How the Enneagram of Personality Can be Weaponized by the Powerful
And since we all have some personal power, we can all do this.
The abuse of personal power is the m.o. of the type 8
The early, traditional Enneagram theorists, namely Ichazo and Naranjo, defined what The Enneagram is. Then a bunch of greedy people came along and tried to ruin that. In a nutshell, anyway.
One of my favorite texts, and a definitive manual for Enneagram knowledge, is called Ennea-Type Structures by Claudio Naranjo. Underneath the title of the book is the subtitle “Self-Analysis for the Seeker”.
Notice how it says: “SELF-ANALYSIS”. The Enneagram should be about understanding yourself. Others may be able to help us in that process. But forcing is not helping. Projecting our truth onto others is not helping.
Ichazo’s original process of Self-Diagnosis was set down in the 1950s. Originally, there was a pretty lengthy process involved in doing this through his Arica school.
It did involve some assistance in the form of education and self-exploration from teachers. But ultimately it was about the individual confirming their type for themselves with the help of education. It was not about someone assigning you a type or…
