Category: One

Enneagram 1

Levels of Health for Type 1

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Type 1 Healthy Levels

Level 1 (At Their Best): Become extraordinarily wise and discerning. By accepting what is, they become transcendentally realistic, knowing the best action to take in each moment. Humane, inspiring, and hopeful: the truth will be heard.

Level 2: Conscientious with strong personal convictions: they have an intense sense of right and wrong, personal religious and moral values. Wish to be rational, reasonable, self-disciplined, mature, moderate in all things.

Level 3: Extremely principled, always want to be fair, objective, and ethical: truth and justice primary values. Sense of responsibility, personal integrity, and of having a higher purpose often make them teachers and witnesses to the truth.

Average Levels

Level 4: Dissatisfied with reality, they become high-minded idealists, feeling that it is up to them to improve everything: crusaders, advocates, critics. Into “causes” and explaining to others how things “ought” to be.

Level 5: Afraid of making a mistake: everything must be consistent with their ideals. Become orderly and well-organized, but impersonal, puritanical, emotionally constricted, rigidly keeping their feelings and impulses in check. Often workaholics—”anal-compulsive,” punctual, pedantic, and fastidious.

Level 6: Highly critical both of self and others: picky, judgmental, perfectionistic. Very opinionated about everything: correcting people and badgering them to “do the right thing”—as they see it. Impatient, never satisfied with anything unless it is done according to their prescriptions. Moralizing, scolding, abrasive, and indignantly angry.

Unhealthy Levels

Level 7: Can be highly dogmatic, self-righteous, intolerant, and inflexible. Begin dealing in absolutes: they alone know “The Truth.” Everyone else is wrong: very severe in judgments, while rationalizing own actions.

Level 8: Become obsessive about imperfection and the wrongdoing of others, although they may fall into contradictory actions, hypocritically doing the opposite of what they preach.

Level 9: Become condemnatory toward others, punitive and cruel to rid themselves of wrongdoers. Severe depressions, nervous breakdowns, and suicide attempts are likely. Generally corresponds to the Obsessive-Compulsive and Depressive personality disorders.

Don Riso on Enneagram 1

Posted on by DrToni

1 – THE REFORMER
Enneagram Type One

The Rational, Idealistic Type:
Principled, Purposeful, Self-Controlled, and Perfectionistic

Type One in Brief

Ones are conscientious and ethical, with a strong sense of right and wrong. They are teachers, crusaders, and advocates for change: always striving to improve things, but afraid of making a mistake. Well-organized, orderly, and fastidious, they try to maintain high standards but can slip into being critical and perfectionistic. They typically have problems with resentment and impatience. At their Best: wise, discerning, realistic, and noble. Can be morally heroic.

  • Basic Fear: Of being corrupt/evil, defective
  • Basic Desire: To be good, to have integrity, to be balanced
  • Enneagram One with a Nine-Wing: “The Idealist”
  • Enneagram One with a Two-Wing: “The Advocate”

Key Motivations: Want to be right, to strive higher and improve everything, to be consistent with their ideals, to justify themselves, to be beyond criticism so as not to be condemned by anyone.

The Meaning of the Arrows (in brief)

When moving in their Direction of Disintegration (stress), methodical Ones suddenly become moody and irrational at Four. However, when moving in their Direction of Integration (growth), angry, critical Ones become more spontaneous and joyful, like healthy Sevens. Learn more about the arrows.

Examples: Confucius, Plato, Salahuddin Ayyubi, Joan of Arc, Sir Thomas More, Mahatma Gandhi, Pope John Paul II, Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher, Prince Charles, Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, Jimmy Carter, Michelle Obama, Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Elliot Spitzer, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Osama bin Laden, George Bernard Shaw, Thoreau, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, Anita Roddick (The Body Shop), Martha Stewart, Chef Thomas Keller, Michio Kushi (macrobiotics), George Harrison, Joan Baez, Celine Dion, Ralph Nader, Noam Chomsky, Bill Moyers, George F. Will, William F. Buckley, Keith Olbermann, Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Maher, Tina Fey, Katherine Hepburn, Maggie Smith, Emma Thompson, Julie Andrews, Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Fonda, Meryl Streep, Harrison Ford, Helen Hunt, Captain “Sully” Sullenberger, “Mary Poppins,” “Mr. Spock,” SNL’s “The Church Lady”

Type One Overview

We have named personality type One The Reformer because Ones have a “sense of mission” that leads them to want to improve the world in various ways, using whatever degree of influence they have. They strive to overcome adversity—particularly moral adversity—so that the human spirit can shine through and make a difference. They strive after “higher values,” even at the cost of great personal sacrifice.

