The Enneagram of Discernment: The Way of Vocation, Wisdom, and Practice by Moser Drew

Author:Moser, Drew [Moser, Drew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Falls City Press
Published: 2020-08-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Type One: “The Reformer”

“I’ve spent my whole life searching desperately

To find out that grace requires nothing of me.”

—Sleeping at Last, “One”

Ones want goodness but settle for order.

Type Ones are often labeled as perfectionists. While this describes some Ones, it doesn’t capture what Ones are truly after. Ones, at their core, want goodness. They want to be good, and they want the world to be good. But when confronted with a world that isn’t always good, it feels like a consuming wrongness. They can see wrongness everywhere, and they see it most prominently within themselves. This leads Type Ones to feel anxious about life, and that stress manifests as anger. But because of their sensitivity to being good, they hold that anger down whenever possible. Anger then takes on a more subtle and acceptable version: resentment. In order to keep the resentment in check, Type Ones settle for order in their world: self-improvement, rules, a sense of fairness, a sense of being right, ordering their environment, etc. Little releases of resentment help to keep things in check. Small attempts at improvement aim to satisfy the pursuit of goodness.

The Way of Discernment for the Type One is to acknowledge their dominant emotion, anger, in order to absolve themselves from the accusations of their inner critic. The anger that Ones carry is their greatest hindrance to wisdom. When Ones intentionally return to a place of goodness, vocation, wisdom, and practice align to make good decisions.

In decision-making, Type Ones tend to perceive the options in their Gut Center, and a nagging instinct of wrongness compels them to respond by tending to what can be improved. Ones expend much energy trying to suppress and hide their anger in hopes of maintaining a certain standard. The Type One believes that small doses of improvement will keep the anger tucked away in its proper place. They operate from a perspective that if they can just fix the one thing that’s wrong, they’ll be okay. This is an illusion, because life is rarely (if ever) perfect or complete. The suppressed anger thus builds over time, which is why it eventually leaks out as resentment.

Ones engage others by coming alongside them. They share this posture with Twos and Sixes. Often characterized by a dependency upon others, Ones’, Twos’, and Sixes’ dependency is less about their dependency on others and more of a compliance to their superego, the part of the mind that is self-critical, responsible for regulating impulses, and conveys guilt. Type Ones often experience a powerful and overwhelming inner critic, which causes them to seek the company of others to silence it. By improving their world with others, Ones hope that the inner critic will give them a break.

Spend time with a One, and you’ll notice that behind the high standards for excellence and improvement is an idealism. They truly see how things could be better, and this fuels their relational engagement. They possess a strong internal compass for how things should be. In times of conflict, Ones employ a competency that provides a rational, and reasonable way through.

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