Enneagram 1

The Teacher | The Activist | The Crusader | The Moralist | The Perfectionist | The Organizer |

The Teacher | The Activist | The Crusader | The Moralist | The Perfectionist | The Organizer |

You might be a Type 1 if…

  • You strive for goodness and perfection, sometimes even a little too much.

  • You feel best when you’re doing the right thing, the good thing, or the correct thing.

  • You dislike badness, evil, corruption, and anything you perceive a “bad.”

  • You Are self-controlled, purposeful, and principled.

  • You work relentlessly to improve yourself, others, and everything around you.

  • You think in terms of black and white and don’t spend much time in the gray area.

  • You strive for perfection and are bothered by mistakes.

  • You crave peace, but sometimes your perfectionism gets in the way of tranquility.

  • You aren’t known for letting loose, but when you do, you have a lot of fun.

  • Ego Ideal:

    “The Good Person,” always moral and responsible, never bad or mediocre

  • Worldview:

    “The world is imperfect; I must correct this”

  • Thirst & Avoidance

    Thirst for perfection; avoid mistakes

  • Deepest Unmet Longing:

    To experience a tranquil life, accepting the world as it is

  • Primary Defense Mechanism:

    Reaction Formation: Unconsciously repressing a negative thought, emotion, or urge and easing the anxiety by expressing it exact opposite way instead.

  • Thought Pattern:

    Resentment: Noticing how everything is flawed.

  • Emotional Pattern:

    Anger: Chronic anger and dissatisfaction with how things are.

    • Truthful, ethical, reasonable, wise, hopeful, principled, noble, and accepting.

    • Can embrace other perspectives without judgement.

    • Can understand and appreciate the gray areas rather than just seeing things in black and white.

    • Walk their talk and have strong integrity.

    • Lead by example.

    • Can put aside personal desires for the greater good.

    • Let go of perfectionism and enjoy peace and tranquility.

    • Serious, driven, evaluating, organized, punctual, methodical.

    • Can be irritable, intense, perfectionistic, judgmental, opinionated, sarcastic, and correcting.

    • Try to convince others to adopt their viewpoint instead of embracing other points of view.

    • Feel a constant need to be “right” and “perfect.”

    • Correct others, whether their criticism is welcome or not.

    • Feel the pressure to live up to impossibly high standards and worry they’ll be judged if they don’t.

    • Can make snap judgements and hold onto resentment.

    • Can suffer from jaw and shoulder pain from chronic frustration with imperfections.

    • Controlling, defensive, condemning, bitter, self-righteous, closed-minded, uncompromising, hypocritical, punishing, extreme, and even violent.

    • Fear that their ideals might actually be wrong, which might be true.

    • Cling harder to their ideals and viewpoints instead of reevaluating or releasing them.

    • Become uncompromising and close-minded, unable to even entertain others’ points of view.

    • Irritable, angry, and combative in debates.

    • Become obsessed with the need for control, which ironically often leads to losing control.

    • Might begin to act out their repressed desires and impulses, even while condemning others for doing the same.

    • Can resort to harm and violence of themselves and others in extreme cases.

Wings

 

1w9

“The Idealist”

  • Blend the idealism and perfectionism of the 1 with the peaceful, mellow nature of the 9.

  • Are wise, civilized, discerning, scholarly, philosophical, generous, kind, considerate.

  • More introverted, reserved, reclusive, and gentle than 1w2s.

  • Want to improve things, but don’t like feathers or doing the “dirty work” necessary to bring about those improvements.

  • Think more philosophically about the “big picture” and would rather explain their ideals than personally persuade others of their correctness.

  • Express anger and resentment in ways that are harder to detect like stiffness, sarcasm, and impatience.

  • Appreciate nature and often pursue careers working with animal and nature.

  • Prefer to be alone and work independently rather than dealing with the messiness of human relationships.

  • Can become elitist, condescending, and quietly judgmental.

 

1w2

“The Advocate”

  • Blend the idealism and perfectionism with the 1 with the passionate helpfulness and others-focused nature of the 2.

  • Less idealistic and philosophical and more interested in actionable improvements for others, and mankind as a whole.

  • More persuasive, aggressive, and willing to do the “dirty work” necessary to bring about the improvements they seek.

  • Are more outgoing, passionate, and energized about engaging with others, even though they still need alone time to recharge and think.

  • Enjoy debates with others to convince others of their correctness and refine their ideas.

  • Strong desire to change minds, make an impact, and feel like they’re making a tangible difference.

  • Can be judgmental and openly critical of others, especially when frustrated.

  • More fiery, energized, and action-oriented and less afraid of ruffling feathers.

Subtypes

 

There are 3 instincts: Self-Preservation, Social, and One-to-One (AKA Sexual). We each use these instincts throughout our lives to survive and thrive; usually we use one of them quite often, one not much or not enough, and the other is somewhere in the middle. The strongest instinct is known as your “Dominant” instinct, which determines your subtype. So for each Enneagram type, there are three subtypes.

Many people know more about the wings than the subtypes, but each subtype can look very different from another subtype, even if they share the same core type. For example, Self-Preservation 3’s look VERY different from Social 3’s.

 

Self-Preservation 1: “Worry”

Highly self-controlled and focus on getting everything correctly structured and organized, wanting to make sure everything is under control, and feeling both anxious, irritated, or frustrated (angry) until they can ensure that everything is being done right.

Can be confused with a 6 or SP 3

Social 1: “Non-Adaptability”

Perceive themselves as they perfect role model for others to emulate, becoming angry when others do not meet their standards, and focusing their anger on social institutions as a way to perfect them.

One-to-One/Sexual 1: “Zeal”

Intense need to perfect others, particularly those who matter to them, and to perfect society in general, perceiving reforming others as both their right and responsibility

Can be confused with a 1-to-1 8

Arrows

Each Enneagram type has 2 arrows connecting it to 2 other types. These arrows express your direction of Growth and Stress, determining how you will likely act int hose situations. Understanding your type’s arrows is one of the best ways to use the Enneagram as a tool for growth (learning about your growth number) and how to cope with stress (learning about your stress number).

Growth Arrow: 7

When moving in a direction of integration, angry, critical 1’s become more spontaneous and joyful like healthy 7’s.

Attributes of the 7 to adopt:

  • Letting your hair down (metaphorically)

  • Accepting yourself and the world as it is, imperfections and all

  • Celebrating the bright side of life

  • Embracing joy, fun, and spontaneity

Stress Arrow: 4

When moving in a direction of disintegration (stress), methodical 1’s suddenly become moody and irrational at 4.

Attributes of the 4 you might adopt when under stress:

  • Moodiness and irritability

  • Self-isolating oneself

  • Ruminating on the negative while struggling to embrace the positive

  • Feeling disconnected or detached from others

Want to dive deeper?

Get support on your inner work through 1-on-1 coaching, relationship coaching, group workshops, or figure out your type in a typing interview!

Resources:

The Wisdom of the Enneagram:
Book by Don Richard Riso & Russ Hudson

Do It for The Gram Podcast:
Podcast by Coach Milton Stewart

The Art of the Enneagram:
Book by Dr. Ginger Lapin-Bogda

The Enneagram Institute:
Organization & Website

The Art of Typing:
Book by Dr. Ginger Lapin-Bogda

Random Acts of Caroline:
Enneagram Podcast