The Enneagram Levels: A Roadmap to Self-Discovery and Growth
What are the Enneagram Levels of Development?
The Levels of Development show how different traits of each Enneagram type fit together.
Understanding the Levels helps us see the connections between traits and how they can change.
Without the Levels, the Enneagram is just a set of categories, but adding the Levels adds depth and complexity.
Each Level represents a psychological shift with a specific title.
For example, at Level 5, the person tries to control themselves and others, causing conflicts. so it’s called the “Level of Interpersonal Control”
Moving down the Levels means becoming more identified with the ego and its negative patterns.
The Levels also measure our capacity to be present. Moving down the Levels makes us less conscious and more driven by automatic reactions.
Moving up the Levels means becoming more present, awake, and attuned to ourselves and our environment.
We gain distance from negative consequences and have the potential to act beyond our automatic patterns.
The Levels serve as a guide to self-observation and show our psycho-spiritual development.
Moving up the Levels brings more freedom and effectiveness in all areas of life, including relationships.
When we are less identified with our personality, we can express positive qualities and bring peace, creativity, strength, joy, and compassion to everything we do.
Healthy Levels:
Level 1- The Level of Liberation:
Overcoming the basic fear leads to liberation and transcending the ego.
Fulfilling the basic desire and meeting real needs brings fulfillment.
Attaining balance and freedom by shifting from personality to essence and incorporating healthy qualities.
The ego is a part of our mind that represents our sense of self or identity. It is the part that is concerned with our own wants, needs, and desires. It influences how we see ourselves and how we interact with others. The ego can sometimes make us focus too much on ourselves and can prevent us from seeing things from different perspectives.
Level 2- The Level of Psychological Capacity
Succumbing to Basic Fear leads to the emergence of a Basic Desire.
The development of the ego and its defenses occurs in response to anxieties caused by succumbing to fear.
Sense of self develops during this stage, and fulfilling the Basic Desire is crucial for personal growth and transcendence.
Level 3- Level of Social Role
In response to succumbing to secondary fears and desires, the person's ego becomes more active.
Producing a characteristic persona (The social mask) The person is still healthy, although less so, because both the ego and persona are protected by Defense Mechanisms
At this level we see the healthy social characteristics that the type brings to others.
The Ego takes the positive qualities it identified in level two and attempts to reinforce them through action. The person is NOT imbalanced as is capable of attaining or regaining level 1 functioning by overcoming the Basic Fear and by Acting Properly on the Basic Desire
Average Levels
Where the majority of people begin their journey.
Level 4- Level of Imbalance
As a result of the person's giving in to a significant Characteristic Temptation (Core Weakness) the ego is inflated, defenses increase, and an imbalance is introduced.
Instincts seek immediate gratification according to the pleasure principal. Living more automatically and less aware of how your ego is controlling you.
This level marks the decent into the person's psychological "dead end" if not resisted- it will create increasing inner mind and interpersonal conflicts.
If the person STRONGLY identifies with the social role, it will be difficult to not descend further. They need to resist the social role.
Level 5- Level of Interpersonal Control
The ego inflates significantly as the person tries to control the environment especially other people
(In withdrawn types "Ego Inflation" is negative, marked by the deflation of the persona and a characteristic of withdrawal of the person from social interactions. )
They feel they must get others to accept and reinforce the self-image and fulfill the ego needs.
Defense mechanisms cause interpersonal and internal conflicts and increasing anxiety if they fail.
The traits emerging in this level are noticeably more negative than any seen prior to this stage.
This level is a turning point in the deterioration of the type.
Level 6- Level of Overcompensation
The person begins to overcompensate for conflicts and anxieties brought about by the increasing inflation of the ego, as well as by the failure of the behavior seen at level 5 to provide the person with what he or she wanted.
A characteristic form of self-centerless emerges to maintain ego inflation.
Overcompensated objectionable and highly extreme forms of behavior arise.
Each type tends to inflict on others actions related to the type's basic fear.
Unhealthy Levels-
If you find yourself in these levels, it is recommended to seek support from a licensed mental health specialist. Please note that I am qualified to work with clients who are in the average levels and above. ⚠️Tigger Warning: violence, trauma, abuse, death.⚠️
Level 7-Level of Violation
For various reasons the person's defenses have not worked and serious reactions occur.
Each type employs a different survival tactic. (You will learn these during a Leveling Session)
An unhealthy "self-protective" response in a desperate attempt to bolster their ego. Which is seriously in trouble due to increasing anxiety
This response creates serious interpersonal conflicts.
This state is severely neurotic and unbalanced although not fully pathological yet.
This level is usually in response to constant environmental stressors or a history of severe and chronic childhood abuse.
Level 8- Level of Obsession & Compulsion
As anxiety increases, very serious intrapsychic conflicts occur. And the person attempts to remake reality rather than succumb to anxiety.
Thinking and perceiving, feeling and behavior all become severely distorted and unfree: hence, this is a fully pathological state. the person begins to lose touch with reality (becoming delusional in some way. Different for each type
The resulting behavior can be characterized as "compulsive"
The psychological capacity that emerged at level 2 and become inflated at level 5 has become delusional by this level.
Level 9- Level of Pathological Destructiveness
This is the final pathological state, in which openly destructive behavior is expressed.
Having become delusional & out of touch with reality, the person becomes willing to destroy self, others, or both to defend the ego structure and whatever delusions have arisen to buffer it from further anxiety or threat.
Serious breakdown resulting in violence or death.
There is a breakdown of the dynamic of each type. The attitudes and behaviors that arise at each level as a result of the fears and desires that are driving them.
Want to learn more? If you’ve completed an Enneagram Typing session with me then- Sign up for a Leveling Session today.
