The enneagram of personality sorts people into nine types arranged around a nine-pointed figure, with lines indicating movement between types under stress and security. The figure was introduced to the West by G. I. Gurdjieff in the early twentieth century, but without any personality typology; the nine types were developed by Oscar Ichazo from the 1950s and elaborated by Claudio Naranjo. Claims of an ancient Sufi origin are made frequently and are not supported by evidence.
Facts
Overview
- Entries in the Atlas
- 9
- Size of the Traditional Set
- Nine points on the figure, and nine types in the personality system built on it 1
Origins
- Origin Period
- 1916: Gurdjieff introduced the nine-pointed figure to his Moscow and Petersburg groups. It first appeared in print in Ouspensky's In Search of the Miraculous (1949). 1
- Origin Period
- Late 1960s to early 1970s: the enneagram of personality was developed by Oscar Ichazo in Chile and taught by Claudio Naranjo in California from 1970. 1
- Creator / Originator
- G. I. Gurdjieff (died 1949), for the nine-pointed figure, which he taught as a symbol of process and not of character 1
- Creator / Originator
- Oscar Ichazo (1931-2020) and Claudio Naranjo (1932-2019), for the nine personality types 1
- Whose Classification This Is
- The nine personality types are Ichazo's and Naranjo's scheme of the 1960s and 1970s. Gurdjieff's figure carried no typology, and the claimed descent from a Sufi or desert-father tradition is not supported by evidence. 1
Status
- Standing as a Comparative Category
- Widely used in coaching, business and spiritual direction, and studied as a modern esoteric system rather than as an established personality psychology 1
Learn More
The Nine Types
The enneagram of personality sorts people into nine types arranged around a nine-pointed figure inscribed in a circle, with connecting lines indicating how each type moves toward another under stress and under security. Each type is defined by a core motivation, fear and desire (the Reformer, the Helper, the Achiever, the Individualist, and so on), and the lines and "wings" add nuance to the basic nine.
The figure itself was introduced to the West by G. I. Gurdjieff in the early twentieth century as a symbol of process, without the personality typology; the application to character was developed later, chiefly by Oscar Ichazo and Claudio Naranjo from the 1960s and 1970s.
Symbol and typology
The atlas distinguishes the two strands: the nine-pointed figure of Gurdjieff, a symbol of cosmic process, and the personality system built onto it in the later twentieth century, which is what most people now mean by "the enneagram". The typology has become popular in coaching, spirituality and business, while remaining outside mainstream academic personality psychology.
The atlas gives each type its motivation, fear and desire, and its movements along the lines. The three triads the nine types fall into are treated in their own category, within Divination Systems.
Enter a year to compare these entries as the atlas records them at that moment. Leave it empty for the present. A year before the common era is entered with a minus sign, so 44 BCE is minus 44.