Type 6 Initial Self-Belief: “I am uncertain as I am.”

Type 6 Compensation: "I must search for someone or something that I can depend on that provides the assurance to move forward."

Type 6 Core Focus: Assurance comes from determining what can be trusted so that internal doubts can be resolved. This requires that I find something outside myself that provides support and can be relied upon by questioning the intentions and thoughts of authorities, systems, other people, and even myself.

Personality characteristics that might arise from the type 6 core focus include:

• Plays the devil's advocate through contrarian thinking
• Tends to notice what could go wrong in situations
• Mentally prepares for worst-case scenarios
• Becomes suspicious when people behave inconsistently
• Projects imagined thoughts and feelings onto others
• Can be very loyal once someone has earned their trust
• Scans the environment and people for possible threats and danger
• Disarms others through warmth and self-deprecation
• Seeks advice and reassurance when making decisions

The Loyalist, The Committed, Security-Oriented Type: Engaging, Responsible, Anxious, and Suspicious

Basic Fear: Of having no support and guidance, of being unable to survive on their own¹

Basic Desire: To find security and support¹

How Sixes Pay Attention: (Projection) The blind spot in the way a Six pays attention is that a point of view must have first appeared in the Six’s mind in order to warrant him or her looking for supportive evidence and clues.²

Basic Proposition: You can assure life and certainty by avoiding harm (the phobic stance) or facing it (the counter-phobic stance) through vigilance, questioning, and either battling or escaping perceived hazards.²

Strengths: Perceptive, sensitive, loyal, warm, witty, courageous and strategic thinking²

Challenges: Anxious, hyper-vigilant, pessimistic, contrary, over-active imagination²

Energy goes into: Doubting, testing, and looking for double messages. Figuring things out through logical analysis. Playing the devil’s advocate. Showing strength. Gaining security by obtaining the goodwill of others, being loyal to others, and dedicating myself to worthy and often underdog causes.³

The Loyalist: Committed, practical and witty, they are worst-case-scenario thinkers who are motivated by fear and the need for security.⁴

Questioners are responsible, trustworthy, and vaue loyalty to family, friends, groups, and causes. Their personalities range broadly from reserved and timid to outspoken and confrontative.⁵

Focus of Attention: Sixes focus on thinking about what might go wrong and strategizing and preparing for it. A response to an early experience of danger, Sixes have an adaptive strategy that centers on detecting threats and coping with fear.⁶

¹Book: The Wisdom of the Enneagram; Website: The Enneagram Institute

²Book: The Enneagram; Website: The Narrative Enneagram

³Book: The Essential Enneagram; Website: Dr. David Daniels

⁴Book: The Road Back to You

⁵Book: The Enneagram Made Easy

⁶Book: The Complete Enneagram; Website: Chestnut Paes Enneagram Academy

Type 6 Fixation and Trap

Fixation: Cowardice comes from waiting for something or someone to alleviate doubt before taking action.

Trap: Security requires constant scanning for potential dangers and problems in order to be prepared.

The fixation of cowardice points to the mental preoccupation of the type 6 ego. The trap of security keeps an individual stuck in the fixation.

Type 6 Holy Idea

Holy Idea: Holy faith is trusting in yourself and others that you can navigate life in spite of the doubts and questions you may have.

The fixation of cowardice and trap of security keep an individual stuck in the type 6 fixation. The way out of that fixation is through holy faith.

Type 6 Passion

Passion: Fear arises from a sense of uncertainty and doubt within. "I scan others and the world around me to locate dangers and find something to reassure me."

The passion of fear is the emotional energy that serves the fixation of cowardice and trap of security.

Type 6 Virtue

Virtue: Courage appears when you step into action as circumstances dictate in spite of any lingering doubts or fears that you may have about doing so.

The virtue of courage is what appears when the passion of fear subsides.

• Fear, Cowardice and Anxiety
• Over-Alert Hyperintentionality
• Theoretical Orientation
• Ingratiating Friendliness
• Rigidity
• Pugnacity
• Orientation to Authority and Ideals
• Accusation of Self and Others
• Doubt and Ambivalence

One method used to bring the types to life when teaching the Enneagram types involves interviewing people of a given type about how that type plays out in their life. This may be done through panels and one-on-one interviews.

Self-revelatory videos can also be useful where a person simply describes their type to a camera without the prompting of an interviewer.

Note that sometimes a person in a video may have been mistyped and may not offer an accurate representation of type when that happens.

Once their Enneagram type is known, celebrities or famous people can also offer interesting examples of and insights into Enneagram type as revealed through interviews, lectures, writings, and the person's work.

However, it's not like the Enneagram panels, interviews, and self-revelations where people are specifically describing how they experience Enneagram type in their lives. It's more a matter of looking for glimpses into how Enneagram type is operating in the person.

It can be difficult to type someone at a distance. Look for a consensus of opinion on a person's type from multiple sources and hold it loosely. Celebrities and famous people are often typed differently by different Enneagram authors, teachers, and enthusiasts.

It needs to be made clear that fictional characters are not real people, even when they are based on real people. There can be a temptation to assign Enneagram type to every character in a story, but many characters don't have that kind of consistency or depth.

Not only might there be a number of different people, usually of different types, influencing the creation or portrayal of a character but often the character is nothing more than a vehicle for telling the story and moving it along.

While once in a while a character appears that you can attribute an Enneagram type to, generally it's more accurate to look at specific scenes as examples of a type rather than the character as a whole.

Tom Condon wrote a book called The Enneagram Movie & Video Guide that you may find useful for seeing type in fictional characters.

Although they do exist, there are few song lyrics that can be attributed to one particular Enneagram type. Most songs have both lyrical and musical elements that can be attributed to a number of different Enneagram types.

Songs are extremely subjective. There are many songs that listeners, and even performers, interpret in a very different way than the song writer intended. A number of songs also emphasize the sounds of words rather than their meaning.

As such, different people hearing the same song often will experience it as representing different Enneagram types.

Enneagram type 6 wings (6w5 and 6w7)

Enneagram type 6 subtypes (sp 6, sx 6, so 6)

Enneagram type 6 tri-center (gut, heart, head)

• 6 vs 1
• 6 vs 2
• 6 vs 3
• 6 vs 4
• 6 vs 5
• 6 vs 7
• 6 vs 8
• 6 vs 9

Enneagram Type Preference Test
This test produces a scored list of all nine types.
Questions are forced-choice, similar to the method used by the Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indictor (RHETI).
Use to determine type, wings, gut/heart/head types, and tri-center.

Enneagram Type Comparison Test
This test compares any two types. The preferred type will have the higher score.
Use when you've narrowed your type down to two or three possibilities you'd like to compare.