What is the Enneagram?
The Enneagram is a personality typing system that describes nine core patterns of human motivation. Rather than cataloguing surface behaviours, it maps the inner drive – the fear, desire and coping style – through which each of us filters experience. By revealing why we think, feel and act as we do, the Enneagram becomes both a mirror and a roadmap for personal growth.
History – from ancient roots to today
Fragments of the Enneagram symbol appear in Pythagorean mathematics, Sufi teaching stories and medieval Christian mysticism. Its modern psychological form emerged in the 20th-century work of Bolivian philosopher Óscar Ichazo and Chilean psychiatrist Claudio Naranjo. Naranjo’s students carried the system to the United States in the 1970s, where it was refined with contemporary depth-psychology and is now taught in coaching programmes, seminaries and MBA classrooms worldwide.
How the Enneagram differs from other personality typing systems
| System | Focus | What it answers | Enneagram contrast |
| MBTI / 16-Types | Cognitive preferences | How you process information | Enneagram reveals why you pursue or avoid certain experiences. |
| DiSC | Observable workstyle behaviour | What you do under pressure | Enneagram uncovers the hidden fear driving that behaviour. |
| PCM / Process Comm | Communication channels & distress patterns | How stress shows up | Enneagram shows the core fixation beneath the stress. |
| Big-Five, CliftonStrengths, VIA | Traits / talents / values | Stable descriptors | Enneagram adds a growth path that changes as self-awareness grows. |
The Nine Types in brief
- Reformer – seeks integrity and improvement, fears corruption.
- Helper – seeks connection through service, fears being unwanted.
- Achiever – seeks success and admiration, fears worthlessness.
- Individualist – seeks authenticity and depth, fears having no identity.
- Investigator – seeks knowledge and self-sufficiency, fears depletion.
- Loyalist – seeks security and guidance, fears abandonment or chaos.
- Enthusiast – seeks freedom and new experience, fears being trapped in pain.
- Challenger – seeks autonomy and control, fears weakness.
- Peacemaker – seeks harmony and ease, fears conflict and disconnection.
The Three Triads
The nine personality types of Enneagram are divided into three subcategories, called triads:
Instinctual / Body (8-9-1)
Gut-centred types meet the world through bodily intuition and anger energy. Balanced, they are grounded and decisive; unbalanced, they slip into excess control (8), passive resistance (9) or rigid perfectionism (1).
Emotional / Heart (2-3-4)
These types orient by feelings and image. At their best they radiate empathy (2), motivating excellence (3) and creative authenticity (4). Under stress they can cling, perform or dramatise.
Intellectual / Head (5-6-7)
Mind-centred types pursue certainty. Healthy 5s offer insight, 6s loyal foresight, 7s optimistic strategy. Anxiety can push them toward detachment, doubt or distraction.
Enneagram as a tool for self-knowledge
Naming your type is like switching on a light in a familiar room – you suddenly see the furniture you’ve been bumping into for years. By spotting automatic defense loops, you gain choice: to breathe before reacting, to meet others where they stand, and to extend compassion inside and out.
Enneagram in connections and partner selection
The diagram does not decree “perfect matches”; it highlights growth edges. A Helper (2) may thrive with a boundary-strong Challenger (8) if both respect each other’s core fear. Any pairing prospers when each partner learns to soothe their own reactivity and speak the other’s emotional language.
Learning and practicing the Enneagram
Curious to explore your type – and the practices that loosen its grip? Join our BrainBrush Enneagram course. Over four interactive sessions you will:
- identify your dominant type and instinct,
- map stress-and-security arrows,
- build type-specific “brain-brushing” micro-habits, and
- practice real-time empathy with every other number on the circle.
Brush your brain daily; watch self-awareness ripple through work, home and every conversation in between.