The Enneagram, MBTI and Dramatica

[TerryVog]

Since there is some overlap between personality types and the role characters play in a story, I decided to give it a try and map the characterizations to the enneagram and to MBTI.

If anyone wants to suggest changes, please let me know.

ENNEATYPES:
1: Order, Actuality, Equity, Accurate, Determination, Faith, Avoidance, Nonacceptance
2: Thought, Perception, Ability, Aware, Projection, Hunch, Ending, Support, Feeling, Help, Protection
3: Ability, Inequity, Result, Unending, Pursuit, Temptation, Hinder
4: Desire, Speculation, Unproven, Process, Test, Uncontrolled, Induction, Evaluation
5: Knowledge, Accurate, Theory, Trust, Disbelief, Oppose, Logic, Nonacceptance, Reduction, Inaction
6: Order, Inertia, Proven, Result, Reconsider, Deduction, Probability, Production
7: Chaos, Change, Effect, Consider, Temptation, Potentiality, Proaction, Possibility
8: Inequity, Cause, Pursuit, Control, Potentiality, Reaction, Production, Reevaluation
9: Self Aware, Non-Accurate, Effect, Expectation, Conscience, Certainty, Acceptance, Production

MBTI TYPES:
ENFJ: Chaos, Change, Determination, Unending, Support, Temptation, Potentiality, Possibility
ENFP: Thought, Change, Process, Hunch, Determination, Support, Potentiality, Protection
ENTJ: Change, Determination, Consider, Temptation, Potentiality, Proaction, Possibility
ENTP: Actuality, Equity, Determination, Faith, Oppose, Logic, Nonacceptance, Reduction
ESFJ: Inequity, Cause, Result, Pursuit, Control, Potentiality, Reaction, Production
ESFP: Ability, Aware, Projection, Hunch, Ending, Feeling, Help, Protection
ESTJ: Ability, Inequity, Cause, Unending, Pursuit, Control, Hinder, Nonacceptance
ESTP: Order, Actuality, Equity, Aware, Accurate, Determination, Trust, Logic
INFJ: Thought, Chaos, Perception, Self Aware, Non-Accurate, Effect, Pursuit, Acceptance
INFP: Desire, Unproven, Process, Test, Uncontrolled, Induction, Proaction, Production, Evaluation
INTJ: Knowledge, Theory, Consider, Disbelief, Oppose, Conscience, Certainty, Inaction
INTP: Desire, Speculation, Unproven, Uncontrolled, Induction, Proaction, Nonacceptance, Possibility
ISFJ: Non-Accurate, Expectation, Disbelief, Conscience, Certainty, Acceptance, Probability
ISFP: Inertia, Proven, Result, Reconsider, Support, Certainty, Probability, Production
ISTJ: Knowledge, Ability, Accurate, Trust, Unending, Oppose, Logic, Reaction, Reduction, Reevaluation
ISTP: Order, Inertia, Proven, Result, Trust, Avoidance, Deduction, Probability

[Alejandro]

That’s really interesting, @TerryVog. Thank you for sharing it.

I wonder if some elements depend more on the role than on the personality, e.g. pursuit, avoidance for protagonist / antagonist. But other elements seem to fit nicely into the enneagram personality types. For example, for type 5 I think accurate, theory, trust, disbelief, logic are dead on.

[jhull]

@chuntley on the Enneagram and Dramatica. Sounds like he might be interested in what you have done above. Thanks!

[Gernot]

Thanks Terry, I suggest to map determination for typ 7 as well, which is a main feature of this type (planning, anticipating something better is elsewhere…).

some examples …
Worth/determination

• speaks negatively about past
• blindly pursuing, immediate satisfaction without considering the cost of own impulses
  Experience/determination
• gets always what s/he wants
• anticipating, the habit of looking forward to what you are going to do next

[chuntley]

Very cool. One other thing to consider are some of the other levels, though that would be mixing apples and oranges. My thought is that some of the Enneagram or MBTI traits might map to the Variations in particular. Responsibility? Commitment? Truth? Morality? Self Interest?

Just a thought…

[Gernot]

Good point Chris, below some examples from an excel file I am using to develop plot and characters. This helps me a lot to understand dramatica terminology

Typ Concept
Domain, Concern, Issue, Element, Flaw, Short Description

1 Being perfect
Situation, Future, Choice, Logic, Flaw, Enforces “normal” idea of beaty and intelignece
Mind, Innermost Desires, Denial, Conscience, Flaw, Follows the rules no matter what.
Manipulation, Changing One’s Nature, Responsibility, Conscience, Flaw, believe that everything falls on your shoulders, and this can be extremely stressful
Activity, Gathering Information, Preconditions, Nonacceptance, Flaw, cannot make mistakes without condemning himself

2 Being helpful
Activity, Obtaining, Attitude, Support, Flaw, Overly agreeable at first, or emotionally
Mind, Innermost Desires, Denial, Conscience, Blessing, Willing to suffer or die for others or a cause
Manipulation, Playing A Role, Ability, Cause, Trait, looks for ways to help other people

3 Its all about image
Activity, Gathering Information, Analysis, Production, Blessing, Makes things happen.
Manipulation, Playing a role, Ability, Effect, Flaw, Tells lies, exaggerates constantly
Mind, Impulsive Responses, Worth, Determination, Flaw, Makes you feel worthless
Situation, Future, Choice, Logic, Flaw, Doesn’t give reasons for his decissions

4 Being authentic
Activity, Doing, Skill, Cause, Flaw, Makes offensive jokes
Mind, Impulsive Responses, Worth, Unending, Flaw, Becomes jealusly easily
Manipulation, Playing A Role, Desire, Determination, Flaw, Longs to be something else.
Situation, Past, Fate, Chaos, Obstacle, personal letter gets put in wrong envelope

5 Having knowledge
Activity, Obtaining, Approach, Logic, Flaw, Can explain anything rationally
Activity, Obtaining, Attitude, Oppose, Flaw, Constantly criticizing.
Manipulation, Playing A Role, Knowledge, Process, Trait, focuses on accumulating knowledge and on privacy
Mind, Innermost Desire, Denial, Help, Flaw, Does not share information with you that they have that may help you excel in life
Situation, Future, Delay, Avoid, Flaw, For whatever reason, he will make sure something fails.

