Making Room for the Disavowed in the Enneagram Styles

Paul Wachtel is an integrative theorist and psychotherapist who draws from behavioral, cognitive, existential, and psychodynamic/attachment theories. In his new book called Making Room for the Disavowed (2023), he writes about making room for thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that may have been disowned and how that disavowal may have occurred.
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ENNEA-Typing Out

There are many facets to peace. Each Enneagram style has its particular perception of peace and reminds us of the various aspects of peace. These insights come from essence and turn outward. “What’s in it for everyone?” Each Enneatype also has a skewed sense of peace. This is an egoic perspective which turns inward. “What’s in it for me?” Unfortunately, when we get what we mistakenly want, we also frustrate what we really want.
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Enneagram Subtypes: A Synopsis

SUBTYPES result from the interaction of the Vice or Passion of each type with the natural expression of the Instincts: self-preservation (SP), social (SO) and sexual or one-on-one (SX). The summary descriptions of these interactions are from Bea Chestnut’s and Ginger Lapid-Bogda’s transmission of Claudio Naranjo’s latest thoughts and workshops about subtypes.
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Vices + Instincts = Enneagram Subtypes

The nine vices that fuel and distort each Enneagram type attempt to serve the three instincts found in each Enneatype but ironically end up corrupting and misdirecting those instincts. Certain words or phrases arise to describe this contaminating combination of vice + instinct for each Enneagram type.
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What Does PEACE Mean for Your Enneagram Style?

There are many facets to peace. Each Enneagram style has its particular perception of peace and reminds us of the various aspects of peace. These insights come from essence and turn outward. “What’s in it for everyone?” Each Enneatype also has a skewed sense of peace. This is an egoic perspective which turns inward. “What’s in it for me?” Unfortunately, when we get what we mistakenly want, we also frustrate what we really want.
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chess pieces on board

Enneagram Styles and Defense Mechanisms

Defense mechanisms are used by our ego to maintain our self-esteem. They automatically keep out of our awareness any parts of ourselves that might damage our good reputation as well as keeping our offensive ego-dystonic parts out of sight of the judgmental eyes of others – not to mention our own. Freud and his daughter Anna catalogued many of these defensive maneuvers and Claudio Naranjo arranged some of them around the Enneagram circle. So, while one of the defenses might be congenial to a particular type, we certainly have all of them at our disposal. Defense mechanisms in the service of the ego distort reality and limit us; defense mechanisms in the service of the self may actually help us expand beyond ourself and get somewhere. Is there something redeemable about defense mechanisms if we can use them consciously and conscientiously?
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