Gut center
Obsessive
Thinking about something or doing something, too much or all the time. (Cambridge Dictionary)
The obsessiveness of gut types is mostly related to keeping their environment and positions undisturbed. The energy is spent excessively on activities or thoughts that do not threaten to cause a change or actively keep things unchanged.
Grounded
- well balanced and sensible (Oxford Languages)
- undisturbed. unbothered. logical. serene. down-to-earth.
- mentally and emotionally stable (Cambridge Dictionary)
Being grounded also refers to an energy contained in the body, giving the sensation of having a lower center of gravity: rooted in the ground.
Most 9s and 8s (1s to a lesser degree) appear as grounded to an external observer but they don’t always feel grounded (from their own point of view).
Guilt
A feeling of worry or unhappiness that you have because you have done something wrong, such as causing harm to another person. (Cambridge Dictionary)
Resentment (type 1)
- bitter indignation at having been treated unfairly. (Oxford languages)
- a feeling of anger because you have been forced to accept something that you do not like. (Cambridge Dictionary)
- a feeling of indignant displeasure or persistent ill will at something regarded as a wrong, insult, or injury. (Merriam-Webster)
Tunnel vision (type 1)
Focus on cues that are consistent with one’s opinion and filter out cues that are inconsistent with one’s viewpoint. (Wikipedia)
Disillusionment (type 9)
A feeling of disappointment resulting from the discovery that something is not as good as one believed it to be. (Oxford Languages)
Disillusionment also has a spiritual meaning that is hard to explain.
Stubborn (type 9)
Having or showing dogged determination not to change one’s attitude or position on something, especially despite good arguments or reasons to do so. (Oxford Languages)
Non-conformist (type 9)
The meaning in ordinary language is: a person who does not conform to prevailing ideas or practices in their behaviour or views. (Oxford Languages)
This phrase also has an official definition for the Enneagram: disagreeing with the world.
I understand it as “disapproving / disliking aspects of prevailing ideas or practices but without a desire to change them or go further.“. 9s tend to focus their discontentment on prevailing ideas and practices that arguably deserve disapprobation. It tends to filter out the rest. It’s like turning on the TV only to comment angrily that it is dumb.
A broader meaning such as “eccentric” or “free-minded individual” does not (especially) apply to type 9.
Passive-aggressive (type 9)
Passive resistance with an underlying feeling of anger and muted aggression.
In psychology, passive-aggressive has multiple meanings and can refer to something different from the passive resistance of 9s. For this reason, I prefer “passive resistance” to “passive-aggressive”.
Head center
Hypervigilance
Hypervigilance is a state of increased alertness. If you’re in a state of hypervigilance, you’re extremely sensitive to your surroundings. It can make you feel like you’re alert to any hidden dangers, whether from other people or the environment.(Healthline)
Authoritative
- Positive connotation: Substantiated or supported by documentary evidence and accepted by most authorities in a field. (Thesaurus)
- Negative connotation: having an air of authority; accustomed to exercising authority; positive; peremptory; dictatorial
Both connotations apply to mind types.
A non-mind type can be authoritative in the sense of being knowledgeable and connected to other knowledgeable persons. What is specific to mind types is a concern for authoritativeness. Sometimes, it is making the chain of authority highlighted and explicit. But often, a head type tends to make up authoritativeness as a way of self-reassurance, falsely believing to be aligned with a recognized authority.
Authority can have the simplest meaning of suggesting what to do or where to go practically as in “having a natural authority”.
Paranoia
- Paranoia is thinking and feeling like you are being threatened in some way, even if there is no evidence, or very little evidence, that you are. (Mind)
- Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety, suspicion, or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself (i.e. “Everyone is out to get me”). (Wikipedia)
Heart center
Shame
- a painful feeling that’s a mix of regret, self-hate, and dishonour. (Vocabulary.com)
- a condition of humiliating disgrace or disrepute (Merriam Webster)
Shame and guilt are semantically close.
The guilt of gut types is related to wrongdoings impacting the survival of others by a tangible fault. The feeling is close to anger.
The shame of heart types is related to imagined impacts on the feelings of others, other’s perception of one’s worth or about matching the expectations of someone or the society. The mood is close to sadness, self-hatred, or regret.
Neediness
- the quality of needing attention and affection and reassurance to a marked degree (Vocabulary.com)
- Someone who wants your attention, they want you to show them affection and love all the time. It is not necessarily a bad thing although it may become annoying, depending on how you look at things. (Urban Dictionary)
Eli Jaxon Bear puts “neediness” and “hysteria” forward for heart types. The definition is problematic. I’d say that a heart type is specifically needy for:
- attention, praise, compliments
- emotionnal nurturing, love
- someone or something bringing happiness
Self-absorbed (type 4)
Preoccupied with one’s own feelings, interests, or situation. (Oxford Languages)
This definition is vague. For type 4, it might be something like an excessive analysis of the cause of one’s disappointment and drowning into one’s negative feelings related to it, ending up cut-off from anything else. This definition lies at the core of the controversial understanding of type 4.
Notes
I googled the terms and chose the definitions that seemed the most relevant to me. For most terms, the meaning was rather consensual. The terms varying in meaning were:
- shame: some definitions make it indistiguishable from guilt.
- self-absorbed
- neediness
- authoritative: the positive and negative connotations yield very different meanings.
Enneagram Elements 