Triads
Core Fixation
Once the Center has been over-activated in response to the wound, it begins to form a looped response pattern — a psychological structure that attempts to resolve the loss of stability using the same tools that were shaped by the injury itself. This is where the Core Fixation emerges.
There are three core enneagram types in each center of energy. Each Enneagram type follows a distinct internal sequence — a three-part script made up of the Object Relation, the Energy Orientation, the Narrative Style. This defines the exact relationship that the individual forms with their center of energy.
With self-understanding and accurate insight on your type, you can unwind this looping pattern by releasing the responsibility of thinking from one dominant center, and allow different aspects of your mind (image, mind, body) to process the information they are supposed to process respectively. This is the starting key to integration.
*read more Function of Centers, Information Processing, and Becoming Whole.
The Hidden Triads
Each type is composed of internal points that give rise to the overall quality and purpose for the type.
Think of it as the notes that make up a chord in a musical scale.
Object Relations
Foundational reaction to the world. A means to resolve feelings of instability in how the world and the self intersect. This triad describes what sort of feeling causes stress reactions, and the measures we take to resolve them.
Attachment (=)
Avoiding destabilization by limiting friction
3 6 9
Driven by a persistent toggling between over-adaptation and withdrawal, designed to preserve access to the source of the need.
This strategy suppresses individuated impulses within the Center that might jeopardize relational security.
Tendency to get sucked in and immersed in the world around them, dissociating from a personal focal point of awareness, and entangling with the object of interest.
Aware of the negative space between forms. Comparisons and possibility of adaptation.
Body-Attachment (9): Hyper-awareness of the environment and other people, creating a dissociation from immediate impulses of the body - resulting in a sensitivity to being affected or perturbed due to lack of awareness of boundaries between self and the world.
Image-Attachment (3): Hyper-awareness of standards and values and a need to be consistently updating and changing the self to match them, resulting in a split between the more raw and immediate aspect of personality and the curated and well-performed side.
Mind-Attachment (6): Hyper-awareness of the duality between truth and falsity creating a hypervigilance toward errors of logic or in systems and misrepresentation of facts. This results in a heavy split between what is believed to be true and what is believed to be false -- making the individual latch on too tightly to the "correct" side as a means of protecting their mind from feelings of instability and incoherence.
Rejection (–)
Seeking simplicity of intention to reduce over-processing complexities
2 5 8
Driven by purity of motivation through removal of excess information, rejection types unconsciously simplify their center of intelligence to a limited valued aspect -- resulting in a portion of the center becoming walled off or numbed.
This strategy reshapes reality to avoid triggering feelings of overwhelm and instability— reframing, minimizing, or bypassing anything that would evoke the part of the self that was denied care or permission. Rejection types emphasize the primary need of each center.
Autonomy and presence in body, clarity of insight and observation in mind, and purity and consistency of love in heart.
Image-Rejection (2): Simplifying and focusing self-image toward goodness and widely accepted demonstrations of care and generosity, making them a pillar of those highly held values. This results in splitting the darker aspects of personality and experience away into the unconscious as a means of protecting the self from the grips of negativity. This results in the 2 distancing themselves from the part of their identity that creates a question regarding their value.
Mind-Rejection (5): Simplifying and focusing the mind toward pure observation of forms and experience, motivated by removing contaminations to their mind from overwhelming emotions and instinctual responses to threats or danger. This results in the splitting off their observations from the motion of immediate daily life, creating a fundamental distancing of the mind from the body and the world.
Body-Rejection (8): Simplifying and focusing presence toward complete autonomy and consistency of volition, ignoring the potential for conflicts by removing self-questioning. This is motivated by the need to expand one's capacity for consistent sense of boundary control, resulting in separating the parts of the self that feel vulnerable or weak to keep the self from experiencing ego fractures. These feelings of vulnerability that suggest the need to be helped trigger a sense of contamination of will to the eight, which makes them refuse these feelings in others as well.
Frustration (+)
Seeking continuous change to reduce dissatisfaction
4 7 1
An active pursuit of an idealized, missing element — an experience that would resolve a feeling of lack and disappointed.
