Type 6 of Enneagram
Enneagram Type 6 (Enneatype 6) – The Loyalist
Popularized in the 1970s in the mainstream of humanist psychology, the enneagram is a method of personal development and management.
The Enneagram describes nine different ways of approaching the world, and consequently nine very different ways of interacting with it. Ennea means 9 in Greek. Each of the 9 Enneatypes has its strengths, its weaknesses. Each of us privileges certain information and leaves others aside, in an unconscious way, limiting ourselves to one version of reality. This personal development tool allows you to get to know yourself better and to free yourself from certain sometimes limiting automatisms, and thus improve your interpersonal relationships and well-being.
The enneagram fits well with approaches in modern psychology. Like mindfulness, it emphasizes the importance of arousal over the “autopilot” of daily routines. Like cognitive and behavioral approaches, it relies on beliefs and the identification of inappropriate patterns. Its cognitive and emotional structure can be a useful and powerful guide.
Each individual has the nine profiles of the Enneagram within him, but does not develop them all in the same way. What makes each person unique.
See below the description of type 6 of the enneagram
Famous Loyalists
What I feel. How i see myself
I easily see what could represent a risk or even a danger in the situations that I encounter. Then I can imagine all the possible scenarios, even sometimes the most catastrophic. I need to feel safe, and I lack confidence in myself and others. I am suspicious and wonder who is reliable because I fear betrayal.
Type 6 is not going to say yes to a proposal or a project right away, he needs to ask questions, to know more. He admits that he has a relationship with authority that can sometimes be complicated or even conflicting. He doesn’t like the blur or people mistaking bladders for lanterns.
I like
- Clear situations
- The feeling of security
- Loyalty
- To have time to be prepared, to adapt myself
- Play “devil’s advocate” to check your sincerity
I don't like
- Fuzzy or unpredictable authority
- The betrayal, the lie
- Ambiguous situations, unforeseen events
- The talkative, the superficial arguments
- To start something before to know where to go
How others perceive me
Type 6 is expressed by evaluating the world in terms of anxiety and potential betrayals. He immediately places himself on the side of the most vulnerable and the persecuted, often refusing obedience to an established order (even his own!).
This “rebel” is nonetheless loyal and stands as a defender of lost causes. He oscillates between assurance and fear, and organizes himself by conjecturing the future according to the worst assumptions.
The type 6 ego leads him to believe that he will only be accepted if he is loyal to others and if he combats his fears.
He tends to split things into two categories:
- reassuring and true (his group and himself);
- distressing and dubious (the rest of the world).
His dominant passion is therefore fear. To fight it, type 6 has two options: confront it or flee from it. This leads to 2 different type 6. Which is unique throughout the Enneagram.
Two types 6 share the place:
- the anguished phobic 6;
- and the combative counter-phobic 6.
Type 6 suffers from devaluation, which only amplifies his confusion in terms of choice and axis of reflection (inward or outward ?!). He therefore tends to seek help, to multiply the sources of support at the risk of ending up drowning in an overflow of information and no longer being able to choose. If he succeeds, he acts quickly, sometimes expeditiously and hastily.
His relationship to hierarchy and command is unique:
- resistance for the counter-phobic Six
- submission for the phobic Six.
Relationships
Enneagram type 6 anxiety tends to imbue the personality with a sort of defensive mistrust. Type Sixes are not easily trusted, they are ambivalent with others, until people have proven their good faith, after which Type Sixes are likely to respond with unwavering loyalty.
The 6 can only be recognized by a few qualities. He remembers little of his successes and pleasures. He lacks self-confidence.
The Enneagram Type 6 Profile
I’m doing my duty, I’m loyal
Unconditional scheme
“The world is threatening, unreliable”
“People are potential enemies, beware”
Conditional scheme
“If I am suspicious with others, they will exploit me”
“If people are nice to me, they are trying to fool me”
Consequences
I doubt everything about myself very much, and I tend to attribute to others actions or intentions that they don’t necessarily have. I want to clarify the situation by defying safety and facing danger (counter-phobic style) or seeking safety and avoiding danger (phobic style)
doubt and fear to assess risks
Paradoxes :
- Seeking too much certainty in a world of uncertainty generates even more uncertainty and anxiety.
- Searching for evil everywhere, we find it or we generate it
anticipate, assess risks, discern the covert messages, loyalty, righteousness
For that: I project (defense mechanism). That is, I assign responsibility to others for everything that is mine; thoughts, emotions, scenarios (my fears, my uncertainties…).
Doubt carries me to paralysis or even aggression
Risks :
to be perceived as paranoid, unpredictable, rebellious, suspicious, defeatist, aggressive, fearful
The CONFIDENCE
- Accept insecurity as normal part of life
- Develop faith in yourself, in others and in the world
- Recognize that flight and fight are two reactions to fear
- Observe your fear and
- Learn to appease it
- Learn to live serenely in uncertainty
Projections and wings
When Enneagram Type 6 is under stress, he projects to his region of disintegration. He then resembles type 3 by his pretentious and antagonistic side.
In the phase of security and tranquility, Enneagram type 6 projects himself into his integration zone and behaves like a fulfilled type 9, relaxing and seeing the world from an optimistic angle.
- With a pronounced wing 5: the Defender.
- With a pronounced wing 7: the Buddy.
Confusions and similarities with other types
Because Enneagram Type 6 often struggles to appreciate the extent of their own fear, they often identify with a different type.
It is common, for example, for Six women to think of themselves as 2 especially if they identify with a caregiver, but the Six have a much more ambivalent attitude towards human relationships than the Two, who usually know exactly what they want.
Sixes, if they ignore their anxiety, can identify as 9. But Nines have the ability to relax and trust others, which Sixes don’t.
Sixes can relate to 4s, especially if they have artistic inclinations, but they are motivated by anxiety and distrust of others about their loyalty to the group or to the rules. When the four is motivated by the need to feel different from others, to feel unique.
They can identify as 5, especially if they are intellectual, but Sixes are in groups, unlike Five, and they tend to have practical intelligence.
Finally, the counter-phobic Six can identify with the 8, but they do not have their self-certainty.
Other Enneatypes
Description of each of the other Enneatypes
