Attitudes and the Spiritual Life-033 09-23-07

Attitudes and the Spiritual Life-033

09-23-07

The Enneagram and The HAM’s:

Religious HAM Strategies -

The 8, 9 and 1

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 2

The 8-9-1 Strategies• The HAM (Happiness Attainment Motivator)

in the lives of the 8. 9 and 1 is Religion.

• This religion might be a named religious belief system, an alternative to traditional religions, such as Atheism or Philosophy, or something they would never identify as “Religion”, such as Psychology or Science,

• No matter what it is, it is these people, the 8, 9, and 1, who are motivated by their beliefs.


The 8-9-1 Strategies• Center 8-9-1 is referred to as the instinctive or gut

center. • The predominant motive in the lives of these

numbers is Religion, and Anger is the primary Emotional Sin.

• The anger is expressed differently in all three cases, but anger it is.

• An angry Eight blocks out thinking, or thinks in caricatures; a compulsive One tends to see black and white only; and Nines tend to get fuzzy or have long rambling introductions to a point easily overlooked.


The 8-9-1 Strategies

• They have a different approach than thinkers, they have an intuitive "gut feeling" way of making their way through life.

• They can have "writer's block", or have trouble expressing themselves verbally.

• Their processing of verbal or written information can be slow, but they also are often highly intuitive - making correct concrete decisions quickly and easily.



• They tend to be preoccupied, positively or negatively with the physical aspects of life.

• Eights, for example, prefer direct, outward solutions to problems.

• Nines tend to express emotions physically.

• They would say "my flesh crawls" instead of "I get uneasy," and their flesh might well goosebump.



• Ones tend to be polarized against their own sensuality, having strong sensual urges, but denying them and getting critical of people or places that encourage sensual expression



• The Eight's Religious attention goes to issues of power and control, to making things happen, to protecting the weak, and to fighting Injustice.

• With an intense, authoritative, and sometimes explosive energy, they are usually ready to face any challenge.

• They “know” what is right and wrong, fair and unfair (Justice).



• The Nine's Religious attention goes to connecting with others, maintaining harmony, peace, and comfort, and avoiding conflict.

• They typically enjoy the feeling of ease, harmony, and peace that they experience in nature.



• The One's Religious attention is Righteousness/Perfection and goes to appreciating the excellence and elegance in anything such as a shape, musical score, a piece of art or a speech; to noticing and correcting errors; to identifying and adhering to standards of perfection in thought, feeling and behavior; to acting according to what is right or wrong; and to judging and criticizing oneself and others.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 10

The Eight• People of enneatype Eight are essentially unwilling

to be controlled, either by others or by their circumstances; they fully intend to be masters of their fate, to "take charge," to do whatever needs to be done.

• Eights are competitive, strong willed, decisive, expansive, practical, and tough minded.

• They want to be the “hand of God”, or God himself, of their Religious belief system.

• Remember that the 6, 7 and 8 group was concerned with Power, so the 8 is the transition from Power to Religion and combines the two.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 11

The Eight• Eights typically have an enormous amount of

energy and frequently have powerful physical appetites. There is an unapologetically expansive quality to the physical presence of the type Eight personality. Eights generally don't have to announce their presence for others to know they are there. The central problem for individuals of enneatype Eight is that the need to avoid being controlled can manifest in the need to control, the need to be "in charge," the compulsion to dominate.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 12

The Eight

• This can lead to all sorts of practical difficulties, as the world is not always liable to conform to the dictates of the Eight's will, but the deeper problem for the Eight is that the need to avoid any semblance of being controlled can rob the Eight of the fluidity, receptivity and acceptance that is generally necessary to live a full, balanced and truly happy life.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 13

The Eight

• Eights often experience life as a struggle for existence in which only the fittest survive.

• Life thus dictates competition from the point of view of the Eight, and Eights naturally intend to be the ones who survive.

• They typically adopt a survival strategy that involves either a rise to the top of the existing hierarchy, or an "opting out" altogether of the current system and its structures of power.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 14

The Eight

• Eights of the former sort are typically found in positions of leadership, whether it be of their own family, company or political party.

