Enneagram Type Five - The Sage

Area of Avoidance: Feeling anxious about being socially & intellectually inept.

Core Positive Attribute: Insight

Often Attracted to…

• Being able to retreat into own world.

• Gaining as much knowledge as possible.

• Observing from a distance.

• Non-engagement and people who allow them space.

• Speaking with others who share similar interests, knowledge and expertise.

Often Avoids…

• Feeling incapable, inadequate and empty.

• Strong emotions, especially fear.

• Intrusive, demanding people.

• Noisy and quickly changing environments.

• Social interaction and having to speak to groups spontaneously.

High Integration – characteristic behaviours

• Grounded, present, and objective.

• Can offer wisdom and solid guidance to others in an open and abundant way.

• Typically applies rational decision-making based on facts and solid data.

• Able to connect with others socially in a very pleasant way.

• Able to evaluate and prioritise the expectations of others and work with them appropriately.

• Able to complete tasks and projects on time.

• Able to see the ‘big picture’ as well as the detail and to move comfortably between the two.

Low Integration – characteristic behaviours

• Withdrawn and socially awkward.

• Appears ungrounded and not present.

• Perpetual gathering of data or information and so tending to miss deadlines.

• Preference for working with inanimate machines and avoiding people.

• Strong discomfort with experiencing or having to work with emotions.

• Typically quite eccentric in their behaviour.

• A strong scarcity mentality resulting in difficulty sharing with others.

Typical development needs

• Learning to trust themselves socially and share their ideas and input openly.

• Learning to access and feel comfortable talking about feelings.

• Learning when to stop gathering data and take appropriate action.

By Colin Adam