Enneagram Head Center: what fear has to do with it

The three keep one thing in focus: support. What to rely on, what to expect, and how not to be left without a bearing. They meet the world with thought: before sensation and feeling comes a reckoning of what could happen and what to do. Hence the tie to the future: they live one step ahead and insure what does not exist yet.

The shared emotion is fear, and failing to handle it by default does not mean being afraid often. Fear here is a lack of inner support, the sense that there is no guarantee inside and it has to be found, and each of the three finds it their own way. One holds fear back and cuts down needs to depend on the world less. Another keeps it in view and looks for support outside. The third drowns it out with activity and runs ahead. None of them meets fear as a feeling that comes and goes.

From the inside, this center differs in that the question of who I am is settled through understanding, not through the boundary or response. The body center knows where it stands and carries its support in the body; the head center is unsure of it until it has reckoned it. The heart center looks for confirmation in other people's eyes; the head center looks for it in the world being predictable.

There is one axis for telling them apart: where the fear points. Not temperament, not sociability, and not how confident a person looks: a quiet Seven and a talkative Five are no rarer than the reverse. In the Five fear points inward and is held by cutting down needs. In the Six outward, to the search for support in people and rules. In the Seven forward, into flight from it toward possibilities. Everything else that looks like a difference follows from this.

Three questions, one per pair. Five or Six: when you are afraid, do you withdraw to work it out, or go to people to ask? The first is fear inward, the second outward. Six or Seven: when a plan collapses, do you look for where else trouble may be waiting, or see at once what can be done instead? A Six looks for trouble, a Seven for the next possibility. Seven or Five: do you avoid the unpleasant by switching to something new, or by stepping aside and watching? A Seven switches, a Five steps aside.

There is one typical error, and it concerns the Six: it gets taken for a heart type, most often a Two, because fear in plain view seeks support from people, and from outside that looks like a need to be loved. The difference is that a Two needs to be loved while a Six needs to be backed and approved: the first seeks response, the second seeks support. Take the risk away and the Two stays close for the sake of the bond, while the Six calms down and moves off.