• Eights of the latter sort tend to be independent contractors, free-lancers of all sorts, and even outlaws - those who, in other words, exist outside of the accepted framework of civil society and its often artificial system of rules and obligations.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 15

The Eight

• Eights of both basic tendencies need to feel financially independent, and while most Eights do manage to find some means of making peace with their society, they always retain an uneasy association with any hierarchical relationship which does not position the Eight at the top.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 16

The Eight• While some Eights adopt something of the "lone

wolf" persona, most Eights have quite a number of social connections, whether to family members, friends or business connections.

• Eights are very much present in the world and are frequently extroverts.

• True intimacy however does not come easily or naturally to Eights.

• Soft and tender emotions tend to make Eights feel "weak," and, more to the point, intimacy requires Eights to lower their defenses and thereby become vulnerable.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 17

The Eight• Vulnerability, in turn, triggers the Eight's fear of

being controlled. • Thus, intimate relations are often the arena in which

the Eight's control issues are most obviously played out.

• Questions of trust assume a pivotal position. • Eights tend to test their intimates to see if they are

worthy, to see if they can be trusted not to betray the Eight's confidence.

• Betrayal is absolutely intolerable to Eights and any hint of it can provoke a powerful retaliatory response.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 18

The Eight

• Type Eight exemplifies the desire to be independent and to take care of oneself.

• Eights are assertive and passionate about life, meeting it head on with self-confidence and strength.

• They have learned to stand up for themselves and have a resourceful, "can-do" attitude.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 19

The Eight

• Eights are looking, ideally, both for someone they can respect and someone they can protect, a paradoxical combination to be sure, but, while the Eight's loneliness can only be assuaged by finding an equal, the Eight's feelings of vulnerability can best be assuaged if they know that their intimates depend on them.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 20

The Eight

• While Eights do not trust easily, if they do admit someone into the inner sanctum, they generally prove to be stalwart friends and steadfast allies.

• Not all Eights do form truly intimate relationships however, as some Eights are simply unwilling or unable to compromise their sense of self-sufficiency.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 21

The Eight• Eights are often prone to anger, one of the few

feelings they allow themselves to feel in its pure form.

• As mentioned, the experience of tender emotions such as compassion, love, sorrow, melancholy and pity can cause the Eight to feel vulnerable.

• Anger, on the other hand, embodies a feeling of being in opposition to the world and, at least as the Eight experiences it, a sense of the importance of overcoming that opposition.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 22

The Eight• In the Eight's experience of anger, ego

boundaries are consolidated, the world kept in opposition, and the Eight focused on domination.

• Some Eights consider "morality" to be just one more means by which society attempts to exert illegitimate control over them.

• (It’s not “Fair” (Justice) that you dictate (Power) what is “right and wrong” for me, they think.)

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 23

The Eight

• It is, they reason, the weapon that the constitutionally weak use to keep the naturally strong "in line."

• Eights, like counterphobic Sixes, are suspicious of rules, and often take an oppositional stance to authority.

• But, as Eights are generally strategic, they seldom take on a battle they know they cannot win.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 24

The Eight• Their rebellion and lack of respect for "the rules"

therefore, is often camouflaged. • While Eights tend not to respect external systems of

rules, they often have their own internal sense of right and wrong, which consists of personal loyalties and freely chosen commitments.

• These the Eight will fight to protect. • Eights are often said to have an internal sense of

"justice," and it is true that Eights are acutely aware of the ways in which power is used and abused.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 25

The Eight• When unhealthy, they are perfectly willing to misuse

power however. • Only the strong survive, and whoever gets in the

Eight's way might have to be sacrificed to the Eight's ambition.

• Healthy Eights however develop a generosity of character which is almost the direct opposite of the unhealthy Eight's selfish self-assertion.

• Healthy Eights, those Eights who have developed the capacity to love, are among the most generous character types in the Enneagram.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 26

The Eight• Martin Luther King should be considered in this

regard. • He found power in restraint and strength in humility. • Unhealthy Eights, on the other hand, are the most

brutal of the enneatypes. • Unhealthy Eights are bullies who enjoy intimidating

those whom they see as weak and who feel little compunction about walking over anyone who crosses their path.

• They are crude, brutal, dangerous and grotesquely insensitive to the feelings of others.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 27

The Eight

• An element of sadism frequently enters the picture, sadism being a clear and obvious manifestation of the attempt to attain power by means of domination and humiliation; a weakness posing as strength.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 28

The Eight• In the traditional Enneagram, the passion of type

Eight is said to be "lust." • This should not be confused with the insistent

desire to enjoy the pleasures of the senses, sexual or otherwise, which is more characteristic of the gluttony of type Seven.

