The Enneagram Defense System - access points for self awareness & growth

by Peter O’Hanrahan

            One of the great advantages to the Enneagram is the amount of descriptive material that it offers us about personality and character structure. It's a rich and complex system, but it can also be a bit overwhelming at times. Fortunately, once we know our personality type, there are specific suggestions for how we can put it to work in our daily lives. There are a number of key "access points" that are very useful in this effort and that can function as anchors to help keep us on track.

            Whenever we apply the Enneagram to healing and personal growth we encounter a set of psychological defenses used by each personality type to hold things together and to create a sense of security. Of course we need some kind of ego defense system to protect ourselves from harm and maintain a sense of identity, but our defenses are also what keep us stuck in the lower aspects of our personality - our perceptual biases, our knee jerk reactions, and our automatic patterns of thinking, feeling, and doing. These defenses operate much of the time below the surface but they become particularly active when we feel threatened.

            On the other hand, when we feel safe or secure (with lots of self acceptance or in the presence of a loving relationship) we are able to become less defended and more open. The Enneagram suggests that as we relax and let down our defenses our personality begins to shift. We move to another point on the Enneagram, called the heart point or security point. In 20 years of working with the Enneagram, both personally and with my clients, I have found that the path of personal growth and healing lies in negotiating this territory - moving through the defenses to the heart point. 

Three Parts - Defense Mechanism, Idealization & Avoidance Pattern

            Our defenses are organized into a cohesive pattern by three specific functions: the defense mechanism, the idealization pattern, and the avoidance pattern. They work together in a tri-partite (three-way) arrangement to keep the structure of the personality in place. They are also the cornerstones of each person's fixation or "delusional system," and it's hard to think clearly or feel our real feelings when these parts are active. If we want to work on our personality we have to confront them time and time again. They stand in the way of our growth.

            The idealization pattern is about who we think we ought to be in order to have value and self worth. For example, Threes say "I am successful," Sixes say "I am loyal," and Nines say "I am harmonious." It's not that these are bad things to want for ourselves, but rather that we invest our value as human beings in them. To the extent that we are attached to our idealization, we're not allowed to simply be ourselves. In fact, it's often the case that our idealization is in major conflict with how things are. This can lead to several responses, neither of which is particularly useful. We can spend a lot of effort deceiving ourselves to maintain the illusion that we actually are strong, or OK, or helpful, etc. Or we can end up feeling very badly about ourselves because we're failing to live up to the ideal. But whether we fail to measure up or we seem to be successful in achieving our idealized state, this part of our personality can exert a kind of tyranny over us. Everything is judged and measured to some degree against this scale. We don't usually question our idealization since it's so much a part of how we operate. But paying attention and learning to let go of our idealization is crucial for our personal development.

            Each of us also has a particular feeling or experience that we want to avoid, something that doesn't fit into our picture of who we are or how we should be. To put this even more strongly, it's the main thing that our personality is set up to protect us from. The avoidance pattern operates in symmetry with the idealization. In a way, they're opposites and yet they reinforce each other. We tend to seesaw back and forth. The idealization is supposed to keep us away from what we want to avoid, but there's a catch. For example, if Ones need to be "right" all the time there is a danger that they will try to keep their "bad" or angry feelings out of sight. These feelings don't go away, of course, but sit in the "shadow" side of the personality where they can create all kinds of trouble. Nines want to stay harmonious so that they can avoid conflict, but conflict often has a way of building up when it's not dealt with directly. Twos feel good about themselves to the degree that they can say "I am helpful" and avoid their personal needs. But to people around them, the neediness of Twos for attention and approval can be excruciatingly obvious, the more so when they aren't owning it themselves.

            So at first the idealization and avoidance patterns work to keep us away from that place we don't want to experience. But eventually, it works to exacerbate the very situation we want to avoid. If as an Eight I succeed in staying emotionally isolated from others and avoid my own vulnerability through using the "I am strong" mantra, eventually I will get to situations where the opposite is true. I don't acknowledge my limits, pushing myself to the point of exhaustion or burnout and bringing on the very weakness that I have tried to avoid.

