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"... if an idea is true it belongs equally to all those capable of understanding it; if it is false there is no reason to be proud of having thought it. A true idea cannot be 'new', since truth is not a product of the human mind; the truth exists independently of ourselves, and it is for us simply to comprehend it; outside of this knowledge there can be nothing but error ..." Rene Guenon
Various claims have been made concerning the history of the Enneagram of Personality. Many of these claims are more based on speculation than verifiable facts.From the perspective that the metaphysical principles of the Enneagram figure are both instrinsic to and observable within all dynamic processes (including human personality) there isn't, strictly speaking, a 'history' of it as such. There is instead only a history of how human understanding of it has emerged and developed.
Whatever the historical origins of the Enneagram of Personality may actually be - and how it is now understood - its fundamental aspects are already found in various ancient traditions of metaphysical and spiritual wisdom.
Until a few years ago it was often claimed that the essentials of the Enneagram of Personality had originally been discovered and taught within the Sufi groups of the Islamic religion.Such claims for the Enneagram's Sufi origins have been increasingly challenged and even denied and are no longer made so confidently. Whilst some Sufi teachers have denied that the Enneagram has ever been part of their tradition, some other Sufi teachers have made claims for it being found in the tradition - though not necessarily in the ways it is now generally taught. As there are various Sufi groups it is possible that some form of the Enneagram has been taught in some groups but is not known in other groups.
Whatever any historical connection there may be with Sufism there is no doubt that much of the way the Enneagram is now taught owes much to traditional Sufi ideas on the spiritual transformation of human personality. Many of these ideas, however, can also be found in other religious and spiritual traditions - especially some schools of Buddhism, Judaism (especially in the Kabballah) and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Within these traditions systems of spiritual thought and practice can be found that have a remarkable similarity to the modern Enneagram.
One of the principal sources for our modern understanding of the Enneagram was Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (c. 1870 - 1949). Gurdjieff was of Greek-Armenian parentage and grew up in the culturally Armenian region of modern Russia (and is, not really correctly, usually referred to as being Russian).As a young man Gurdjieff travelled extensively throughout Eastern Europe and parts of Asia studying various schools of spiritual thought. He developed an approach to personality transformation based on these influences which he called the Fourth Way and eventually established the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man near Paris. There are still many Fourth Way groups in existence today.
In his well-known book, Meetings With Remarkable Men, Gurdjieff recounted his meetings with the Naqshbandi order of Sufis and says that this is where he learned of the Enneagram's nine-ponted geometric figure. There does not seem to be any verifiable evidence for the Enneagram figure before the writings of Gurdjieff and his students. There are some indications that Gurdjieff may have also received some of his understanding of the Enneagram from the esoteric Christian teachings of the Orthodox monasteries on Mount Athos in the north-east region of Greece.
Although the writings of Gurdjieff and his followers contain many (often highly esoteric) ideas regarding the significance of the Enneagram figure - as well as teachings on the three centres of intelligence, false personality and essence that appear to mostly derive from Sufi influence - there does not appear to be any clear evidence that Gurdjieff ever taught the Enneagram as a model of nine ego-personality types.
The first definite knowledge of the Enneagram as a form of personality typology is found in the teachings of Oscar Ichazo (b. 1931). Ichazo claims that he came to his understanding of the Enneagram in the 1950s through a process of direct revelation or intuition.Ichazo's claim is a matter of dispute. Some have suggested that Ichazo originally learnt the basics of the Enneagram from a Sufi source but others have suggested that he actually learnt it from Gurdjieff or one of his followers.
Whatever the facts may be, it is Ichazo who is generally recognised as being the principal source for the contemporary Enneagram of Personality. As far as it is possible to know, Ichazo must be credited with identifying the correct placement of the nine Ego-Fixations and their nine corresponding Passions (the two primary aspects of the personality types) on the nine points of the Enneagram figure.
Originally from Bolivia, Ichazo is the founder of the Arica School (also called the Arica Institute) which has its headquarters in the United States. In the late 1960s Ichazo taught an extensive program of psychological development in the town of Arica in Chile. This program included esoteric teachings on aspects of the Enneagram (or the 'Enneagon' as Ichazo originally termed the figure).
One of the participants in Ichazo's Arica program was Dr Claudio Naranjo. Naranjo, originally from Chile, is both a psychiatrist and prominent Gestalt therapist. Early in his career his specialist areas of research were personality development and personality typologies. He also had a significant personal background in Gurdjieff's teachings. At the time that he studied with Ichazo he was a teacher at the Esalen Institute in California. On his return to Esalen - and also in Berkeley near San Francisco - Naranjo began teaching an understanding of the Enneagram strongly focused on its affinities with the diagnostic classifications of personality issues in psychiatry and clinical psychology. It was mostly from these first teaching programs of Naranjo that the Enneagram began its emergence into common awareness.Among Naranjo's early students who have since made their own significant contribution to the Enneagram's development are A.H. Almaas, Bob Ochs, Sandra Maitri, Helen Palmer and Kathleen Speeth.
One of the more valuable and original contributions to the modern development of the Enneagram has been made by A.H. Almaas (the pen-name of A-Hameed Ali). Originally from Kuwait and raised in the Sufi tradition, Almaas established the Ridhwan Institute in the United States. The principal focus of his psychospiritual teaching - called the Diamond Approach - is on the development of essence. The Enneagram remains an important aspect of his teaching.
Bob Ochs, a Jesuit priest and student of Naranjo, began teaching the Enneagram under Naranjo's supervision at Loyola University, a Jesuit university in Chicago. Among Ochs's students were Patrick O'Leary and Jerome Wagner (both Jesuit students at the time) who have also become prominent Enneagram teachers.The Enneagram teaching of another Jesuit priest in Chicago that has been of considerable influence is that of Paul Robb, the founder of the Institute for Spiritual Leadership.
From these and other Jesuits in the early 1970s Enneagram programs spread into numerous Roman Catholic retreat and spirituality centres in North America. The surge of the modern popularity of the Enneagram came mostly from this development.
Another Jesuit priest (and a former student of Ochs), Tad Dunne, first taught the Enneagram to Don Richard Riso (himself a Jesuit student at the time).
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Most current Enneagram teachers have studied with one or more of the people mentioned in this article. Even though some distinct 'schools' of Enneagram teaching have developed over the years the principal aspects of how it is understood have essentially remained constant.
Understanding of the Enneagram of Personality, however, continues to be in a dynamic process of development and refinement offering new and deeper insights into its potential for healing and transforming human personality.
In 1994 an important milestone in the Enneagram's development and recognition was the First International Enneagram Conference held at Stanford University in California. The conference was co-sponsored by the university's Department of Psychiatry and attended by around 1,400 people. Following this conference the International Enneagram Association was established.
Responses to this article are invited.
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