• The lust of type Eight has an expansive quality to it - rather than the need to "take in," the lust of type Eight manifests in the need to push outwards- to assert the self in order to attain the objects of desire.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 29

The Eight• As with the passions of all the enneatypes, the term

should not be read in its narrow or conventional sense, and the lust of type Eight need not manifest sexually.

• When it does, the Eight often finds it difficult to marry the often enormous desire for purely physical gratification with the more tender emotions of love and compassion, and herein lies one of the keys to understanding why the passion of type Eight might be considered a vice or sin.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 30

The Eight

• Whether the passion of lust manifests sexually or not, it involves a quality of self-assertion, a tightening of the ego boundaries, a stance that is often oppositional between the Eight and the other.

• What the Eight primarily desires is power...power sufficient to insulate the Eight from ever being vulnerable or weak.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 31

The Eight

• Eights with a Seven wing tend to be more expansive extroverted and openly aggressive than those with the Nine wing.

• They are more likely to be sensation seekers and are generally more overtly ambitious than those with a Nine wing.

• Eights with a Seven wing especially tend to relish intensity of experience.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 32

The Eight

• Conversely, Eights with a Nine wing hold more of their energy in reserve and exhibit more of a grounded, even stubborn quality.

• They are generally less obviously volatile than Eights with a Seven wing but can slip just as radically into open aggression when pushed.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 33

The Eight

• The ancient world seems to have provided a fitting stage for type Eight energy and many of the key military figures of antiquity have been Eights - Alexander, Julius Caesar, Hannibal, Attila and Emperor Chin to name just a few notable examples.

• They murdered millions.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 34

The Eight

• Naturally, given the nature of the type Eight fixation, many of the world's most influential modern leaders have also been Eights: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Josef Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Fidel Castro, Martin Luther King Jr., Golda Meir, Indira Ghandi and Lyndon Johnson.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 35

The Eight• "While Lyndon Johnson was not, as his two

assistants knew, a reader of books, he was, they knew, a reader of men--a great reader of men. He had a genius for studying a man and learning his strengths and weaknesses and hopes and fears, his deepest strengths and weaknesses: what it was that the man wanted--not what he said he wanted but what he really wanted--and what it was that the man feared, really feared.”

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 36

The Eight• "He tried to teach his young assistants to

read men--“Watch their hands, watch their eyes” he told them. “Read eyes. No matter what a man is saying to you, it’s not as important as what you can read in his eyes”--and to read between the lines: more interested in men’s weaknesses than in their strengths because it was weakness that could be exploited, he tried to teach his assistants how to learn a man’s weakness.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 37

The Eight

• "The most important thing a man has to tell you is what he isn’t telling you,” he said. "The most important thing a man has to say is what he’s trying not to say.” For that reason, he told them, it was important to keep the man talking; the longer he talked, the more likely he was to let slip a hint of that vulnerability he was so anxious to conceal.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 38

The Eight

• “That’s why he wouldn’t let a conversation end." Busby explains. “If he saw the other fellow was trying not to say something, he wouldn’t let it (the conversation) end until he got it out of him.” And Lyndon Johnson himself read with a genius that couldn’t be taught, with a gift that was so instinctive that a close observer of his reading habits, Robert G. (Bobby) Baker, calls it a “sense”;

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 39

The Eight

• "He seemed to sense each man’s individual price and the commodity he preferred as coin.” He read with a novelist’s sensitivity, with an insight that was unerring, with an ability, shocking in the depth of its penetration and perception, to look into a man’s heart and know his innermost worries and desires. (From Robert Caro's Lyndon Johnson.)

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 40

The Eight

• General George Patton and George C. Scott, the actor who famously played him, were also Eights. Other actors include Shelley Winters, Bette Davis, Charlton Heston, Frank Sinatra, Siney Poitier and John Wayne.

• On the American scene more recently, Eights include Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. Senator John McCain is also an Eight. Also the former senator, Ann Richards.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 41

The Eight

• Also: television "personalities" Dr.Phil, Nancy Grace and Paula Dean. And, of course, "The Donald."

