The Literary Enneagram: Characters from the Inside Out [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

I have two bones to pick with most Enneagram books, training programs and articles, and it’s the same trouble I have with most poetry and fiction. The first bone is that they try to rouse me from my complacency chair by describing a type instead of showing them. I don’t budge, for the most part, because I don’t often care what others are said to be, when I have no context in which to put them.
They want to explore what is felt without letting me get involved. For instance, all Enneagram books say that a Seven will make boring things less boring, and Sevens have a propensity for multi-tasking. All panels of Sevens say the same and that Sevens don’t finish what they start. Yawn, this Seven, who finishes every single thing I start, says. Not one describes a scene of a garage lit by one light at pre-dawn with me doing the rumba as I trod the treadmill listening to a Gypsy Kings CD as I practice flamenco hand movements. So when I read Bridget Jones’s Diary describing my Seven personality in The Literary Enneagram I discover that perhaps my own relentless pursuit of activity is indeed a way to allay my anxieties. And my fear of missing out on things keeps me from fully enjoying the fun as I have it.
Searle digs deepest to find the accurate Seven, getting me involved with perceptive and contextual introductions. The title of the book did intimidate me. I missed out on having great literature forced into my education, if you can call what I had an education. I have tried to make up for the gaps by trying to tackle Hardy, Shakespeare and D.H. Lawrence on my own so I won’t be such an .... I’m happy to report that after reading the first chapter, I understood Les Miserables without a hitch and even understood the inner critic of old Javert without referring to any Cliff Note.
The second bone I have with most fiction and poetry, Enneagram books is that there’s hardly any fun involved. No pizzazz, sensuality, hot fudge sundaes. Why do I have to know about all that pain? Some of it is okay, but hey! I just don’t buy into the approach that for full understanding to take place, I must suffer. So I’m happy that Searle includes fun and sexy examples of exploring the psyche.
As in “The Taming of the Shrew” where a Six, Kate is tamed by an Eight, Petruchio. Following the arrows of stress and comfort, Katharina was forced to let appearances (type three) be damned, be publically humiliated (a 6's worst fear) in order to merge (the nine position) with her husband and find peace for her troubled and belligerent station (six). Petruchio’s arc, i.e. transformation of character, is seen as his desires to get a rich wife (typical low-down eight behavior) uses an irritating know-it-all obnoxiousness (five stress point activated), but he gets his heart opened in the process, (the eight’s heart opens at the two) He actually falls in love with Katharina.
This may sound complicated, as I refer to Enneagram numbers the way an astrologer refers to asteroids and quincunxes. But reading the first chapter is to have the basics under one’s belt. There’s history reaching back to Pythagorus, description of the nine types, concepts of wings, the Hornevian Triads, Stress and Security Points, and much more.
The setting of literary examples is a concept someone had to develop, and I’m glad it was Judith Searle, because her compassion for people’s struggles is so wonderful. It could have easily been a book that showed characters’ hateful sides, which lends itself to richer adverbs and adjectives. Throughout the book, the reader is simply placed in a character’s world through their hearts and through their challenges.
Finding literary examples to describe one’s own type would be enough. But to proceed to the other types is to find gold. I had the enthralling discovery that Shakespeare is as accessible as Gary Larson’s “The Far Side.” But seriously, when we speak of Enneagram types in these dramatic ways, ways that reveal the inner dialogue, we speak of healing, cleaning up the past and loving those whom we once feared.

Authors who could have had no exposure to the Enneagram, “validate the system.” The intricacy of one personality type expressed in one great piece of literature would be coincidence, but Searle brings up dozens of books where the characters follow not only their own number’s path, but bring in the side number, expresses stress points and one of the three different subtypes. The Literary Enneagram is elegant in its delivery of humanity.

Searle does for the Enneagram what, dare I say, Dr. Frankenstein did for the monster. Not that animating dead body parts is my point - she just enlivens them. There is no end to studying Enneagram with this approach. To see the shadow monster in a character who has our Enneagram DNA is thorough and satisfying. To see Dr. Frankenstein’s bully (8) and know that his heart point is the Nurturer (2), then that scene where he nestles a kitten is not far-fetched.

We are allowed to enter the mystery of each point through the heart of the characters Searle selects. Freed from having to learn about the types by being told about them, we enter through their fears, self-esteem and anger. We’re talking lower chakras - the way we humans express ourselves in this lifetime on earth.

The set-ups are compassionate, as in democratic, “to suffer with” compassion. We enter through the heart of each literary stranger with empathy. We understand them, and in turn understand and love ourselves. As we develop Ennea-eyes, our awareness, perception and of the fragile and X-rayed character becomes closer. To read this book was to have my heart opened, broken and remain open still.

I first learned about the enneagram in a weekend workshop at a Jesuit school in South Dakota. It was entertaining...and then it was amazing when my number came up. That was it. I have since purchased a few books on the subject and was not impressed because they seemed shallow and reminiscent of pop astrology until I found "The Literary Enneagram" at a bookstore in Ashland, OR. I love to read and though I've not read all the books used to characterize the enneagram personalities, Judith Searle gives enough of a character pullout to fulfill the demonstration of a particular enneagram characteristic. The use of the characters and their plights help flesh out what these perspectives mean to particular types and the choices available to them. I have found this book very readable and happily constructive.

This excellent book offers an in-depth look at the enneagram and the nine enneagram types as seen in literature and film. Great for getting beyond a superficial look at the types, especially for the literarilly-inclined. I must admit that I'm not generally a reader of Great Literature--being more of a film buff and reader of non-fiction. But I'm very interested in life themes and the enneagram and know of no one who does a better job exploring such themes than Judith Searle.