History is full of Ones who have left comfortable lives to do something extraordinary because they felt that something higher was calling them. During the Second World War, Raoul Wallenburg left a comfortable middle-class life to work for the protection of thousands of European Jews from invading Nazis. In India, Gandhi left behind his wife and family and life as a successful lawyer to become an itinerant advocate of Indian independence and non-violent social changes. Joan of Arc left her village in France to restore the throne to the Dauphin and to expel the English from the country. The idealism of each of these Ones has inspired millions.

Ones are people of practical action—they wish to be useful in the best sense of the word. On some level of consciousness, they feel that they “have a mission” to fulfill in life, if only to try their best to reduce the disorder they see in their environment.

Although Ones have a strong sense of purpose, they also typically feel that they have to justify their actions to themselves, and often to others as well. This orientation causes Ones to spend a lot of time thinking about the consequences of their actions, as well as about how to keep from acting contrary to their convictions. Because of this, Ones often persuade themselves that they are “head” types, rationalists who proceed only on logic and objective truth. But, the real picture is somewhat different: Ones are actually activists who are searching for an acceptable rationale for what they feel they must do. They are people of instinct and passion who use convictions and judgments to control and direct themselves and their actions.

In the effort to stay true to their principles, Ones resist being affected by their instinctual drives, consciously not giving in to them or expressing them too freely. The result is a personality type that has problems with repression, resistance, and aggression. They are usually seen by others as highly self- controlled, even rigid, although this is not how Ones experience themselves. It seems to them that they are sitting on a cauldron of passions and desires, and they had better “keep the lid on” lest they and everyone else around them regret it.

Cassandra is a therapist in private practice who recalls the difficulty this caused her in her youth.

“I remember in high school getting feedback that I had no feelings. Inside, I felt my feelings intensely and yet I just couldn’t let them out as intensely as I felt them. Even now, if I have a conflict with a friend and need to address an issue, I rehearse ahead of time how to express clearly what I want, need, and observe, and yet not be harsh or blaming in my anger which is often scathing.”

Ones believe that being strict with themselves (and eventually becoming “perfect”) will justify them in their own eyes and in the eyes of others. But by attempting to create their own brand of perfection, they often create their own personal hell. Instead of agreeing with the statement in Genesis that God saw what He had created, “and it was good,” Ones intensely feel that “It wasn’t—there obviously have been some mistakes here!” This orientation makes it difficult for them to trust their inner guidance—indeed, to trust life—so Ones come to rely heavily on their superego, a learned voice from their childhood, to guide them toward “the greater good” which they so passionately seek. When Ones have gotten completely entranced in their personality, there is little distinction between them and this severe, unforgiving voice. Separating from it and seeing its genuine strengths and limitations is what growth for Ones is about.

(from The Wisdom of the Enneagram, p. 99-100)

Type One—Levels of Development

Healthy Levels

Level 1 (At Their Best): Become extraordinarily wise and discerning. By accepting what is, they become transcendentally realistic, knowing the best action to take in each moment. Humane, inspiring, and hopeful: the truth will be heard.

Level 2: Conscientious with strong personal convictions: they have an intense sense of right and wrong, personal religious and moral values. Wish to be rational, reasonable, self-disciplined, mature, moderate in all things.

Level 3: Extremely principled, always want to be fair, objective, and ethical: truth and justice primary values. Sense of responsibility, personal integrity, and of having a higher purpose often make them teachers and witnesses to the truth.

Average Levels

Level 4: Dissatisfied with reality, they become high-minded idealists, feeling that it is up to them to improve everything: crusaders, advocates, critics. Into “causes” and explaining to others how things “ought” to be.

Level 5: Afraid of making a mistake: everything must be consistent with their ideals. Become orderly and well-organized, but impersonal, puritanical, emotionally constricted, rigidly keeping their feelings and impulses in check. Often workaholics—”anal-compulsive,” punctual, pedantic, and fastidious.

Level 6: Highly critical both of self and others: picky, judgmental, perfectionistic. Very opinionated about everything: correcting people and badgering them to “do the right thing”—as they see it. Impatient, never satisfied with anything unless it is done according to their prescriptions. Moralizing, scolding, abrasive, and indignantly angry.

Unhealthy Levels

Level 7: Can be highly dogmatic, self-righteous, intolerant, and inflexible. Begin dealing in absolutes: they alone know “The Truth.” Everyone else is wrong: very severe in judgments, while rationalizing own actions.

Level 8: Become obsessive about imperfection and the wrongdoing of others, although they may fall into contradictory actions, hypocritically doing the opposite of what they preach.

