# How many total variations possible?



## melindap (Feb 2, 2019)

The official site for Enneagram says "more than 486".



> Third, since the Enneagram can accommodate more than 486 variations of the types (PT, 425), it is inevitable that some of them will be similar. For example, Sixes (at Level 6, The Authoritarian Rebel) can resemble Eights (at Level 6, The Confrontational Adversary) in that both are belligerent and authoritarian, although in noticeably different ways, as we will see in this chapter.


How did they even reach 486? Where can I find more information on all these variations as Google search seems to proof nothing further than the Triads (which is full of copyrights, $?)...

Hmm.. what's your thought on the actual number of describable variations? Penny for your thoughts?


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## enneathusiast (Dec 15, 2012)

melindap said:


> The official site for Enneagram says "more than 486".


There is no "official site" for the Enneagram. Looks like you quoted the Enneagram Institute which is only one of many interpretations.

Here's a brief rundown of the more popular ways of creating variations of the nine types.

wings - 2 variations for each type by combining with either of the adjacent types (e.g., 9w1 or 9w8).
instinctual subtypes - 3 variations of each type: the self-preservation (sp), the sexual (sx), and the social (so) subtypes (e.g., sp 9).
Levels of Development - 9 different levels of development for each type.
Tritype - ? variations of each type: 1 type from each center -891, 234, 567 (e.g., 9-4-6).

Those can also be combined to create more variations (e.g., sp 9w1-sx 4w3-so 6w7).

Each interpretation does it differently. 



melindap said:


> _Third, since the Enneagram can accommodate more than 486 variations of the types (PT, 425), it is inevitable that some of them will be similar. For example, Sixes (at Level 6, The Authoritarian Rebel) can resemble Eights (at Level 6, The Confrontational Adversary) in that both are belligerent and authoritarian, although in noticeably different ways, as we will see in this chapter._


If you want to see how the Enneagram Institute came up with "more than 486" then you need to explore their interpretation. What you quoted seems to be referencing Riso and Hudson's book Personality Types page 425 (PT, 425).


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## Jaune (Jul 11, 2013)

I guess that source is referring to each type having nine health levels or something. Here is a website that talks about those levels of development. I don't really care that much about this aspect of enneagram though.

https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/levels-of-development/

I think the wings and variants (sp, so, sx) are way more than enough, no need for this.


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## Daeva (Apr 18, 2011)

The number '486' comes from:

[Core Type] * [Instinct Stack] * [Health Level] = 9 * 6 * 9 = 486


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## melindap (Feb 2, 2019)

Daeva said:


> The number '486' comes from:
> 
> [Core Type] * [Instinct Stack] * [Health Level] = 9 * 6 * 9 = 486


Ahh I see so this is how they get the numbers..

[hr]
@enneathusiast meaning to say that enneagram is still a very much growing soft science, with many similar and differing theories on how it should be right?


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## melindap (Feb 2, 2019)

> 3Keys International - Pat Wyman
> The 3 keys approach combines the Myers-Briggs types, the Enneagram types, and affective or right brain/inner child healing.
> 9 Ways of Working - Michael Goldberg
> Arica Institute - Oscar Ichazo
> ...


HOMG there are 30+ school of thoughts on this..


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## enneathusiast (Dec 15, 2012)

melindap said:


> HOMG there are 30+ school of thoughts on this..


It all starts from the same place (the Enneagram symbol and nine types) and then gets interpreted and expanded upon by each person through whatever additional concepts they choose to use, their own background from other disciplines, their own experiences of people of different types, etc.

If you're just learning it then it's best to just start with the basics (the nine types) until you've got a good understanding of that and then begin expanding from there.


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## mistakenforstranger (Nov 11, 2012)

There are only 9 types. The Enneagram is such a shitshow if it's claiming 486 variations now. At most, I would only include wings.


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## Asd456 (Jul 25, 2017)

@mistakenforstranger "The Enneagram" isn't claiming anything, the Enneagram Institute is. If you're saying the Enneagram Institute (Riso and Hudson) is a shitshow for claiming 486 variations... yes, I completely agree with you.


