The Enneagram

Point Seven:  The Epicure

THE NINE TYPES
1  Perfectionist
2  Giver
3  Performer
4  Tragic Romantic
5  Observer
6  Devil's Advocate
7  Epicure
8  Boss
9  Mediator

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The Seven, unlike the Five who usually withdraws inward into the freeing and fascinating world of the mind, often moves outward to taste the many fascinating and sometimes adventurous ways of engaging life in its many manifestations. But like the Five, the Seven also is a "head type" and favors the experiences of the mind over the body. For in the mind, life can unfold according to the delights of the imagination.

The passion is "gluttony", an unquenchable appetite for new experiences, and the fixation is "planning", a habitual way of focusing attention on the many pleasant possibilities for the future including options and backup plans.

Words frequently associated with the Seven include hedonist, permissiveness, wish fulfillment, narcissism, fun, excitement, enthusiastic, shallow and happiness.

The primary character traits of the Seven, which are experienced to a lessor or greater extent by virtue of the Seven's subtype and the influence of it's wing points, include but are not limited to:

Gluttony:

This is a gluttony for experience and enjoyment. Being active with lots of projects. Over doing and overbooked. Experiencing "a little bit of the very finest of everything". Endless possibilities, many interests. Not staying with one thing too long in case it might get boring, and "boring is death".

Charming:

Outgoing, playful, energetic, engaging, easy laughter (but sometimes with a slightly nervous edge).

Playful:

Life is an adventure. Life is to be enjoyed. A desire to have fun.

Commitment:

Difficulty with commitment, not wanting limits. "I don't believe in limitations." "Keep the door open at any price". "I can make a commitment. I'll stay in the relationship until one or the other of us decides it's time to move on."

Variety:

A man makes a commitment to be an architect, and his weeks and months of imaginative planning and design are filled with one new house after another.

Fascination:

Many interests. An active imagination that easily juggles fascinating inter-relating and inter-connecting ideas and possibilities.

Monkey-mind:

The ability to easily and rapidly shift one's attention from one idea or set of ideas to another and at the same time see the inter-connectedness of the complexity of thoughts and how these thoughts will all come together into a cohesive reality.

 

"I notice that the reason it seems I jump from one thing to the next is that I usually fail to make known to others the connections of my thoughts. It makes sense to me because I alone know the thread. Maybe we'll be talking about dinner and I'll think about the other couple that invited us to dinner, then I'll picture the other couple in their house the last time we saw each other and I'll remember that they had a nice house and what I like about it. Then I'll think about how I especially like their balcony and how I hope that someday we can get one. That last part is the only part I'll say. It makes sense to me and would to someone else, if I bothered to fill them in.......but that takes too long. :)" -- Amy

 

Reframing:

The ability to deftly take the proposition of another and play it back in the context or nomenclature of the Seven's point of view. To the other, it seems as if what the Seven plays back "is almost like what I said but somehow different and I wonder if it even has the same meaning?"

Rationalizing:

A talk style which is a way of explaining one's behavior even when no explanation is called for.

Narcissism:

Feeling entitled. Presenting a superior position. "I like me." "I'm OK, so if there's a problem here it must not be me." A Seven panelists in a rapid-fire comeback says something like, "I used to be like that (the other sevens), but now that I'm more evolved my experience is much different."

Active:

The Seven leads a busy life filled with telephone calls, appointments, dates, social engagements, errands, plans and projects. Over-booked and a full plate. With all the activity, a Seven can look like a Three, who's activity is in the context of achievement and results; or like a Two, who's activity is in the context of giving. But the Seven's activity is in the context of the fun or fascination to be derived from the immediate experience while the mind is planning the next.

Pain:

"I stay busy to avoid the pain." "It just doesn't seem to be there." A move off of pain and on to positive options for the future.

Self-aware:

Sevens typically know what they want. Like the rest of us, they have many selves (sub-personalities) but those selves are in reference or response to the Seven and his or her interests and not to others or how others may perceive them.

FOUR