Enneagram -- NINE

"Nine" by Tom Chou
Mediator.
The underlying motivation of type 9 is peaceful acceptance of their surroundings. They try to minimize conflicts, and their detached acceptance of life often gives them a settling, calming influence on others. Average 9s are considered "easy-going" people, and when they get angry it is brief, like a summer squall that quickly passes. Average 9s see many sides of a debate which at best makes them unusually accepting, but at worst makes them vacillate, forget their own priorities, and become empty shells with no identity of their own.

Others can learn from the 9's patience and ability to accept. Conversely, the 9 can learn from some of the more focused personalities how to stay with their own priorities in life, without getting distracted.

The underlying 9 motivation may have different outward appearances. Introverted nines literally blend into the background in that they neither seek attention nor do they express strong emotional reactions. Extroverted nines willingly become the center of attention, but they still aim to harmonize with others and smooth over conflicts. Unhealthy 9s may seem passive most of the time, only to explode with pent up anger, while healthy 9s learn to handle conflicts without suppressing their own needs. Nines often take on the personality traits of others around them - this quality helps them understand others, but once again diverts them from their own needs.

Famous 9s: Walt Disney, Walter Cronkite, Ronald Reagan, Carl Jung, Bill Clinton, Albert Einstein.

Comparisons with other types: See type two.
Tom's site :http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~tchou
"Nine" by C.Thomson
No Priorities

We don't always have to go to the movies to see a type acted out in vivid color. When we get to eights and nines, we can just remember the 1996 elections. Dole was a clear eight and Clinton, a nine. Clinton can easily be confused with a three because like a lot of nines, he gets swept up in whatever is going on. Many really fine athletes are nines (Joe Montana comes to mind) and their talent lies in just submitting to the flow of the game and mastering it, using their skills at merging to become totally absorbed.

Clinton is leading a three country in a threeish job so when he just goes with the energy flow he looks like a three sometimes. But here are some things that point to his nine-ness. The New Yorker (Sept. 23, 1996 p. 56) describes his giving a speech in this way: "He gave a long speech. It was not a good speech in any classical sense -- it was, as most of his speeches are, too multitudinous in specifics, and lacking in coherence -- but it was casual and fluid, moving from one part to another with an internal rhythm. It was likable, and the man who was delivering it was likable, too." Later, they describe his method of giving speeches:. "Merely addressing what Clinton says is an exhausting, endless chore, as George Bush found, because he says so much and because the things he says are all so mixed together -- some are true, some not, some are important, some are meaningless; some have nothing to do with Clinton, some are real, some are vapor." (p.57) Dole may have thought this was strategy and it was, but it was his enneagram strategy. Nines do not have a clear grasp of what is primary and what is secondary and they are not organized thinkers, as a rule. What the frustrated writers report is just the muddled, wandering, unprioritized, global thinking of a nine.


Like the 2-3-4 center has confusion about how to feel and the 5,6,7 center has a knot in the will, the 8-9-1 center, often called the gut center or instinctive center, has a knot in their thinking. In a certain way they don't think clearly, especially with words. They often have uncanny intuition - a "gut feeling" but they tend not to be articulate.

Clinton's speech patterns reveal the life struggle of the nines. Nines tend to merge with their environment, go with the flow, include everyone. They are often leaders because they know what everybody else wants and that is what they want. Clinton is not our only recent nine president. Reagan is a nine. His falling asleep was metaphorical - nines are oblivious to themselves. Reagan's cheerful oblivion was one way the nine minimizes life's struggles. Eisenhower was a leader, but his campaign slogan had no content at all. It simply said "I Like Ike." Nines are often lovable. Reagan was loved even by people who disliked his economic and political policies. Quayle, another nine, is a little different. He manifests the same thinking problem that Reagan and Clinton do, only his was more of a vacant nobody-at-home symptom rather than the simplified Reagan thought cloud or the prolix unprioritized thought of Clinton. These politicians are intelligent nines, but their intelligence is interpersonal, intuitive and non-verbal.

Dole had a hard time attacking Clinton because Clinton was all over the lot. He had so many ideas, so many positions that Dole could shoot down one or some, but Clinton had no priorities, so Dole couldn't focus his eightish wrath on any important one. Dole had a few broad planks (which he defended with fierce eightness). Clinton had 300 skinny ones.

Reagan was hard to attack, too (Teflon president), because he talked in anecdotes and little stories that really didn't have any cognitive dimension. How do you attack a little story?

Nines specialize in being hard to attack. From childhood they perfected the art of not getting caught in storms, of staying alive in a hostile or unstable environment. They emotionally and intellectually just hunker down and lie low. They often have a sweet quality about them with no hard edges.

Nines have anger - a lot of it - but it's imploded, turned in on themselves. It smolders, but it doesn't explode very often. Rather it becomes passive aggressive - extremely hard to deal with. Clinton is often attacked for having no agenda and that's almost right. His nine agenda is to get along with everyone, include everyone (remember his first inauguration - The Way America Looks - with every kind of music and art he could cram into it?) Nines often have difficult prioritizing - Clinton is no exception - and they merge with whoever has a strong agenda. People sense this about Bill and Hilary. He is our leader, she is his.

Watch when Clinton ends his speeches, that plea for congress to work with him is real. He doesn't like conflict deep down and he would really like to cooperate.

Resources:
See the movie, The Last Picture Show / Texasville (the sequel) They are both about a town with about nine characters and they are living in a nine environment - a land without hope or future.

Jerry Wagner's The Enneagram Spectrum of Personality Styles has a good 101 profile of style nine. Nines are hard to recognize because you are sorting for something that is not there, namely a self-assertion.

Exercises:
1. If you are a nine, one of your best exercises is a daily list of priorities. Check them at the end of the day and see if you did what you said you would, or whether you did other people's priorities.

