Enneagram FAQs

The Enneagram is a powerful tool for self-reflection and personal development. In the Enneagram system, there are 9 core types that each represent a unique pattern of thinking, feeling and behaving. These identified patterns arise from an inner motivation and worldview that is unique to each type. Because the Enneagram prioritizes identifying a core worldview and corresponding motivation, it is able to identify patterns that evade other assessments. The Enneagram system begins by identifying the underlying worldview of an individual and then traces this worldview to the patterns which appear in the life and relationships of the individual. The Enneagram can be utilized across a broad spectrum of applications. These applications include workplace functioning and team development.

The Enneagram is a framework for understanding the human experience. It honors the complexities of human motivation, provides a path for reflection and the opportunity to try new ways of responding to self and others. Many personality tools used by workplaces focus on behaviors. The Enneagram goes beyond just behaviors and focuses on motivation. It provides insight into motivations, hidden fears, and desires that can highlight the ways a person can become stuck in patterns of relating to themselves and others. With this information a person is then able to consider new ways of releasing those patterns.

We don’t know where the Enneagram symbol came from originally. However, for thousands of years scholars have used numbers to organize information about people and nature. Many of the concepts of the Enneagram can be found across cultures throughout history particularly in the work of Christian, Jewish and Sufi monastics.

The modern Enneagram was developed over the past century through the work of George Gurdjieff, Oscar Ichazo and Claudio Naranjo, MD, a Chilean Psychiatrist. The Enneagram system theory continues to develop today through the work of teachers worldwide.

These are the lines of connection. Different Enneagram authors and thinkers use different language to describe these connections (stress, release, integration, disintegration, child-heart, etc…) However, the lines show the movement that can exist within the Enneagram system. When you are in a place of safety or a place of stress you can access the high or low sides of your connected types. This can be helpful to recognize in your own life and identify how you can use this movement for your growth.

No, the Enneagram has not been the subject of enough peer-reviewed research studies at this time. However, slowly there are more researchers interested in it. A few studies have overlaid the Enneagram with the Big Five personality traits and found significant correlations.