6 Being safe
Mind, Innermost Desires, Hope, Feeling, Flaw, Afraid of everything, controlled by fear
Manipulation, Playing A Role, Desire, Test, Flaw, Try to make you feel guilty when you’re concerned over something they did to disrespect you.

7 Having fun
Manipulation, Playing A Role, Thought, Unending, Trait, focuses on keeping options open
Activity, Doing, Skill, Effect, Flaw, The guy who can do anything.
Mind, Impulsive Responses, Confidence, Trust, Flaw, doesnt think before he speaks
Situation, Future, Choice, Conscience, Flaw, freedom of choice is important to him you

8 Being in control
Manipulation, Changing One’s Nature, Responsibility, Control, Flaw, Must be in control at all times
Activity, Obtaining, Self Interest, Pursuit/Uncontrolled, Flaw, Uncontrolled Wanting Emotions
Mind, Memories, Falsehood, Inequity, Flaw, Makes unfair rules
Situation, Future, Choice, Conscience, Flaw

9 Have peace
Manipulation, Conceiving An Idea, Expediency, Protection, Trait, withdraws to protect themselves from being absorbed into the crowd
Situation, Present, Attraction, Reaction, Flaw, The hero who didn’t ask to get involved but does.

[Tristano]

This is an interesting topic. I have studied the Enneagram for a number of years. Being a model of relations, there are different approaches (“schools”, so to speak) when it come to clasifying the personality types on the Enneagram of Personality. I personally chose an approach mixed on the originals works of H.Palmer and Naranjo, with some additions of NLP (Neuro-Lingustic Programming) and the six-types system developed by D.Markova in her book “The Art of the Possible”.

NLP brings to the Enneagram theory the benefits of V, K and A patterns (Visual, Kenestesic and Auditory), but its Markova’s work that puts it into order for personality types with her system of Triangle-Square-Circle — which basically states that different personality types distribute differently V,K,A in Triangle, Square and Circle. Triangle is a metaphor for the tip of the loop of information between the individual inner world and the outer world, the Square is the central point of equilibrium between inner-world and outer-world, ie: where the individual elaborates information by comparing innermost feelings and information and outside input. The Circle overlaps the square, divind in two: precounsciou and subcounscious. The loop is input-outup.

Markova’s six type fit neatly on the enneagran, with some type appearing twice to cover the 9 enneatypes.

For example, people with a Visual square will be holistic thinkers, while Auditory square are linear thinkers.

VKA relates individual to experience of time, visual people think fast, by images, and juggle present, past and future simultaneously. Auditory people are more linear, think in terms of chains of causes and events. Kenestesic people are more “in-time”, feeling, drowned in the present.

Also, NLP offers metaprograms, which might overlap with some of Dramatica concepts.

But I think, based on my experience, that seeking connection with a Dramatica storyform and the Enneagram is only really possible once the storyform is complete. One would then have to weight and balance pros and cons, and choose enneatypes that best fit a charater role while considering also his interactions with other characters.

I also believe that the best contribution of the Enneagram of Types, for writers, is that it helps predict the reactions of characters, and their mutual interactions, because of the way that each Enneatype has lines of “stress” and “rest”, as well as wings, and how each type meets other types along those lines.

The difficulty of pinning a given Enneatype to a specific Dram. Variation or Signpost is that these are transitory elements of Plot progression or Thematic evaluation. I think that this would be best applied only for very critical storypoints, like backstory and leap of faith, which would best fit certain Enneatypes rather than others.

Still, I think it’s an issue worth exploring, and I’ll be sifting through my books again and try to post and share some correlations when I come across them.

Overall, I think that Markova’s “The Art of the Possible” is a more relevant (and easy) text of reference for this subject. Unfortunately, she later abbandoned her Triangle-Square-Circle approach, and rewrote her next books with a different approach, but I’ve found better her earlier version.

In a more general way, I think that there are some deep connections between Dramatica and the Enneagram — not the Enneagram of Personality, but the Enneagram as was employed by the Forth Way movement (which never taught the Enneagram of Personality).

Dramatica has a Square-based system (Quad), but Mental Relativity also reduces two quad elements into one while evaluating, which gives it relation to three also.

The Enneagram is based on number 3 and 7. But then, Dramatica present its model at rest, while the Enneagram figure (as employed in the Enn. of Personality) is actually a representation of the model “out-of-sync” (the Enneagram at rest has a different design). So we are looking at two different perspective, but they might overlap possibly. The Enneagram of personality also asserts that every type has a “broken leg of the stool”, so to speak, which is something that might be in common with Mental Relativity.

Both seem to rely on “plays of symmetry” and regularities i number, and this usually related somehow to Eulero’s number sequences (also with 4, not only 3 and 7).

Maybe with a join effort, and sharng different experiences and outlooks, we might find some interesting correlations between Dramatica and the Enneagram, which might contribute to the writing aspects of story telling.

Best regards,

Tristano