2. Nines find goal-setting quite helpful. All the goal-setting literature is written by threes, so books will be intimidating, but setting a few modest goals would be helpful for you.

3. Negatively, make a list of what you have intended to do for a long time and haven't done. Then discuss with yourself first and then with friends what you would really like to do instead of what you have been considering as goals that really weren't. For example, if you've said you were going to go back to school or take a class in something, you very likely don't want to do it (that's why you didn't!) Can you get in touch with what you would really like to do?

4. For one week, keep track of how much time you spent watching TV. Nines can easily become couch potatoes. If you don't watch TV, do you have an equivalent?

5. Can you find any common denominators in Clinton, Reagan, and Quayle?
Clarence Thomson's site :http://www.enneagramcentral.com/

"Nine" by MaryBast
The Diplomat

Beneath his calm exterior, Barry Foster typified the adage that "still waters run deep." He had a sincere, affectionate quality and "wore well" over time. He had a global, complex view of situations -- others liked to bounce around their ideas with Barry because he could understand and appreciate a variety of viewpoints simultaneously.

In fact, he often played the role of intermediary (or buffer) with colleagues who were having difficulty with each other. He's a great consensus builder.

On the down side, Barry's boss pointed out that he could be more assertive. He seemed a little too dependent on seeking others' views before deciding, and he would sometimes change his mind too easily (to complicate matters, he could also be quite stubborn, once he took a stand).

His boss appreciated Barry's collaborative management style, but wished he could be more effective in dealing with a couple of people on his team who just weren't producing.

Barry's development work gave him the skills to confront performance problems. He also became more confident in his own opinions, spoke up more in meetings, and paradoxically let go of some of his stubborn behavior.

"Plain" Vanilla

(This article first appeared in my "Getting Down to Business" column in The Electric Enneagram at Enneagram Central)

I once read an article that quoted the Dalai Lama (probably a Nine) as saying he had work-out equipment in his office to keep himself from being tense, then adding with a laugh: "But I don't like to sweat." This is a perfect metaphor for Nines and very characteristic of my client, Dale Rogers, in her general style. Dale told me that she forces herself to work out to keep her weight under control, but takes pride in completing her routine "without breaking into a sweat." (By the way, she often goes to the company gym at lunch with her colleague Al--an Eight--who takes equal pride in "sweating like a horse" and who jokingly describes Dale as a "wimp who's afraid to be uncomfortable!")

"Dale always seems up to date with what's going on in our company, and could probably sit in the Vice President's chair," remarked Al, "but she needs to show more visible leadership. 'Passion' is not a word you'd associate with her. She's conservative, doesn't inspire excitement, and sometimes people need to know you can't be pushed around."

"Dale's better informed about the new technology than anyone else in Headquarters," said another colleague, "and she's really good at getting people together for input. She works by consensus, and I've seen her handle some tough personnel situations very well. But I'm not sure she'd be decisive enough in her boss's job."

"I often wonder why she doesn't take a stronger position--she's a nice person, maybe a little too nice," concluded a third observer. "I've seen her say her piece if she feels strongly, but she needs a better ability to sell herself and to fight for what the department needs." "She's easy to be around," commented her boss, "but she has a kind of 'vanilla' quality. She sometimes fades into the woodwork, though she wears pretty well over time."

A fairly laissez-faire manager, Dale had picked people to work for her over the years who were independent and competent. She had risen in the organization as it grew in its industry, without it being an issue that almost all her decisions were made by consensus. She was kind and considerate, genuinely concerned with the common good, but in a position now where she was required to demonstrate more personal decisiveness, particularly if she was to be considered as a back-up to the Vice President.

The "vanilla" quality referred to above was hard for others to clearly articulate. "I don't know how to describe it," said a fellow team member, "She's a great manager and a competent executive, but she's not feisty enough."

In her self-assessment Dale described her childhood: "I was praised for being well-behaved, so there was no need for a whole lot of rules. My parents left me pretty much to my own devices. They never came to school events. As a teenager I took up golf so I could play with my father, but he was so engrossed in his own game he never noticed how I was playing." When asked how she felt about that as a child she pondered a moment, then answered: "I think I just realized that's how things were and figured there was no use getting upset about it."

I'd like to contrast Dale with another Nine executive because I think it's important to not stereotype Nines as being exclusively "peacemakers." I'm a Nine, too, so I speak with some experience when I say that our relationship with anger is very complex. Certainly we tend to be passive-aggressive, but that can show up in a whole variety of ways.

It's been my experience in teaching the Enneagram to groups of business people that they often mistype Nines at first because of the way their anger shows up. George, the Chief Operating Officer of a middle-sized corporation, for example, was first guessed to be an Eight or a One by one of my colleagues working in the same organization. George's anger ranged from a One-ish nonverbal message (disapproving frown) to a more explosive, Eight-ish, prima-donna-like quality. Let's listen in on what his subordinates had to say:

"He needs to understand the impact of his style--one employee left because of what he said and how. This person couldn't attend a meeting because of something going on with her mother and George made a crack about 'You have to ask your mother?'" (George, as an aside, was attempting a joke.)

"Our team members all trust and respect him and he's been very helpful in regard to my weaknesses -- making suggestions and giving positive feedback, but he initially intimidated the hell out of me. He can look distracted and people think he's disapproving or angry."

"One time he literally screamed, bounced off the walls, stormed around his office, so we've worked out a deal that when he's emotional I go away and come back when he's calmed down."

"He blows up, yells, then apologizes--he never stays in a foul mood for long."