Moving against the flow, in a state of friction, frustration types are constantly crafting and devising an experience that is more optimal and ideal, to escape the feeling of lack and disappointment they experience with their field of focus.
Driven by the need toward constant refinement toward wholeness, they actively enforce a new identity on to reality based on their own specific standards, creating a clash between what is and what should be -- a cycle of disappointment, refinement, satisfaction and back to finding flaws.
Body-Frustration (1): Severing their body and experience from involvement in actions and thought processes that don't fit into their inner standards and ethics of living. Constantly perfecting their relationship to the environment to mitigate restlessness and disgust. Proactive in changing the environment so it fits to their standards.
Image-Frustration (4): Separating and crystallizing their values away from all aspects that are incongruent with the inner idealized image. Driven by a constant feeling of lack and dissatisfaction with existence, continuously put self through difficulties to craft the ultimate experience that instils a feeling of wholeness - the world split between sources of glory and contempt.
Mind-Frustration (7): Separating their minds from the constraints of practicality and realism. Constantly devising a way to increase satisfaction with new pursuits and activities to shave the feelings of dissatisfaction and negativity that exist in a static state.
Center Orientation / Energy Reaction Style (Hornevian Groups)
Describes how the psyche moves and utilizes energy to get its needs met. The energy orientation with which the individual secures and maintains their sense of wholeness.
Transactional/Superego (=)
Compromising to create mutually benefiicial relationships
2 6 1
Driven by a sense of duty and responsibility, maintains a sanctified method for how things should be done in order to justify the right to meet their needs. This strategy sacrifices personal spontaneity and maintains certain rules of conduct to upkeep beneficial relationships.
Themes: conscientiousness, idealized responsibility, martyrdom, and internalized authority. Often “ambiverted,” seeking balance between belonging and integrity.
Body-Transactional (1): Considers it an ethical duty to maintain standards to mutually agreeable results and enforces them. High expectations are placed on codes of conduct as individual behaviors have direct effects to other people's sense of order.
Image-Transactional (2): Staying on each other's good graces .boosting emotional state to keep a positive self-image and sense of hope. Feels responsible to keep themselves in an elevated emotional state that is beneficial to those around them - seeing negative emotional states as damaging to mutual interest.
Mind-Transactional (6): Responsible to a cause, bond, project, or philosophy - the desire to do right by it and uphold it against those who disrespect or misrepresent it. The pillar of truth is seen as something that has social value and requires mutual honesty and loyalty. This can range from philosophical to relational duties.
Withdrawn (–)
Internalizing to remove outside influence
4 5 9
Withdraws from engagement with others and the world to preserve the self from contamination, distortion, or intrusion. Needs are retracted from the world to reduce interference. Moves toward the self to continue experiencing what is pure and unchanging.
This type self-protects through selective invisibility and distance — removing themselves to avoid being taken over, trampled, or altered. More “introverted” in energy; values separateness and control through non-engagement.
Body-Withdrawn (9): Removes their direct personal involvement with conflict and boundary control to maintain a sense of internal stability, 9's protect their sense of autonomy and wellbeing by muting themselves to not allow their inner world come into the world to be affected and misappropriated.
Image-Withdrawn (4): Hides what is most valued from the world and creates specific passageway into seeing it that prove understanding. Narrowing the field of what is valued to only specific pedestalized characteristics while actively devaluing and separating self from everything else.
Mind-Withdrawn (5): Removes involvement with the world and the dynamic aspects of existence to narrow their perceptions and refine knowledge on fields of interest. Understanding of the world is funneled into personal perceptions that are rigorous to reduce the chance of contaminated information and increase capacity in the domain.
Assertive (+)
Externalizing to increase outside influence
3 7 8
Expands outward to secure needs through willpower, speed, or dominance. Moves toward desire without hesitation, believing power and motion will outrun scarcity and lack. Fixated on taking more from the outside world.
This orientation is impulsive and confident. Motivated by ambition and overreach. More “extroverted” in style, equating forward momentum with safety and identity.
