No One Can Agree What Enneagram Subtypes Are - Here's Why

Over the last several years, the subject of the subtypes has risen as one of the hottest topics in the Enneagram community. For the uninitiated, the subtypes offer a much more detailed view of nine basic personality styles. Each of the nine Enneagram types has three “subtypes” so instead of nine, you now have 27 personality profiles to choose from. 

To understand the subtypes, you must first understand the three core instincts that Enneagram focuses on. These instincts (or evolutionary adaptations) combined with the Enneagram type produce the subtype.  

The three instincts have various names, but the most common are: 

• Self-Preservation
• Social
• Sexual (or One to One)

Most Enneagram schools of thought propose that you have all three instincts, but one of them is dominant, one is “blind” or neglected, and the third is somewhere in the middle.  The instincts could be in any order and might even change throughout your life.  It’s the dominant instinct that has the most influence, which is why someone might describe themselves as a “Social One” or a “Sexual Six.” 

While the subtypes offer a more precise way of understanding yourself and others, they also usher in great confusion. There are three main schools of thought about the subtypes, and they all land in distinctly different places. 

Let’s explore the three main approaches, where they came from, and how they are different.

The Naranjo Approach (codified by Beatrice Chestnut)

Claudio Naranjo, who is considered one of the original sources for the Enneagram of Personality, developed the 27 instinctual-based subtypes and taught them in his training for decades. 

The Narrative Enneagram School, founded by Helen Palmer and David Daniels in 1988, also adopted this approach. Many of the early Enneagram teachers learned the subtypes this way. 

In 2013, Enneagram teacher and Naranjo student Beatrice Chestnut published the highly influential book The Complete Enneagram: 27 Paths to Greater Self-Knowledge. Based on the teachings of Naranjo, this book offers very detailed descriptions of the 27 subtype personality profiles as well as different personal growth paths for each of the 27 subtypes.

When I asked what inspired her to write The Complete Enneagram, Chestnut said, “I never set out to study the subtypes. But in 2004, when Claudio Naranjo presented on the topic at the International Enneagram Conference, I was really surprised by the way he described the 27 personality profiles. He added so much more detail and information to what I had heard described before.”

So what is the Naranjo / Chestnut approach to subtypes? Here are the highlights:

Terminology: Self-Preservation, Social, and Sexual (also called One-to-One or Intimate).

How the subtype forms: The dominant Enneagram type mixes in a complex, alchemical way with the instinct to become the subtype. Naranjo learned the basic subtype concepts from Oscar Ichazo and refined the descriptions based on his own observations and his deep knowledge and background encompassing a vast range of subjects from Western psychology to Eastern philosophy. This is what brought us the Naranjo subtype theory we have today.

Unique in that: This body of knowledge describes very different behavioral patterns and growth paths for the three varieties of each type. It offers the most precision in describing each of the subtypes, making it easier for many people to “find” themselves.

This approach also outlines each “countertype.” This is where one instinct type from each group of three doesn’t match the stereotypical descriptions of that Enneagram type. For example, a Sexual Five is full of emotions and romantic idealism, and thus doesn’t look much like the typically detached and critical-thinking Five.  

Countertypes explain why it can be so hard to type some people – they may go against their type description or look like another type altogether.

Yes, it’s complicated. But Chestnut’s detailed descriptions are fascinating and, for many, are what bring the subtypes to life.

The Riso/Hudson Path: Jesuit-Inspired Beginnings

Don Riso and Russ Hudson, two of the first and most well-known Enneagram authors, didn’t discuss how instincts cause variation in the nine types in their earlier books and teachings. Instead, they focused on the “wings” (the two types sitting on the sides of your type). 

But in 1999, in their book The Wisdom of the Enneagram, they introduced the three instincts and discussed how they cause variations in the nine main types. 

Their approach is different from Naranjo’s in that they focus on the instincts independently of how they mix with the primary type.  For example, they say that:

• All self-preservation types are concerned with survival and wellbeing, focusing on things like safety, health and comfort, resources, home, domesticity and so forth.
• All social types are concerned with cooperation and community, focusing on things like understanding the group and their place in it, hierarchies, bonding, affiliating and contributing.
• All sexual types are concerned with intimacy and intensity, focusing on things like excitement, attraction, impulse to procreate, competition and impact. 