Yet we know that George is a Nine:

"The power of discipline and structure--and fear--when I was growing up was with my father. There was no way to overtly question any of his ideas. I still can't stand to be bossed. I had a teacher in fourth grade who was a nun, and a tyrant. One day she called me out of a classroom, took me to a dark hall, and said, 'You told some children on the playground that I'm a blabbermouth.' I didn't say that, but she wanted me to admit it and I wouldn't do it, so she kept me in that dark hall all afternoon. There have been episodes with authorities my whole life--I don't go after them, but if they come after me I'll dig my heels in, and when that happens, my migraines go through the roof.

I generally approach people in a trusting way. Of all the varied people in my life, I've found a way to work with almost all of them. I don't like to be demanding because I feel people do the best they can do. It's very hard for me to decide what I want--I find myself responding to other peoples' demands a lot of the time. I don't think I'm a masochist, but sometimes I forget to take care of myself. Just the other day someone asked me to take over their project when I already have almost no space of my own, and I stuttered and stammered before I finally said I couldn't."

We focused on two key overlapping areas as part of George's development plan:

(1) George communicated well in a group when his purpose was clear, and used analogies that people could relate to, but it was said that "his main thing is talking, not listening--he's not a great extemporaneous speaker." He gained an understanding of his "epic tales" through the Enneagram, and learned to outline his main objective and 3-5 key talking points. He also began to check in with his audience periodically, because what was perfectly clear to him was not always clear to others.

(2) Underlying his difficulty focusing in groups was George's extreme distractibility: "He laughs out loud at things that are only mildly amusing." "He rubs his face, walks around the room." "He fidgets, loses interest." "He has the strongest nonverbals I've ever seen--such as shaking his head." "He leaps to his feet to answer questions directed at others." George even went to be tested for adult ADD, but was found to be in a "normal" range. However, we both felt that "ADD" was a terrific metaphor to frame his distractibility (and his angry outbursts) because the research on ADD offered some concrete ideas on how to focus better. We divided these into two key areas:

Behavioral (some of these ideas and some of those below came from Helen Palmer):
Say no to tasks you don't want or know you won't finish.
Minimize external stimuli when you need to focus on a task.
Start with short time frames (e.g., 15 minutes) and build to longer time frames.
Formulate an overall task, then break it down to segments that can be done in short time frames; make strategic use of deadlines; focus on the immediate next step vs. the final goal.
Give yourself timed breaks along the way.
Plan rewards to indulge yourself when you've accomplished parts of a task (but keep a time limit on these, as well).
Have several things going at once, so that you can switch from timed segments with one kind of task to timed segments with another. (I know this sounds strange, but it works for Nines!)
Emotional
Notice what immediately precedes your shifts of attention; stay with and discover the attached feelings.
Do some grief work (e.g., anger over feeling discounted, sorrow over lost years before you gained focus in your career).
Develop a meditation discipline to learn how to "bring your mind home" when it wanders.
Develop your negotiation skills with the purpose of developing confidence in stating an opinion without escalating an argument.
Practice ways to discover and acknowledge your anger without acting out of it (you will probably find that you do have an opinion, that you can share in a straightforward and assertive way):
Imagine your anger being played out until the "charge" lessens (the more outrageous, the better; e.g., rip their face off in your mind--it's a way of encouraging your shadow side to show itself).
Use Albert Ellis's Rational Emotive Therapy technique to calm down the level of emotion while you look for its "irrational" basis. Often Nines victimize themselves with their own anger instead of discovering what they want and acting on it.
Respond to criticism without defensiveness, particularly when feeling discounted. This will uncover how you discount yourself and help you stand up for yourself in an assertive way.
Most important, observe yourself when "hooked," without judgment. The more you are able to do this, the less frequently you will act in habitual ways and the more you will remember yourself.

Please be Patient...

Several years ago I worked with a small business where the CEO (Bob) and the President (Helen) had very different world views and very different levels of trust in each others' capability. Bob saw his younger sibling as "too hard-working, too focused on the details and not enough on our strategy." Helen saw her older brother as "ignoring the business," more interested in chewing the fat with customers than in doing the paperwork required to administer his part of the organization.

With their input, I decided to start our work together with a review of conflict management dynamics. Filley pointed out as long ago as 1975 (Interpersonal Conflict Resolution) that while we have a choice between behavior which (1) defeats one or both of us or (2) provides mutually beneficial solutions, we also have an unconsciously learned pattern of competition, dominance, aggression, and defense. The use of problem-solving skills, on the other hand, appears to require conscious effort to develop and practice.

All of the sources I researched concurred that we need to treat the other person's concerns as legitimate if we are to expect the same consideration in return. Rather than interpreting others' motives by seeing them through our own filters, we need to listen and learn. We need to show empathy, promote equality, be descriptive, creative, collaborative, and spontaneous.

But we've learned to protect our self-image by strategizing to keep things within our own control, becoming defensive when we feel threatened, acting on our assumptions, and using "either/or" thinking. In fact, the most common and most unproductive trap in approaching conflict is trying to change the other person. In a very real sense the only person you know you can change is yourself.

The irony of mentioning my work with Bob and Helen is that I didn't practice what I preach. After three meetings I abruptly terminated the consultation because I felt Bob was being dishonest. Although I had emphasized the importance of open communication, he continued to say one thing in private and another in our meetings with his sister.

His behavior "hooked" me and instead of confronting him I obsessed over his behavior for days. I blamed Bob for the failure of our work together (citing to myself the many successes I'd had in similar circumstances and--by the way--protecting my self-image and avoiding what I anticipated as a difficult confrontation).

What I could have done if I'd stepped aside for just a moment when I started becoming aware of my own anxiety was to ask him why his behavior was different in meetings than in private with me. I could have asked myself how his behavior was threatening me, what investment I had in certain outcomes.

I could have told him I felt frustrated, and why, and asked him to work with me to improve our relationship. Bob and Helen might never have been able to work better together (I heard they did eventually split). But he would have had a powerful model for a more constructive way of approaching conflict.

