One (Enneagram)
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One is one of the nine personality types of the Enneagram, and is sometimes called the Reformer, the Critic, or the Perfectionist.
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[edit] Basic Description
Reformers are people who feel a need to improve their environments and overcome moral adversity in order to make the world a better place. Reformers learn to repress their emotions and instincts in order to stay true to their principles. By trying to become perfect, they create their own personal hells. Only when Reformers realize that it is important to trust life and accept things the way they are can they truly improve themselves.
[edit] Childhood
Reformers often feel that they had to be good kids in order to be accepted. They become serious and take on responsibilities at a young age. Reformers often feel a disconnection from their biological fathers. This does not mean that their fathers were bad parents; it's just that an essential bonding never took place. As a result, the child decides to become his or her own father-figure and try to live up to this new figure's rigorous standards.
[edit] Wings
[edit] One With A Nine Wing: The Idealist
[edit] Healthy
When 1w9s are healthy, they are often scholarly and reclusive. However, they are seen as kind, generous, and considerate. They are often intellectuals and are devoted to their principles.
[edit] Average
When ones are average, they tend to also be reclusive, but they are also elitist and condescending to people they consider "less" than themselves.
[edit] Unhealthy
Unhealthy 1w9s cut themselves off from their emotions and contradictions. They resist contrary opinions to their own, and they have no compassion for others. They become obsessed with the wrongdoings of others and try to rectify them, while ignoring contradictions in their own behavior. They do not realize how much harm they inflict on others.
[edit] Examples of 1w9s
Examples of 1w9s are Plato, Gandhi, Sandra Day O'Connor, George Harrison, Henry David Thoreau, Martha Stewart, Katharine Hepburn, Al Gore, George F. Will, Noam Chomsky, and Mr. Spock.
[edit] One With A Two Wing: The Advocate
[edit] Healthy
People who are 1w2s put their moral ideals and desire to help others into a powerful reform package. They are persuasive and enlist multitudes of others to help their good causes.
[edit] Average
These outgoing people are also good at politics, but they are also very critical and irritable when they are frustrated.
[edit] Unhealthy
Unhealthy 1w2s are intolerant, condescending, and manipulative. They deceive themselves about their motives and are self-righteous when these motives are questioned. They are hypocrites. These people may have physical problems, compulsive habits, or nervous breakdowns because they are so anxious about their self-contradictions.
[edit] Examples of 1w2s
Examples include Joan Baez,Confucius, John Bradshaw, Jerry Brown, Hillary Clinton, Céline Dion, Jane Fonda, Emma Thompson, Ralph Nader, Vanessa Redgrave, and John Paul II.
[edit] Instincts
[edit] Self-Preservational Instinct
[edit] Average
These types of Reformers worry about their material well-being, and have a strong drive for self-gratification. However, their superegos tend to counter such drives. Each mistake they make is a catastrophe to them. They are often fastidious about their environments, such as Felix Unger in The Odd Couple. Whatever they worry about, they scold in others. Health conscious Reformers would scold others for not taking care of their health, while penny-pinching Reformers would scold others for not taking care of their finances.
[edit] Unhealthy
Unhealthy self-preservational Reformers often become obsessed with health matters and go between unhealthy extremes of binging and purging.
[edit] Social Instinct
[edit] Average
Social Reformers believe that their values are objective. They work hard to make sure the reforms they see as important come into reality. Their sense of themselves comes from their ability to hold strong opinions and argue about them. Their views are rigid and become a sort of armor that protects them from the world.
[edit] Unhealthy
When unhealthy, social Reformers hold unrealistic standards for themselves, others, and society as a whole. They rant and rave about what they see as the imperfections of humanity.
[edit] Sexual Instinct
[edit] Average
Sexual Reformers search for an idealized partner who holds similar ideals, leading to broken relationships because their partners do not reach their standards. They put a high emphasis on fidelity and fear abandonment. They may feel a need to monitor their partner's actions and whereabouts, and become very critical and controlling.
[edit] Unhealthy
Sexual Reformers at this level feel alternating bouts of desire and repression of that desire. They may believe that controlling the partner is the solution to their problems. Their jealousy leads them to question the partner constantly. In extreme cases, they try to punish themselves or their partners in order to get rid of their desires.
[edit] Issues Reformers Will Face in Their Lives
- Feeling the weight of the world on their shoulders
- Feeling the need to educate others in condescending ways
- Anger for not living up to their own ideals
- Striving for their (often impossible) ideals
- A need to make progress in order to justify their existence
- Always being right
- Being fastidious and rigidly punctual
- Unhealthy self-restraint
- Being hypercritical and hypocritical
- Perfectionism
[edit] Levels of Development
| Healthy | |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | Reformers let go of their belief that they can look at the world objectively and achieve their basic desire to have integrity and be good. |
| Level 2 | Reformers depend on their superegos to guide them for life and do not push others to live the same way. |
| Level 3 | Reformers try to live their lives by their consciences and with reason. They are very ethical and teach by example. |
| Average | |
| Level 4 | Reformers start to convince others about the ethics of their viewpoint and point out what's wrong with the world. |
| Level 5 | Reformers try to live by their own impossible standards and become irritable and tense. |
| Level 6 | Reformers become perfectionistic, sarcastic, and opinionated. |
| Unhealthy | |
| Level 7 | Reformers become close-minded, bitter, and highly self-righteous. |
| Level 8 | Reformers start to act out on their repressed desires while hypercritically condemning them. |
| Level 9 | Reformers realize they have lost control, and they try to purge themselves of their obsessions by self-mutilation, murder, or suicide. |
[edit] Self-Development
- Recognize that the voice in your head that commands what to do is neither you or the voice of God. Pay attention to how it tells you to change your environment.
- Notice when you try to push yourself beyond your limits. Take breaks.
- The weight of the world is not on your shoulders. Let others help you. They will not think less of you.
- Don't be afraid to compliment others. Since you are known for your honesty, the compliment will mean a lot.
- Let others know when you realize you have emotional needs. Being honest about your vulnerabilities builds up your integrity.
- Accept that you are not perfect and never will be.
- Recognize and accept your anger. Massage and yoga would work wonders for you.
[edit] Gifts
- Honesty
- Integrity
- Not being motivated by personal advantage or gain
- Ethical standards for personal guidance that aren't shoved in others' throats
- Self-discipline
- Wisdom and discernment
[edit] Other interesting facts
Basic Fear: Of being corrupt.
Basic Desire: To be good.
Passion: Anger
Virtue: Serenity
Holy Idea: Holy Perfection
Fixation: Resentment
[edit] References
Riso, Don Richard. Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1987. ISBN 0-395-40575-0.
Riso, Don Richard and Russ Hudson. The Wisdom of the Enneagram: The Complete Guide to Psychological and Spiritual Growth for the Types. New York: Bantam Books, 1999. ISBN 0-553-37820-1.
[edit] Links
| One: The Reformer | Two: The Helper | Three: The Achiever | Four: The Romantic | Five: The Observer |
| Six: The Loyalist | Seven: The Enthusiast | Eight: The Leader | Nine: The Mediator |
