The enneagram typology: A tool for understanding and counseling sex addicts

Abstract

The enneagram, an ancient spiritual tradition that has been incorporated into contemporary psychology, describes nine personality types, each of which has a chief feature-“fixation” or placement of attention-that becomes a person's preoccupation, habit, and method of avoidance as well as an access point for spiritual growth. The enneagram is unique among personality typologies in setting out well-defined directions for personal growth and recovery. Thirty-three sex addicts (18 men, 15 women), with a mean of 6.8 years in recovery, were interviewed and typed; 48% were also in recovery from chemical dependency, for a mean of 11.8 years. This article describes the chief characteristics of each enneagram type, how the fixation was used to justify the addictive behavior, the effect of the fixation on the recovery process, and suggestions for addiction counselors working with each type. Addicts of Type 1-the perfectionist-were overrepresented among these long-time recovering addicts, and Type 8-the boss-was overrepresented among women sex addicts in the sample. Hypotheses are presented for these findings. In addition, we hypothesize that certain enneagram types gravitate to particular forms of expression of their addiction.