The Real Self and The False Self – Psychological And Spiritual Perspectives

By Jerome Wagner, Ph.D.

The Enneagram distinguishes between our essence and our personality. Other traditions speak of our real self vs our false self. In this article I will present some psychological perspectives on the real self – false self dichotomy and then some spiritual perspectives on this division.

Read more

From Idolatry to Reality: From Worshiping the Idealizations of Our Personality to Following the Ideals of Our Real Self

By Jerome Wagner, Ph.D.

From the Enneagram perspective, the idols of our personality, manifested in our idealized self image, beckon us to security and happiness. But to reach their promised land, we must pledge our unwavering devotion and fealty to them. And if we disobey them and take another path, they warn us that what we are most afraid of will surely come about.

On the other hand, our essence or genuine self invites us to a deeper security and well-being. It is a gentle calling, doesn’t use threats, is always there, but may not be as easily recognized. We are guided along this path by our values and ideals.

Read more

An Enneagram Overview

By Jerome Wagner, Ph.D.

In this overview of the Enneagram system, Jerry shares his thoughts and some questions people have asked about the Enneagram. Included are reflection questions to get you to ask more questions about the Enneagram.

Read more

Integrating Our Polarities using the 4 R’s: Recognize, Re-frame, Re-own, Re-Cycle

By Jerome Wagner, Ph.D.

When we over-identify or over-idealize certain aspects of our personality, we tend to disavow any opposite attributes. To avoid these unacceptable parts of ourselves, we put them in the basement (our unconscious) where we can forget about them. Instead of being a whole me, we become the good me and the bad me, like Jeckle and Hyde. If we can re-cognize, re-frame, and re-own our unseemly parts, we might find some valuable assets tossed out with our garbage, and re-cycle them. We will gain an inner integration and wholesome connections with other people, both of which lead to an increase of energy since we are no longer divided against ourselves and others.

Read more

Enneagram Styles and Cyclical Psychodynamics: Irony of Ironies

By Jerome Wagner, Ph.D.

Each Enneagram style has its spots – sweet spots, blind spots, hot spots, and desired spots.
  • The sweet spot is what each style sees clearly, the intuitive edge, the values and visions that we move towards.
  • The blind spot is what we avoid.  Our shadow.    This is what we move away from.
  • The hot spot represents those sensitivities and vulnerabilities that we experienced early on in our life that hurt us, embarrassed us, terrorized us, made us angry, etc.  These are the early wounding’s that we move against when they make us angry or move away from when they make us afraid, or sometimes move towards to make friends with our enemy.
  • The desired spot is what we really want and value, our genuine needs and aspirations.  This is our actualizing self.
Read more

Enneagram Styles And The Cognitive Theory Of George Kelly

By Jerome Wagner, Ph.D.

George Kelly (1963) has been called the father of cognitive psychotherapy.  Kelly’s metaphor is we are all junior scientists trying to figure out our world so we can predict and control our environment and the reactions our behavior will elicit from the environment (mostly our social environment.)  We look for repetitions around us and then formulate constructs or representations to map our world.  The mind looks for order and then imposes that order in the form of templates on our experiences and the world. Like scientists we develop theories and hypotheses that will help predict future events, thus reducing uncertainty.  

Read more