Themes: High activity, big energy, push now/think later, do more, take more
Image-Assertive (3): Driven by continuous establishment of status, this type believes in their right to success and adoration in any domain. In insecurity, amps up ambition and confidence.
Mind-Assertive (7): Driven by total freedom, believes they in their right to outrun any system or tactic to get what they are chasing. In stress, amps up creative thinking and prospect planning
Body-Assertive (8): Driven by control and power, believes they have the right to take power and control of every situation in their hands and control how things are delegated. In stress, amps up anger and forcefulness to get back in control.
Narrative Style
Regulates emotion and frames reactions to what has happened; a means of interpreting reality when expectations aren’t met.
This frames ones orientation to conflict
This forms the conclusion of the Type story: the way we interpret and react to disappointment or disruption.
Suppresses emotional reactions to prioritize functionality, objectivity, and clear-headed problem-solving. Seeks to stay emotionally neutral in order to improve tools, refine systems, and sustain forward motion. Ego-identified with being skillful/adept. Sees lack of competency as a failure to measure up to what is valued.
Irritated by: Lack of precision and resourcefulness
Themes include: suppressing emotional involvement and affect control, precision, logic, structure, and a commitment to rationality.
Image-Competency (3): Keen analyst of character traits and the science of success, they are motivated to analyze what valuable qualities they need to embody consistently to become capable and skillful at creating and demonstrating their value
Mind-Competency (5): Driven by a need to gain leverage over their experience, this type is motivated to become an indispensable storage of knowledge and capacity in their object of self-study. This type is very focused on completely immersing themselves in their field of inquiry to become completely autonomous in it.
Body-Competency (1): Keen analyst of the processes of the body and the ways conflicts occur between systems and people, this type is motivated to become an embodied exemplar of their standards and code of ethics - defining exactly what is correct and incorrect.
Maintaining focus on task fulfillment through emotional detachment and reduction of subjective bias
Competence (=)
3 5 1
Reactive/Negative Bias (–)
Removing falsities and misleading interpretations through direct confrontations that create the most unfiltered response
4 6 8
Amplifies emotional response as a way to reveal underlying truths -- with the assumption that unfiltered feelings will cut through falseness and evoke authenticity. Expresses dissatisfaction directly, prefers to "get real" now to expose what is hidden or unresolved. Motivated by raw truths and directness.
Themes include: confrontation, emotional volatility, depth, catharsis, and the belief that truth must first be felt before it can be resolved.
irritated by: lack of honesty and authenticity
Image-Reactivity (4): Exposes and focuses on the rejected aspects of the mind as a resource for authenticity. Actively critiques to uncover the lack of essential depth in most things. Quick to opine with polarized perspectives that reject the value in inauthentic presentations.
Mind-Reactivity (6): Exposes and retaliates against falsity and perceived distortions to Truth. Quick to hyper-vigilance due to a very active mind that incessantly processes the world against the duality of "real" and "false".
Body-Reactivity (8): Affirms the will of self-expansion that is latent in everyone's psyche and seeks to uncover it in every encounter. This type believes everyone has a will to power and false faces of niceties and care are a farce.
Positive (+)
Reducing the grip of immediate negativity by focusing on a better potential outcome
2 7 9
Covers or reframes long-term negative emotional reactions to preserve harmony and maintain a hopeful or constructive outlook. Focused on understanding and interpretation, to dispel misunderstandings and conflicting narratives that stop the process of reaching the next step. Focuses on the bright side or forward path, often delaying confrontation with pain or disappointment. The upward triangle of the enneagram, positivity, looks "up" and sees the potential in situations. This is why these types often seem to be living in a fantasy compared to others.
Themes include: optimism, charm, resilience, avoidance of emotional heaviness, and the instinct to transform discomfort into opportunity or light.
irritated by: negative attitudes and overly realistic narratives
Image-Positive (2): Orients self toward the possibilities inherent in themselves and others to be good and do well, beliving that paying too much attention to the negativity in self opens the gates to giving in to the grips of negativity and darkness -- creating a wall of denial of shameful aspects.
