The one that stings

Today you read nine short descriptions of a person, and one of them will sting. That one is the data.

The Enneagram is a nine-pointed figure and nine core motivations. The symbol is old; the personality system is Oscar Ichazo's, built in Chile and Bolivia in the 1960s, carried to California by the psychiatrist Claudio Naranjo in the 1970s, and written into the form most people know by Don Riso and Russ Hudson. It is not validated the way the Big Five is, and it has spread through churches, companies and therapy rooms anyway, because it describes motivation, which the others don't.

Its claim is that there are nine basic ways a person has learned to be safe in the world, each organized around a fear. One fears being bad and pursues being right. Two fears being unloved and pursues being needed. Three fears being worthless and pursues success. Four fears being ordinary and pursues identity. Five fears being overwhelmed and pursues knowledge. Six fears being without support and pursues security. Seven fears being trapped in pain and pursues options. Eight fears being controlled and pursues strength. Nine fears conflict and pursues peace.

Then it adds the wing, the neighbor you lean toward, and the arrows: where you go under stress and where you go when you're well.

Here's why I'm asking you not to take a test today. The practitioners themselves say the test is the least reliable part. You find your type by reading all nine and noticing which description you do not want to be true. That reaction, the little flinch, the "no, not that one," is the mirror working.

Used with a coach, the Enneagram is the best instrument in this chamber for the question of why. Used alone, it becomes a label, and labels are the thing this whole month is against. You are not a number. You are a person who, under pressure, reaches for one particular kind of safety. Knowing which kind is a gift.