Here are the highlights of the Riso/ Hudson approach:

Terminology: Self-Preservation, Social/Adaptative,  Attracting/Sexual

How the subtype (instinctual variant) forms: The instinct causes a major drive and focus. The Enneagram type adds a worldview and another layer of motivation and heavily impacts how one goes about getting the instinctual needs met. 

For example, the Social Type Six would be mainly focused on cooperation and community due to the Social instinctual bias. This focus would then be expressed through the Type Six worldview that “the world is an uncertain and dangerous place.” The result would be a person who looks to friends and allies for support and attempts to create bonds with others. The title for this type in the Riso/Hudson literature is “Generating Support.”

Unique in that: The instincts stand alone and operate in multiple aspects of a person’s life. The Enneagram type influences how the instincts play out and which needs get met. 

The Sikora Approach

Mario Sikora was an early pioneer who brought Enneagram into the business world. He saw the importance of the instincts and agreed with Riso and Hudson that they were prior to, and separate from, type. But he was concerned with the accuracy of the word “instinct.” 

“I was in a training session with a client who had a Masters degree in the philosophy of science, and he corrected me saying ‘There aren’t three instincts. That’s not really how biology works. It is much more complicated than that,’” Sikoro explains. 

Rather than seeing three distinct instincts, he began to think in terms of three clusters or domains of "evolutionary adaptations." And he began cataloging behaviors that aligned with these domains. He also developed the names and descriptions of his 27 subtypes based on his observations and chose verbs rather than nouns for their names because he wanted to emphasize that these are things people do, rather than what they are. He chose the names Preserving, Navigating and Transmitting.

Using the name “sexual” for one of the three instinctual bias groups would obviously be problematic in business, but his reason for changing it was actually more complex than that. “When I changed the terminology, it was not just to accommodate the corporate world or to be different, but rather to capture the broader scope of what I was seeing,” he says. Thus, he expanded the concept to include things like leaving a legacy, bringing passion and intensity, having an impact, and deeply penetrating hearts and minds.  

Highlights of the Sikora approach:

Terminology:  Replaces the concept of “instinct” with “evolutionary adaptations” and labels his three Instinctual Biases:  Preserving, Navigating and Transmitting.

How the subtype forms: Like Riso/ Hudson, Sikora says the adaptations operate independently from the main Enneagram type. The dominance of one adaptation more than the others causes an instinctual bias and determines a person’s core values. The main Enneagram type structure operates as a strategy for fulfillment.

For example, Sikora describes the fulfillment strategy of Type 7s as “striving to feel excited” so the Transmitting (or Sexual) Type 7 takes the evolutionary drive to attract and bond and tries to meet that drive through a strategy based on excitement. This Transmitting (Sexual)  Type 7 is described as among the most active and seemingly extraverted of the 27 profiles, often like a ball of energy, always moving, talking, or thinking about something they could be doing.

Unique in that: Sikora has a unique way of looking at the “stacking” or the relative importance of each of the instincts for a person. He considers your most dominant instinctual bias your “zone of enthusiasm,” the second one is your “zone of inner conflict,” and the third is your “zone of avoidance.” He believes that the drives always follow a particular order, or "pattern of expression," so your instinctual bias pattern can only be one of the following: 

• Preserving-Navigating-Transmitting
• Navigating-Transmitting-Preserving
• Transmitting-Preserving-Navigating

Because the order of importance of your adaptive drives (or instincts) is fixed, the Sikora school of thought offers three, rather than six, options for how the instincts play out.

For example, a Self-Preservation Type Four will always have a secondary instinct as Social/Navigating  and a blind or repressed Sexual/Transmitting instinct.

Final thoughts

Which is the right way of looking at subtypes? It depends on who you ask. As an Enneagram teacher, I’ve been using the Naranjo approach (codified by Beatrice Chestnut) for years, and it has successfully helped thousands of people find their type. I find the level of detail in this approach extremely useful. 

But whichever subtype theory you follow, understanding the concept of subtypes is critical in your Enneagram journey. Learning about subtypes, possibly more than almost any other aspect of the Enneagram, is a powerful tool for self-growth and application in the real world. The subtypes offer precision in finding yourself and help chart a path for growth in a way that is accessible and unique.