• Fictional Examples include Star War's Darth Vader and Lucy from the comic strip Peanuts.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 42

The Eight - Mistypes• Eights and Ones can both be dominating and

self-assertive. • Both are drawn to leadership roles. • Typically it is the more passionate and

visceral type One who is mistaken for the Eight - Rudi Giuliani being a case in point, or Osama bin Laden.

• But Ones dominate in service to an ideal and are more rule bound than is the Eight, who is typically a law unto himself.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 43

The Eight - Mistypes• Twos are more likely to be mistyped as Eights than

the converse, and even that mistype is likely to occur under a narrow set of circumstances.

• While it is true that Twos can be quite bossy, Twos are primarily emotionally centered whereas

• Eights repress the more tender emotions. • Twos are needy; Eights self-sufficient to a fault. • Twos are manipulative; Eights are direct. • Twos are soft; Eights are hard etc.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 44

The Eight - Mistypes• Eights and Threes are both competitive, and both

can be dominating and drawn to leadership roles, but Threes are fundamentally concerned with receiving external validation, something which is almost entirely foreign to enneatype Eight's mindset.

• Threes want to be admired; Eights want respect, even if it is grudging.

• Threes are much smoother and conciliatory than Eights, something which seems compromising from the standpoint of type Eight.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 45

The Eight - Mistypes• A mistype between Eight and Four is generally

unlikely, but a Four with Three, especially one with a sexual/social instinctual stacking could conceivably be mistaken for an Eight.

• Eights, on the other hand, should not be mistaken for Fours.

• Fours are generally far more comfortable expressing their emotions than are Eights, and are especially more comfortable with expressing vulnerability, even if they do sometimes do it an a paradoxically aggressive fashion.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 46

The Eight - Mistypes

• Eights can be mistyped as Fives when they are especially intellectual.

• Fives can be mistaken for Eights when they are especially self-confident, as they sometimes are in their own areas of expertise.

• Both types are independent and place a premium on the avoidance of displays of vulnerability.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 47


• But an examination of the fundamental themes of their lives should reveal the stark underlying differences.

• Fives are sensitive and are susceptible to overwhelm and energy depletion; Eights have an expansive physical presence, are frequently insensitive, and are more likely to overwhelm others than to be overwhelmed themselves.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 48

The Eight - Mistypes• Eights and counterphobic Sixes can quite easily be

mistyped, and it is not uncommon for counterphobic Sixes to mistype themselves as Eights.

• Both types can be ambitious, competitive and even dominating.

• In addition, both types tend to have issues with authority.

• But there is a much more reactive, volatile, unpredictable quality to the aggression of counterphobic Sixes than there is to the generally more strategic aggression of type Eight.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 49


• Moreover, there is generally a more personal quality to the aggression of type Six than there is to the more goal oriented aggression of type Eight.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 50

The Eight• Eights and Sevens can be mistyped, especially if

the wing is especially strong. • Both types can be sensation seekers who love

adventure. • Both types can be competitive and overwhelming. • But as a general rule, Sevens find focusing to be

quite challenging whereas focus comes naturally to Eights.

• Sevens have a lighter approach to life and generally have a quick nervous, mental energy which contrasts with the more grounded instinctual energy of type Eight.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 51

The Eight• Eights and Nines might possibly be mistyped,

especially, once again, if the wing is particularly strong.

• But Nines are generally conflict avoidant, especially in close personal relationships, whereas Eights often enjoy a good fight.

• Nines struggle with self-assertion whereas self-assertion comes naturally to Eights.

• Nines have to avoid being overwhelmed by others; Eights have to avoid being overwhelming.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 52

The Eight

• 8’s are determined to be self-reliant and free to pursue their own destiny.

• Thus, Eights are natural leaders: honorable, authoritative, and decisive, with a solid, commanding presence.

• They take initiative and make things happen, protecting and providing for the people in their lives while empowering others to stand on their own.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 53

The Eight• They embody solidity and courage, using

their talents and vision to construct a better world for everyone depending on the range of the influence.

• Most of all, Eights are people of vision and action.

• They can take what looks like a useless, broken-down shell of a building and turn it into a beautiful home or office or hospital.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 54

The Eight• Likewise, they see possibilities in people, and they

like to offer incentives and challenges to bring out people's strengths.

