MBTI and the Enneagram

Recently, a friend of mine has been super into a personality test called MBTI. If I describe it as that thing where your personality gets boiled down to four letters of the alphabet like “ENFP,” some of you might have taken it before.

I took an online test myself, and I ended up thinking it was surprisingly spot-on.

To be honest, I can’t shake the feeling that it’s probably just the Barnum effect, but if you treat it as a framework for analyzing character archetypes, it might actually be pretty useful. In fact, there’s even a fascinating site called the Character Personality Test Threads Summary Wiki.

It compiles the results of discussions on 2channel about “what results this character would get if they took a personality test,” and the wiki covers both MBTI and the Enneagram.

Apparently, the two undisputed titans of personality typing right now are the 16-type tests (MBTI knockoffs) and the Enneagram. So in this post, I’ve jotted down what I researched and what I thought about these two personality tests.

I hold absolutely no qualifications in psychology, psychoanalysis, or anything of the sort. Everything written in this article is merely a summary of things I looked up online and in books, and I accept no liability whatsoever for any inconvenience or harm caused by reading this post. Please do not take any of this as gospel.

It might actually be better to take the test before knowing what it’s all about, so you don’t have any preconceptions. If you’d like to try typing yourself, feel free to check these out:

16-type test: 16Personalities

Enneagram: Japan Enneagram Association

16-Type Tests (MBTI Knockoffs)#

This type of assessment is often referred to as MBTI, but since that’s a registered trademark, in this article I’ll refer to it from here on out as the “16-type” test. By the way, MBTI stands for Myers–Briggs Type Indicator, a diagnostic test developed in 1962 by Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers.

The results are divided into 2 possibilities × 4 elements = 16 types. Each of the 4 dimensions is represented by a letter of the alphabet, which are combined to produce a result like “INTJ” or “ESFP.”

Interest	Information Processing	Decisions	Attitude Toward Outer World
E: Extraverted	S: Sensing	T: Thinking	J: Judging
I: Introverted	N: Intuitive	F: Feeling	P: Perceiving

Overview of Each Element#

Here’s an ultra-simple summary of what each element represents. It might even work as a quick four-question personality quiz.

Interest (Extroverted / Introverted)#

The orientation of your focus and interest.

If your vibe is “I’m gonna conquer every single anime airing this season!”, you’re probably Extraverted. If it’s “I’m gonna rewatch this classic old anime for the 100th time!”, you’re probably Introverted.

Information Processing (Sensing / iNtuition)#

How you perceive things. To put it very roughly: do you focus on the micro view, or the macro view?

If you’re a single-stan (tan-oshi, devoted to one favorite character), you’re probably Sensing. If you’re a group-stan (hako-oshi, loving the entire cast as a whole), you’re probably Intuitive.

Decisions (Thinking / Feeling)#

How you make judgments. Quite literally: do you prioritize logic and thinking, or emotions and feeling?

Attitude Toward the Outer World (Judging / Perceiving)#

Which function you place more emphasis on: taking in information from the outside world, or making judgments about it.

If you’re the type to meticulously map out a plan, you’re probably Judging. If you’re the type to deliberately avoid making plans, you’re probably Perceiving.

My Impressions#

Since this test apparently derives from Jungian psychology in the first place, it feels like it has some kind of authority behind it.

By the Way, Mine Was…#

I got INTP. Apparently, it’s the textbook “Researcher/Logician” type: your mind constantly overflows with ideas that you never actually get around to putting into action, and you love utterly dismantling opponents in arguments. Honestly, that does feel pretty accurate.

According to the Character Personality Test Threads Summary Wiki, some characters who seem to share the same type include:

Shion Ogura (The Demon Girl Next Door)
Gray Wolf (Kemono Friends)

…and so on. I definitely feel a sense of kinship with those two.

The Enneagram#

The Enneagram is said to have been developed in the 1950s by a spiritual teacher named Oscar Ichazo.

In its most basic form, the assessment divides personality into 9 types, numbered 1 through 9.

Fundamentally, this typology is rooted in “fixations” (toroware)—that is, core fears imprinted during childhood.

Each type carries a fixation like the following:

Type	Fixation
1	I must be right.
2	I must be needed.
3	I must succeed.
4	I must be extraordinary.
5	I must be competent.
6	I must follow the rules.
7	I must avoid pain.
8	I must win.
9	I must avoid hassle.

For example, for a Type 5, the greatest fear is feeling “I am helpless.” As a result, tendencies arise such as wanting to be competent (and wanting to be seen that way by those around them), or obsessively hoarding knowledge and resources.

Furthermore, this “fixation” is not only the state one fears most for oneself, but apparently also turns into the aggression one directs toward others when one’s mental state deteriorates. In other words, it’s the exact reverse of the Golden Rule (“do unto others as you would have them do unto you”)—you end up doing to others the very thing you would hate most to experience yourself.

