# Which of the 27 (core type + dominant instinct) subtypes do you relate to?



## Swordsman of Mana (Jan 7, 2011)

1) which do you relate to most?
2) which other ones do you relate to?

btw, these are notes from a Naranjo seminar on Subtypes


> *Enneagram One*
> 
> *Self-Preservation: Worry.* Obsession about details, about getting it right, fussy someone who never
> ceases to check and double-check ("Will enough people come to the banquet?" "Will the car have
> ...





> *Enneagram Two *
> 
> *Self-Preservation: Egocentric ("Me first").* Infantile, like a child ("I am the most important thing"). It's not
> power, but the child's feeling of being privileged; e.g., the wife in David Copperfield who didn't know how
> ...





> *Enneagram Three *
> 
> *Self-Preservation: Security*. In their obsession for security they make themselves sure of themselves.
> These Threes are too sure of themselves. They reject the experience of insecurity. They seem to be
> ...





> *Enneagram Four *
> 
> *Self-Preservation: Tenacious.* Different from other Fours (who are very oral in their drive to get
> something good from the outside). More self-sacrificing, more self-contained. A denial of envy, trouble
> ...





> *Enneagram Five *
> 
> *Self-Preservation: Lair.* Metaphorically, hiding inside a cave or castle with thick walls, creating a private
> space. More sadness, more suffering, more yearning, more nostalgia. Hidden because of inability to
> ...





> Enneagram Six
> 
> *Self-Preservation: Warmth (harmless)*. Very soft, "See how nice I am?" Like an animal showing its soft
> underbelly, "I'm no threat." Completely the opposite of Strength and Beauty; here it's based on
> ...





> *Enneagram Seven *
> 
> *Self-Preservation: Family (doesn't need to be "blood" family).* Very earthy, sensuous, focused on tastes,
> colors, tactile stimulation; a little cynical like the Eight, not so gullible; counting on one another is
> ...





> *Enneagram Eight *
> 
> *Self-Preservation: Satisfaction.* Less known about this subtype because they don't want to talk about it.
> More Machiavellian. You do what you need to do to get what you want. More anti-social. Great desire for
> ...





> *Enneagram Nine *
> 
> *Self-Preservation: Appetite.* The "heavy" ones. Feel heavy, may take a lot to fill a void. Serves sloth
> through appetite, but "eating" of a different order (obesity can be a drive, a passion; e.g., Sancho Panza).
> ...


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## enneathusiast (Dec 15, 2012)

None of the descriptions as listed. They seem to be missing the core descriptions of the subtypes, as if they're only peripheral notes to more substantial descriptions.


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## Swordsman of Mana (Jan 7, 2011)

> 1) which do you relate to most?


Sp 7



> 2) which other ones do you relate to?


*extremely:* Sp 7, Sx 7, Sx 2, Sx 6
*a lot:* Sx 1, Sp 8, Sx 8, Sx 4


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## HellCat (Jan 17, 2013)

These. CP6w5 Sx/Sp 4w3 Sp 8w7 Sx/Sp

Enneagram Six 



Sexual: Strength and Beauty. The strength is a strength of impulse, a knowledge that if sexual life is 
going to operate there has to be some kind of voltage, and let's say that fear is interfering with that 
process. It's as if there would be compensation. A drive to make it unfold, as if fear were not there. A 
"push" forward as if "You're not going to hold me back!" "Counterphobic" is an alternative term for 
Strength and Beauty. They might be body builders, but women can be just as strong as men. There 
might be an ability to stand by one's ideals or being confrontive with an element of moral integrity. But 
even the men have a thing about "beauty" – the word for "beauty" in the Latin language is bellum, which 
comes from war - so it has something to do with aggression, passion about beauty; e.g., Michaelangelo 
was a counterphobic Six who would speak up, not let himself be bossed around. (Tells story of female 
friend who is an analyst and who said to a taxi driver, "Slower please!" and Naranjo remarked "You have 
more authority than I" because there was command in her statement. He commented "I'm shyer than you 
are," and she replied "It's not courage, it's panic.") The kind of strength that Pop-Eye has with spinach is 
a natural instinct that’s "boosted," an element of intention that has become automatic. Very strong 
people, powerful men and women who typically don't have a very happy sex life. They can be abrasive 
but underneath shy and sensitive and not very fulfilled in relationships. Here, you harm yourself by 
developing your physical muscles or your psychological "muscles" in your capacity to intimidate—a kind 
of bulldog. For the sexual Six "the best defense is aggression." The real courage is to drop the fire-arms, 
to develop more of the "wisdom of insecurity," to be able to say "I'm scared." 