Level 9: Become condemnatory toward others, punitive and cruel to rid themselves of wrongdoers. Severe depressions, nervous breakdowns, and suicide attempts are likely. Generally corresponds to the Obsessive-Compulsive and Depressive personality disorders.

Compatibility with Other Types

Type 1 in relationship with type:

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

Misidentification with Other Types

Type 1 compared with type:

2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

Addictions

Excessive use of diets, vitamins, and cleansing techniques (fasts, diet pills, enemas). Under-eating for self-control: in extreme cases anorexia and bulimia. Alcohol to relieve tension.

Personal Growth Recommendations
for Enneagram Type Ones

  • Learn to relax. Take some time for yourself, without feeling that everything is up to you or that what you do not accomplish will result in chaos and disaster. Mercifully, the salvation of the world does not depend on you alone, even though you may sometimes feel it does.
  • You have a lot to teach others and are probably a good teacher, but do not expect others to change immediately. What is obvious to you may not be as obvious to them, especially if they are not used to being as self-disciplined and objective about themselves as you are about yourself. Many people may also want to do what is right and may agree with you in principle but for various reasons simply cannot change right away. The fact that others do not change immediately according to your prescriptions does not mean that they will not change sometime in the future. Your words and above all, your example may do more good than you realize, although they may take longer than you expect. So have patience.
  • It is easy for you to work yourself up into a lather about the wrongdoings of others. And it may sometimes be true that they are wrong. But what is it to you? Your irritation with them will do nothing to help them see another way of being. Similarly, beware of your constant irritation with your own “shortcomings.” Does your own harsh self-criticism really help you to improve? Or does it simply make you tense, nervous, and self-doubting? Learn to recognize the attacks of your superego and how they undermine rather than help you.
  • It is important for you to get in touch with your feelings, particularly your unconscious impulses. You may find that you are uneasy with your emotions and your sexual and aggressive impulses—in short, with the messy human things that make us human. It might be beneficial to keep a journal or to get into some kind of group therapy or other group work both to develop your emotions and to see that others will not condemn you for having human needs and limitations.
  • Your Achilles’ heel is your self-righteous anger. You get angry easily and are offended by what seems to you to be the perverse refusal of others to do the right thing—as you have defined it. Try to step back and see that your anger alienates people so that they cannot hear many of the good things you have to say. Further, your own repressed anger may well be giving you an ulcer or high blood pressure and is a harbinger of worse things to come.

Learn More

The Riso-Hudson Books offer the most complete type descriptions available anywhere. Personality Types is the most complete, in-depth, systematic treatment of the nine types and the Enneagram system as a whole, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram provides the comprehensive guide to psychological and spiritual growth for the nine personality types.

 

https://enneagram.tonilamotta.com/teaching-notes/checklists/

 

Reflections from an Enneagram One

Posted on by DrToni

 Learning to Live in Grace

It’s exhausting to know me.

I talk really fast; I’m constantly doing too much. Every cause is my cause. I want to know your pain, listen to your pain, and then come up with a solution. I am hypercritical of every situation, and I focus most of that criticism on myself. As my husband says, “You’re exhausting!”

I am a One on the Enneagram, often called “the Perfectionist.” As The Enneagram Institute website explains, Ones are “conscientious and ethical, with a strong sense of right and wrong.” When we are healthy, we are committed to living a life that is both ethical and devoted to service. Healthy Ones are also responsible and can offer grace both to themselves and others when something is not perfect. Ones are committed to making the world a better place.

However, when Ones are unhealthy, we tend to become hypercritical. Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile explain in their book, The Road Back to You, “They chase perfection because they have this vague, unsettling feeling that if they make a mistake someone is going to jump out to blame, criticize or punish them.” The compulsive need to fix what is broken causes anger—the deadly sin of the One—to raise its ugly head. “Ones stuff their anger until it sits right below the surface, where it expresses itself to everyone as smoldering resentment,” Cron and Stabile write.

Ones’ criticism of the outside world is magnified when turned inward. Their inner critic can point out every misspoken word and every misplaced look and act, causing them to freeze up in fear of failing. But when Ones begin to befriend their inner critic by responding to the critical voice with, “It’s okay; I am a One on the Enneagram. Even if I’m not perfect, I am still good, and people will still love me,” we can lean into our naturally joyful selves.

The Reformer

Ones are also sometimes called “the Reformer.” As a reformer, I am constantly wondering how I can make the world around me better. I can express righteous anger and am quick to come up with solutions to move to a more just world.

