Enneagram For Dummies. Jeanette van Stijn
benefits that can be of great significance to you
Make you a happier person
That last reason is why I continue to use the Enneagram.
Benefitting from self-management
Of course, it sounds nice and enticing to become free, or at least freer, in your actions. You likely have a way to go before that happens, though. Let's be honest: You have to be convinced of the importance and the benefit of this concept before you’ll be prepared to travel that path. Am I wrong?
It helps, then, to remember the possible benefits of development. Managing your personality becomes important when you want to
Reach your full potential
Enjoy meaningful and lasting relationships
Suffer less from your limitations
Work as part of a team as effectively and enjoyably as possible
Live a more visible and resilient life
Strive for changes and/or conflicts to ultimately be constructive
Pursue inner peace and balance
Live with less conflict and more harmony and connection
This list is somewhat long, but I think the point is clear.
Seeing the downside of developing without tools to help you
You may have noticed that people also develop in life without using tools. My life experiences mean that I also learned and unlearned lessons without the Enneagram. Without tools, this was a long, difficult, searching, and even painful path — a path of trial-and-error where, rather than know what you're doing, you're just trying something to see where it leads. If it turns out positive, you can repeat it; if not, then you no longer do it. That’s how you gain life experience. After I started working with the Enneagram, I was able to develop much more purposefully and faster.
Examining some practical applications
The Enneagram is versatile. It can be used in all situations where good personal functioning is important, as well as in situations where good interaction between people is vital. Personal functioning can include how you function in your work, in relationships (private ones and work ones), and in raising your children. There are numerous applications in the workplace.
Table 1-1 offers specific examples of the possibilities for development with the Enneagram and the areas where they can be applied.
TABLE 1-1 Development Possibilities with the Enneagram
| Development Possibilities | Areas in Which They Apply |
|---|---|
| Leadership qualities | Coaching |
| Communication skills | Education and training |
| Collaboration skills | Team-building |
| Emotional intelligence | Conflict mediation and management |
| Management skills | Therapy and counseling |
| Social functioning | Change processes in organizations |
| Sales qualities | Mediation |
Psychological? Or Spiritual?
The division into specialist disciplines as they’re known today has not been around that long — more specifically, the boundaries between subjects like philosophy, theology, and psychology. These specializations have become increasingly, and more strongly, distinct in recent decades. This distinction didn’t exist before the modern era. Humans and how they function has been a subject of study and reflection for thousands of years. For most of that time, the distinction between the psychological and spiritual aspects wasn’t even made. The Enneagram itself isn’t that old, but the knowledge contained within it about people is. So this knowledge existed before the division into specialist disciplines. Some claim that the Enneagram is spiritual, and others emphasize the psychological elements that can also be recognized in the Enneagram. I personally see no distinction; in developing yourself, the psychological and spiritual go hand in hand. It happens whether it's your intention or not. By working on one, you’ll notice that it has an effect on the other. They’re not separate from each other. It depends on what you mean by spiritual or psychological aspects. The next few sections take a closer look at this topic.
What's psychological about the Enneagram …
The Enneagram provides a description of your inner self. This description of the Enneagram types usually begins with the qualities and limitations of a type, what that type focuses on, and what your regular “thinking, feeling, acting” pattern looks like. This is also called the psychological Enneagram. It's a description of the personality structure. Psychologists (including Freud) call it the ego. In spiritual terms, it’s also called the Lower Self. In the Enneagram, this description of the ego/Lower Self is the type, or the Enneagram of passions and fixations.
The functioning of people at the psychological level is what you perceive when people are captive to their type. This applies to most people. The term captive to your type means that you actually have no freedom of choice — not in what you think, what you feel, and how you act. The lack of freedom of choice is caused by people not knowing themselves well. As a result, they have little awareness of themselves and of their automatic patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting. When you’re not consciously aware, you’re on automatic pilot; you don’t want to get angry, for example, but you definitely do get angry. You can't help yourself; it just happens. That is a lack of freedom of choice. You function from your Lower Self; your ego is in charge.
… and what about the spiritual?
The Enneagram offers a method of development; it’s a transformation model. Transformation is a word used in spiritual circles, and it concerns the transformation from the Lower Self to the Higher Self. (In psychological terms, that would mean moving from functioning at the ego level to functioning as a free person. It’s where the ego no longer has control over you.)
But