Dave's Enneagram has been around in one form or another since the 1990's. The main purpose of the site throughout those many years was to be an unbiased resource for those learning about the Enneagram personality types (many sites present the Enneagram biased toward the interpretation of the site author/owner). Dave's Enneagram is being redesigned again to deal with two trends I've recently noticed with people new to learning about the Enneagram types.
First, they too often rely on the descriptions from only one school or author, not realizing that there is no single authoritative description of the types. In actuality, each type description is an interpretation by its author and different authors will have different interpretations. While agreement between different websites may seem a good indicator that the description is valid, many websites are just restating an interpretation they learned somewhere else (sometimes the different websites sound the same because they're restating the same interpretation). Not all type descriptions are equal. No author gets everything right. They're more accurate when it comes to some types but maybe not others (they're usually good at describing the type they know best - the type they themselves identify with).
Second, reading descriptions is not enough. Words on a page can have many meanings and interpretations. It can be easy to get caught up in an academic conceptualization of the types where you begin associating the types with a lot of psychological theory and behavioral patterns. This often distances the types from reality and skews your understanding of them. To truly understand the types you need to bring them to life by hearing people describe their experience of living a particular type and seeing examples of the many ways that each type manifests.
Below are the main sections of this website.
Type Interpretations
Many Enneagram websites today promote the work of a particular school, author, or teacher. What visitors are often getting from these websites is only one interpretation out of many. This website attempts to offer resources from a wide variety of interpretations.
Type Examples
Typing famous people offers an opportunity to learn about type by seeing how it plays out through people you might be familiar with. Fictional characters, while not always consistent in their portrayal of type, can exhibit type characteristics in specific scenes of a story. Song lyrics can be indicative of the person who writes the lyrics or the character or person the lyrics were written for.
In Their Own Words
Enneagram type actually points to something beneath personality. The best way to get at this is to listen to someone who identifies with a particular type describe how they experience that type first-hand. Consolidated here are a number of panels, interviews, and self-revealing videos publicly available that provide this opportunity.
Tests
Enneagram tests try to determine which type(s) are most dominant for you but they are not 100% accurate. They can be good for narrowing down possibilities. You still need to explore those possibilities to find a good fit.
Dave's Enneagram Guide
This section of the site is currently under construction. The emphasis will be on providing a brief overview of many relevant concepts relating to the Enneagram types and links to resources for further exploration of those concepts.