I did tell Bob by phone that his behavior was inconsistent and that I wasn't sure he was serious about doing the work. I also said I would work with him in the future after he had practiced for several months the skills he had agreed to in private with me ("I'll call you," he said...). But notice that I wasn't talking about our relationship or what I brought to the interaction that had me react so strongly to his inconsistency!

I remember a bumper sticker I saw once: Please be patient...God isn't finished with me yet. I try to be patient with myself, to stay in the process, to remember to "step aside," when I can, from my own Nine defenses and preconceptions. I hope you will be equally patient with yourself.


Mary's site :http://ww4.choice.net/~marybast/index.htm

"Nine" by Tom Condom

People who are receptive to their environment and play down their own presence. When healthy they often are loving, modest and trusting. When unhealthy they can be stubborn, lazy and soul-dead.

Unlike Eights, who mobilize and directly express aggression, Nines take their underlying emotion of anger and tamp it down. Their central defensive strategy is to self-efface, to blend with and accommodate their environment. This tactic requires that Nines suppress their rough edges and conceal any part of them that might seem disagreeable. Most Nines are angry about the consequences of this strategy -- other people overlook them -- but this anger is expressed in indirect ways.

Since most Nines have taken on the coloration of their environment, there is a confusing variety to people with this style. Nines can have a wide range of occupations and outwardly appear much different from each other. What they share underneath, however, is a distinct tendency to fall asleep to their real inner needs. Remember when you are trying to identify a Nine that you are looking for the absence of something rather than an obvious definite quality that the person asserts.

Nines have sometimes been described as the “common people” of the Enneagram. When healthy, they possess a deep personal modesty and an elegant simplicity of thought. Awakened Nines are even-tempered, stable, unassuming, nonjudgmental and comfortable with who they are. They often have a cheerful Seven-like outlook, though they live in the present and not the future.

Many Nines have a calm, egoless, focused power that they bring to bear on whatever is important to them. This power is generally rooted in love whether the Nine thinks of it that way or not. Most healthy people with this style have a desire to contribute, to give to others freely, and to adminstrate their world in a way that benefits everyone they care about.

Nines are natural diplomats and mediators, and can be quite skilled at resolving conflict. Since they seek peace, union and harmony, it is often easy for a Nine to find points of agreement between warring parties. From there a Nine might patiently negotiate settlements that build on small positive steps. Awakened Nines are gently dynamic, suffused with a highly integrated sense of self and implicit mission. Most are also flexible and have the ability to state blunt, difficult truths in useful ways that somehow donít make others defensive.

When less healthy, a Nine's apparent simplicity becomes more like self-concealment. Entranced Nines begin to merge blindly with the wishes of others and the roles their environment wants them to play. In the process, they erase their own needs, priorities and ambitions. A Nine might give away his or her sense of initiative in order to have no opinion and thus keep an apparent peace. The more they absent themselves from their own life, the more passive, unfocused and ambivalent they become.

Entranced Nines tend to see all sides of a situation and identify equally with each outside perspective. They often focus on absurd or irrelevant details and lose the forest for the trees. They can be overly responsible but underperforming, obsessively complicating simple tasks even as they minimize the consequence of not getting important things done. Going in circles relieves them of the necessity to make decisions and personal choices, to take responsibility for having a self that they think might upset others.

Entranced Nines often have trouble overtly saying no, but say it in other ways, usually through silent stubbornness and passive aggression. Nines usually blame others explicitly or indirectly for the life they feel they can't really have. Way deep down there's an angry, depressed nihilism in most unhealthy Nines. They have given up on their life and see no reason to stir themselves up to play at what they're concluded is an empty, fruitless game.

When deeply entranced, Nines can sink into depressed self-neglect and a kind of lazy oblivion that is an imitation of death. They may be apathetic, habit-bound, oblivious, or numb. They could talk incessantly about what they know they should do but then never bother to do it. They might try to avoid conflict but accidentally provoke it through bursts of disassociated nastiness. They might be disorderly, chaotic, cluttered and offer weird, ill-formed rationales for their irresponsibility. Deeply entranced Nines can do great damage to others while believing their actions have no consequence. Drug and alcohol addiction can also be problems at this stage.

FAMOUS NINES
Actress Loni Anderson, Bruce Babbitt, the cultural aura of Bali, Annette Bening, Tony Bennett, Tom Berenger, Ernest Borgnine, Matthew Broderick, Sandra Bullock, George Burns, John Candy, Actress Kate Capshaw, Singer Belinda Carlisle, Art Carney, Actor Keith Carradine, Julia Child, Warren Christopher, Connie Chung, Bill Clinton, Columbo, Gary Cooper, Kevin Costner, Willem Dafoe, The Dali Lama, Actor Jeff Daniels, Actress Lolita Davidovich, Designer Oscar de la Renta,
Clint Eastwood, Dwight Eisenhower, Queen Elizabeth II, Shelley Fabares, Columboís Peter Falk, Marlin Fitzwater, Gerald Ford, Actor Dennis Franz, Annette Funicello, Mahatma Gandhi, James Garner, Chief Dan George, John Goodman, Tipper Gore, Actor Elliott Gould, Peter Graves, Charles Grodin, Julie Hagerty, Woody Harrelson, Gabby Hayes, Patty Hearst, Mariel Hemingway, Buck Henry, Audrey Hepburn, Barbara Hershey, Paul Hogan, Anjelica Huston, Actor Ben Johnson, Shirley Jones, C. G. Jung, Director Lawrence Kasdan, Grace Kelly,
Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan, Helmut Kohl, Stan Laurel, Author Fran Leibowitz, Actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, Abraham Lincoln, Heather Locklear, Andie MacDowell, Mr. Magoo, John Major, Dean Martin, Jerry Mathers, Joe Montana, Actor Harry Morgan, Sancho Panza, Slim Pickens, the cultural aura of Poland, Actor Michael J. Pollard, Randy Quaid, Dan Quayle, James Earl Ray,
Ronald Reagan, Ralph Richardson, Andy Richter, Robbie Robertson, Psychologist Carl Rogers, Roy Rogers, Gena Rowlands, Actress Eva Marie Saint, Jerry Seinfeld, Garry Shandling, Wallace Shawn, Martin Sheen, Actor Tom Skerritt, CBS's Harry Smith, Ringo Starr, Mary Steenburgen, Gloria Steinem, Daniel Stern, James Stewart, Actor Eric Stoltz, Richard Thornburgh, George Wendt, Diane Wiest, Singer Andy Williams.

