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| Eights |
Enneatype Eight
Type Description
People of enneatype Eight are essentially unwilling to be controlled, either by others or by their circumstances; they fully intend to be masters of their fate, to "take charge," to do whatever needs to be done. Eights are competitive, strong willed, decisive, expansive, practical, and tough minded. Eights typically have an enormous amount of energy and frequently have powerful physical appetites. There is an unapologetically expansive quality to the physical presence of the type Eight personality. Eights generally don't have to announce their presence for others to know they are there. The central problem for individuals of enneatype Eight is that the need to avoid being controlled can manifest in the need to control, the need to be "in charge," the compulsion to dominate. This can lead to all sorts of practical difficulties, as the world is not always liable to conform to the dictates of the Eight's will, but the deeper problem for the Eight is that the need to avoid any semblance of being controlled can rob the Eight of the fluidity, receptivity and acceptance that is generally necessary to live a full, balanced and truly happy life.
Eights often experience life as a struggle for existence in which only the fittest survive. Life thus dictates competition from the point of view of the Eight, and Eights naturally intend to be the ones who survive. They typically adopt a survival strategy that involves either a rise to the top of the existing hierarchy, or an "opting out" altogether of the current system and its structures of power. Eights of the former sort are typically found in positions of leadership, whether it be of their own family, company or political party. Eights of the latter sort tend to be independent contractors, free-lancers of all sorts, and even outlaws - those who, in other words, exist outside of the accepted framework of civil society and its often artificial system of rules and obligations. Eights of both basic tendencies need to feel financially independent, and while most Eights do manage to find some means of making peace with their society, they always retain an uneasy association with any hierarchical relationship which does not position the Eight at the top.
While some Eights adopt something of the "lone wolf" persona, most Eights have quite a number of social connections, whether to family members, friends or business connections. Eights are very much present in the world and are frequently extroverts. True intimacy however does not come easily or naturally to Eights. Soft and tender emotions tend to make Eights feel "weak," and, more to the point, intimacy requires Eights to lower their defenses and thereby become vulnerable. Vulnerability, in turn, triggers the Eight's fear of being controlled. Thus, intimate relations are often the arena in which the Eight's control issues are most obviously played out. Questions of trust assume a pivotal position. Eights tend to test their intimates to see if they are worthy, to see if they can be trusted not to betray the Eight's confidence. Betrayal is absolutely intolerable to Eights and any hint of it can provoke a powerful retaliatory response. Eights are looking, ideally, both for someone they can respect and someone they can protect, a paradoxical combination to be sure, but, while the Eight's loneliness can only be assuaged by finding an equal, the Eight's feelings of vulnerability can best be assuaged if they know that their intimates depend on them. While Eights do not trust easily, if they do admit someone into the inner sanctum, they generally prove to be stalwart friends and steadfast allies. Not all Eights do form truly intimate relationships however, as some Eights are simply unwilling or unable to compromise their sense of self-sufficiency.
Eights are often prone to anger, one of the few feelings they allow themselves to feel in its pure form. As mentioned, the experience of tender emotions such as compassion, love, sorrow, melancholy and pity can cause the Eight to feel vulnerable, as such emotions are caused by, and in turn cause, a feeling of ego permeability and "openness." Anger, on the other hand, embodies a feeling of being in opposition to the world and, at least as the Eight experiences it, a sense of the importance of overcoming that opposition. In the Eight's experience of anger, ego boundaries are consolidated, the world kept in opposition, and the Eight focused on domination. The ability to accept the more tender emotions into consciousness, far from being a weakness is actually a sign of true strength. In this light it is worth remembering that one of Gurdjieff's students, J.G.Bennett, noted that at the end of his life, Gurdjieff's face wore the saddest expression he had ever seen. (Perhaps it looked something like the face of Johnny Cash as he sang Trent Reznor's "Hurt.")
