David Daniels - The Essential Enneagram

We greatly appreciate all the individuals who participated in the development of The Essential Enneagram, originally published as The Stanford Enneagram Discovery Inventory and Guide (SEDIG), especially the Enneagram teachers who participated in typing hundreds of individuals. Special thanks go to Judy Daniels for her many hours of technical support and encouragement.

Major assistance in writing, formatting, and editing was provided by Peter Enemark, Carolyn M. Dawn, and Kit Snyder. Assistance in technical and data analysis was provided by Ghassan Ghandour and Michael Menke.

Our original publisher, Robb Most of Mind Garden, Inc., provided inspiration and support as well as guidance in design and marketing. We extend our thanks to our publisher, HarperOne, to John Loudon, who helped us move forward with our work; to Terri Leonard, executive managing editor, who encouraged us along the way; to Kris Ashley, for her encouragement, upbeat attitude, and constant availability; to Laura Lee Mattingly and Amanda Wood for their work and support on this updated and revised edition, and to Eric Brandt for encouraging this update and revision.

We used the methods of the Narrative Tradition of Self-Discovery and the substantive way of understanding the Enneagram developed by Helen Palmer. The Essential Enneagram is based on the understandings and philosophy of Helen Palmer, whose support, encouragement, and guidance we deeply appreciate. Heartfelt thanks go to my teaching colleagues, Peter OHanrahan and Terry Saracino, for their extensive contribution to my understanding of the Enneagram. I am especially grateful to Terry for co-creating the Universal Growth Process with me.

Lastly, I am eternally grateful to my coauthor and friend, Virginia Price, who passed away before this revision and update was envisioned. She remains an inspiration and guide.

David N. Daniels, M.D.

The Essential Enneagram offers a groundbreaking and original approach to a key problem in personality study. How do you correctly find your place within a rich and complex system when the choice itself requires knowing yourself beforehand? In bringing their combined talents and deep scholastic commitment to the question of self-identification, David Daniels and Virginia Price have made it a whole lot easier to correctly discover your Enneagram personality profile, thus opening a wealth of information for both psychological and spiritual development.

Their innovative method looks like a guided tour to discovering, confirming, and verifying your personality type. You are provided with key checkpoints along the way to make sure you stay on track, and a set of sensitive, practical exercises to aid your personal development once youve discovered your type. David and Virginia are the first authors to bring both scientific validity and reliability studies to the Enneagram. Their method of determining personality type is based on seven years of research with more than 900 subjects.

In Section 1, they provide you with the user-friendly, short-paragraph test that their subjects used. They next show you the probability that the type you chose is correct, and probabilities are the absolute best that any depth psychometric instrument can provide. You are then shown how to confirm your choice, and exactly what steps to take if this checkpoint leads you to believe you are not the type you originally chose.

Once youre certain of your Enneagram profile, you move ahead to Section 2, where the authors give excellent daily practices that assist you in becoming more consciously aware of how your type is organized, its positive features, and how to break free of the limits your type imposes upon you. The Essential Enneagram is based on principles of self-awareness that I have long advocated. By providing elegant and precise descriptions of how different types of people are organized and motivated, this book guides you in exploring how your placement of attention and use of energy focuses your worldview, how you deal with stress and anger, and what you can do to develop yourself and receive support from others.

I first had the pleasure of teaching with David when we initiated the Enneagram Professional Training in 1988, using the panel method of personal inquiry. During our now many years of collaboration, I have consistently experienced his inspired clinical acumen, warmth and care, and profound understanding of human behavior and development. He is perhaps the most personally respected contributor in todays emerging field of Enneagram studies.

Virginia likewise brings extraordinary insight and clinical expertise to this work. For more than twenty years she has pioneered, and authored several works about, the theoretical and practical aspects of modifying type A personality behavior. Her research and clinical experience, her understanding of the theoretical basis of personality function, and excellent writing skills have contributed greatly to this field of study.

The section of this book entitled What to Do When You Have Discovered Your Type is rooted in Davids and Virginias extensive clinical experience and their understanding of people from the inside out. Their presentation of general methods for personal change and their type-specific practices are exceptionally valuable.

This long-awaited work is a must for anyone interested in effective communication, compassionate relationships, freedom from the confinement of repetitive behavior, and, ultimately, the freedom to be a complete human being.

Helen Palmer
January 2000
Berkeley, California

The Enneagram is a powerful and dynamic personality system that describes nine distinct and fundamentally different patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting. Ennea is Greek for nine, and gram means a figure or something written. Hence, the Enneagram personality system is represented by a diagram of a nine-pointed star within a circle. Each of the nine patterns is based on an explicit perceptual filter and associated driving emotional energy. This is congruent with the way our neurons operate according to the interwoven flow of information and energy. These patterns determine what individuals of each personality type pay attention to and how they direct their energy and behavior. Underlying each of the nine patterns is a basic proposition, or belief, about what we need in life for survival and satisfaction.

Each one of us developed one of the nine patterns to protect a specific aspect of the self that felt threatened as our own personality was developing. As you discover your Enneagram personality type, you will discover more about your original whole self. You will also understand more about the unconscious motivation from which you operate.

Discovering your Enneagram personality type can help you learn how to bring positive change into your life. It can help change the way you relate to yourself and others as well as give you a greater understanding of the circumstances and issues facing you. Moreover, it can give you powerful assistance in integrating the personal and spiritual aspects of your life, integration being the linkage of differentiated elements.

We developed The Essential Enneagram as a simple and accurate way for individuals to identify their Enneagram personality type and as a guide for further personal, professional, and spiritual development.