Enneagram Four 


Self-Preservation: Tenacious. Different from other Fours (who are very oral in their drive to get 
something good from the outside). More self-sacrificing, more self-contained. A denial of envy, trouble 
finding envy in themselves, partly because of the descriptions in vogue when the Enneagram first 
became known. So afraid of dependency, of being hurt, they become counterdependent, autonomous. 
Self-demanding ("No matter what it may cost..."). Instead of demanding from the outside world, they 
demand from themselves. Self-devouring; they can turn on themselves with cruelty—"I'll make myself do 
it!" Van Gogh is an example. His painting became a kind of religion and he chose a life of great poverty 
"for his art." He sold one painting in his lifetime, yet recently the Sunflower sold for $54 million. (Gaugin 
was an Eight.) This subtype doesn't play the victim; volunteers as martyr without exhibiting it, more of a 
nobleness. 

I relate to the competitiveness of the 4sx career wise. 


Definitely more 2sx seeming, the difference is for me it is a defense, not a conquest thing. Sort of like a lionfish flaring its poisoned spikes. So not a 2sx no matter how much I resemble one to people. 


Enneagram Eight 


Sexual: Possession/Obsession. Very angry and dramatic. More emotional, hysterical, in the broader 
sense (more bravado). The will to take hold of the other and make them do what you want, tyrannical; 
passion for possession and surrender (like the Praying Mantis). "Going whole hog including the postage," 
full involvement, more "sadistic." More angry, more liking to humiliate or insult, sometimes to cause 
suffering (e.g., Stalin or Hussein).





Self-Preservation: Satisfaction. Less known about this subtype because they don't want to talk about it. 
More Machiavellian. You do what you need to do to get what you want. More anti-social. Great desire for 
privacy, more Five-ish, less feeling. More contained, less visible as an Eight.


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## braided pain (Jul 6, 2012)

Most of all: Sx 6

_Very_ strongly: Sp 6, Sp 8, Sx 4

A lot: Sp 5, Sx 1


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## 0+n*1 (Sep 20, 2013)

I wouldn't choose any of those description but to answer your question I relate to bits of 4sp, 9sp and maybe a bit of 1sp, 5sp and 5so, but all sound too big of a stretch.

A lot of them sound insulting to me. Maybe I should add 6sp to the list and some 7sp too.


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## d e c a d e n t (Apr 21, 2013)

I don't really relate to any of them. Except vaguely to the sp 6 description, I suppose. 

Kinda agree with @enneathusiast that they seem a bit lacking in substance.


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## Grau the Great (Mar 2, 2012)

Just based on the descriptions themselves, I probably relate most to Social 2, weirdly enough. Sx 1, So 7 and So 8 would be the others I relate to.

I don't relate to what's almost certainly my actual type (So 1) though, which brings me to my major problem with descriptions. A few of these are pretty good (so 3, sx 6, sp 7, so 8 and sx 1 are all good IMO), and others are total crap. It seems to me that people are naturally going to relate to the 'good' descriptions and avoid the bad ones like the plague, even if that happens to be their actual type.

Perhaps I shouldn't be complaining though. At least I'm just an arrogant tea swilling colonialist. The Social 6s are apparently Hitler's henchmen.

You know what they say: there's nothing like being compared to history's most famous war criminals to provoke some honest self-reflection. :laughing:


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## Swordsman of Mana (Jan 7, 2011)

@Grau the Great
honestly, I think you are a Sexual 1. Social 1 is more obviously superego while Sexual 1 is more fiery and 8-like.


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## Grau the Great (Mar 2, 2012)

Swordsman of Mana said:


> @_Grau the Great_
> honestly, I think you are a Sexual 1. Social 1 is more obviously superego while Sexual 1 is more fiery and 8-like.


Based solely on descriptions like these, I would agree. However, that doesn't take into account what the motivations of the instincts themselves are, and after learning them over time I've realized there's not much at all about sx (or sp for that matter) that I relate to. 

So yeah, you have a point that I do behave similarly to how Sx 1s are described here, but that doesn't really have anything to do with what the sx instinct is actually about and what drives it.


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## FullmetalHeart (Dec 24, 2013)

Definitely sp 5 followed closely by sx 5. These descriptions are very fitting for me. I am a private person who secretly longs for the world outside. Other than that? I see shades of myself in sp 1, sx 1, sp 4, so 4, sp 6, and maybe sx 7.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## spiderfrommars (Feb 22, 2012)

Most relate to: sx5
Also: sx2, sp2, so5
And a bit to: sp5, so8


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## Sixty Nein (Feb 13, 2011)

Swordsman of Mana said:


> 1) which do you relate to most?


