Enneagram Type 9 Personalities: An In-Depth Look

The Enneagram or Enneagram of Personality, derived from the Greek words “ennea” (meaning “nine”) and gramma (meaning “drawn” or “written”, is a nine-point personality system that categorizes people into nine main personality types, primarily based on the teachings of Oscar Ichazo and Claudio Naranjo.

At the core of each personality type lies a core belief. This core belief dictates how the personality interprets the world, manages its emotions, stays motivated and grows, and accomplishes its goals. It also defines how the personality connects with all the other types, as all personality types are interconnected.

The nine personality types are named—so we have the reformer/perfectionist (type 1), the giver/helper (type 2), the achiever/performer (type 3), the romantic/individualist (type 4), the investigator/observer (type 5), the loyal skeptic/loyalist (type 6), the enthusiast/epicure (type 7), the protector/challenger (type 8), and the peacemaker/mediator (type 9).

Today, we take a deeper look at the last type, the Enneagram type 9. Here’s a complete 9 Enneagram description, including traits, careers, relationships, stress points, and subtypes, as well as a list of famous type 9 celebrities and fun memes!

The Enneagram Type 9: An Overview

The Enneagram type 9 personality is popularly known as “the peacemaker” personality type. Type 9 personalities are easygoing and kind, with a desire to make their lives, homes, relationships, and general surroundings comfortable and peaceful.

This personality type loves to do its own things and loves it, even more, when everyone in its circles and surroundings get along with each other.

However, in their pursuit to be considerate and inclusive, hold space for others, and keep their surroundings peaceful, type 9 personalities may repress their own desires and opinions. This tendency to bottle emotions and thoughts, without expressing them for long periods, is especially common in unhealthy type 9 personalities (discussed later).

When faced with a confrontational situation, they may compromise their own opinions and stand to keep the peace, which can lead to problems getting swept under the rug. This can be harmful in the long run.

Additionally, even if they don’t agree or don’t like something, they may say “yes” and agree with someone else just to avoid conflict and anger and retain their peace of mind. They also prefer to stay on the fringes, away from attention.

This can often lead to type 9 personalities being taken for granted or taken advantage of by other outgoing, assertive types, who will also easily take attention away from this personality.

When faced with pain or a disturbing situation, type 9 personalities tend to “numb out” and ignore such situations in an attempt at escapism, which can lead to denial or a false facade of keeping the peace.

Type 9 personalities also love being acknowledged and reassured of their value. They may constantly seek validation of their contributions and personality.

However, all said and done, the type 9 personality is the most aware of itself and its physical world. It is said that nines, sitting at the top of the circle, have the best trait of every personality type. The personality type is also known as the Instinctive Center.

To summarize, these are the key traits of the Enneagram 9 personality type:

• A calm demeanor
  
  
• Excellent negotiation and mediation skills
  
  
• Great conflict resolution skills
  
  
• Mellowness
  
  
• Fluid gestures and movements
  
  
• Many acquaintances
  
  
• Liked by most people
  
  

Enneagram 9 Motivation

Type 9 personalities are motivated by a desire to achieve peace in their mind, body, and surroundings. They seek perfect harmony between all components of their lives. They also religiously avoid conflict and disagreements.

Type 9 personalities are also motivated by values such as being the “glue” that holds their social circles together, sharing their wisdom with others, accepting and forgiving people, and balancing inner peace with external comfort.

Enneagram 9 Fear

Enneagram 9 personalities primarily fear the loss of or separation from things and people they love. They also fear pushing people away with their neediness.

To deal with this, type 9 personalities forego their own desires and agenda and give in to those of the people around them. This adaptation of others’ preferences ensures that they are included in these circles and also keeps conflict, tension, and confrontation at bay.

Enneagram 9 Strengths

Peacemakers have some pretty great strengths. The strengths typically associated with this personality type:

• Excellent adaptability
• Open-mindedness and the ability to suspend judgment
• The ability to remain calm in any situation
• The ability to view a scenario from all the possible angles
• Being a great support system to people around them
• Being reassuring
• Negotiating and resolving conflicts between others

Enneagram 9 Weaknesses

Despite their many pros, type 9 personalities have certain weaknesses associated with them:

• Repressing their own desires and emotions
• Running away from upsetting or difficult situations
• Displaying passive-aggressive behavior when it comes to resolving their own conflicts, instead of addressing the issue
• Going to any lengths to avoid conflicts with others and express unpopular opinions
• Minimizing issues, especially their own

Subtypes of the Enneagram 9

“Subtypes” refers to the three basic human instincts that are expressed in daily life—social instincts (creating a community for oneself), one-to-one instincts (primary relationships), and self-preservation instincts (responses to needs and threats).

