more territory. They exercise power through more subversive means. 8w9s are heavily involved in the consolidation of their own territory. They exercise power through more traditional means.
Type 9: The Leisurely Gestalt
Core Strategy: Seeking support and offering support
Core Distortion: This point on the enneagram has no built-in distortion.
Area of Fixation: Merging
Core Action Set: Seeing things form multiple perspectives, having a disregard for black and white thinking and reflexively finding unity in conflicting stances.
DSM Correlate: Dependent Personality Disorder
Core trap: Going with the flow and staying merged with the agenda of others
Core Vulnerability: Separation.
Core weakness: Inner clarity.
Core Passion: Sloth. The passion of sloth is akin to self-forgetfulness, going on autopilot, falling asleep to one’s will, so to speak.
9w8s have a natural social charisma they use to reach their own objectives but also to make friends and help others reach their own goals; alliance-building. 9w1s have a more emotionally unexpressive and solemn manner, are capable of seeing reality without pretensions to mask it with and bear through these weighty concerns with one's nose to the grindstone. 9w1s are also critical and more drawn towards constant debate, but, in contrast to 1w9s, are just as sharp and unsparing on themselves.
Type 1: The Rigid Gestalt
Core Strategy: Control
Core Distortion: “Somebody must be punished for the world’s imperfections and flaws.â€
Area of Fixation: Retribution
Core Action Set: Preoccupation with argumentation, standing up for one’s convictions, and conforming one’s own behavior to an ideal. Finding ways to restrict others in order to correct bad behavior and seeking to right perceived wrongs through the proper channels.
DSM Correlate: Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder
Core trap: Stewing in one’s anger.
Core Vulnerability: Humiliation; being depicted in an unfair light
Core weakness: Not letting go.
Core Passion: Wrath. Wrath is essentially hate. Ones wind up in the passion of hate because their anger over perceived wrongs has gone unresolved. As a result, the anger has metastasized into something worse and the object of that anger is no longer just the one who caused the anger.
9 wingers show contempt/disdain for the parts of reality that don't conform to their strong moral principles/ideals and high regard for those that do (the ideological fanatic)…2 wingers are conscientious, like to accomplish stuff through hard work, and ground their connections to others with empathetic concerns.