# 4 vs 6: introjection or projection?



## OrangeAppled (Jun 26, 2009)

Sometimes people feel confusion as to whether they or someone else is a 4 or 6. 

This is a great article overall, but it also brings up a useful contrast between the two types that may help in distinguishing which one a person is:
EnneagramWork - Defense Systems

_Sixes project their unacknowledged feelings and impulses onto other people. This is primarily a function of the mind, looking for evidence for their position, holding an idea or mental construct about someone else while avoiding their own emotions and instincts. They see things that are really there but blow them out of proportion. By contrast, the introjection of the Fours relies on using the emotional center and the empathy function to internalize positive feelings* from an idealized experience or relationship. This amplifies their emotional energy which can overwhelm the mind and reduce their ability to think and sort things out properly.

-Sixes use *projection* to avoid *rejection* and to maintain a self image of being *loyal*. Projection is a way of attributing to others what one can't accept in oneself, both positive and negative. Positive feelings are projected onto a romantic relationship or an external authority figure in order to assure safety and justify loyalty. Negative feelings are projected onto others to justify internal feelings of fear and distrust. Sixes support their projections by finding and amplifying the information which fits their premise. 

-Fours use *introjection* to avoid *ordinariness* and maintain a self image of being *authentic*. Positive introjection is an attempt to overcome the feeling of deficiency by seeking value from an idealized experience, work or relationship and internalizing this through the emotional center. This also leads to negative introjection: Fours tend blame themselves for whatever goes wrong in personal relationships. Their experience of loss or abandonment can take form inside as a self-rejecting voice (a negative introject) which leads to pervasive feelings of unworthiness. 
_ 
As you can see, 6s generally have problems identifying with their own emotional feelings, seeing them as coming from outside themselves (a threat, if negative; or something/someone they must align with, if positive), but 4s have a nearly opposite problem of overidentifying with their strongest emotions, seeing it as who they are (a bad/defective person, if negative; or someone exceptional, if positive), as opposed to sometimes just being a response to outside people/things. 4s use introjection to avoid feeling insignificant, since extremes of emotions have _meaning_, whether good or _bad_. 6s use projection to avoid rejection or loss of support from others - seeing the bad feelings in themselves in others instead so they don't have to face possible rejection for it and applying the good feelings to someone/something else to justify close alignment with it. 6s will generally have more focus on underlying motives and 4s on ultimate meaning. 

Of course keep in mind these are rather abstract generalizations. 

*If you are a 4 or 6 or even unsure of your type, how do you see any of this play out for you?*


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## g_w (Apr 16, 2013)

OrangeAppled said:


> Sometimes people feel confusion as to whether they or someone else is a 4 or 6.
> 
> This is a great article overall, but it also brings up a useful contrast between the two types that may help in distinguishing which one a person is:
> EnneagramWork - Defense Systems
> ...












My 5-type is feasting on this newly-found knowledge of the 6- and 4-wings.
I detect flecks of the 4 descri...ok, they pretty much nailed it.
Still researching the 6 part in my memory banks.


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## Vermillion (Jan 22, 2012)

I'm a 6w5, and I agree that projection is an important part of the 6's mindset. I think the biggest way it plays out is for the 6 to take their nameless, object-less anxiety and plaster it onto something else, turning it into a fear with a definite object. I think it's also a part of how 6s question others' motives and react skeptically or in a hostile way -- by assuming and rationalizing their "motives" or their "real opinions" or whatever.

However, I don't relate to the part about blaming others for your problems. I nearly exclusively blame myself for all my problems and the problems of those close to me. So even if I did something I know was right, if someone says it's wrong I will ask myself "am I really right? I'm probably wrong" and if someone did a bitchy thing that they should bear responsibility for, I will still unconsciously assume I deserved it or it was my fault somehow. I've actually also seen many 6s beat themselves up like that, assuming they're always at fault and need to overcome that; become braver and stronger.

Because of that I never avoid feelings of disappointment, guilt, or mistrust. I actually amplify them completely unnecessarily. I'm always working super hard to solve some problem or improve some "bad" part of myself that I amplified to distorted proportions. 

