Friday, October 08, 2004

I.F.'s Disposition Condition

Well... It's Friday, and as promised I took my Enneagram Personality Test. The free test, which is described as a ten-minute exam, only took me about two minutes to complete. I hope that didn't mess up the results.

The Enneagram personality types aren't written in general terms as if they were going inside a fortune cookie. Even though it's natural to see a little bit of yourself in each of the categories, each type paints a pretty specific picture. The Enthusiast, for example, isn't my personality at all. (But I'm guessing that someone else at Experiment House will get that verdict...) I really wanted to be the Individualist. It just sounded cool. But I scored much higher in two different categories.

With no further delay, the personality type that got the gold by one slim point was:
Enneagram

I really like the idea of being perceptive and innovative, because it makes me sound like Sherlock Holmes or Doctor Who. But secretive and isolated? Why do all the other personality types get lovable personality quirks in a "wacky TV neighbor" sort of way, but I get secretive and isolated? It makes me sound like any day know I'm going to pick up where Ted Kaczynski left off. But I have to remind myself that the internet is never wrong, so I have to take the good with the bad!

It also says that my key motivations are: "[Wanting] to possess knowledge, to understand the environment, to have everything figured out as a way of defending the self from threats from the environment." I wouldn't have worded it quite that way, but I can agree with that.

The other cool thing about the Enneagram website is that it describes how specific character traits for a personality type develop in healthy, average, and unhealthy scenarios. I discovered that if I'm emotionally well adjusted I will become "visionary and profound." That's good -- somebody please remember to say that at my funeral! If I'm just a slacker and decide to go with the flow I will most likely still end up being described as "studious and acquiring technique." Come to think of it, that's probably where I am right now! ...Oh yeah, if I really fall apart emotionally, I may have a "psychotic break with reality."

Check your mailbox!

1 comment:

Ian Eastman, M.A. said...

The fact that it only took you two minutes to take a ten minute test should be a mojor clue that you would be someone so clever as the investigator.
As for having "a psychotic break with reality" - I don't think it's very possible since investigators focus upon reality and how it works.
Cheer up Doc.
Lamont