Eights frequently consider "morality" to be just one more means by which society attempts to exert illegitimate control over them. It is, they reason, the weapon that the constitutionally weak use to keep the naturally strong "in line." Eights, like counterphobic Sixes, are suspicious of rules, and often take an oppositional stance to authority. But, as Eights are generally strategic, they seldom take on a battle they know they cannot win. Their rebellion and lack of respect for "the rules" therefore, is often camouflaged. While Eights tend not to respect external systems of rules, they often have their own internal sense of right and wrong, which consists of personal loyalties and freely chosen commitments. These the Eight will fight to protect. Eights are often said to have an internal sense of "justice," and it is true that Eights are acutely aware of the ways in which power is used and abused. When unhealthy, they are perfectly willing to misuse power however. Only the strong survive, and whoever gets in the Eight's way might have to be sacrificed to the Eight's ambition. Healthy Eights however develop a generosity of character which is almost the direct opposite of the unhealthy Eight's selfish self-assertion. Healthy Eights, those Eights who have developed the capacity to love, are among the most generous character types in the Enneagram. Martin Luther King should be considered in this regard. He found power in restraint and strength in humility. Unhealthy Eights, on the other hand, are the most brutal of the enneatypes. Unhealthy Eights are bullies who enjoy intimidating those whom they see as weak and who feel little compunction about walking over anyone who crosses their path. They are crude, brutal, dangerous and grotesquely insensitive to the feelings of others. An element of sadism frequently enters the picture, sadism being a clear and obvious manifestation of the attempt to attain power by means of domination and humiliation; a weakness posing as strength.
In the traditional Enneagram, the passion of type Eight is said to be "lust." This should not be confused with the insistent desire to enjoy the pleasures of the senses, sexual or otherwise, which is more characteristic of the gluttony of type Seven. The lust of type Eight has an expansive quality to it - rather than the need to "take in," the lust of type Eight manifests in the need to push outwards- to assert the self in order to attain the objects of desire. As with the passions of all the enneatypes, the term should not be read in its narrow or conventional sense, and the lust of type Eight need not manifest sexually. When it does, the Eight often finds it difficult to marry the often enormous desire for purely physical gratification with the more tender emotions of love and compassion, and herein lies one of the keys to understanding why the passion of type Eight might be considered a vice or sin. Whether the passion of lust manifests sexually or not, it involves a quality of self-assertion, a tightening of the ego boundaries, a stance that is often oppositional between the Eight and the other. What the Eight primarily desires is power...power sufficient to insulate the Eight from ever being vulnerable or weak. Such power is always a delusion however, and it is the search for it which prevents the Eight from attaining true health and integrity of character. Naranjo comments thus: "Hidden as it may be behind the enthusiastic expansiveness, jollity and seductive charm of the lusty, it is the loss of relationship, the suppression of tenderness, and the denial of the love need in the loss of wholeness and sense of being. Enneatype VIII pursues being, then, in pleasure and in the power to find his pleasure, yet through an insistence on overpowering becomes incapable of receiving - when being can only be known in a receptive attitude. By doggedly claiming satisfaction where a semblance of satisfaction can be imagined...he perpetuates the ontic deficiency that only feeds his lusty pursuit of triumph and other being substitutes."
Eights with a Seven wing tend to be more expansive extroverted and openly aggressive than those with the Nine wing. They are more likely to be sensation seekers and are generally more overtly ambitious than those with a Nine wing. Eights with a Seven wing especially tend to relish intensity of experience. Conversely, Eights with a Nine wing hold more of their energy in reserve and exhibit more of a grounded, even stubborn quality. They are generally less obviously volatile than Eights with a Seven wing but can slip just as radically into open aggression when pushed.
Type Exemplars
Socrates and George Gurdjieff were both Eights. Each impressed his followers as much by his personal presence as by his intellectual contributions. Each were men of large appetites and expansive energies. Those who mistype Socrates as an enneatype Five seem to be laboring under the false impression that only Fives can be "thinkers," although both men do demonstrate the Eight's often strong connection to Five. Gurdjieff's legacy is more recent, so mistypes of him are not so common.
The ancient world seems to have provided a fitting stage for type Eight energy and many of the key military figures of antiquity have been Eights - Alexander, Julius Caesar, Hannibal, Attila and Emperor Qin to name just a few notable examples. They murdered millions.
Naturally, given the nature of the type Eight fixation, many of the world's most influential modern leaders have also been Eights: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Josef Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Fidel Castro, Martin Luther King Jr., Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi and Lyndon Johnson.
