What's Better - Enneagram Wings or Tritype?

[Kasper]

Holy old threads!

Depends on how you want to use the Enneagram imo, if you’re looking for a label that can put you in a box with a bow on top then go for tritype, hell, add wings for each of your tritype points along with disintegration/integration points and you can have a unique sequence that can explain every last behaviour by the fancy unique way you relate to each of the 9 types.

If you view Enneagram as a system for growth and development then toss tritype in the bin, your core motivations, fears and holy concept highlight weaknesses that require growth, wing or subtype (depending on the core type) can add other relevant factors.

I accept the concept of tritype and it can be a fun waste of time to figure it out but the core fears and motivations of an E4 are not my issues to address even though it’s my heart fix and they never will be etc., so it adds no value unless you’re making money selling tests.

[Totenkindly]

Enneagram is an odd system in that it's less a logical all-encompassing map of personality and mainly nine archetypes of personality. One could say something similar about the 16 MBTi types, although there those types are being constructed of evaluation of smaller blocks (function pairs) which are then combined to create "types". However, enneagram assumes the archetypes themselves are the foundation and complete in themselves.

Wings and tritypes are basically ways (along with the variants) to expand on enneagram and provide additional flavor.

I'm not sure what the justification ever was regarding wings being confined to the two types to either side of an archetype -- aside from the word "wing" itself. The entire system seems more creative than rationally derived. In that sense, I don't really see wings as any better than tritypes. Wings work really well for some times, not as much for others. (Like, 5w4 is very common and seems to be reflected, for example, or 7w8, or 1w2 / 2w1; but maybe some of the other pairings, not so much or harder to see reflected IRL?)

Tritypes are just a flavoring that expands on enneagram archetypes by taking the prioritized type from each locus area (head, heart, gut), then looking at how the three enneagram types would likely play out in that personality mix with the archetypes prioritized a certain way. So at least it has the benefit of taking foundational pieces (the archetypes) and then logically building on how they would likely play out in proximity to each other. MBTI does this in but starts with the functional pairs as the building blocks, to build its own archetypes (the 16 types).

Anyway, as far as the most useful, since both wings and tritypes seem arbitrary? Probably tritypes, because at least it allows you to prioritize all the archetypes in a particular personality blend, versus wings, which just restricts you to influences on either side of an archetypes in the enneagram diagram which might or might not be categorically useful. But I consider the enneagram as just a way to describe a personality, rather than a system that covers the full delineated grid of personality (put another way, if you don't fall into one of the nine buckets, you land in dead space somewhere, rather than on a grid -- but the wings and tritype try to alleviate that a bit, which is why they spawned and evolved, to compensate).

[тень]

Tritype, because humans are more complex than a singular message and mode of operation. You can simplify the modes and messages, but people will always have more than one.

[Saturnal Snowqueen]

For me, tritype. For me, while my wing's influence is definitely there, I feel like at the end of the day wings explains the "whys" behind your core(for example, the w8 gets autonomy from the 9s peace seeking and the 1 a sense of "goodness"). Which isn't unimportant, but for me tritype has helped me unlock more of myself. The theory of disintegration and integration and your wing explaining why you relate to over types sounds valid, but for me as a 94 stem who relates strongly to both 9 and 4, there's no explanation for why I'd relate to both types to much except maybe shared withdrawn triad. The 3 types in your tritype explain how you deal with fear, anger, and shame, which I've found most useful in really knowing why I do the things I do and feeling like my motives were being understood. When I typed as a 9, I just felt like the 1 was an appendage getting in the way, that it was there but what do I do with it? It flavors my core yes, but as a flavor to the core it feels like there's nothing much to do with it, not as much to analyze. Some people have weak wings, and some have wings so strong you mistake their core for their wing, so knowing how weak one's wings can be makes it feel more meaningless. Shame and fear are such strong emotions in me, so with tritype it feels like there's way more there to analyze. They say tritypes can make things more cluttered, but I don't have that problem, I believe all my fixes compliment each other equally, not to mention I don't feel like a person has to have one main triad(like the disintegration and integration points of 1 are all frustration triad).

[Pessimistic Hippie]

I just think they both serve their purpose/I wouldn't be the same person if either of them changed. I guess it's hard for me to say because they aren't mutually exclusive for me..like picking socks or sneakers.

[Kanra Jest]

Both have their uses. But I'd say tritype with wings is the closest we'd get to the complexity that is the human psyche.