I think I’d only been dating my girlfriend for approximately two minutes when she first communicated her urgent need for me to know my Enneagram type. I’d never heard of this particular personality test, which is odd, as there’s nothing I enjoy more than taking tests about myself and then reading descriptions of myself and then talking about how very MYSELF I am. It turns out that I am an 8. It’s so me!
Then! Later that very same week, my therapist asked me if I’d heard of Enneagrams and I was like HAVE I EVER, and it turns out she’s very into it as well and it’s actually been an integral element of my therapy since then.
So it was only a matter of time before I brought up Enneagram types in casual conversation and Heather (1) and Laneia (4) wanted to partake, which led to me AGAIN having more opportunities to think about myself as it turns out their website includes an accurate description of my relationship with Laneia and an accurate description of my relationship with Heather! Then of course Rachel (2) and Yvonne (4) joined in and then we decided we hated ourselves but also loved ourselves and I think Rachel cried at some point and so obviously we wanted to spread this emotion to as many people as possible.
. There are a few ways to figure out your type:
- Read every Enneagram type and decide which one you think best suits you! This isn’t a system where The Test Rules All — the first test I took gave me “8,” which feels very true, but then today I took a few other tests just to see, and they turned up different answers. (Which may’ve been because I was trying too hard to steer in an 8 direction?)
- The Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator — The gold standard. Costs $12. I took this one and it was worth it.
- The Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator 38-question test — This is a mini version of the above test, for free!
- EnneaApp — you can download this one to your phone piece. A bonus to this option is that it’s hard to look at the name without thinking of enemas, and who doesn’t want a mobile phone that also gives enemas?
- Eclectic Energies Ennegram Test – This website is really good at alliteration.
- There are lots of books on the topic: The Enneagram Made Easy, Enneagram in Love and Work, The Modern Enneagram, etc.
The “Enneagram of Personality” body of teaching was developed by Bolivian psychoanalyist Óscar Ichazo in the mid-fifties. Ichazo was looking for a deeper understanding of mechanistic and repetitive thought and behavior processes in order to help people transcend their identification with said patterns. He identified nine Enneagram types, representing how one’s ego becomes fixated within the psyche in an early stage of life, thus becoming the core of one’s self-image around which their psychological personality develops.
The whole scheme is much more complicated than simply determining your type because there are also wings and stress lines and levels of development and all this other stuff that I cannot explain to you because I did not take a class in this topic like my therapist did.
You can read more about the nine Enneagram types here. Okay now go find out who you are!