A good quotation from Lyndon Johnson's biography illustrates enneatype Eight's means of sizing up an individual:
"While Lyndon Johnson was not, as his two assistants knew, a reader of books, he was, they knew, a reader of men--a great reader of men. He had a genius for studying a man and learning his strengths and weaknesses and hopes and fears, his deepest strengths and weaknesses: what it was that the man wanted--not what he said he wanted but what he really wanted--and what it was that the man feared, really feared.
"He tried to teach his young assistants to read men--“Watch their hands, watch their eyes” he told them. “Read eyes. No matter what a man is saying to you, it’s not as important as what you can read in his eyes”--and to read between the lines: more interested in men’s weaknesses than in their strengths because it was weakness that could be exploited, he tried to teach his assistants how to learn a man’s weakness. "The most important thing a man has to tell you is what he isn’t telling you,” he said. "The most important thing a man has to say is what he’s trying not to say.” For that reason, he told them, it was important to keep the man talking; the longer he talked, the more likely he was to let slip a hint of that vulnerability he was so anxious to conceal. “That’s why he wouldn’t let a conversation end." Busby explains. “If he saw the other fellow was trying not to say something, he wouldn’t let it (the conversation) end until he got it out of him.” And Lyndon Johnson himself read with a genius that couldn’t be taught, with a gift that was so instinctive that a close observer of his reading habits, Robert G. (Bobby) Baker, calls it a “sense”; "He seemed to sense each man’s individual price and the commodity he preferred as coin.” He read with a novelist’s sensitivity, with an insight that was unerring, with an ability, shocking in the depth of its penetration and perception, to look into a man’s heart and know his innermost worries and desires. (From Robert Caro's Lyndon Johnson.)
General George Patton and George C. Scott, the actor who famously played him, were also Eights. Other actors include Shelley Winters, Bette Davis, Charlton Heston, Frank Sinatra, Sidney Poitier and John Wayne.
On the American scene more recently, Eights include Donald Rumsfeld and the aptly named Vice President Dick Cheney. Senator John McCain is also an Eight. Also the former senator, Ann Richards.
Singers include Courtney Love, Queen Latifah, Pink and the "Man in Black" - Johhny Cash.
Famous Eight artists include Pablo Picasso, Diego Rivera, and Lucien Freud.
The authors Ernest Hemingway, Edward Abbey and Norman Mailer were also Eights. Also, feminist and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft.
Also: television "personalities" Dr.Phil, Nancy Grace and Paula Dean. And, of course, "The Donald."
Fictional Examples include: Plato's Thrasymachus, Star War's Darth Vader and Lucy from the comic strip Peanuts.
Possible Mistypes
Eights and Ones can both be dominating and self-assertive. Both are drawn to leadership roles. Typically it is the more passionate and visceral type One who is mistaken for the Eight - Rudi Giuliani being a case in point, or Osama bin Laden. But Ones dominate in service to an ideal and are more rule bound than is the Eight, who is typically a law unto himself.
Twos are more likely to be mistyped as Eights than the converse, and even that mistype is likely to occur under a narrow set of circumstances. While it is true that Twos can be quite bossy, Twos are primarily emotionally centered whereas Eights repress the more tender emotions. Twos are needy; Eights self-sufficient to a fault. Twos are manipulative; Eights are direct. Twos are soft; Eights are hard etc.
Eights and Threes are both competitive, and both can be dominating and drawn to leadership roles, but Threes are fundamentally concerned with receiving external validation, something which is almost entirely foreign to enneatype Eight's mindset. Threes want to be admired; Eights want respect, even if it is grudging. Threes are much smoother and conciliatory than Eights, something which seems compromising from the standpoint of type Eight.
A mistype between Eight and Four is generally unlikely, but a Four with Three, especially one with a sexual/social instinctual stacking could conceivably be mistaken for an Eight. Eights, on the other hand, should not be mistaken for Fours. Such Fours can be passionate, competitive and dominating. But Fours are generally far more comfortable expressing their emotions than are Eights, and are especially more comfortable with expressing vulnerability, even if they do sometimes do it an a paradoxically aggressive fashion.
