What then are the positive anticipations of the Enneagram Five? They look forward to engagement in an exciting, complex, and dynamic experience or relationship—provided it can be fit into their existing conceptual framework. One might refer to the “good day” spent by a psychoanalyst who is working with interesting patients for six hours–all of whom eventually confirm the analyst’s own theory about the human psyche. There is the excitement of someone who is challenging the existing theory, but who can be “assimilated” by making clever use of one’s existing framework as an Enneagram Five.
Negative anticipations arise if the patients being seen never seem to “behave themselves” (confirm the analyst’s theory). An Enneagram Five also faces a negative anticipation if they are expecting to engage in nothing but mundane, “everyday” experiences or relationships. While the Enneagram Four fears an emotional wasteland, the Enneagram Five fears living and working in a cognitive wasteland. They would hate doing behavioral therapy and focusing on the homework habits of teenagers. Better a tortured composer or painter seeking to rediscover their creative “juices”. Whether sitting behind a coach on which a patient lies or observing the activities of a community from a safe spot on the hill, the Enneagram Five wants “excitement” – but on their own terms and in the safety of their therapy office or on a safe hilltop.
Enneagram Six: The Trooper
The Enneagram Six lives in a world that seems to be filled with threats. The negative anticipations for them tend to outnumber the positive anticipations. Yet, the Enneagram Six keeps moving forward and is someone you want on your side. Helen Palmer provides this summary portrait of the Six (Palmer, 1991, p. 237):
“Sixes lost faith in authorities when they were young. They remember being afraid of those who had power over them, of being unable to act on their own behalf. Those memories have carried over into adult life as a suspiciousness of other people’s motives; Sixes try to ease this insecurity by either seeking a strong protector or by going against authority in the Devil’s Advocate stand. There is both the wish to find a leader, to give one’s loyalty to a protective organization, such as the church, or the company, or the university, and an equal mistrust of authoritarian hierarchy. The dutiful posture and the Devil’s Advocate stance both stem from the suspicion of authority. Because they are afraid to act on their own behalf, Sixes have problems with follow-through. Thinking replaces doing because attention shifts from the impulse to act on a good idea, to an intense questioning of that idea from the point of view of those who might disagree.”
A former colleague of mine, who is something of an expert on the Enneagram, not only declares himself to be an Enneagram Six, but also reveals that he worked for several years in a US federal agency that is in the business of security and espionage—and is filled with Enneagram Sixes! What better enterprise for the Enneagram Six than spending everyday finding verification for the basic assumption that our world is filled with danger and deceit.
There are some positive anticipations in the psyche of an Enneagram Six. They are likely to glow a bit when they can anticipate receiving access to valid information about what is really going on in a potentially threatening setting. I suspect that my colleague and his security-oriented collaborators found that their whole body (somatic template) felt energized when they picked up a top-secret report that revealed the “truth” about some clandestine operation. I further suspect that my colleague and his Enneagram Six co-workers were often torn apart when reading this report. On the one hand, they wanted to believe that this report is accurate and that they can trust and be loyal to the leaders who authorized and prepared this report. As Helen Palmer noted, Sixes wish to find a leader they can respect, trust, and follow. On the other hand, as Helen Palmer noted, the Sixes approach this report with an inherent distrust in authority and a firmly held belief in the inevitable corruption of power.
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