Triad (Corner):     Head (thinking) <BR>
Core Issue:          Fear, anxiety<BR>
Personality runs on:      Rejection<BR>
Values:       Competency<BR>
Style:    Withdrawn <BR>
Passion:    Avarice<BR>
Virtue:    Nonattachment<BR>
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<B>Description:</B> Fives are the intellectual heavyweights of the enneagram, but can have a very faint physical presence. Of all the types, they are the most likely to want to live exclusively in their minds. They don’t feel at home in the world, or even in their own bodies. If Type 4 feels like they were born into the wrong families, Type 5s feel like they were born onto the wrong planet. They feel alien, and indeed others can perceive them as a bit odd or eccentric.

Fives are often fascinated by the dark side of life, and can be extremely cynical. There is often a precocious awareness of death, and a sense that nothing really matters anyway. They lose the sense of a divine purpose, and try to substitue their own knowledge for the direct experience of the divine.

Fives are often known for being collectors, whether their collections consist of insects, books, or knowledge. Not only do they collect, but they also hoard. Their passion is avarice, or stinginess. They fear that there is not enough in the world to go around, so they hang on to what they have. This applies to Fives emotionally, as they withhold feelings from others, and with all the gifts and talents that they may have. Fives often try to make up for their insecurities by becoming an expert or guru in some narrow subject matter. Then they feel secure enough to venture out into the world.

Fives are thin skinned and sensitive, and withdraw from people so as not to be overwhelmed by their needs, demands and emotions. A competency type, Fives prefer to set their own emotions aside to get their work done, and then process them later in private.

Under stress, can become scattered and overextended, like average level Type 7. Instead of focusing on their area of expertise, they may fly into all kinds of various interests.

Healthy Fives learn to loosen their grip on their emotions and talents, and interact in the world. They learn to open their big hearts and love other people. They become grounded in their bodies, and not only think about things, but get things accomplished. At their best they inhabit their bodies and hearts fully, and put their work out into the world, like a healthy 8. They start to believe that there is enough of them and their resources to go around, and stop hoarding their feelings and talents.

<B>Examples of this type:</B> Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Stephen King, Stanley Kubrick, Vincent Van Gogh, Howard Hughes, Jodie Foster (watch Contact for a good example of Type 5), the Buddha, Edward Scissorhands, “Dr. House,” “Ebenezer Scrooge,” British humor such as Monty Python, Finland.


<B>An exercise for Type 5: </B>Look around you at your surroundings. Really see what is out there. What have you seen before, and what have you never noticed. Is there anything that gives you delight? Is there anything that needs to be done? Can you connect with your doing center, move your body, and do what needs to be done?