Nine With an 8 Wing
Awakened Nines with an 8 wing have a modest, steady, receptive core. They are charged by the dynamism of 8 - when focused on goals they often have great force of will. Get things done, make good leaders. May have an animal magnetism of which they are only partly aware. Can seem highly centered, take what they do seriously but remain unimpressed with themselves. 8 wing can bring a strong internal sense of direction. Relatively fearless and highly intuitive. Generally not intellectual unless they have it in their background. When more entranced, they manifest the contradictions of the two styles expressing them in sequence. Could be passively amiable like a Nine and then turn horribly blunt like an 8. One moment they are opinionated or nasty, next moment kindly and supportive. Often don't hear their voices when angry. Can have a sharp, grating edge. May be slow to anger and then explode. Or angry but don't know it; may confuse being assertive with being rude. Placidly callous - both styles support numbness. Tactless and indiscriminate and indiscreet. May be unwittingly disloyal, spilling everyone's secrets. Sexual confusion, sometimes they are driven by lust.

Nine With a 1 Wing
Tend to have been "model children." Instinctively worked to please their parents by being virtuous, orderly, and little trouble. When awakened, they have great moral authority plus good-hearted peacemaking tendencies. Often have a sense of mission, public or private, that involves working hard for the welfare of everyone they are committed to. Principled expression of love. Desire to contribute, do little harm. May be well-liked, modest, endearing, gentle yet firm. Some have great grace and composure with bursts of spontaneity and sweetness. Elegant simplicity. When entranced, they tend to be self-neglectful. May go passively dead and operate from a dubious, fractured morality. Dutiful to what they shouldn't be. Play the good child, disappear into contexts, settle for being overlooked or just partly recognized. Passive tolerance of absurd or damaging situations. One-sided relationships where the Nine gives too much. Rationalize, minimize, tell themselves they had a great childhood, everything's fine. Placid numbness creeps over them. Intolerance of their own emotions. Gradually deaden their soul.

Instinctual Variants by Thomas Condon - The Changeworks

Self-Preservation
Preoccupied with physical comfort, maintaining habits and satisfying appetites. The image of the lazy couch potato goes with this subtype. Strategy for getting along is to ask as little of life as possible. Can have a love of the minimal and enjoy the repetition of known routines. Distract themselves with pleasant domestic activities. Live conservatively. Consume food and drink for anaesthesia. May have large appetites, drug addictions, be physically slow moving.

Intimate
Focused on an ideal of romantic union. Get lost in one relationship or in the yearning to have one. High expectations of partner. Sometimes sound melancholy like a Four. Prone to jealousy. May settle on someone and then grow critical and have a wandering eye. Can also deny their partner's flaws and idealize them to stay in union. Another scenario involves multiple relationships, searching from one person to the next. Sometimes the Nine can't decide between two people. Triangulation. Paradoxically, this subtype can be fickle because they are so easily disappointed.

Social
Social Nines tend to gravitate toward groups and then have conflicts about joining or staying apart. Can enjoy group energy and interests but may be also aware of the group's expectations. These the Nine will both play along with and resist. When immersed in a group, social Nines can lose themselves, trying to become all things to all people. Gregarious but may start to resist being too heavily influenced, to compensate for their sense of lost identity. Can sometimes resent how the group doesn't really see them. May fixate on what others think of them. Or resent the group and make fun of it. Some social Nines stay basically uninvolved but hang out at the group's edge. Frequently there's lots of activity. May get caught up in roles - a stronger connection to 3 goes with this subtype.
QUOTES :

"Even where sleep is concerned, too much is a bad thing." - Homer

"I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. I love to keep it by me: the idea of getting rid of it nearly breaks my heart." - Jerome K. Jerome

"The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house as a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master." - Kahlil Gibran

"To forget someone means to think of him." - Jean De La Bruyere

"Indecision is like the stepchild: if he doesn't wash his hands, he is called dirty, if he does, he is wasting the water." - African proverb

"A useless life is only an earlier death." - J.W. von Goethe

"My policy is to have no policy." - Abraham Lincoln

"A calm despair, without angry convulsions or reproaches directed at heaven, is the essence of wisdom." - Alfred de Vigny

"Good temper is an estate for life." - William Hazlitt

"To accept whatever comes regardless of the consequences is ... to be full of that love which comes from a sense of at-one-ness with whatever." - John Cage

"The fine art of executive decision consists in not deciding questions that are not now pertinent, in not deciding prematurely, in not making decisions that cannot be made effective, and in not making decisions that others should make." - Chester I. Barnard

"Do not push forward a wagon; you will only raise the dust about yourself. Do not think of all your anxieties; you will only make yourself ill." - Shih King

"He who acts, spoils; he who grasps, lets slip." - Lao-Tse

"Capacities clamor to be used, and cease to clamor only when they are well used." - Maslow


Tom Condom's site : http://www.thechangeworks.com/
“Nine" by Don Riso

The Pleasant, Self-Effacing Type: Receptive, Optimistic, Complacent, and Disengaged

Basic Fear: Of loss and separation
Basic Desire: To have inner stability "peace of mind"
The Nine with an Eight-Wing: "The Referee"
The Nine with a One-Wing: "The Dreamer"
Potential Neuroses: Schizoid, Dissociated and Dependent Personality Disorders

Key Motivations: Want to create harmony in their environment, to avoid conflicts and tension, to preserve things as they are, to resist whatever would upset or disturb them.

