The Back to School Edit

Calling all Enneagram enthusiasts! I’ve been waiting to share this incredible news with you for a while now! It’s Back to School time and a chance for you to officially nerd out.  Next month, I’m partnering with my friends, mentors, and Enneagram legends, Beatrice Chestnut and Uranio Paes, to bring you a front row seat to their upcoming virtual workshop called Master the 27 Enneagram Subtypes! 

So many of you have requested a deeper dive into Enneagram subtypes.  I figured what better way to learn them than directly from Bea, the world’s leading expert in subtypes?  In her classic book, The Complete Enneagram: 27 Paths to Greater Self-knowledge, she gives us a sturdy look at not just nine basic enneagram types, but the three unique instinctual subtypes within each of the nine types.  

Let’s have a quick refresh:

The Enneagram can be broken down into three centers of intelligence: the head, the heart, and the body.  Within each center, or triad, there are nine interconnected personality types.  This we know.  If we peel back the next layer, we discover each of the nine types is actually a triad in itself containing three more definitive subtypes within the type.  So, we know there are actually 27 types as opposed to nine.  The three subtypes within each of the nine types are connected to these three driving animal instincts: self-preservation, social, or sexual (or one-to-one). 

So why are subtypes so important?

I’m glad you asked ;) 

1. Subtypes help clarify type.  Discovering type is often a difficult process.  This is partly because there are only nine types and billions of us so it can feel downright limiting and often reductive to identify our dominant type as there is such variance within type.  If you struggle to identify your dominant type, try on the subtypes within  the types you feel closest describe you.  You may discover a perfect match.

2. Subtypes are more helpful as a growth tool than wings.  Wings are talked about much more than subtypes.  I learned this is because there hasn’t been clear, compelling content written about subtypes readily available.  Also, there is great confusion as The Wisdom of the Enneagram, the Riso/Hudson classic, calls them instinctual variants.   Also, wings tend to be easier to identify.  They are physically on either side of your dominant type.  However,  Beatrice explained that wings are more of a flavoring of type that can shift throughout life.  Subtypes can be used in a deeper way to grow beyond limiting, unconscious behavior.

3. Instinct +  Passion = Subtype.  It’s so important to note the nuance of subtypes within each type.  Like I said earlier, no two subtypes are alike even though there are the same three choices for each type. Instead, they can be explained by a person's predominant driving instinct (self-preservation, social, or sexual) fused with the specific passion, or emotional motivator, of a person’s type.  This creates a distinct character type within each of the nine to really sink your teeth into.  For me, this looks like the self-preservation instinct, as it is my dominant, mixed with envy, the passion of a type four.  

To wrap it up and put a bow on it, I love working with subtypes because quite simply, they help us develop more balance where there is imbalance within our personality.  Join me in this Enneagram learning experience of a lifetime that starts in just a few weeks!  

Will I see you there???