Each human being—and therefore, each personality type—has all three instincts, but one instinct always dominates. Each personality type has three distinct subtypes based on responses to the three main instincts, leading to a total of 27 subtypes.

For type 9 personalities, the three subtypes are:

• The Community Benefactor: In this subtype, the dominating instinct is social instinct. Such personalities tend to be a part of many social groups and get along well with most people, even working hard to prove their value to the group, if necessary.

Social interaction type 9 personalities are the most extroverted of type 9’s three subtypes. They also make great leaders. However, while they will fight tooth and nail for the group’s best interests, they tend to forego their own priorities and contribute selflessly to maintain peace.

• The Collector: This subtype is motivated by self-preservation, and therefore, seeks to fill its life and surroundings with material comforts.
  
  The collector subtype prioritizes satisfying its needs and will indulge in sleeping, eating, reading, and other activities that make it comfortable. Due to this, they’re quite skilled at creating infrastructure and patterns that support such a life.
  
  While these pursuits fulfill the subtype’s needs, they also provide an avenue for it to run away from introspection (quite ironically, since this subtype loves spending time alone). Such hedonistic pursuits can also stilt spiritual and personal growth.
  
  
• The Seeker: This subtype is dominated by the instinct of one-to-one bonding. This makes such folks long for partnership, often pulling down personal boundaries to attain this.
  
  

This also makes the subtype struggle with establishing its identity and sense of self, as it allows its partner’s identity to overwhelm and define it by aligning itself with the partner’s opinions, agenda, and feelings.

This unconscious behavior isn’t just restricted to romantic relationships; it can happen with anyone the subtype is close to. However, despite this, this subtype is the kindest, gentlest, and least assertive of all the type 9 subtypes.

The Different Wings for the Type 9

When you look at the Enneagram map, you’ll notice that each personality type has two wings on either side. For example, a type 2 personality will be flanked by personality types 2 and 3, which makes 2 and 3 its two wings. A type 1 personality will have types 2 and 9 on either side, making 2 and 9 its wings.

Enneagram 9’s two wings are personality types 8 and 1. These are referred to as 9W8 and 9W1.

• 9 Wing 8: This wing shares many similarities with the type 8 personality. In fact, the type 8 characteristics are more dominant in this wing than the type 9 traits. Therefore, such personalities are adaptable, social, direct, and assertive to a greater extent than type 9 personalities.
  
• 9 Wing 1: This wing shares many similarities with the type 1 personality, and therefore, is modest, friendly, diligent, hardworking, and more serious than the type 9 personality.

Enneagram 9 Careers

Type 9 personalities flourish in stable, positive work environments where they are encouraged and acknowledged for their contributions. They like connecting with colleagues and enjoy a job that allows the time for this, as well as the occasional break.

Type 9 personalities especially love being asked for their thoughts by superiors, receiving appreciative and respectful reports, helping colleagues with personal issues, and having peers openly share their thoughts with them.

They work well with colleagues who are open-minded, rational, driven, and positive, dislike conflict, and take the time and effort to socialize with them.

Conversely, they wilt in a work environment that’s cut throat and fast-paced, with a distant superior officer and dismissive peers. They may not be able to work with people who miss deadlines, are confrontational, and often ignore or overlook them.

Enneagram 9 personalities typically do well in the following professions:

• Veterinary sciences
• Social work
• Counseling
• Diplomacy
• Psychiatry
• Editing
• Religious work
• Human resources management
• Being a librarian

Enneagram 9 Relationships

In a relationship, type 9 personalities are comfortable and cozy and seek to make their partners feel the same way. They will subsume their partner’s wishes and desires and focus on making these come true.

A healthy type 9 personality, despite doing the above, will still find time for self-care, achieving personal goals, and prioritizing themself. An unhealthy type 9 personality will stay focused on avoiding conflict at the cost of personal peace. They may even lose their sense of identity by being consumed by their partner’s needs and dreams.

