Putting it All Together for Type Five

Alfred Hitchcock had a Type Five personality.

We’re leaving the Heart Center and moving over to the Head with Type Five. Let’s look at the various components that make up a Type Five personality.

Center: Head/Thinking (underlying emotion is fear)

Hornevian: Withdrawn

Harmonic: Competency

Object Relation Group: Rejection

I have a friend who likes to talk about ideas. All you have to do to start a conversation is to ask him what books (yes, more than one) he’s read lately. This will launch him into a discussion that is sure to be interesting but ultimately leave me a bit cold. That’s because this friend deals in just the facts, ma’am. He does not trade in emotions. He doesn’t share about what’s going on with his family. When pressed, he will relay the facts about his parents’ current state of being, but certainly not how he feels about it.

My friend has an Enneagram Five personality. He takes the world in through his head and tries to process all that input logically. Emotions would just get in the way. If you remember from my recent post on Type Threes, their view is “Emotions are speed bumps on the road to success.” For Fives, emotions are untrustworthy, capricious entities that have no place in a rational discussion. This is part of their Competency view of the world.

The other aspect related to Competency is the Five’s object relation: rejection. Fives go through life certain that they will be rejected, and that feels intolerable (yes, even for this Type!). As Head Types, their central question is, “How do I move forward in the world? Where is my guidance?” So, it seems to make sense that the way to avoid rejection and be valued in the world is to gather lots of information. To help others know how to move forward in the world – because isn’t that what everyone wants? That’s what Fives are thinking, I think.

Well, in order to gather lots of information, to become a valued expert on a topic, one has to recede from the world. Fives need to withdraw. In the Enneagram world, this is called “castling.” Fives take a bunch of books into their castles, fill their moats and pull up the drawbridges so they can study. They also don’t have to deal with other people’s messy emotions.

Finally, while Six is the anchor Head/Fear type and is a more unadulterated presentation of fear, Five is next door to the Heart Center and is therefore influenced by shame. I think that’s another reason why Fives withdraw. Isn’t that what most people do when they feel ashamed? They want to hide out, at least for a while.

Those are my thoughts on some of the influences that proscribe Five behavior. What do you think? I’d love to hear your ideas on this topic – especially if you are a Five! Did I get it right? What else would you like people to know? Let me know in the comments section or via your favorite social media platform.

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