SP 9, outside of the concreteness (I like to think I am both concrete and abstract. Able to switch whenever I wish)



> 2) which other ones do you relate to?


SP and SX 2, SP 5, SP/SX 6 (Specifically in that order), SX 7


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## Swordsman of Mana (Jan 7, 2011)

Sixty Nein said:


> SP 9, outside of the concreteness (I like to think I am both concrete and abstract. Able to switch whenever I wish)
> SP and SX 2, SP 5, SP/SX 6 (Specifically in that order), SX 7


you're Sp/So and relate to Sexual 2?


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## Sixty Nein (Feb 13, 2011)

Swordsman of Mana said:


> you're Sp/So and relate to Sexual 2?


When did you get the idea that I was strictly SP/SO instead of just SP? I thought of being SP/SO but it didn't make too much sense for me really.

And yes I sort of relate to SX 2, though that's more like a forgone wish than something that I did. Like an internet persona that sometimes take on.


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## mushr00m (May 23, 2011)

1: I relate to this on some level though I think it's more related to my 6 future anticipation worries at a more immediate level. 
Parts of Soc 1. SX 1 seems quite alien to me, I felt almost exhausted just reading it, lol! 

4: I relate to the turning in on yourself from the gist of this description. And related some to the Soc 4.

6: I related to all the descriptions but moreso the SP and Soc.

7: I related a lot to the the Sx and Soc descriptions.

8: Very occasionally moments I see 8ish stuff from the Sx description but only when pushed to that point so it's not very often.

9: I related to the Sp 9 description.

And related to small parts in the 2, 3 and 5 descriptions.


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## Recede (Nov 23, 2011)

I don't relate to any of these descriptions, but out of all variant descriptions I've ever read, the one that resonates the most is this sp/sx 5 description: 



> *Self-pres/Sexual*
> 
> 
> This subtype, like the self-pres/social, is more typical of the depictions of type Five. The self-preservationist instinct accentuates the self-contained, withdrawing tendencies of the Five. Fives of this subtype love their time alone with a passion, and pursue it more actively even than the other subtype of self-pres Five, although with the sexual instinct second, they often want to find time for intimates as well. On the down side, they have more disdain for people and little use for the social aspects of life. They want to be left alone or they want to share their inner world with their intimates. The intensity of the sexual instinct is reserved for their intimates and even there it is sporadic. The self-pres energy gives this subtype a solid foundation and some degree of practicality.
> ...


I also relate to this sx 5 description:



> All of the intimate styles tend to gravitate to one-on-one relationships. In the case of the intimate Five, the relationship is often one of shared secrecy. It's you and me against or at least without the rest of the world.
> In the case of the intimate Five, part of the focus on the partner is parsimony. "I only have enough emotional juice for one person." The other person becomes the focus of attention, but also the only place to put the precious resource of time and affection. There is not much, so they don't waste it on anybody other than the chosen one.
> Because Fives live in their head (remember Descartes, "I think, therefore I am") a primary way of showing affection is sharing secrets. While everyone else in the world is kept at arms length and privacy is an obsession, Fives can share everything with this one person.
> Sometimes sharing information can actually replace sexual intimacy. Sex, Lies and Videotape is an old movie that has stood the test of time. It may seem a bit kinky to some because James Spader plays an intimate Five who substitutes video taping girls talking about sex but does not have sex with them. The movie is an Enneagram clinic and Spader nails the dynamic of an intimate subtype Five.
> ...


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## kitsu (Feb 13, 2013)

Surprising, sp 6, I couldn't relate to single other one of the 27. I'm supposedly so/sx but really not so sure lately


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## Coburn (Sep 3, 2010)

None.


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## Swordsman of Mana (Jan 7, 2011)

Sixty Nein said:


> When did you get the idea that I was strictly SP/SO instead of just SP? I thought of being SP/SO but it didn't make too much sense for me really.
> And yes I sort of relate to SX 2, though that's more like a forgone wish than something that I did. Like an internet persona that sometimes take on.


well, if you relate to Sx 2, I sure as hell can't see you as Sx last XD


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## Daeva (Apr 18, 2011)

I relate *somewhat* to..

sx 3 ;
sx 4 ; so 4 ;
sx 5 ; so 5 ;
sp 6 ; sx 6 ;
sx 7 ; so 7;
sx 9 ;

but really, none of them seem to describe me.

They're stereotypes, and if there's one thing I'm not...


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## mirrorghost (Sep 18, 2012)

none super-especially, and i am not sure i completely even understand all of them, but if i had to pick...

1) which do you relate to most?
sp4

2) which other ones do you relate to?

a lot: sp5

somewhat: sx4, sx8, sx9.


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