Nine Sapiens: Biology and Evolution of Personality Types (eBook)

INTRODUCTION

This book is the bastard child of an improbable romance between two worlds that rarely converse: recent advances in Science on the biological basis of behavior, and a personality model called the Enneagram. Science, a very composed and educated lady, and the Enneagram, a long-haired drifter, committed to personal development and other immaterial things.

The authors were friends of both, and we were convinced that, if not made for each other, they could at least get along very well. This is how these two, who perhaps would never have even met, were struck by the arrows of the winged son of Venus.

It all started as an arranged date, which both were very hesitant to attend. The Enneagram told us: “I don’t think this relationship will work. She is too rigid, cerebral, everything has to be under control, and I need my freedom...why do you insist on introducing me to her?”

And Science: “What do I have to do with that New Age hippie and his messy life? A guy who’s more interested in making up stories than finding the truth? What could he possibly contribute to me?”

We had a hard time convincing them to attend the meeting. Our main argument for Science was the following: “We know that you have already had many dates with other personality models, and that you like the factorials very much1. But deep down, you know that while they are very mathematical and orderly, they are also very superficial. Give the Enneagram a chance. In spite of its dark origin and fantasy mind, it has a lot to contribute. You will be surprised to hear it, for you will find many coincidences between what he has to say and what you have already discovered.”

And we said to the Enneagram: “You don’t know what you’re missing. She has many ideas that will interest you and that could even change your perception of yourself. If you listen to her, we are sure that you will achieve an even more realistic vision of who you are, and a more solid base to fulfill your purpose of development. You have nothing to lose!”

This is how the first date happened. And at the risk of betraying our confidentiality agreement, we transcribe here what we remember from that first encounter.

Science: Hello, Enneagram. I’ve heard the craziest things about you. Tell me the truth about yourself.

Enneagram: Truth? My thing is not so much about truths, but about falsehoods. It is about discovering the false Ego and freeing the essence.

Science: I don’t understand you, but your wordplay is interesting. You are enigmatic. What is your object of study?

Enneagram: The human being.

Science: Too broad. You have to be more specific.

Enneagram: What about “behavior”? Would that do?

Science: Still broad, but it works for now. If you like, I can tell you what I know about human behavior. And then you tell me what you know.

Enneagram: But…I don’t really need you to tell me anything, for I don’t have any questions, I have answers. Besides, the questions are always the same.

Science: Of course the questions may be the same, but not the answers! The answers are always changing. There are better ones today than yesterday, and today’s may not be as good as tomorrow’s!

Enneagram: I don’t know if I would be interested in anything you have to say. My answers come from very far away.

Science: Hmm…where do your answers come from?

Enneagram: Well, I don’t really know. My origin is lost in the beginning of times.

Science: Then you may be interested in knowing what I know about the origin of the behavior. And I can tell you exactly where I get my information from. Are you interested?

And then, oddly enough, the Enneagram remained silent for a moment and with a small flirtatious smile on his lips, he winked in agreement. Science and the Enneagram walked to a new bridge standing at the end of a wall. The waters of the river of knowledge below ran unstoppable, generating waves, foam, and an unmistakable sound of water and stones. From the bridge could be seen an intricate complex of buildings, large, small, old and new. Some buildings were still under construction, and all of them were connected to one another through countless roads and bridges.

They stopped at the highest part of the bridge.

Enneagram: You will not come to me with “if the river makes a noise...”2

Science: Of course not, that is already evident. What I want to show you are the three buildings where the research teams that have produced the ideas that I will discuss with you have been working for the past 20 years.

Enneagram: But…you can see many different buildings from here.

Science: Indeed, there are many. I want to draw your attention to three of them. See that new building in front of that complex, surrounded by woods, and roads interconnecting them?

Enneagram: Yes, it is a peculiar set. The buildings are quite different from one another.

Science: That’s right. The new building is for Behavioral Genetics. You will see that there are some closer and others farther away. There is that of Neuroscience, that of Genetics, with its north wing called Epigenetics, that of Ethology, and that of Psychology. A little farther on is the Mathematics and Statistics complex, which has bridges that connect it to almost all the others. The largest is the Biology complex, which gives its name to this whole section of the campus. In the neighboring section you can see the buildings of Anthropology, Sociology, Paleontology, Archaeology. And that very old one, surrounded by ivy, is the Philosophy building.

Enneagram: Wow, these are all very large buildings.

Science: Of course. And all have collaborated, for a long time, in the effort to understand human behavior. Today I want to tell you about all the findings in Neuroscience and Genetics.

Enneagram: I understand. And the third building?

Science: The third is that little one, connected to the Psychology building. It is called Evolutionary Psychology. The team working in that building seeks to understand psychological traits and personality as mechanisms of adaptation to the environment, governed by the laws of Natural Selection. They do not like to be confused with Developmental Psychology, which is another small building that cannot be seen from here. That one deals with the study of the psychological development of individual human beings, from childhood onwards.

Enneagram: I see that the Evolutionary Psychology building has several buildings connected to it as well. There are some small ones that even have bridges.

Science: Yes, everything connects with everything. The little ones over there are those of Game Theory and Artificial Intelligence. A little farther is that of Zoology. And that big one you already know.

Enneagram: I see.

Science: These are the sources of the ideas we will be talking about.

When they got tired of walking, they stopped at a bar. After a long chat, a fruit juice for Science and a couple of glasses of wine for Enneagram, he told her about the nine personality types. Science looked animated, and as she listened to Enneagram, she kept connecting the dots between new and old ideas inside her head. When he finished talking, she stated her comments in the form of questions.

Science: What you are proposing raises some doubts. I invite you to work together to answer four questions.

First, is it possible to relate what you call Personality Types to behavioral patterns already identified by other branches of Science?

Second, is it possible to identify “biological mechanisms” that could explain the basis of each type? Which ones?

Third, if these mechanisms exist, would this imply that your nine types would be partly hereditary?

And finally, if they are inherited, can we trace their evolution over time? Do they have an adaptive purpose? When would they have appeared?

Enneagram: I confess that I feel excited. These are questions that I consider important to supplement what I already know. What is more, I am beginning to have my own hypotheses.

Science: Good. To work then. And if something doesn’t make sense to you, we continue to investigate. The beauty of this is that we never get to sit on our laurel wreath. We are always checking whether what we held as true yesterday, can still be considered as valid today. Every time something new is discovered, in any of the buildings we saw today or even some that are still under construction, all of our convictions could be changed. It is part of the game.

Science and the Enneagram left the bar and sat down under the trees, ready, for the first time, to have a real dialogue.

What’s so sexy about this model?

The model known as the Enneagram was outlined by Oscar Ichazo (1931–2020).3 This Bolivian philosopher made a synthesis between Neoplatonic writings and texts taken from different religious traditions, to substantiate his teachings on what he called the “nine passions” of humankind. He coupled his model with a graphical representation, a symbol he had borrowed from George Gurdjieff (1866–1949), a self-proclaimed spiritual teacher of Armenian origin.

This model, still incipient, was taken by the Chilean psychiatrist Claudio Naranjo (1932–2019), and transformed into a personality typology....