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What's More Important - Primary Type, Instinctual Variant, or Tritype?

What's more important? Primary Enneagram Type, Instinctual Variant, or Tritype?


  • Total voters
    21

highlander

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Dec 23, 2009
Messages
26,562
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
6w5
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
Which one do you think is more important and why?
 

skylights

i love
Joined
Jul 6, 2010
Messages
7,756
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
so/sx
i don't feel knowledgeable enough on the enneagram to voice a significant opinion, but what i do know is that i am very well aware of my instinctual variant, while my type and tritype are much less clear.
 

/DG/

silentigata ano (profile)
Joined
Mar 19, 2009
Messages
4,602
Whoops misread the title.

I voted instinctual variant as being the "easiest" or most obvious, not most important.

Oh well.

I don't really think any is most important. It's all subjective.
 

Elfboy

Certified Sausage Smoker
Joined
Nov 26, 2008
Messages
9,625
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
5w4
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
in terms which makes the most money, my guess would be
variant: self preservation
enneagram: 3, 8 and 7
 

Elfboy

Certified Sausage Smoker
Joined
Nov 26, 2008
Messages
9,625
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
5w4
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
Whoops misread the title.

I voted instinctual variant as being the "easiest" or most obvious, not most important.

Oh well.

I don't really think any is most important. It's all subjective.

subjective doesn't mean unimportant
 

Speed Gavroche

Whisky Old & Women Young
Joined
Oct 20, 2008
Messages
5,152
MBTI Type
EsTP
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
Enneatype: the way you solve information when you are entranced
Instinctual variants: the sectors of life you care the most to survive in
Tritype: bullshit
 

chickpea

perfect person
Joined
Sep 12, 2009
Messages
5,729
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
4w5
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
i kinda feel like tritype is just something someone made up one day because they thought it would be a good idea. it just complicates things too much, people should focus on their main type.
 

Totenkindly

@.~*virinaĉo*~.@
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
50,187
MBTI Type
BELF
Enneagram
594
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
I don't know what "most important" means either.

I marked "variant" because that is the most useful assessment to me personally; I can have my main personality type needs met by other systems.
 

skylights

i love
Joined
Jul 6, 2010
Messages
7,756
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
so/sx
i kinda feel like tritype is just something someone made up one day because they thought it would be a good idea. it just complicates things too much, people should focus on their main type.

says the person with a subwing ;)

the bold though... isn't that basically true for any system?

i dunno. i just don't get the resistance to it. it's like incremental shoes sizes. if it's really that arbitrary, it will go out of style soon enough.
 

Speed Gavroche

Whisky Old & Women Young
Joined
Oct 20, 2008
Messages
5,152
MBTI Type
EsTP
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
i kinda feel like tritype is just something someone made up one day because they thought it would be a good idea. it just complicates things too much, people should focus on their main type.

+1
 
B

brainheart

Guest
i kinda feel like tritype is just something someone made up one day because they thought it would be a good idea. it just complicates things too much, people should focus on their main type.

Tritype is to enneagram as mbti is to Jung? I'm an introverted feeler, you really don't have to go beyond that as far as i'm concerned.

I'm voting on dominant type as being most important cause I live breathe scream 4! my instinctual variant, well, pretty much describes a similar way of being. Seems kind of redundant to be an sx/sp 4. Tritype, yeah, I feel like it's relatively inconsequential, a parsley garnish half-hazardly tossed on top of a steak as it's carried from the kitchen. But I like to investigate my being like a spelunker likes to investigate caves. Anything which gives me the opportunity to navel gaze... I'm in!
 

Such Irony

Honor Thy Inferior
Joined
Jul 23, 2010
Messages
5,059
MBTI Type
INtp
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
I voted for main type. Variant seems like a subtype. How the variant plays out depends some on your main type.
 

rav3n

.
Joined
Aug 6, 2010
Messages
11,655
The opening question is much like posing the question of which leg is more important on the human body. The response will vary per gender and individual. And I will leave it at that!

Tritype incorporates core type.

So, as to what I find most helpful, variant then tritype. It has much to do with how I can relate to these two aspects.
 

/DG/

silentigata ano (profile)
Joined
Mar 19, 2009
Messages
4,602
subjective doesn't mean unimportant

Yes, but subjective doesn't equal important either.

I don't think any of the choices are "more important" than the others.

If anything, I think NONE of these are important. They're simply ideas to play with.
 

chickpea

perfect person
Joined
Sep 12, 2009
Messages
5,729
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
4w5
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
says the person with a subwing ;)

the bold though... isn't that basically true for any system?

i dunno. i just don't get the resistance to it. it's like incremental shoes sizes. if it's really that arbitrary, it will go out of style soon enough.

idk it seems way overly specific. no combination of letters or numbers is going to fully explain you. i might just be biased though, because i personally don't like the whole picking a head, heart and gut type. i don't relate enough to any of the gut types enough to feel like they're a significant enough part of me that i'm going to label myself with it.

i like wings though, they make sense to me. i don't have a good explanation why though lol. (my types written how it is right now because i'm torn between 4w5 and 5w4 i'm not sure if subwing is something different)
 
G

garbage

Guest
Tritype is one of those concepts that's added to the theory in an attempt to increase its explanatory power and to note differences between people of the same main type, like subtype theories in Socionics try to do. Enneagram, however, would be better served with less detail rather than more--that is, differences between people of the same type can be better explained by "we don't fuckin' know" than by "well, everyone has a type and subtype and set of subwings in each of the three triads and blah blabh albh."

That said, it's just another framework; people are free to use the framework that includes only the primary type as well. I only include tritype in my personal descriptions because.. whatever, it's just another system. And also I relate fairly strongly to two particular types, and tritype is one way to get that across.


To answer the poll.. it seems obvious that primary type is the most important to the system as a whole. The nine numbers and their descriptions and motivations are pretty much the core of the system.

However, instinctual stackings are also a pretty neat addition, another dimension not necessarily served by the type system alone.
 
A

Anew Leaf

Guest
I find all of these are more of a "snapshot" of someone... you don't really get the full 3rd and 4th dimension effect until you get to know someone.

Tritype is the only way I can make sense of the enneagram for myself... I am very 4 but I am not all 4 by any means... I am also very 9 but I am not all 9.... I am also very 5 but I am not all 5... etc.

My new type shall henceforth be known as: IMME.
 

Elfboy

Certified Sausage Smoker
Joined
Nov 26, 2008
Messages
9,625
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
5w4
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
unlike main enneagram type, instinctual variant and mbti, I don't think tritype is necessarily "permanent" and changes as one ages and picks up different traits from different personalities.
 

RaptorWizard

Permabanned
Joined
Mar 19, 2012
Messages
5,895
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
I voted some other answer, since I believe Oldham's personality styles developed in lower manifestations from the various personality disorders can explain a great deal of variety within the types.

For reference, I type as a 5, but because I have the Adventurous style developed a lot, I can come across as more action-oriented and energetic than most 5s.
 
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