Healthy
Deeply receptive, accepting, unselfconscious, emotionally stable and serene. Trusting of self and others, at ease with self and life, innocent and simple. Patient, unpretentious, good-natured, genuinely nice people. Optimistic, reassuring, supportive: have a healing and calming influence—harmonizing groups, bringing people together: a good mediator, synthesizer, and communicator. At Their Best: Become self-possessed, feeling autonomous and fulfilled: have great equanimity and contentment because they are present to themselves. Paradoxically, at one with self, and thus able to form more profound relationships. Intensely alive, fully connected to self and others.

Average
Fear conflicts, so become self-effacing and accommodating, idealizing others and "going along" with their wishes, saying "yes" to things they do not really want to do. Fall into conventional roles and expectations. Use philosophies and stock sayings to deflect others. Active, but disengaged, unreflective, and inattentive. Do not want to be affected, so become unresponsive and complacent, walking away from problems, and "sweeping them under the rug." Thinking becomes hazy and ruminative, mostly comforting fantasies, as they begin to "tune out" reality, becoming oblivious. Emotionally indolent, unwillingness to exert self or to focus on problems: indifference. Begin to minimize problems, to appease others and to have "peace at any price." Stubborn, fatalistic, and resigned, as if nothing could be done to change anything. Into wishful thinking, and magical solutions. Others frustrated and angry by their procrastination and unresponsiveness.

Unhealthy
Can be highly repressed, undeveloped, and ineffectual. Feel incapable of facing problems: become obstinate, dissociating self from all conflicts. Neglectful and dangerous to others. Wanting to block out of awareness anything that could affect them, they dissociate so much that they eventually cannot function: numb, depersonalized. They finally become severely disoriented and catatonic, abandoning themselves, turning into shattered shells. Multiple personalities possible.


Don Riso's site : http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/


"Nine" by J.Wagner

Personality Style Nine: The Peaceful Person
Core Value Tendency: NINES are attracted to and value peace, harmony, and unity. They desire to make the world an ecumenical, harmonious, conflict-free place to live in. They like being peaceful, calm, and ordered and prefer to go with the flow. The universe is unfolding as it should and they see no need to push the river since it's flowing fine by itself. Being at one with yourself and your surroundings is what life is all about.

Adaptive Cognitive Schema: The objective vision that keeps NINES aligned with their true nature and with reality is the realization of their unity with the universe and their functioning according to the same laws that govern everyone else. This gives them their sense of peace, harmony, integration, and oneness with all reality. They further believe that the laws of the universe are warm and loving (vs cold and indifferent) since they have given birth to organic, living, warm creatures. Teleology is built right into the laws of the cosmos. There is a value and meaning, a purpose and direction that is manifest in all that is.

Adaptive Emotional Schema: The state that accompanies the NINES' objective paradigm is action, love wishing to pass itself on. Action flows naturally from a sense of gratitude for being loved, from the recognition that one is capable of loving, and from the desire to do something in return. Action arises when individuals want to actualize and transcend themselves by connecting with other people and with the Source of the universe.

Adaptive Behavioral Schemas: Behavior that flows from a realization of being loved and loving, responding gratefully, and appreciating harmony, includes the abilities to reconcile opposites, find agreement, be diplomatic and allowing, and have an intuitive sense for when things fit together. NINES are easy going, calm, reassuring, non-pretentious, and relaxedly focused.

Maladaptive Cognitive Schema: When NINES exaggerate their peaceful qualities, they over-identify with the idealized self image of I am settled. To compensate for a maladaptive belief that they are not important enough to be cared about or don't matter enough to be listened to, and to keep themselves from feeling neglected, NINES develop an attitude of resignation: "What's the big deal? Why get upset? Nothing is that important. We're not around that long anyway. Whatever we do will be undone eventually so why exert so much effort?" NINES settle in for the duration and go on automatic pilot. They neglect what is most important to them and fidget with distractions.

Maladaptive Emotional Schema: Along with the disposition to neglect what is essential, NINES experience the passion of indolence. They turn down their energy, settle into a comfortable routine, procrastinate, diffuse their attention, and don't take care of business.

Maladaptive Behavioral Schema: Perceiving the world as neglectful and indifferent, and feeling indolent about what matters most to them, NINES merge with the identities and agendas of others and forget about their own goals and desires. They lose themselves in the opinions, feelings, and aims of others. What others are thinking and pursuing become more compelling than what they want. Postponing decisions and actions, NINES let their life take its course or let life happen to them. They become inattentive and fall asleep to their deepest desires.

What is Avoided: Because they are trying to be settled, NINES avoid any kind of conflict. They don't allow themselves to get too enthusiastic about anything important. They avoid differences and highlight sameness and agreement. It's difficult enough for NINES to locate their own ideas, feelings, and ambitions, let alone to assert them and act on them. NINES avoid focusing, discriminating, and prioritizing. If everything is the same, it's difficult to make a decision. At the same time any decision they make has equal merit or weight.

Defensive Maneuvers: NINES ward off conflictual impulses and situations by numbing themselves and those around them. This is called narcoticization. When NINES say it doesn?t matter, they are also implying they don?t matter and you don?t matter. One way to avoid disappointment is to lower or eliminate your expectations. Nothing can hurt you if you don't let anything matter or get to you.