• Eights agree with the saying "Give a person a fish and they eat for a day. But teach them how to fish, and they can feed themselves for life." Eights know this is true because they have often taught themselves "how to fish."

• They are self-starters and enjoy constructive activity—building up themselves, others, and their world.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 55

The Eight• Eights occasionally take on big challenges to see if

they can pull off the impossible or turn a hopeless cause into a great success.

• But they generally do not do so unless they are fairly sure that the odds are on their side and that they will have the resources to pull off a "long shot" and make it look easy.

• Others look to them in times of crisis because they know that Eights are willing to make tough decisions and to take the heat if things go wrong.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 56

The Eight• Honor is also important to Eights because their

word is their bond. • When they say "You have my word on this," they

mean it. • Eights want to be respected, and healthy Eights

also extend respect to others, affirming the dignity of whomever they encounter.

• They react strongly when they see someone being taken advantage of or treated in a demeaning or degrading manner.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 57

The Eight• They will step in and stop a fight to protect

the weak or disadvantaged or to "even the score" for those who they feel have been wronged.

• Similarly, Eights would not hesitate to give up their seat on the train to an old or sick person, but they would have to be dragged away bodily if anyone tried to make them give it up without their consent.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 58

The Eight• Nothing much about Eights is half-hearted. • They have powerful feelings and drives and often

have a major impact on the people around them—for good or for ill.

• Eights are more intense and direct than most, and they expect others to meet these qualities as well.

• Indirectness of any kind drives them crazy, and they will keep pushing and raising their energy level until they feel that others have sufficiently responded to them.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 59

The Eight• Many Eights have some kind of a dream for

themselves and their "inner circle," and being the practical-minded people that they are, this often involves money-making projects, business ventures, philanthropy, and the like.

• They may start and run their own business or set someone else up in a situation or simply play the state lottery on a regular basis.

• Not all Eights have a lot of money, but most are looking for some kind of "big break" that would give them the independence, respect, and sense of power that they typically want.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 60

The Eight

• They can also be highly competitive, enjoying the challenges and risks of their own enterprises.

• They are hard-working and pragmatic—"rugged individualists," and wheeler-dealers who are always thinking of a new angle and constantly have a new project underway.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 61

The Eight• Less healthy Eights can become extremely

controlling, self-important, confrontational, and highly territorial.

• They may respond to others by swaggering and being willful, bluffing and "throwing their weight around" in various ways.

• Average Eights are full of bluster and bravado to get people to fall in line with their plans, desires, and although if they encounter resistance, they will try to control and dominate people more openly and aggressively.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 62

The Eight

• Whether they are running a multinational corporation or a family of two, they want it understood that they are firmly and clearly in charge.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 63

The Eight• In brief, Eights want to be self-reliant, to prove their

strength and independence, to be important in their world, to have an impact on their environment, to have the unquestioned loyalty of their inner circle, and to stay in control of their situation.

• Eights do not want to feel weak or vulnerable, to feel out of control, to be dependent on others, to have their decisions or authority questioned, to lose others' backing, or to be surprised by others' unexpected actions.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 64

The Eight• Their Hidden Side• Eights present a tough, independent image to the

world, but under their bravado and layers of armor, there is vulnerability and fear.

• Eights are affected by the reactions of those closest to them far more than they want to let on.

• They often expect that others will dislike or reject them, and so they are profoundly touched, even sentimental, when they feel that someone they care about truly understands them and loves them.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 65

The Eight

• Eights may learn to harden themselves against wanting or expecting tenderness, but they are never entirely successful.

• No matter how tough, even belligerent, they may become, their desire for nurturance and connection can never be put entirely out of consciousness.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 66

The Eight

• Coping strategy:

• As children, Eights often lived in combative environments where weakness was punished and they had to be strong to survive.

• As a result, Eights tend to lead with a strong and potent self-presentation and to hide or deny their own vulnerability.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 67

The Eight• Major traits: • Eights can be impulsive, excessive,

dominant, and protective of others. • They often move into action before thinking

things through, express their anger more easily than the other types, and confront situations more readily than others.

• They seek the truth, but may confuse objective reality or truth with their own personal reality or beliefs.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 68

The Eight• Strengths: Eights tend to be strong, powerful,

commanding, energetic, and intense. • Challenges: They can also have difficulty containing

their own energy and anger, be controlling, and be unaware of their own vulnerabilities.

