Enneagram as Types
In order to make a distinction between the Enneagram as used in the Gurdjieff tradition and the Enneagram as used in the personality type system, I refer to the Enneagram in the Gurdjieff tradition as the Enneagram as Process while the Enneagram as used in the personality type system I refer to as the Enneagram as Types.
While the Enneagram as Process was concerned with understanding a sequential process represented by the numbers moving clockwise around the Enneagram, the Enneagram as Types takes the numbers to represent nine different categories or types.
This began when Oscar Ichazo used the numbers to represent nine different ego types and continues with today's personality or character types.
Because the nine numbers represent categories instead of steps in a process, the emphasis of the Enneagram as Types is more on understanding how the nine categories relate to each other given their relative placement around the circle. This can best be understood in terms of the circumplex and triad.