Childhood Development: NINES were the non-noticed children. They sensed their caretakers didn't pay enough attention to them, had other more important things to do, or, perhaps, didn't love them or care about them. Just as their caretakers neglected them, so NINES learned to neglect themselves. Instead of expressing themselves, they distracted themselves. Instead of feeling the pain of not being sufficiently cared for, they resigned themselves for the duration, numbed out, learned to not let things get to them, and assumed a laissez - faire attitude. NINES were the not noticed children.

Non-Resourceful State: When NINES are under stress, they become more resigned, more shut down, more asleep, and avoid their issues even more. They put off doing what needs to be done, engage themselves with inconsequential activities, daydream or sleep more. If that doesn't work, they may become obsessive and compulsive about the work they're doing. They may become overly responsible, dutiful, scrupulous, fearful, ruminative, worrying. They doubt themselves and seek the affirmation of some outside authority.

Resourceful State: When NINES are in a resourceful relaxed state, they focus and differentiate instead of distracting themselves or merging and becoming confluent. They stay awake and are aware. They are prompt and act decisively. They don't put off until tomorrow what they can do today. They express their own opinion, feeling, preference. They believe they are loved and cared for and start caring for themselves. They think of themselves as being successful, professional, efficient, and competent. They believe they do matter and their actions in the world make a difference. Unblocking their feelings, they let their own energy flow into action instead of living off of others' energy. They assume an active stance, allowing their love to pass itself on through action. I am therefore I matter replaces I don't matter, so what's the big deal?

Jerome Wagner's site : http://www.enneagramspectrum.com/
"Nine" by various writers

Personality Type Nine
The various appelations given to NINES express something of what authors believe to be central to the NINE style. Here is a sampling:
The Preservationist Donson & Hurley

Ego Indolent Ichazo The Negotiator O'Leary & Beesing
The Saint Jaxon-Baer The Mediator Palmer
The Program of Non-Aggression Keyes The Peacemaker Riso & Hudson
The Floater-Harmonizer Linden The Need to Avoid Rohr
The Over-Adjusted Disposition /
"Going with the Flow" Naranjo The Peaceful Person Wagner

Here is weaving together the various themes of the NINES' narrative:
When NINES are in their essence they have the sense that they are connected to the cosmos. The same laws that are operative in everyone else are operable in NINES. This gives NINES their sense of peace, harmony, integration, and oneness with all reality. NINES have the corollary sense that the laws of the universe are warm and loving since they have given rise to organic life. There is a teleology to the laws of the universe; they have a purpose and direction along with every creature in whom these laws course. There is value, meaning, and purpose to all that is.

These divine ideas, objective principles, or adaptive cognitive schemas are accompanied by the virtue of right action. Action flows naturally from a sense of being loved and from the capacity to love. Action is love that wishes to pass itself on. Action is a property of being which wishes to realize itself and transcend itself by connecting with Being and other beings.

When NINES lose touch with their essence, they also lose touch with these adaptive cognitive and emotional schemas. They lose themselves, their way, and their being gets obscured. Their personality with its maladaptive cognitive schemas (fixations), maladaptive emotional schemas (passions), and maladaptive behavioral schemas (self defeating behaviors) attempts to substitute for what they have lost.

If NINES were reared in an "average expectable environment" (Hartmann) or with "good enough" parenting (Winnicott), or with "unconditional positive regard" (Rogers), then presumably, they would stay in touch with their essence.

However, because their temperament predisposes them to be sensitive and vulnerable to being neglected or overlooked, they sensed that their parents didn't pay enough attention to them, had other things more important to do, perhaps didn't love them or care about them.

This latter maladaptive belief is particularly painful -- to believe that you aren't loved or don't matter. To compensate for this belief, NINES adopted a less painful paradigm which was: it doesn't matter (instead of I don't matter). NINES developed a life style of resignation. What's the big deal. We're not around that long, anyway. So let's settle in for the duration.

NINES' maladaptive beliefs become crystallized in the self image of "I am settled." They settle into their personality, settle into a comfortable life style, numb out and go on cruise control down the highway of life. The passion of indolence (or accidia, a psychospiritual inertia) locks their idealized self image in place and maintains it there.

Anything antithetical or threatening to this position is repressed or avoided, especially any kind of conflict which would be upsetting. Various defense mechanisms are deployed to keep anything unsettling from entering the NINES existence.

NINES fall asleep regarding what is essential to their personal development. Just as they felt their parents neglected and dumped them, so now they neglect and dump themselves.

They are caught in the dilemma of whether to assert themselves and their needs and risk losing their relationships or to submerge themselves, comply with others, and thereby lose their self. Should they be bad boys and girls like their neighbors, the EIGHTS? Or good girls and boys like their neighbors, the ONES. Should they be rebellious like the Counterphobic SIXES at their stress point? Or adaptable like the THREES at their core point? Their solution is to decline or delay either option and rather to embrace all sides of an issue, so as not to have to choose. No decision and procrastination are the conflict resolution methods for NINES.

NINES wrongly believe that to wake up is to find out they are unimportant, unloved, uncared for, adrift, and rageful. Merging with others is their personality's attempt to compensate for their sense of separation.

In fact when they wake up, they discover themselves, not enmeshed in ersatz intimate relationships, but intimately suffused with love. They were loved and loving all along.

There seems to be substantial convergence in various authors descriptions of NINES. Differences appear in the theories of childhood development. While Palmer, Rohr, Linden, and Wagner report that NINES felt overlooked and in the background, Riso writes that NINES positively identified with both parents or parent figures. Jaxon-Baer theorizes NINES were traumatized in the birth canal.

While there is considerable agreement about the pathology of the NINE, there are some creative variations about the health and virtue of the NINE: action (Ichazo), right action (Palmer), decisive action (Rohr), right action (Jaxon-Baer), patience (Riso), and diligence (O'Leary).