I think it helps to just frankly admit "I'm scared", so that the anxiety doesn't get a chance to be projected onto an object. *Vulnerability is projection's biggest enemy.*


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## Vermillion (Jan 22, 2012)

That said, that is how projection works for me, and I assume to an extent for other 6s. However I don't at all think that projection is limited to 6s. I have seen people of every type project like crazy, although it isn't necessarily their anxiety that they project. 

For examples, 1s may project their internal standards; 8s project their internal self-blame, and so on. Therefore I don't think projection is a defining quality of 6s.


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## mistakenforstranger (Nov 11, 2012)

> Fours use introjection to avoid ordinariness and maintain a self image of being authentic. Positive introjection is an attempt to overcome the feeling of deficiency by seeking value from an idealized experience, work or relationship and internalizing this through the emotional center. This also leads to negative introjection: Fours tend blame themselves for whatever goes wrong in personal relationships. Their experience of loss or abandonment can take form inside as a self-rejecting voice (a negative introject) which leads to pervasive feelings of unworthiness.


This definition is interesting because I don't see introjection as in the interest to "maintain a self-image of being authentic." It's actually quite an inauthentic process because you're deliberately not being yourself and/or striving to be more like an idealized other. The more you strive to be like another person who you admire, the more you lose yourself, but speaking for myself, I don't really realize it at the time because in the moment I'd rather be this "other" than myself, a person who I see is flawed/ugly/undesirable, until it reaches a point where I start to lose who I really am, and my own unique qualities. It's like method-acting in a way, and is completely tied up in the emotion of envy, which stems from shame/hatred of the real self. Introjection is a way of mitigating envy, and it's done to bring one closer to one's ideal/idol, and in doing so, believing he/she will be whole and complete. 

From Ocean-Moonshine's website:



> In the traditional Enneagram, *Fours are said to suffer from “envy.” Fours often idealize qualities they find in others and then come to envy those same qualities.* *By a process known as introjection, they sometimes try to incorporate those very same qualities into themselves.* This, in turn, once again, triggers the Four’s struggle for authenticity, as the idealized quality is seen as basically belonging to “the other.” *The envy that Fours experience is a fundamental manifestation of the Four’s feeling of defectiveness and tends to be a recurring problem for type Four individuals until such time as they have learned self-acceptance.*


As a example, I've seen this play out where I will admire a certain figure, one that has a deep resonance with me, and try to be more like this person. So, I'd wear the same clothes/style as this person, or try to have relatively the same experiences, or even imagine being like this person, all believing that I'm becoming and/or are more like my idol (i.e. the idealized self-image). Naranjo describes the 4's self-identification in this way:



> We may envision type IV psychology precisely from the point of view of an *impoverishment of being or selfhood that envy seeks to “fill up”* and which is, in turn, perpetuated through self-denigration, though the search for being through love and *through the emulation of others*. *(“I am like Einstein, therefore I exist”)*.


That's so true. At the same time, you know you can't be like this idealized other, as much as you try to "play the part", and you see the ways how they will always be better than you. The person you're trying to become, or the characteristics of them that you're taking on, also doesn't have to be socially admirable, like it doesn't have to be someone who's enviable to the general public (i.e. popular/famous). For 4s, I think there is probably some identification of self in this other you're focused on, as that ties into one's need for mirroring, but they will usually be seen as a more idealized version of you. The ideal in the envious 4's mind leads to wholeness. Healthy 4s, though, find wholeness in reality as it is, in themselves/people as they are, in the seemingly mundane. They coalesce the realms of ideal/real, or rather they see the real as the ideal. Until then, the search for the ideal goes on.


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## Sylas (Jul 23, 2016)

OrangeAppled said:


> Of course keep in mind these are rather abstract generalizations.


This instance of 4 vs. 6 differences can actually be further generalized to all types.

Every type that is is located on the left side of the enneagram, is more concerned about controlling/maintaining/re-shuffling the external world, and seeing things in the external world as something affecting them, with a tendency to _project_. While every type on the right side of the enneagram is concerned in some shape or form with controlling/maintaining and developing themselves, their own feelings, image, self-control, etc. with a tendency to _introject_.

For example type 8 is more concerned with controlling the world and people around them, while type 1 is concerned with exercising high level of control over themselves. These types are kind of inverses of each other if you think about it. One projects the focal point of power to the outside, while the other introjects it. 

This makes for a handy shortcut for telling types apart.


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