[Buddha-l] Enneagram and Buddhism

[jkirk]

Well, I took the little test, and I share Mike's concern. 

Back in the 1940s, the psychologist William Herbert Sheldon
created another mind/body classification of so-called
somatotypes, the ecto-, endo-, and mesomorphs, that associated
body types with temperaments.  This system became a pop party
game, but soon lost credibility. A google search on it just now
produced a whole bunch of body building websites, so I guess it
has moved into that realm.  Somatotyping, like enneagramography,
no doubt leads to un-insightful labeling.

Vicente is right--the practice of dharma doesn't need personality
typing. While some people find it to be useful in helping them
toward insight, it might also be misguiding. And, one can fiddle
around with the questionnaire. Has any psychoanalyst or
psychiatrist written a critique of the enneagram system?  
 
There's another issue: a psychoanalyst like Sudhir Kakar of
India, has shown that Indian personality/temperament is quite
different from what we find in the USA, according to his clinical
practice and research, anyway. So if we find that enneatypes
"work" here in the US, how would enneatypes work in the various
Asian contexts, Buddhist or otherwise? Probably wouldn't.

Joanna

-----Original Message-----
From: buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com
[mailto:buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com] On Behalf Of Mike
Austin
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 5:20 AM
To: buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] Enneagram and Buddhism

This is like a consultant who asks you for information and wants
payment to give it back to you. Fascinating as such things may be
(belief tests, enneagrams and so on), they could lead to either
insight or labelling. I suspect it tends to be the latter.

--
Metta
Mike Austin
_______________________________________________
buddha-l mailing list
buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com
http://mailman.swcp.com/mailman/listinfo/buddha-l