            The third element of this arrangement is the defense mechanism, which supports the dichotomy between the idealization and the avoidance and keeps the whole system in place. The defense mechanism is the "enforcer." Like some kind of fierce guardian at the temple gates, it jumps into action whenever the fixation or character structure is threatened, either by unacceptable feelings and impulses from inside oneself, or by upsetting communications from other people or the environment. For the most part, the defense mechanism operates automatically and unconsciously. We simply aren't aware of what's going on. It not only operates in response to specific threats to our personality, but it also can be seen as a chronic influence underlying the activities of our daily life. Here's another example: at any given moment, Fives may "isolate" themselves and withdraw from a situation or person if they feel pressured or coerced. Yet we can also see Fives isolating themselves as a general habit. Isolation from people, or isolation from their own emotional life is a pervasive issue.

            We can find all nine of the Enneagram defense mechanisms described by modern psychology (plus a few more), but they are not always assigned to a specific personality type. At different times, or in different conditions, we might find any one of them operating inside ourselves. But the Enneagram says is that one of them is central to our particular personality type.

            These three psychodynamic terms give us a big advantage in working with ourselves and other people. By observing these dynamics, we can see how the psychological and emotional defenses of the personality types work. We can try to intervene with ourselves when we notice them coming up for us, and we have a better understanding of how to respond when they are activated in the people with whom we have relationships. It's important to note that we don't usually have problems with other people's personality type per se. What really gets in the way of cooperation, or intimacy, is their (and our) defense system. These unconscious patterns are what leads to so much of the conflict and frustration in relationships.

            Here is a brief description of these defenses. They are hard to understand in a sentence or two, but it's useful to have an overview. The first phrase is the defense mechanism, as in "Ones use reaction formation" followed by the avoidance pattern and the idealization. Of course saying that we "use" a defense mechanism implies conscious intent, which is rarely the case. It's much more of an automatic pattern and it's very hard for us to see it in ourselves.

            1) Ones use reaction formation to avoid anger (i.e. direct anger) and to maintain a self image of being right. (Reaction formation is feeling one thing and then doing the opposite, such as feeling resentful but acting nice).

            2) Twos use repression of personal needs and feelings to avoid being needy and to maintain a self image of being helpful. (Repression is putting one's "unacceptable" feelings out of awareness and converting them into a more acceptable kind of emotional energy).

            3) Threes use identification to avoid failure and maintain a self image of being successful. (Identification is a kind of pervasive roleplaying and losing oneself in image).

            4) Fours use introjection to avoid ordinariness and maintain a self image of being authentic. (Introjection is both an attempt to overcome deficiency by bringing in value from outside oneself and the habit of internalizing blame for what goes wrong).

            5) Fives use isolation to avoid emptiness and maintain a self image of being knowledgeable. (Isolation can be physical and geographical, but it also means being cut off from one's emotions).

            6) Sixes use projection to avoid personal rejection and to maintain a self image of being loyal. (Projection is a way of attributing to others what one can't accept in oneself, both positive and negative).

            7) Sevens use rationalization to avoid suffering and to maintain a self image of being OK. (Rationalization is a style of explaining and justifying in order to keep pain away or refuse to take responsibility).

            8) Eights use denial to avoid vulnerability and to maintain a self image of being strong. (Denial is a kind of forceful re-directing of attention and feeling based on willfulness and control).

            9) Nines use narcotization to avoid conflict and to maintain a self image of being comfortable or harmonious. (Narcotization is using food and drink, entertainment, or simply repetitive patterns of thinking and doing to "put oneself to sleep").

            It's useful to see how the defense mechanisms are all based in the lead center of the personality type, either mental, emotional, or body-based. For example, repression (Two) and denial (Eight) can sound like the same thing. The results may indeed be similar, in that one's unacceptable feelings are put out of awareness. But there is a big difference. Repression is a function of the emotional center. When Twos repress certain feelings, they convert them into other forms of emotional energy. They could be diverted into more positive feelings, or they could simply be discharged through the Two's general tone and affect. This reinforces their tendency to be "hysterical." Eights, in contrast, bear down on their feelings of vulnerability or sadness with their angry forcefulness. Denial uses the strong energy of the instinctual center to override and close down all emotions.

            In another example: Sixes project their unacceptable feelings and impulses onto other people. This is primarily a function of the mind, forming an idea or mental construct about someone else while reducing one's own emotional or instinctual energy. By contrast, the introjection of the Fours is an operation of the emotional center. Using their empathy they tend to internalize the feelings and attitudes of the significant people in their lives. It's less of a mental construct and more of an emotional process.