Mind-Positivity (7): Orients self toward possibilities available in achieving more pleasant and satisfying experiences instead of focusing on the problems and issues existing in the past and the current moment. This creates a consistent momentum of untouchability in the type that also denies the existence of lack in their behaviors.
Body-Positivity (9): Orients self toward seeing the best in inactivity, believing inaction or waiting will somehow make things better in the long-term -- "things will work themselves out. Direct engagement will delay that". This creates a rejection of immediate existence when faced with conflict, because of the orientation toward smoothing over problems by not admitting problems in others or self.
Instinctual Triads
A discovery made by The Hidden Enneagram, with inspiration from work done by David Grey on Instinctual Stacks
Describes the primary/primordial instinct for which each type is responsible. This is where the raw drive or impulse of the individual sits beneath the personality. This determines the nature of relationship the individual has with the world.
This triad houses the primary drive of each point on enneagram, however the preferred instinct of the individual can be different. Thus, the relationship between one's core drive and the type's home drive explains complexities inherent to the type story.
For example, individuals with an instinct stack congruent to their core type (e.g. SX9) will have a less self-questioning attitude and dive fully into the demands of the instinct. While individuals with an incongruent instinct stack (e.g. SO4) will have a more self-questioning attitude and subvert the core type's home desire. This relationship defines the *Spectrum of Counter-Types* in the Enneagram.
Desirability-Seeking (+)
2,4,9
Types within this triad present themselves to be instinctually desirable and addictive. Something you dont get anywhere else - a special kind of presence that allows for the other to transform themselves. Ego boundaries are dissolved interpersonally that fulfills a deeper kind of chemistry.
Type 2 attempts this through interpersonal seduction through unconditional love— giving to be needed.
Type 4 longs to retrieve depth of love in embrace of the pain inherent to existence— creating depth of recognition.
Type 9 seeks fusion through passive attunement and energetic blending — creating an affirming space that deepens connection and comfort.
The unifying charge is libidinal merging — whether through caretaking, romantic yearning, or emotional stillness. Each represents a unique distortion or adaptation around erotic belonging and the fear of being severed from life-force or love.
Autonomy-Seeking (–)
5,6,8
This triad orients around boundary control — the need to defend, prepare, or fortify the self against threat, exposure, or depletion. These types exhibit vigilance around resource management — energetic, relational, or psychological. Individuals of this triad create situations and strategies wherein they will be unmoved, self-reliant, and immune to costly risks.
Type 6 seeks security through loyalty, questioning, and bonding with vetted structures or alliances.
Type 5 withdraws to conserve energy and builds internal clarity as a buffer against intrusion or incompetence.
Type 8 asserts dominance and control to avoid vulnerability — pushing outward to keep threats at bay.
This triad is driven by defensive individuation — a refusal to be compromised, penetrated, or unprepared. Each instinctually prioritizes survival of self — through caution, withdrawal, or control — over fusion or visibility.
Update-Seeking (=)
3,7,1
This triad orients around external positioning — the need to optimize, perform, or model values for collective or ideals. These types are shaped by their role in time— how they are seen, what they contribute, and how they propel toward a direction.
Type 3 aligns with value through achievement and adaptive presentation — appearing admirable to gain love by being the next best thing.
Type 1 embodies ethical correctness — managing their conduct to uphold and establish their internalized ideals on the world.
Type 7 thrives on being charismatic, future-forward, and stimulating — overcoming limitation and pushing toward freedom.
What binds them is a curated relationship to collective expectation — using social positioning as a defense against inadequacy, chaos, or internal fragmentation. Each maps the world as a stage or system to navigate with efficiency or moral clarity.
Desirability-Seeking (9, 2, 4): Presents self as a unique resource for understanding and empathy without enforcing. Making others drawn to them and wanting to be in their presence.
Desirability-Seeking Triad (9, 2, 4): Embodying a unique quality of boundary-breaking compassion and validation that creates a signature need that only the 2 can provide - making others addicted and get hooked to them for warm and intimate feelings.
Desirability-Seeking (9, 2, 4): Seeking to become a unique place for the depth in love and passion to be rescued, nurtured, and expressed from inside darkness — like a siren calling to the inner world.