Eights can be mistyped as Fives when they are especially intellectual. Fives can be mistaken for Eights when they are especially self-confident, as they sometimes are in their own areas of expertise. Both types are independent and place a premium on the avoidance of displays of vulnerability. But an examination of the fundamental themes of their lives should reveal the stark underlying differences. Fives are sensitive and are susceptible to overwhelm and energy depletion; Eights have an expansive physical presence, are frequently insensitive, and are more likely to overwhelm others than to be overwhelmed themselves.
Eights and counterphobic Sixes can quite easily be mistyped, and it is not uncommon for counterphobic Sixes to mistype themselves as Eights. Both types can be ambitious, competitive and even dominating. In addition, both types tend to have issues with authority. But there is a much more reactive, volatile, unpredictable quality to the aggression of counterphobic Sixes than there is to the generally more strategic aggression of type Eight. Moreover, there is generally a more personal quality to the aggression of type Six than there is to the more goal oriented aggression of type Eight.
Eights and Sevens can be mistyped, especially if the wing is especially strong. Both types can be sensation seekers who love adventure. Both types can be competitive and overwhelming. But as a general rule, Sevens find focusing to be quite challenging whereas focus comes naturally to Eights. Sevens have a lighter approach to life and generally have a quick nervous, mental energy which contrasts with the more grounded instinctual energy of type Eight.
Eights and Nines might possibly be mistyped, especially, once again, if the wing is particularly strong. But Nines are generally conflict avoidant, especially in close personal relationships, whereas Eights often enjoy a good fight. Nines struggle with self-assertion whereas self-assertion comes naturally to Eights. Nines have to avoid being overwhelmed by others; Eights have to avoid being overwhelming.
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Enneatype Seven
Type Description
People of enneatype Seven are essentially concerned that their options remain open, their lives unconstrained, and their ability to find happiness unfettered by what they see as the largely petty concerns which seem to consume most people. Sevens are determined not to allow their lives to succumb to boredom or inertia, or to the lethargy of a dull, pedestrian existence. Sevens want more than that. They always want more.
Sevens are future oriented, restless people who are generally convinced that something better is just around the corner. They are quick thinkers who have a great deal of energy and who make lots of plans. They tend to be multi-talented, creative, open minded and resilient people who do their best to appreciate their lives. Youthful, insouciant and facile, Sevens are enthusiasts who enjoy the pleasures of the senses and who don't believe in any form of self denial.
Given such an ebullient description, it might be difficult to appreciate the fact that Sevens are essentially fear types who are in flight from pain, always striving to remain one step ahead of their inner demons. But such is the case. There is a sort of existential claustrophobia at the heart of enneatype Seven. They sense that the walls are always just about to close in. They therefore develop strategies for escape. These strategies are primarily mental, and Sevens, like Fives and Sixes, are fixated in the mental center. Sevens are full of plans for the future, exciting ideas, original thoughts and unusual attitudes. They like to fantasize and conceptualize, but as soon as they attempt to work through the fine details of their ideas or plans, they tend to feel constrained. To escape this feeling of constraint, Sevens push forward into action. They look outside themselves for their means of escape.
For this reason, Sevens are the most energetic and active of the enneatypes. They tend towards extroversion, generally know lots of people, and are especially fond of collecting those they find unusual, entertaining or stimulating. Sevens also tend to be impulsive. They are willing to pick up and move at a moment's notice, to change jobs on a whim and to experiment with alternative lifestyles. Sevens frequently know who the cool people are, what the best restaurant is, which new musical group is the "next great band," which bestseller is really worth reading. Immersion in what the world has to offer frequently serves to refine the palate, and Sevens don't like to settle for second rate distractions.
As Sevens are essentially afraid of being overpowered by negative states of mind, they seek their distraction in the external world and generally excel at multi-tasking and adventure seeking. They can frequently be counted on to bring energy and excitement to situations which have begun to grow stale. Sevens have the gift of sensing the potential in a situation, of seeing the ideal in the actual. One of the reasons that Sevens do this is that it serves to juice up their experience. Idealization, paradoxically, makes experience feel more real to Sevens. Here again, the mental nature of the type Seven fixation manifests itself. About this feature of enneatype Seven, Naranjo says: "It is possible to say that the optimistic attitude of type VII and the joyful mood that is habitual to them would not be possible without the operation of idealization in regard to the world in general and the more significant people in it. In relationship with others as in connection with oneself, optimism entails the suspension of criticality and blaming..."
