An Emergent View of the Enneagram
When I first met the Enneagram, I had a mixed reaction to it. I was excited to see how the insights of this map to the soul could be used for my own journey as well as in my ministry of preaching and direction. That excitement continues especially as I keep on digging deeper into it. In November, I was blessed to lead 23 others in catching some of this excitement and some of these insights. I have even received a few nice emails expressing gratitude for that day. That is very nice.
However, the mixed part of my reaction was the more extreme pathological approach that many of the authors I read used. Especially with my type (8). The descriptions seem to be very tilted toward the worst parts of our behavior. On the one hand these authors would be talking about the importance of avoiding the use of the Enneagram as a source of judgment, but then the very descriptions they use are pretty much all couched in terms of negativity. For my type, the descriptions talked about an extreme aggressive attitude toward people and the use and abuse of them for my own benefit. The descriptions would say something about the positive approach to things, but those descriptions of the strong protector would be overwhelmed by the dictatorial tyrant. It’s no wonder as I was trying out various type inventories my 8 score would often be 3rd or 4th in line.
At one level I can understand where that came from: many of those who have formulated the descriptions of the Enneagram in these first few generations were writing from the perspectives of diagnostitions who were used to viewing the pathology or unhealthy aspects of personality. In fact, Claudio Naranjo’s major contribution to the literature of the Enneagram connects the Enneatypes to the traditional categories of psychoses and neuroses (Enneagram Monthly, Susan Rhodes, Depathologizing the Enneagram).
For me, that only has limited attraction. As a preacher, teacher, and spiritual director, I am less interested in diagnosing the pathologies than I am more interested in what motivates us and can be resources for our wholeness and holiness. In the article above, as well as a couple others that I have read recently, there is a growing call for a new focus on the Enneagram. Susan Rhodes talks about Depathologizing the Enneagram, but we cannot truly remove the pathology, because those unhealthy parts of our being cannot be ignored.
Instead, I have been thinking about taking a cue from a movement within the church and even within systems theories of seeing the Emergent Qualities of the Enneagram.
I have found it very helpful to begin my thoughts and focus on the Essential Qualities and the Holy Ideas that the Enneagram points to. This is an approach that A. H. Almaas
I have been spending a lot of time gathering in ideas related to the Enneagram and sorting through them to make them a part of me. Now I am going to start playing these ideas out. Feel free to enter the discussion.