For those in a relationship with a type 9 personality, your partner is bound to be among the most peaceable, gentle, and altruistic people out there. However, they may occasionally need rousing so that they don’t become slothful and prioritize the relationship to such an extent that it harms it.

Encourage self-respect, autonomy, and personal time so that they don’t end up damming their issues and feelings, which can later manifest as passive-aggressive behavior. Remember that such behavior may also be a sign of anxiety.

Here’s a breakdown of how relationships look if you are a type 9 and your partner is one of the following types:

Healthy, Average, and Unhealthy 9 Enneagram

A healthy Enneagram 9 personality will maintain peace in the group through conflict resolution and assuming the roles of teacher and counselor. Such people have a strong sense of self and a healthy, simple lifestyle. Their self-actualization lets them develop strong ambitions and efficiently help others out. They’re also great communicators.

Type 9 personalities can also be average, where they stay away from attention. Such people also tend to procrastinate and hate change. They enjoy coziness and comfort, loving the idea of taking a relaxing break from the world. They run from confrontation, conflict, and issues, but will stay in touch with their acquaintances and dear ones.

An unhealthy type 9 personality has issues with concentration and self-worth. Such people are sluggish and lethargic, with a strong tendency to procrastinate. They often get through daily life on autopilot, without any goals or ambition to drive them.

They also rarely make improvements to such a lifestyle and may indulge in self-criticism for their inability to establish a strong identity and complete tasks instead of procrastinating.

Extremely unhealthy type 9 personalities also tend to not set personal boundaries, leading to emotional exhaustion, passive-aggressive behavior, and burning out, all of which can stress existing relationships.

Enneagram 9 in Stress

Type 9 personalities tend to get stressed by the following:

• Making difficult decisions, especially time-bound ones
• Bottling up emotions and not being able to express them
• Disappointing people they’re close to and/or love
• Interruptions
• Being ignored

Enneagram 9 Celebrities

Celebrities with the enneagram type 9 have been some of the most famous and successful celebrities in the world. These range from decorated actors to accomplished artists and path-breaking politicians and monarchs.

Some type 9 celebrities:

• Zooey Deschanel
• Marie Kondo
• Whoopi Goldberg
• Ron Howard
• Ringo Starr
• Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Princess Grace of Monaco
• Claude Monet
• Queen Elizabeth II
• Norman Rockwell
• Gerald Ford
• Abraham Lincoln
• George W Bush
• Ronald Reagan
• Jimmy Stewart
• Audrey Hepburn
• George Lucas
• Gary Cooper
• Garrison Keillor
• Tony Bennett
• Morgan Freeman
• Woody Harrelson
• Jason Segel
• Kevin Costner
• John Goodman
• Tobey McGuire
• Homer and Marge Simpson!

Am I an Enneagram Type 9?

If you’re wanting to determine if you’re a type 9 on the enneagram, the best way to determine this is to either take one of the many enneagram tests online (most are free), OR do some more research to figure it out on your own.

This video from Dr. LaHue can help you plenty to determine if you’re a type 9:

Enneagram 9 Memes

Enneagram is not just talked about in scientific circles; it’s also quite popular on social media!

Many funny memes ridicule the type 9 personality’s inability to accept criticism or see people arguing in front of them, their escapism, and their procrastination tendencies.

The Bottom Line

Type 9 personalities are a very interesting and slightly complex personality group. At their best, they are caring, considerate, and skilled negotiators who have a strong sense of self and identity. They are balanced internally and externally, with harmony and peace in all components of their lives.

They also face issues head-on, with the will to resolve them and make great leaders and mediators.

However, 9s can also be extremely unhealthy, as we’ve seen above. Such people are sluggish, procrastinate highly, and don’t believe that they matter to the world.

If you’re a 9, focus on personal growth instead of avoiding conflict. Focus on self-development, self-inquiry, self-reflection, and self-observation. Be mindful of how you tend to forego your own priorities to reduce the risk of conflict and tension, pay attention to your patterns and emotions, and then work on these.

You don’t have to fight every battle, but pick the ones that are worth standing your ground for. Reclaim your sense of self and self-worth and believe that your opinions and voice are valued, simply because they absolutely are!