In some key respects, the idealization process can prove beneficial, inspirational even, as others might very well be motivated to attempt to bring the actual situation closer to the ideal that the Seven is able to envisage. The Seven's enthusiasm can prove contagious. On the downside, the idealization process can serve to distract the Seven from the reality of the situation and to undermine true intimacy in personal relationships. Insofar as the Seven is relating to an idealization of the partner, the real person remains unseen and the Seven essentially disengaged.
Just as Sevens tend to adopt an idealized version of those who are important to them, they typically also have a high opinion of themselves and their talents. Sevens tend to focus on their strengths and virtues and to downplay their flaws and vices. Their exuberance and self-confidence can carry them some real distance. Having convinced themselves that they are really more accomplished than they are, they can generally convince others as well. All of this is compounded by the fact that, in general, Sevens actually are people of high ability - smart and personable. They can usually do better than most, without even trying. But, a natural aptitude and quick grasp of the basics, combined with an engaging presentation, is not the same thing as true expertise, and goes some way towards indicating why Ichazo used the term "charlatan" as the name for the fixation of enneatype Seven.
As Sevens have a compulsive need to avoid pain, and as they tend to search for escape externally, Sevens are prone to addictions of all sorts. The essential nature of addiction involves the drive to find solace and a sense of well being in a source external to the self, something very close to the core of the type Seven fixation. Human beings in general, and Sevens more than most, can form addictions to many different things - shopping, gambling, drugs, or even to a particular sexual partner or to sexual adventures in general. (Sexual adventurousness comes naturally to most Sevens, who are generally immune to society's messages that sexuality is shameful.) The problem with this, of course, is that addictions tend, in the long run, to bring more pain than pleasure. They are counterproductive. Sevens tend to be rational and generally come to realize this. Paradoxically, the same compulsive need which gave rise to the addiction in the first place, can serve the Seven in good stead when it comes time to break it, and Sevens tend to have strong powers of will. But, until the underlying compulsion to avoid pain is addressed, there is always the danger with Sevens, that one addiction will simply be replaced by another.
Sevens are noted for their youthfulness, and many Sevens seem younger than their age. Part of this can be accounted for by their open mindedness, energy and future orientation. On the down side, Sevens can simply be immature. Childlikeness can give way to childishness, and open mindedness and tolerance to self-indulgence and lack of discrimination. Less balanced Sevens can be petulant when they don't get their way, irresponsible and willful. The mundane details of life, such as paying the bills, such Sevens believe, should be dealt with by lesser mortals who don't find responsibility so cumbersome. Unhealthy Sevens even make a virtue of their irresponsibility, convincing themselves that it is a sign of their innate superiority. Even somewhat more balanced Sevens are often a bit self-centered, which manifests in an unfounded feeling of entitlement. They tend to feel as though they somehow deserve more than others, as though life owes something to them.
As Sevens don't want to confront their own darker emotions, they often find it difficult to acknowledge the pain that others experience. Once again, they can find it difficult to see others in their totality. This often leads to charges of insensitivity being leveled against the Seven. Acknowledging the pain in others forces the Seven to confront the pain within, and triggers the deepest defenses of the type Seven fixation. The Seven's degree of health is directly proportional to their capacity to stay with their own pain and to acknowledge and accept the pain in others. The more that Sevens flee from negative emotions, the more likely they are to erupt into consciousness in the form of an anxiety disorder or a severe manic or depressive episode.
Sevens, of course, as "upbeat" as they generally are, do experience sadness and melancholy, just like anyone else, and one of the frequent sources of sadness for Sevens is the frustration they experience as they come to realize how many opportunities for true self-development they have squandered by moving on to the next cool thing. Sevens, in general, are the most talented of the enneatypes, but unless they focus on their talents, foster them, commit to them, nurture them, they will remain undeveloped, their promise essentially unfulfilled. If the Seven can use these feelings of sadness and frustration as spurs to self-development, if, in other words, they can truly sense that their underlying strategy to avoid pain leads, in the long run, to more pain, perhaps they can break the spell of their compulsion. If not, the Seven will once again seek distraction, move into action and onto the next "adventure."
