Nine Fixation Points of the Enneagram

(Click on the numbers above or below for more information on that fixation.)

	One	Perfectionist Seeks perfection internally and externally. Sees imperfections and tries to right them. Holds in anger, becoming tense.
	Two	Pleaser Seeks love by being pleasing, self sacrificing. Becomes prideful and resentful, angry.
	Three	Over achiever Seeks approval by being productive, over achieving. Avoids emotions.
	Four	Dramatic Individualist Seeks and acceptance with their unique expression and dramatic storied. Holds onto tragedy.
	Five	Observer Seeks peace by avoiding life. Isolates and lives in their fantasies.
	Six	Doubting loyalist Seeks security by being hyper- vigilant. Always wonders “What if”. Avoids change.
	Seven	Experience Seeker Seeks the sense of inner guidance and support through outside experience. They avoid introspection.
	Eight	Aggressive challenger Seeks power by bullying others. Avoids feeling weak, denies being wrong.
	Nine	Comfortable indolence Seeks comfort by avoiding conflict and dynamic situations. Pleasant to be around, but passive aggressive.

The story of the One is being flawed and finding flaws; the Two is not having their needs met; the Three is being loved only for what they accomplish; the Four is a life of tragedy; the Five is being too fragile to handle life; the Six is not being able to trust; the Seven is making plans for more experiences; the Eight is attacking the world for what has been done wrong; and the Nine is being so inferior that there’s no point being present.

How is the Fixation Formed?

Nature or Nurture

There are essentially two perspectives on how the fixation is formed. The first is that we are born with this particular knot, kink, or blind spot. The other is that something occurs in childhood and we fixate in a particular way. I subscribe to the first perspective. Jaxon-Bear refers to a study with twins where it was found that identical twins when separated at birth had the same fixation while fraternal twins whether separated or not had different fixations. Almaas’s work supports this perspective as well. You can notice this yourself by looking at children when they are very young or first born, they already have specific dispositions. Also ask adult children from the same family to describe what most effected them in their childhood. One will talk about the father, the other the mother, and another maybe the general emotional environment. It will seem like they came from different families. From this point of view the fixation is already present in the womb and is part of the DNA. We are born with a specific blind spot or knot of distortion. We perceive our initial environment through this distortion. Later there are events and situations that seem to support and build on this misperception. It may seem like there is a point in time in childhood when the fixation came into being. Usually those definitive events occurred when you were mature enough to recognize something as not right. Yet even in the pre-verbal stages of development there is fixation.