More than Just Peace: Type 9 Subtypes
I’m fortunate to have taken a training on Instincts & Subtypes with Peter O’Hanrahan. He shared theories on how we develop a dominant instinct for either Self-preservation, Social belonging, or One-on-one relating. Said theories exceed the scope of this post, but Peter used a poignant metaphor I’d like to adopt—a 3 legged stool. He spoke of one’s dominant instinct as a “short leg” that throws the stool off balance. The key is to balance the stool by evening out these 3 legs—but how?
The first step is to know your Subtype, a.k.a your dominant instinct, so you can “check” the tendency to invest more energy in that instinctual arena. If you don't do this, you're pretty much sunk as far as working with these instincts (at least from my somewhat opinionated point of view).
Once you've learned to “check” the instinct you rely on most heavily/automatically, some energy starts getting “freed up.” Now you can redistribute that energy towards the other two instincts. I like to think of this as juicing up the secondary and tertiary instincts by “using them on purpose” - making conscious efforts to go forth and relate to the world through them.
With this in mind, let’s explore the subtype energies as they manifest for Enneagram Type 9s:
If you are an Enneagram 9, it can benefit you to understand how your affability, easygoing attitude, mediating, pursuit of peace, desire for comfort, merging tendencies, self-forgetting, and literally ALL components of your type structure get channeled primarily through a particular instinctual drive!
Where are your merging and mediating “aimed?”
Are they aimed at finding peace through cyclical routines and rhythms, staying physically comfortable, and feeling instinctually satisfied or “full?”
Are they aimed at being the “community glue,” staying busy, and achieving a feeling of belonging by going along with the agenda of the group?
Or are they aimed at soaking in the energy of individual others, and/or achieving a feeling of “divine oneness” with intimates?
These are three very different ways of “living out” the Type 9 passion of Self-forgetting (classically referred to as “sloth,” or “laziness”). Your Subtype not only affects how others perceive/experience your “Nine-ness,” but also the kind of self-work that will be most effective for you (and your specific expression of the type).
Self-Preservation 9: Appetite
These are the “primal” 9s, who run on instinctual rhythms. For these 9s, comfort truly is king. They merge with pleasant routines and physical sensations. They are all about simplicity, immediacy, and concrete experiences—getting their comfort and/or survival needs met in direct, clear-cut ways. The pleasant routines and creature comforts they enjoy often include eating, sleeping, napping, the couch, the bed, cozy blankets, the bath, reading, collecting, television, candles, and beyond. Regardless of what soothing cyclical activities are their mode of choice, the name of the game is to be physically relaxed, satisfied, stable, and at peace. But on a subconcious level, their routines are a means of self-forgetting. In the words of Beatrice Chesnut, "It's easier to erase yourself by losing yourself in comfortable activities than to reveal yourself or open yourself up to whatever unpredictable or complex thing might be happening in the outside world." We could say these 9s retreat into physical comfort because it’s a safe place to be.
Social 9: Participation
These are the “busy and active” 9s, who merge with the agenda of the group. They show quite a bit of fervor for supporting their community. They give their all, and may be workaholics. They are pros at providing structure and “filling in the gaps” that others miss, to ensure continuity. The rest of the team/group might not see how these 9s ensure a smooth atmosphere for everybody. Social 9s do all this hard work to achieve group belonging—but they often still end up feeling marginal, put last, or not recognized for their efforts to support others. It can be rather difficult to accuse these 9s of laziness, because they do so much for so many. But there is ultimately still a laziness towards self, a resistance towards forming their own agenda. "Doing for the group” is a strategy to take attention off of themselves. They achieve self-forgetting through busyness. These are unselfish people who use their mediation abilities to make everybody feel included. But they must risk "stepping into themselves" so that they can feel included.
One-to-One 9: Fusion/Union
I'd call these 9s the “you are me and I am you” 9s. They are the truest embodiment of what it means to merge with other people, striving for nothing less than a feeling of total/complete unity. Their basic aim is to feel that they are energetically blended with the individual others in their lives—swirled together in such a way that self and other become indistinguishable. It’s a dance of “two becoming one.” Living through another person allows these 9s to take attention off of themselves. One-on-one relating is their vehicle for self-forgetting. The downside to this strategy is that they end up relying on somebody else’s energy supply to “give them the juice.” Their intimate others become the battery packs that fuel their own sense of aliveness. When they are alone, it’s common for these 9s to feel they don’t have much “zip,” or even that they have lost their sense of self. The hidden truth of the matter is that maybe there wasn't a firm sense of self to “lose” in the first place, because self-conception is based so heavily on the others in ther lives. These 9s need to find/develop the "boundary line" between self and other.
To explore more about Type 9, check out our monthly support groups on the first Saturday of each month or join us at our next monthly workshop! You can see all of our upcoming events here. You can also work one-on-one with us by emailing us here.
*Shoutout to the Enneagram masters: I owe my understanding of Instinctual Subtypes to a long list of authors and teachers, but extra special credit goes to Peter O’Hanrahan, Helen Palmer, Beatrice Chesnut, and Ginger Lapid-Bogda