This past year I’ve been struck by the injustice that women face in ministry. My desire to advocate has caused me to raise my voice for others and given a voice to some significant problems that women face in ministry. I’ve been able to see policies change to better equip and serve women in ministry. But, I’ve also seen my self-righteous side in conversations. When I’m not careful, I can internally judge men for their treatment of women and sometimes doubt some of my brothers’ commitments to their fellow sisters and me.

Ones’ desire to see God’s kingdom come can create a self-righteous attitude. As The Road Back to You says, “Because they believe they occupy the superior moral, ethical and spiritual high ground, Ones believe their way is the only right way of seeing and doing things and therefore feel justified in being judgmental and critical of others.” Our principled desire to make the world a better place can allow us to make an impact in bringing God’s kingdom here. However, we have to be careful to remember grace when dealing with ourselves and others.

Connecting with God

Early on in my faith, I believed that to be a good Christian you had to spend an hour with God every day. I was able to open my Bible daily for the first week. However, it didn’t take long before I was trying to “prove” I was a good enough Christian. I made being “good enough” an idol.

Accepting God’s grace is hard. Because of all of my flaws, I feel unworthy of Christ’s love. Learning to accept God’s grace and acceptance is a constant journey. And as I grow in my relationship with Jesus, I have to remind myself that he chose me because of who he is.

Being a One means that my personality wants to please God. However, it also means that I am constantly struggling against perfectionism, which keeps me from connecting with God and others. When I notice that I’m holding people at a distance so that they don’t see the hot mess that I am, I’ve started to imagine myself physically laying down the image I have of a perfect Christian. This practice—known as detachment—helps me find freedom from perfectionism.

Connecting with Others

Often my perfectionism can be a shield I use to protect myself from getting to know others. I have a hard time letting my guard down, terrified that if someone sees the real me, they will run away. This often stops me from connecting with others emotionally.

I hosted a Business and Faith Panel for fraternity men. After spending 500 dollars on promotions, bringing in five business leaders, and working for hours to host the panel, only two fraternity men showed up. I was devastated. I tried to hide my pain from the panelist. However, one of the men said, “It’s okay to be upset.” As I broke down in sobs, the men joined me in praying over the brokenness of our campus and praying for revival among fraternity men. I was afraid that letting them see my pain would be proof that I didn’t belong on InterVarsity staff. Instead, my pain and imperfection gave the five men a chance to minister to me and to remind me that it was God who is the worker.

While I might not be warm and fuzzy, I will always take care of those I love. Cron and Stabile write, “Ones say I love you by being responsible and doing what’s expected of them to make the world a better, more secure place for you.” This makes me the perfect person to be your bridesmaid, but not always the one to go to for a hug.

Understanding Myself

As a One, I have a hard time naming my anger and my emotions. Knowing my Enneagram type has helped me label how I feel so that I can catch my frustration. I struggle with feeling resentful toward others whose work ethic is different than mine. However, understanding where that anger comes from helps me recognize that emotion, name it, and address my criticism without exploding at other people.

That has also been true about my perfectionism. During a writing course I once took, the teacher kept calling me a perfectionist. I was stunned because all I see are my flaws. When I realized that that view is actually proof of my perfectionism, I was able to see that I’m not perfect, but I’m okay. It also helped me to walk into the truth that sometimes I have to let my image of the perfect person go.

The act of naming my emotions has also given me the freedom to experience a healthier expression of my personality. I’m able to be joyful and silly. When I’m healthy, I can be self-accepting of my flaws and of the flaws of the world around me. I still want to address the needs around me; however, I do it with a smile when I’m healthy.

Ones see in the world an invitation to fix its problems. And while that may be exhausting for you, just imagine what it’s like inside our heads. When we are healthy, we are a force for the kingdom. Just help us by showing us a little encouragement and a whole lot of grace.

Paula Frances Price is a team leader and campus staff member for InterVarsity at the University of Georgia. She is a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority.

Type One

Posted on by DrToni

Personality Style ONE: The Good Person

Core Value Tendency: ONES are attracted to and value goodness. They desire to be good persons, seeking to make the world a better place to live in. They want to realize all of their potential and help others actualize theirs. They want to be all that they can be and help others do the same. Doing your best and living up to your potential is what life is all about.

Adaptive Cognitive Schema: The objective vision that keeps ONES aligned with their true nature and with reality is the realization that becoming all that they can be, coming to completion, wholeness, and perfection is a continually unfolding process vs a sooner- rather – than – later finished product. As long as ONES are living in accordance with their true nature, allowing the process of organismic self-regulation to occur, they are perfect. They cannot be other than who they are at the moment.