Ichazo and Palmer might take exception to my demeaning higher states of mind (divine ideas) and heart (virtues) by calling them adaptive cognitive and emotional schemas. They are, I believe, and more as well. I also don't know if there is validation to my assertion that the NINES' style predisposes them toward certain areas of vulnerability, viz., being neglected, not attended to, uncared about, etc.

According to Ichazo and the Arica Training, Enneagram type Nine is said to be the over non-conformist who lacks the psycho catalyzer of Holy Love, love that runs the cosmos. The Nine does not recognize that he or she conforms to cosmic laws and so must become a seeker, hoping to find how s/he fits into the cosmic purpose. Nines feel they haven't gotten their share of love. They are out of touch with their essence and so look outside themselves because they are afraid there is nothing inside. They are neglectful and indolent with their inner self. They can often see other fixations well, but don'w see or understand their own. The nickname for this fixation is ego-indolent. It could also be called over-discontent.

Naranjo says he doesn't understand Ichazo's statement that in indolence the "trap" is being too much of a seeker. For Naranjo, the opposite is true: type Nine is "not enough of a seeker, despite the subjective sense of being so and despite manifestations of displaced seeking such as erudition, traveling, or collecting antiquities." pg 150

For Naranjo, the root of all pathologies, expressed by the central position of style Nine, is the "forgetting of self." The substitutes for authentic being for Nines are "over-creaturization," a search for being in the realm of creature comforts and survival-related practicalities. "I eat therefore I am." Nines also pursue being through belonging. Through symbiotic living, the Nine can say: "I am you, therefore I exist."

Childhood Dynamics
According to Riso, Nines positively identified with both parents or with other parent figures. Nines had close supportive relationships with their parents (at least in early childhood). That's how they learned to identify with other people. Nines live through other people.
According to Rohr, Nines report that in their childhood they were overlooked or swamped. They were ignored or rejected if they expressed their own opinion.

According to Palmer Nines felt overlooked when they were young. They remember that their point of view was seldom heard and that other people's needs were more important than their own. Nines are caught in the dilemma of whether to conform or rebel. Their solution is to decline either option and attempt to embrace all sides of a question, so as not to have to choose.

According to Jaxon-Baer, Nines were traumatized in the birth canal. They feel pressure and want to fight against it. Experiencing pressure causes them to become rigid and passive/aggressive. As children, Nines were in the background. They may have felt overshadowed by their siblings.

According to Linen, Nines had the impression that their parents' interests were more important than theirs. They felt disregarded and not valued.

There is a sense in Nines of unresolved rage: to comply or to do your own thing presents a no-win dilemma. Compliance produces rage. Nines go unconscious and space out. Nines fear that if they express their anger, they will kill someone.

Virtue
According to Riso, the virtue of the Nine is Patience, a hopeful, eager watchfulness.
According to O'Leary the virtue for the Nines is Diligence. As Nine's discover God's love for them, new energies are awakened within them as they come to see their real worth as persons and discover yearning or self-development. Once they are convinced of the worth of their unique selves, the seek to acquire skills so that in gratitude to God's love they seek to make some contribution to the world. Love shows itself in actions of service. Nines become transformed from indolent spectators to patient, methodical workers.

According to Rohr, the gift or fruit of the spirit of the Nine is Decisive Action vs. hesitating and procrastination.

For Palmer the virute of the Nine is right action, taking the initiative toward the essential features of life.

According to Jaxon-Baer the virtue is right action which involves bringing the feeling of holy love into focus and keeping it on course by staying present and conscious in each moment-to-moment reality.

Nines have gone to sleep to the essential issues in their lives. Their anger doesn't get expressed. When Nines are compliant, it enrages them. When they are non-compliant, it terrifies them. They are trapped between being good boys and girls (Ones) and bad boys and girls (Eights) between the non-adapting of the counter-phobic Six and the adaptability of the Three.

Self narcoticization. Habit, routine, on automatic, going unconscious. Gurdjieff's machine-like existence.

Nines lack boundaries between their internal and external worlds. They merge with others and lose self definition. They are present oriented. They sort toward union and away from conflict. They have an external frame of reference and tend to be kinesthetic. Their primary issues are anger turned inward and a denial of the essential self. They distract themselves. Everything has value. Difficulty discriminating and forming hierarchies.

Names for Type Nine
Jaxon Baer: The Saint
O'Leary: The Negotiator
Palmer: The Mediator
Riso: The Peacemaker
Wagner: The Peaceful Person
Donson/Hurley: The Preservationist
Rohr: The Need to Avoid
Naranjo: The Over-Adjusted Disposition "Going with the Stream"
Keyes: The Program of Non-Aggression
Linden: The Floater-Harmonizer
Passion
Laziness, indolence, sloth, accidia, psychospiritual inertia. Laziness of the psyche, loss of interiority. One who has not learned to love himself or herself as a consequence of love deprivation. Defensive evasion of interiority. Seeking outside self for solutions. Distracting interest in the workings of external things. Psychological Inertia, over-adaptation09, resignation, generosity, ordinariness, robotic habit-Boundedness, distractibility.
Riso: sloth of self remembering. Lack of energy put into self-awareness or self-remembering.

Palmer: Do I agree or disagree? habit, essential, inessential, accumulation, containment of energy, inertia and depression, anger that went to sleep.

Fear of separation from the other. Basic desire: to find union with the other.

Defense mechanisms:

repression, dissociation, denial (Riso)
narcoticization, deflection, confluence (Naranjo)
narcosis, addictions (Rohr)
The Nine's illusion is that happiness is attained by shrugging off responsibility and maintaining a calm, easygoing exterior. (Donson/Hurley)