This is me according to the Enneagram:
This is the personality test that I appreciated the most, because it explained my overall behavior. The guidance counselor said that it was made by monks way way back.
According to the Enneagram, I fall under the category of Personality Type 5, which is The Observer.
Type Five is perceptive, innovative, secretive, and isolated.
You want to be intelligent, informed, knowledgeable and perceptive. More importantly, you want to be self-sufficient and not have the entanglements of obligation. You see yourself as intellectual, dispassionate and investigative. You would like others to see you as rational, logical and scholarly. Your idealized image is that you are thoughtful and wise.
Private and solitary by nature, you like to be invisible until you are ready to reveal yourself. You tend to stay on the sidelines preferring to meet the world with your mind. You prefer to play the role of detached observer or investigator. In general, you see the world as intrusive, overwhelming and chaotic–often demanding too much and giving too little in return. As a result, to manage the fear of not knowing, you conserve your energy and focus your attention on acquiring the information necessary to make sense out of the chaos.
Studious and scholarly, you develop expertise in any area that is of interest to you, often in more than one field. You believe that knowledge is power and feel it is imperative that you be as a means of survival. Often scientific, you have unparalleled powers of mental perception due in part to your ability to remain detached and unaffected by your emotions.You have an inquisitive and observant nature with an insatiable appetite for information. You think things through before offering your perceptive insights regarding systems, people or how the world works.
Avoiding the glaring light of scrutiny, you seek the safety of camouflage. When you feel that you lack intellect, you become withdrawn, isolated and reclusive. You see yourself as intense, unexpected, original and different from others. You are private and introspective, although others may think of you as anti-social, secretive, remote, and eccentric. You are not afraid to point out the ‘emperor who has no clothes’ and your wonderful sense of humor is based on postulating the absurd. Rather than the wave crashing on the shore, you have the strength of the undertow and know exactly when to give or withhold your involvement and information to have the greatest impact.
Point Five, often called "The Observer" is part of the so-called "Fear Triad" of Five, Six and Seven. These also are often called the "head" types, for fear, it is said, takes them into their heads (their minds).
For Point Five, the passion is avarice, or greed and the corresponding fixation is stinginess. The avarice/stinginess personality often shows up as a unquenchable thirst for information or knowledge and also a holding on or grasping in the sense that "I have so little I must conserve what I have" such as time and energy as well as material resources.
The focal point of attention is watching (observing) with an eye to "what is it the other expects or wants from me."
Words, phrases and issues often associated with the Five include, but are not limited to:
Thinking:
Thinking seems to replace doing, or prepares (intellectualizes) for doing in advance . The talk of the Five is often punctuated with the words "I think" and "I know".
Thinking seems to replace doing, or prepares (intellectualizes) for doing in advance . The talk of the Five is often punctuated with the words "I think" and "I know".
Detachment:
Fives seem to have an isolation mechanism which allows them to readily detach from, or reduce the impact of feelings and emotions. It's as if feelings are suspended in the moment and experienced after the fact when there is an opportunity, in privacy, to think about or experience the feelings.
Fives seem to have an isolation mechanism which allows them to readily detach from, or reduce the impact of feelings and emotions. It's as if feelings are suspended in the moment and experienced after the fact when there is an opportunity, in privacy, to think about or experience the feelings.
Minimalist:
Fives tend to reduce their needs to a level at which they can competently take care of them themselves. They do not want to be subject to "needing" something from someone else. To do so could cause undesirable feelings and emotions to surface. Thus, the Five is seen as having few needs and being self-sufficient in taking care of those needs.
Fives tend to reduce their needs to a level at which they can competently take care of them themselves. They do not want to be subject to "needing" something from someone else. To do so could cause undesirable feelings and emotions to surface. Thus, the Five is seen as having few needs and being self-sufficient in taking care of those needs.
Compartmentalization:
Compartmentalization speaks to a tendency to keep the various aspects of their lives (inner and outer) separate from one another. Some Fives also describe how their mind stores information as if it is compartmentalized into various sectors.
Compartmentalization speaks to a tendency to keep the various aspects of their lives (inner and outer) separate from one another. Some Fives also describe how their mind stores information as if it is compartmentalized into various sectors.
Avoidance:
This is the chief psychological defense mechanism of the Five. The intent is to avoid intrusion, to protect oneself from invasiveness, by a world that wants too much. There is a "move away" and a desire for privacy. Fives are not likely, or do not easily, volunteer personal information.
This is the chief psychological defense mechanism of the Five. The intent is to avoid intrusion, to protect oneself from invasiveness, by a world that wants too much. There is a "move away" and a desire for privacy. Fives are not likely, or do not easily, volunteer personal information.
Withdrawn:
The Five may appear quiet, shy, aloof, private. Or, may look superior (aloof), while feeling inferior, thus being mistaken as arrogant.
The Five may appear quiet, shy, aloof, private. Or, may look superior (aloof), while feeling inferior, thus being mistaken as arrogant.
Privacy:
The control of private space to prevent intrusion is important.
The control of private space to prevent intrusion is important.
Body Language:
The Five is often experienced as having a quite voice, limited energy and a general stillness in their composure. Yet, they are alert, aware, and mentally active.
The Five is often experienced as having a quite voice, limited energy and a general stillness in their composure. Yet, they are alert, aware, and mentally active.
