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

[highlander]

Which one do you think is more important and why?

 

[skylights]

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/]

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]

in terms which makes the most money, my guess would be
variant: self preservation
enneagram: 3, 8 and 7

 

[Elfboy]

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]

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

 

[brainheart]

What do you mean by important?

 

[chickpea]

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]

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 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]

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

 

[brainheart]

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]

I voted for main type. Variant seems like a subtype. How the variant plays out depends some on your main type.

 

[rav3n]

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/]

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]

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)

 

[garbage]

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.

 

[Anew Leaf]

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]

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]

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.