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## ewdenore (Nov 16, 2017)

I will try for all the variants I've heard of. Have recently learned some combinatorics so I have an idea how to do this.

Initially there are types 1-9 for 9 primary types. With the phobicity split of 6 you have 10 primary types.

With a single wing each type has 2 possible wing variants, except 5 7 which have 3 possible wing variants due to 6 phobicity, for 6+16=22 combinations. If you allow for the possibility of 2 wings each type has 3 variants, except 5 7 which have 5 variants, for 10+24=34 combinations. If you also allow for no wings each type has 4 variants, except 5 7 which have 6 variants, for 12+32=44 combinations.

The tritype concept divides the primary types into 3 groups and gives you 1 type from each group, ordered. With 6 phobicity the groups are 8 9 1 / 2 3 4 / 5 6 cp6 7. That's group sizes of 3 3 4. Using this formula I calculate 216 possible tritypes.

If you add the full set of wings to each tritype component you have group sizes of 12 12 16. That gets you 13,824 possible tritypes with all wing variants.

Commonly an instinct dimension is added. This defines 3 instincts -- sexual, social, self preservation -- abbreviated Sx So Sp. This gets you 41,472 variants.

Instinctual stacks give each person an order of all 3 instincts. They're typically written with the final instinct elided. There are 6 permutations: Sx/Sp Sx/So Sp/So Sp/Sx So/Sp So/Sx. This produces 82,944 variants.

Including MBTI adds 16 more types for 1,327,104 variants. Also including a turbulent/assertive split adds another 16 types for 2,654,208 variants.

So at the furthest extreme we can say the type space covers *2,654,208* different types.

The Enneagram Institute also discuss health levels. This is not exactly another type but it's an interesting dimension. There are 9 options. That generates 23,887,872 possible type/health combinations.


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## Dare (Nov 8, 2016)

"How could billions of people be only nine types?" is the usual complaint. Now it's a problem if the number is too high.

But then I enjoy enneagram as a game of probability rather than arithmetic.

I only see 9 core enneagram types, 27 tritypes (archetype), 6 instinctual variants and 16 mbti. Multipliying them for a total number is misleading: it undervalues the strong correlations and overvalues the rarely-if-ever combinations. The 'reality' number isn't so high. INTJ e2s virtually don't exist, ISTJ tend to be sx blind etc etc. Getting deeper into the 'why' is the interesting part.

I also don't see the point of doing it that way bc those types are like ingredients -- if you understand each and how they interplay, you can guess what they'll extrapolate out to when mixed. No need to memorize some silly number of types. Tritype archetype follows this principle. 

There are gradients: some INTJs have higher 'N' than others, some are more A vs T etc. Same with enneagram health range. These gradients add nuance to descriptions but can't stand alone. I see wings as gradients too -- regardless of wing you are still that core type (and I'll note it's possible to have either wing or neither or both and a wing may be relatively strong or weak and may change intensity if it's currently being used by a type struggling to cope with their core defense mechanisms -- it's too impractical to make them all 'types').

Of course there are virtually an immeasurable number of nuances in people -- people are individuals, individuals in some level of flux. Core enneagram type, tritype, instinct & mbti only go so far in describing people but those aspects won't change (and put together they paint a very clear picture of a person's personality).


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## lametaoist (Mar 25, 2017)

melindap said:


> The official site for Enneagram says "more than 486".
> 
> 
> 
> ...


There are no empirically validated tests for the Enneagram, so one can just as easily say that there are 0 variations. 

Attempts to explain the infinite complexity of humanity are limited by the perspective of the person attempting to explain. If the Enneagram describes the "self," the fact remains that we still can't measure the "self," nor do we know what we would be measuring. The number of variations is only relevant in the sense that it encourages you to recognize that even members of a given type may appear very different, and that all of humanity is not contained within 9 type descriptions.


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