In the traditional enneagram, the vice or passion of enneatype Seven is gluttony and the corresponding virtue that of sobriety. In this context, gluttony does not refer to the desire to fill the belly, but to a more fundamental desire. It refers to a pervasively desirous state, to what Ichazo calls, a state of always "wanting more." Sevens want more pleasure, excitement, distraction and adventure, anything which will fill them up, anything which will keep the nameless object of their fears at bay. It is this ceaseless desire for pleasure and avoidance of pain which keeps Sevens from true self-fulfillment; it is a most deceptive and seductive source of actual pain. Sevens would do well to bear in mind the advice of the ancient philosophers towards those who choose hedonism as a style of life. Such a life path is insufficient for happiness in the long run, they suggest, as pleasure feeds only the lower aspects of our nature and ultimately leads to self-conflict and frustration. Aristotle, in particular, suggests that true happiness is realized by commitment, not to pleasure, but to excellence, to the development of our skills, capacities and talents. True and abiding happiness, he argues, is always the fortunate byproduct of something much more fundamental.
Sevens who are unable to face their demons never achieve their potential, or the true joy they are, more than most, capable of experiencing in its depths. Sevens who are able to confront pain, to stay with it, develop maturity and groundedness. Sober Sevens are the "wise children" of the Enneagram, capable of showing others how to delight in the beauty and brightness of the sensible world without running in fear from its shadow. Actualized Sevens become substantial, without losing the essential fluidity of the soul.
Sevens with the Six wing are generally more openly anxious and ungrounded than those with an Eight wing. They tend to be mercurial and charming and generally more sweet tempered and engaging than their Eight winged counterparts. Overall, there tends to be a more obviously manic quality to Sevens with the Six wing. Sevens with an Eight wing are more success oriented, pragmatic and driven. They can be overbearing in the pursuit of their desires and are generally more aggressive and competitive than those with a Six wing.
Type Exemplars
Sevens, when healthy, are considered "Renaissance Men." Consider in this regard, such Sevens as Leonardo da Vinci, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and William Shakespeare. Emilie du Chatelet, who defied the gender stereotypes of her time to become an impressive scientist and mathematician was also a Seven. More recently, Richard Feynman, physicist, card player and funny man was a Seven. A Feynman quotation: "There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!"
Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison manifest the inventive side of the type Seven personality and many inventors have, in fact, been Sevens.
Famous artists include Paul Gauguin, Salvador Dali and Francis Bacon. The art of Sevens tends to be vibrant and expansive - glittering surfaces with intimated depths.
Famous musicians include Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop, Bono, Bette Midler, Chuck Berry, and Elton John.
Sevens are naturally drawn to humor and many comedians have been Sevens - Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, Howard Stern, Elaine Boozler, Joan Rivers and Mike Myers to name a few. Also, talk show hosts Larry King and Conan O'Brien.
The poets William Wordsworth and e.e.cummings were Sevens, the latter clearly delighting in word play.
Type Seven authors include Colin Wilson, Thomas Wolfe, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry Miller and Kurt Vonnegut.
The counter-culture movement of the 1960's was permeated by type Seven energy and many of the figures who achieved prominence in that period were Sevens. Ram Dass, Timothy Leary and Laurence van der Post readily come to mind in this regard. Charles Tart, transpersonal psychologist and early student of the Enneagram was also a Seven.
Likewise the New Age/Self Help movement has been inspired by quite a few Sevens: Consider Marianne Williamson, Byron Katie, Mark Victor Hansen, Wayne Dyer and Stephen Covey.
Directors Steven Spielberg, Federico Fellini and Mel Brooks were Sevens.
Also, the recently deceased Hunter Thompson, "Gonzo Journalist": "Nobody seems to know what my crimes are. The charges are vague...I am actually on trial for Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll."
Politician and Gay activist Harvey Milk: he combined the flamboyance, charm and a certain shameless quality, sometimes seen in type Seven, with the leadership qualities of his Eight wing.
Famous actors include Goldie Hawn, Warren Beatty, Cameron Diaz, Jack Nicholson, Joan Collins, Elizabeth Taylor and George Clooney.
Fictional examples include Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany's, Maude from Harold and Maude, Nate from Six Feet Under and, of course, the indomitable Peter Pan.