Adaptive Emotional Schema: The state that accompanies ONES’ objective paradigm is serenity, a sense of inner wholeness and self-support. Those who are serene are at ease with themselves, are relaxed with others, and are in touch with the present moment. Serenity responds where personal intervention is required and acquiesces when letting go is appropriate.

Adaptive Behavioral Schemas: The actions that flow from an understanding of perfection as a process and a state of serenity involve a passion and habit for excellence and a desire to do things well. ONES have high principles, high moral standards, and high performance requirements. They are conscientious, dedicated, persevering, reliable, hard-working, and industrious. They have a highly developed and practiced intuition for when someone or something is doing what it is supposed to do. A being is good when it is fully itself and when it is fully doing what it is meant to do. ONES constantly compare a present reality to its ideal state. They know what is missing and what should be there. This makes them natural quality control experts.

Maladaptive Cognitive Schema: When ONES exaggerate their good qualities, they over-identify with the idealized self-image of I am good; I am right. To compensate for a maladaptive belief that they are not good enough, and to keep themselves immune from criticism, they hold unrealistically high standards, trying to be perfect and do most things perfectly in order to be acceptable to others and to themselves. They habitually compare what is to what they think should be and reality falls short of their ideals and absolutes.

Maladaptive Emotional Schema: As a consequence of never living up to their idealizations, ONES experience the passion of anger and resentment since no one (especially themselves) ever comes up to their expectations. They are angry because nothing is as right as it ought to be. And they are resentful because they aren’t recognized or rewarded enough for their efforts nor are they accepted for who they are. Life isn’t fair.

Maladaptive Behavioral Schemas: Perennially perceiving the world as imperfect, and relentlessly feeling resentment about the shoddy state of affairs, ONES are driven to make things better. They tense their jaws, clench their teeth, bear down, and carry on. They interfere with the natural unfolding of life and events in an effort to make things perfect NOW. The better becomes the enemy of the good. It’s a challenge for ONES to leave things alone and just let them be.

What is Avoided: Because they are trying hard to be good, ONES avoid experiencing or expressing their anger. Good boys and good girls shouldn’t be angry. They are either unaware of their anger or are reluctant to express it directly. Since they want to be right, they avoid and protest being wrong. They don’t like to think of themselves as being lazy, irresponsible, sloppy, etc.

Defensive Maneuvers: ONES ward off unacceptable impulses and behaviors by doing the opposite of what they are tempted to do. This is called reaction formation. If they are tempted to take it easy, they work harder. If unwanted sexual desires arise, ONES become moralistic and Puritanical. If anger surfaces, they may rely on righteous indignation; that is, they have a right to be angry. Or they may sublimate their anger and wage the cosmic war against crud, crusading against injustice, inexactness, tardiness, sloppiness, etc.

Childhood Development: ONES were rewarded for being good and excelling and punished for being bad and performing poorly. They were often “hero” children who did everything right to help out their parents. They hoped their being good would hold the family together. They started out with the sense that everything, including themselves, was fine as it was. But then significant people came along and informed them that their spontaneous responses weren’t O.K. This was the beginning of their “judging mind.” As ONES began to do something spontaneously, the judgment arose: “Is this good enough? Am I doing this right?” Eventually shoulds and abstract idealizations replaced wants and personal values. ONES came to believe they would be somebody if their standards were higher than everyone else’s. And they were nobody or worth nothing if they weren’t perfect.

Non-Resourceful State: When ONES are under stress, they do more of the same, that is, they try harder, put out more effort, get more serious, and become more frustrated and resentful. When all their efforts still don’t get them affirmed or don’t satisfy their needs or fill their emptiness, they get discouraged, give up trying to fix things, point their criticisms toward themselves, pull the trigger, get depressed, and lapse into melancholy. In this non-resourceful state they feel misunderstood, victimized, taken advantage of. The world doesn’t appreciate or reward their efforts to make things better.

Resourceful State: When ONES are in a resourceful relaxed state, they take themselves and the situation less seriously. They lighten up instead of getting heavier. They get in touch with their spontaneous playful side. They notice what’s right and what’s there instead of what’s wrong or what’s missing. They operate from the adaptive belief that they are O.K., even though they’re not perfect. They trust that the universe is unfolding as it should. It’s O.K., too. Trust allows them to go with the flow and not push the river, since it’s flowing by itself. They do what they find pleasurable and desirable, what they want to do instead of what they should do. In a resourceful place, ONES are optimistic, accepting and present to whatever is. I am therefore I am good replaces I’m perfect therefore I’m acceptable.

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