For instance, a Type 5 who doesn’t want others to view them as incompetent will, when directing aggression at someone else, act in ways that treat the other person as incompetent or make them feel inadequate. When thinking through character motivations and psychology, typing via the Enneagram might actually be incredibly handy.

In the Enneagram, you aren’t just typed with a simple “You are Type 5”; you can also combine numbers for a much more detailed assessment. Let’s look at those below as well.

Enneagram with Wings#

In the version with wings, you take whichever of the two adjacent numbers flanking your baseline type (for Type 9, either 8 or 1) fits you better, and append it to your result.

For example, if your base type is Type 5, you are further designated as either “5w4” or “5w6.” If your Type 4 traits are stronger, you become a “5w4”; if your Type 6 traits are stronger, you become a “5w6.”

This makes a much more nuanced breakdown possible, even within the same type. As an example, comparing the traits of “5w4” and “5w6” apparently looks something like this:

5w4	5w6
The Iconoclast	The Problem Solver
Revolutionary	Conservative
Art	Science
Fantasy nerd	Sci-fi nerd
Doesn’t see the box	Tries to think outside the box

There are 18 possible combinations in total, and writing them all out would be exhausting, so please take a look around here if you want to know more:

Type Descriptions (Enneagram) - Character Personality Test Threads Summary Wiki

Tritype#

Tritype is a relatively new way of applying the Enneagram, proposed by Katherine Chernick Fauvre.

In Tritype, the types are first divided into the following groups:

Type	Center
2, 3, 4	Heart Center
5, 6, 7	Head Center
8, 9, 1	Gut Center

You select the single type that best fits you from each group, and the combination of those three types becomes your diagnosis.

For example, someone whose:

Feelings are Type 4-like
Thinking is Type 5-like
Instincts are Type 9-like

…would be typed as a “459.”

There are 27 possible combinations in total, and once again writing them all out would be exhausting, so I’ll just bring up three examples:

Type	Characteristics
145	The Researcher: Loves philosophy. Introspective.
458	The Scholar: Cynical. Deeply inquisitive.
459	The Contemplative: Meditative. Self-contained.

Furthermore, this set of numbers can apparently also be treated as an ordered set arranged in order of prominence. In that case, there are 162 possible combinations, at which point giving examples is way too much of a pain.

Levels of Development#

In the Enneagram, there is also the concept of what happens when a person of a given type moves up or down the “levels of development” of psychological health.

For example, when a Type 5 moves down the levels (deteriorates/spirals):

Tries to cut ties with the world and isolate themselves
Escapism
Suicide

…and similar warning signs begin to manifest. Conversely, when they progress up the levels (liberated from their fixation):

Strengthens themselves through acquiring knowledge and skills
Develops ways to protect themselves from fear
Compassionate and magnanimous

…they enter that kind of state.

My Impressions#

It leaves a much stronger spiritual impression than the 16-type tests. There are articles out there finding cosmic mysteries in a diagram of numbers 1 through 9 arranged in a circle, or claiming links to Kabbalah and what have you, which honestly feels pretty sketchy to me.

Even in a book I read at the library for reference, it ultimately ended up on a preach along the lines of “let us cultivate the Zen spirit of focusing on the here and now,” which left me wondering if this was really alright.

That said, the breakdown of traits for each individual type was actually pretty convincing.

By the Way, Mine Was…#

I got “5,” “5w4,” and “549.”

Types 4, 5, and 9 are apparently each the most introverted types in their respective centers, so combining all three seemingly turns you into the ultimate gloomy introvert (in-kya).

According to the Character Personality Test Threads Summary Wiki, characters who seem to share the same type down to the wing include:

Momo Chiyoda (The Demon Girl Next Door)
Gray Wolf (Kemono Friends)

…and so on.

Momo Chiyoda being a 5w4 makes total sense to me: prioritizing pure utility for her magical outer gear to prepare for future threats—turning into a god-awful tacky mountain parka monstrosity in the process—is classic Type 5, while her remark in Volume 6, p. 188 (Chapter 74) that “I never had any interest in how other people lived their lives” is unmistakably Type 4.

Reflections#

Even though the spiritual woo-woo turns me off, if you’re using it for creative writing or character analysis, the Enneagram seems much better suited than the 16-type tests.

When creating a character, posing a question like “What is this character most afraid of?” is practically essential, and that is almost identical to asking “What is this character’s fixation?” And once the fixation is determined, the type is set, allowing you to understand how that character typically behaves in both unhealthy and healthy states.

That strikes me as something genuinely impressive.

Further Reflections (or Just a Random Epiphany)#

Maybe the Komeiji sisters actually have something to do with these two personality tests. The Jungian Koishi Komeiji, and Satori Komeiji who dredges up past trauma.