A psycho-spiritual study of personality types

The Enneagram (pronounced “Any-a-gram”) is a personality typing system representing nine different ways of relating in the world. It is based on nine basic personality types of human nature and the complex interrelationships expressed between them. The word, Enneagram, comes from the Greek language with ennea meaning nine and gram meaning figure. A circle characterizes it with nine equidistant points on its circumference numbered from 1 to 9, with 9 being at the center top of the circle. The nine points on the circle are connected with inner lines mapping out the ways in which the nine types are related to each other with 9, 3 and 6 forming a triangle at the center of the circle, as shown in the following diagram.

As a psycho-spiritual typology, the Enneagram helps people recognize and understand the complex pattern of human behavior that makes up each personality type. By identifying external behaviors, attitudes, conscious and unconscious motivations, emotions and defense mechanisms, our personality is revealed to us as a mirror of our habitual patterns. Through this knowledge, we gain a better understanding of others, our relationships and ourselves.

We have elements of all nine types in us. However, only one of the nine types is our basic personality type. This basic type serves as our "home base", the one from which we have the predominant point of view through our thoughts, behaviors, reactions, defenses and motivations. The Enneagram types are each given a name to represent the different types. Different authors have different names for each type, but all names correspond with a predominant characteristic of that type. The names used below are based on the Enneagram as described by Don Riso and Russ Hudson. Click on each number to read a description of each personality type.