Enneagram Stereotype - Type 9's are Pushovers
Enneatype 9 is often described as "going with the flow", "not rocking the boat", "going along to get along." It's said that when pushed too far they can become stubborn and "dig their heels in." What could possibly underlie this sort of behavior?
The path for development of Enneatype 9 often alludes to finding their individual self and personal agenda independent of others. Basically, stop pursuing this focus on merging with others. I wonder if sometimes the Enneagram is telling left-handed people to become right-handed or in this case right-brained people to become left-brained.
Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist (neuroanatomist), describes her experience of a left-brain stroke in her book My Stroke of Insight. Because of the damage to her left-brain, her sense of reality gets filtered almost exclusively through her right brain. The experience reminds me of the Enneatype 9 desire to merge the self while the rest of the world is trying to make them do the opposite.
Honestly, there were certain aspects of my new existence that I preferred over the way I had been before. I was not willing to compromise my new insights in the name of recovery. I liked knowing I was a fluid. I loved knowing my spirit was at one with the universe and in the flow with everything around me. I found it fascinating to be so tuned in to energy dynamics and body language. But most of all, I loved the feeling of deep inner peace that flooded the core of my very being.
I yearned to be in a place where people were calm and valued my experience of inner peace. Because of my heightened empathy, I found that I was overly sensitive to feeling other people's stress. If recovery meant that I had to feel like they felt all the time, I wasn't interested.
This second quote points to the perspective type 9 may have of a world full of personal agendas, people running around busily trying to accomplish those agendas, while type 9 sits back and wonders "why go through all that?" and "where's their agenda taking them?" Type 9 might think "I'll go along with your agenda until I come up with one of my own, but really what good is all this stress about personal agenda - what a waste of energy."
Comments
Nines
Brilliant link, Dave, I mean to Jill Bolte Taylor's writing of her experience. We know so much and yet so little about what makes up personality, how much is nature, how much nurture, how different individuals are wired. This is an added piece to think about in the puzzle.
Then end in mind
Strengths can be a weakness. My brain wants to think of the end and know the reason for the search and then, proceeding seems more logical. Feeling at a heightened level has it's challenges. But spirtually there are tools for this to be strengthened. I didn't realize all my life the mechanism of the 9. Energy is a plus. Breadth and vision are nice. Getting in trouble in math class when I could start with the answer and work backwards differently from everyone else in the class was a challenge because I "saw" things as if standing at the othere end of the hallway. Though I had to prove to my math teacher my calculus formula was correct, I was forever then, used as the scapegoat because he was not happy I had figured out something in a different manner. It's as if I'm living life backwards at times always problems solving backwards. Religion was tough for me and I can't live in the box because spirituality is so big, so useful. So many tools for healing, not just one...infinite. I was always attracted to the infinite. The biggest challenge sometimes is just going and doing...surrender and let the intuition just take over.....the positive is there...Power does seem wasted when it's abused. I generally don't even like the word power because chemically it is an energy block. So many ways to go do and go live. Learning to manage energy is key and love and peace. That's why we are here on a grand scale.
Nines are simply passive
When people use phrases like "going with the flow," "not rocking the boat," and "going along to get along." It makes 9s sound like they are too scared to stand up and assert their point, or so afraid of conflict that they bend into everyone else. As a nine i think this is a misrepresentation. the reason why we "go with the flow" is because we see no reason to break it. if we don't see a problem with the agenda, then there is no reason to change or challenge it, and no reason to cause conflict. when 9s are described as becoming stubborn and unmoving, this is when we have seen something that we disagree with, and have picked the time to act. perhaps an unhealthy 9 or one with few poorly formed morals could be an extreme pushover, but for the most part, i don't think 9s are afraid to act at all, they are just passive with respect to many issues.
thanks for saying
thanks for saying this.
working backwards from a problem may in fact be a nine trait.
i often felt the same way when in classrooms, and still even do feel that way today. some theoretical subjects (for instance music theory, maths) are like that for me too -- i feel as though i am standing at the other end of the hallway.
i am left-handed/right-brained too, i don't know if that affects things as well..
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