Possible Mistypes
Sevens often have a perfectionistic streak. If a casual observer had insufficient knowledge, some confusion might arise between type Seven and type One. In addition, Sevens and Ones are both prone to feelings of frustration. Nevertheless, the two types are very different. Ones tend to be self-constrained and self-denying whereas Sevens tend, in contrast, to be expansive and even hedonistic. Sevens tend to have problems with immaturity; Ones are very much the adult. Ones tend towards rigidity; Sevens towards expansiveness. Ones towards moralism, Sevens towards libertinism.
Both Sevens and Twos are expansive, extroverted and generous. Both types often enjoy entertaining and the pleasures of the senses. Finally, both types can be "needy." Sevens are more oriented towards their activities however, whereas Twos are most focused on their relationships. Twos have far more "follow through" than do Sevens, whose multi-tasking often leaves them with "something else to do" when the time comes for attending to duties and responsibilities. Sevens are fixated in the intellectual center whereas Twos, no matter how intelligent, are primarily fixated in the emotional center.
Sevens and Threes are each outgoing and talented and both types can be self-centered. But Sevens are scattered whereas Threes excel at focus. Threes are oriented towards success, whereas Sevens are focused on enjoyment. Threes care about the impressions of others whereas Sevens, who are often quite popular as well, will sacrifice the good opinion of others if it interferes with their desires and their own conception of what is valuable.
While it is quite uncommon for Fours to mistype as Seven, it is not especially unusual for Sevens to initially mistype as Four. In addition, from an external point of view, more extroverted Fours, primarily those with the Three wing, can, in some settings, look like Sevens and artistic Sevens might resemble Fours. This is because both types can be creative, unconventional, attention seeking and even flamboyant in their presentation. Nevertheless, Fours are far less extroverted than Sevens who truly seek out people as a principle means of distraction. Fours are comfortable with their negative mental states, even sometimes choosing to inhabit them, whereas Sevens are in flight from pain. As a general rule, Sevens tend to overestimate the extent of their suffering and sadness because they find such mental states to be so threatening to their sense of self; they can therefore think of themselves as being more melancholic than they actually are. The melancholy of type Seven is primarily driven by anxiety however, whereas that of type Four has its roots in a feeling of worthlessness.
Although Fives do not tend to mistype as Seven, some Sevens do initially mistype as Five. Sevens and Fives are both thinking types who generally enjoy a wide range of intellectual and cultural activities. Both types can be idiosyncratic and counter-cultural, and Fives can become scattered and lose focus like Sevens. Nevertheless, Fives tend to be far more focused on their individual intellectual activities than are Sevens. In addition, Sevens are extroverts whereas Fives are true introverts, often pursuing a line of thought until they take it to the very end, unlike Sevens who tend to move on when the intellectual work becomes too immersed in detail. Sevens frequently underestimate the extent of their extroversion, giving them the sense that they are more Five-like than they actually are. Because they sometimes enjoy their time alone, they reason, they could not truly be extroverts. The overall pattern of the Seven's life, however, ought to reveal the pattern of seeking distraction by way of engaging others. The Five's life should reveal a pronounced pattern of withdrawing under stress.
Sevens and Six can mistype, especially if the wing is strong. Both types can be high energy and intellectual and both tend to have a quick nervous energy. Sevens, however, have a far more optimistic outlook on life than do Sixes who are generally aware of just what might go wrong. Sevens tend, overall, to be more averse to responsibility than Sixes. Sevens tend to look on the bright side whereas Sixes find it difficult to make light of their difficulties.
Sevens and Eight can mistype, once again, especially if the wing is strong, although it is more common for Sevens to mistype as Eight than vice versa. Both types can be dominating and both enjoy adventure. But Eights lack the nervous energy of type Seven and, unlike Sevens, tend to focus quite readily on their chosen fields of activity, something with which Sevens have to struggle.
Sevens and Nines are both optimistic, and both types generally have a positive regard for others. Sevens are prone to self-centeredness however, whereas Nines often give too much deference to the thoughts and feelings of others. Sevens tend to throw themselves into activity under stress, whereas Nines are prone to withdrawal. Sevens are more "hyper," Nines more grounded.
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