• Generally, Eights are strong, assertive, resourceful, independent, determined, action-oriented, pragmatic, competitive, straight-talking, shrewd, and insistent.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 69

The Eight

• Eights get into conflicts by being blunt, willful, domineering, forceful, defiant, confrontational, bad-tempered, rageful, cynical, and vengeful.

• At their best, Eights are honorable, heroic, empowering, generous, gentle, constructive, initiating, decisive, and inspiring.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 70

Football is an Eight Paradigm

• On Super Bowl Sunday America celebrates eightness.

• Football is an eight paradigm.

• To begin with, each team wears matching jerseys, so the field is recognizably divided into good guys and bad guys.

• This kind of emotional clarity resembles the mind of an entranced eight.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 71

Football is an Eight Paradigm• Eights live in a hostile world and eights are

fiercely loyal to those they love and want to protect.

• Secondly, eightishness is about power. • "Smash-mouth football," as it is referred to, is

an eight trademark. • Eights look for power in all situations. • In a hostile world you have to know who is

powerful and who isn't.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 72


• Many eights will start fights, verbal or physical, just to find out the strength of their partner.

• If you stand strong in one way or another, you earn an eight's respect.

• If you are weak, no amount of goodness or placating or appeal to authority will endear you to them.

• Eights are fiercely loyal, especially in combat, so they make fine teammates.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 73


• You can count on them to give it their all.

• And in combat, another characteristic shows up: they frequently have extremely high pain thresholds.

• Nobody can play injured like an eight.

• They pride themselves on not showing or giving into weakness or pain.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 74


• Eights, unless they have an unusually strong connection to five, focus their attention outwardly.

• They like their power physical, not mental or artistic, so football suits them well.

• Football teams often develop fierce rivalries. • Eights do, too. • People who oppose them can become objects of

obsessive hatred. (Think of Rush Limbaugh's obsession with the Clintons, especially Hilary).

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 75


• This obsession reduces the enemy to nothing but evil, without nuance, differentiation or redeeming feature.

• The high side of the obsession, of course, is the fanatic loyalty to the team.

• In times of trial, you want an eight on your side!• Eights have an inner need to be strong. • Regardless of the situation, an eight feels an inner

responsibility to be strong enough to handle the situation.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 76


• This quality makes them ultra-responsible at times, and can become unreasonable.

• They can make exorbitant demands on their body, for example, driving themselves to get control of a situation, a business or a relationship.

• All enneagram styles are control strategies, and an Eight prefers the tactic of getting you to surrender.

• Football is pleasing to them because there is no doubt about who won.

• Whoever has the most points is stronger and is in control.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 77


• Sportsmanship trophies are not awarded or wanted. • Just answer this: "Who is number one?"• Eights inflate their presence. • They can fill up a room with their expansive energy. • This expansion is in service of protecting the soft

inner self within. • As with a 280 pound lineman, approach an eight

with gentleness. • Many women with type Eight husbands describe

them as pussy-cats; beneath that bluff exterior is a child in need of protection.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 78


• An Eight friend of one of the Enneagram authors broke into tears several times while reading about eights in an enneagram book. At first he was shocked, but it makes sense--the author didn't attack, he appealed to their inner sense of justice.

• Which leads us back to the Superbrawl. • It is not a brawl. • They play by strict rules and eights like it that

way.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 79


• They want fairness.

• One reason they are hostile is that they see the world as hostile and unfair.

• When eights are entranced they seek vengeance instead of justice, but when healthy they appreciate justice a great deal.

• The referees know all the players want a fair game when the atmosphere is this eightish.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 80


• The Sicilian defense department, or mob as it is usually called, came into being precisely because the immigrants were not getting justice from the police and juridical system.

• Most gangs are eightish in their energy and they see themselves as having to defend themselves against a system rigged against them.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 81


• Teamwork is healthy for eights. When eights are entranced, they turn their power to protect their self-interest.

• The glory hog who doesn't help the team doesn't last long in football and everyone connected with the game admires modesty, especially among the talented who could play more for themselves.

• Giving up one's body for the team is considered a highly virtuous act.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 82

Strategy 8 - Confrontational

• The Angry Eight

• Ty Cobb was an eight. (Self-preservation subtype)

• In the movie he has all the degenerate characteristics of an unhealthy eight and only several of the redeeming virtues.

