(Im)Movable Type

Both in my personal and professional life I have long been an active user of typology, the study of people's interrelated and stable patterns of cognition, attitude and behavior. You might call it character typing. One of the things I discovered in my study is that I am the type of guy who like typology!

Much of the world is confusing to me, smart though I may appear to be. Typology orients me, like knowing where North, South, East and West are. It gives me a sense of order and predictability, without removing the mystery and surprise from life.

Most people are familiar with astrological types: you're a Pisces or an Aries, etc. As interestingly descriptive as those can be, I resist the notion that being born at a particular place and time determines your character. Yet even with the oddity of Chinese astrology, sometimes the fit is too close for comfort. In medieval times,
people were typed by the combination of their humors, the unseen liquids of the soul. We still use the names today, even if we no longer buy into the theory: melancholic, choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic.

Psychological typing is really my thing. The Jungian-rooted Myers-Briggs typology was my first real experience of its usefulness, primarily as a form of psychological absolution. Being revealed as a non-planning introvert who relies on intution and thinking (one of 16 possible combos) let me be more comfortable with myself and I stopped pathologizing what now seemed merely to be differences, differences I shared with a lot of other people. No more morally valuable than right or left handedness. What a relief it was.

Later I ran into the Enneagram, a more ambitious and, frankly, less obvious kind of typology. I don't know who introduced me to it, but it helped me understand my partners with far less judgment and anxiety, as well as making clearer to me some of my own characteristics. I have come to use this format a great deal, not because it has anything to do with stars or humors or even science, but simply because it seems to work very well. It does not explain everything --how could it-- but it illuminates a great deal about people.

The problem with the Enneagram for users is that it focusses not on your preferences, like the Meyer-
Briggs, but on your compulsions. Very often, finding your Enneagram type is not a pleasure because it is aimed at uncovering a lot of the underground fears, angers and sadnesses which shape so much of our above ground existence.

It is called the Enneagram because there are Nine patterns people fall into. Each one has a number and then depending on the author or school of thought, a descriptive name. I am a Five.

For now, let's just call the Five an Investigator, an Observer, a Seeker of Knowledge. It sounds very nice until you realize that the search is compulsive and it is rooted in fear.

I just had some proof that I am a Five.

I took an Enneagram book with me to lunch and, of course, started to read about B's type. He is a Seven.
Boy, is he a Seven. The description of his shadow issues, his defensive styles, his charms and his power, etc.
was 95% dead on. Knowing this --and it is not new information at all-- was enormously comforting to me, even though it changes our situation not a single iota. For me, making sense of things calms --momentarily-- my Five compulsion to know and understand.

Till next time.