• Cobb played baseball as thought it were war.

• That's a hallmark of an eight.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 83


• Eights live in a world in which hostility is to be expected and is to be dealt with forthrightly.

• In Cobb's life that meant hurting whomever he could on the base paths, pistol-whipping a man to death, amassing wealth and probably shooting his own father.

• The movie has consistent psychological and physical violence and is vulgar throughout.

• Many eights are vulgar.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 84


• One author said, “I'll never forget the fine Christian woman married to a minister who asked me if she were an eight.

• I asked if she, although sweet and proper as a minister's wife must be, ever used profanity.

• She burst out laughing and told me several stories of her bursts of profanity.

• Profanity and vulgarity are the kinds of language we all use when we're angry.”

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 85


• Unhealthy Eights are always angry so they use the vocabulary of rage.

• Eights' anger is in defense of an unacknowledged inner softness.

• They feel they can't share their inner softness, so they frequently take care of the small and helpless among us.

• Even Cobb, who is portrayed as systematically unashamedly vicious, took care of one of his old baseball buddies who had a drinking problem.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 86


• You'll notice how Cobb didn't like any acknowledgment of his weaknesses.

• He was furious that he had become impotent, he hated walking with a cane and when he went to the Cooperstown Hall of Fame induction, he accepted help surreptitiously so as not to be noticed as having any need.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 87


• Cobb tried, feebly, to make friends the way unhealthy eights do.

• They put pressure on the person, and if the person fights back, then the eight can trust.

• If the person does not fight back, then they are not to be trusted.

• In the movie, whenever the wimpy sportswriter would muster his courage and fight back, Cobb would be appreciative. That's in character for an eight.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 88


• In a really hostile world, you want strong people with you -- that's the thinking of an eight.

• When eights are angry, they reduce enemies to a cartoon caricature.

• When desiring sex, Cobb wanted sex and conquest, not intimacy.

• When he wants sex, he wants it for proof of his sexual power, so he reduces the women to certain vulgar terms.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 89


• In contemporary times, Rush Limbaugh, an eight, referred to Hilary Clinton (on the David Letterman show) as looking "like a hood ornament on a Pontiac."

• Rush doesn't disguise his wholehearted dislike, perhaps even hatred, for Hilary, so he sees her as a cartoon, in two dimensions.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 90


• Rage is blind, and eights often cannot see when they get angry.

• Some eights cannot hear when they get angry.

• They seem to be physically deaf. • This prevents them from getting feedback in a

relationship if anger occurs. • But after all, one doesn't dialogue with an

enemy, one attacks.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 91


• If this relationship is intellectual or social, one tries mightily to convince while not listening to the other side at all.

• However, a display of force, either physical or mental, will get the eight's attention.

• Then you can talk to them.

• They can listen if force accompanies your words.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 92


• Cobb hated everyone who was different: Jews, Catholics, Blacks, Italians (always referred to as dagos) - the list was rather comprehensive.

• Unhealthy eights have lot of enemies and make no bones about it.

• Eights have no time for sham. • Cobb put it this way: "Life is too short for

diplomacy." • They prefer confrontation. • Their approach is "Don't talk them into it, just force

them."

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 93


• When you listen to Limbaugh, you get that same clarity produced by selectivity and oversimplification.

• Things must be changed ("The Way Things Ought to Be.") and the bad people are in control, let's throw the bums out. Part of the reason eights appear to be so honest is that they tend to be simple.

• They reduce all grays to black and white. • You're an enemy or you're a friend. • There are no middle areas.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 94


• Eights would like to issue uniforms to everyone so it is clear who is on their side and who is on the other side!

• John Wayne is a famous eight and his movies were never complex psychological teasers.

• It was bad vs good and John was not about to endure bad guys surviving.

Attitudes 2007 LWBC 09-23-2007 95


• Cobb is a drastically unhealthy eight. Healthy eights are wonderful friends --they are loyal and protective.

• Eights populate a lot of social action community work.

• They do not allow injustice and will work endlessly to see justice done.

• They are also expansive, generous and energetic and make wonderful party friends!

Attitudes and the Spiritual Life-033 09-23-07

Documents

Transcript of Attitudes and the Spiritual Life-033 09-23-07