Wing System

The Enneagram personality types are presented in a circle, so regardless of one’s basic personality type, there will always be different types on both sides. The types on the left and right are called wings, which modify or blend with the basic personality type, reinforcing certain tendencies. For example, if your basic personality type is Type Nine, your wing could be either Type Eight or Type One. No one is a “pure” type, and in some cases, a Type Nine might even have both wings. However, for most people, the wing tends to lean towards one side.

Wings help personalize the various basic personality types in the Enneagram. Each wing is a subsidiary subtype of the basic type, and understanding wings helps reduce problems one might face on the spiritual path.

When considering the dominant wing, each personality type has unique subsidiary subtypes that can be observed in daily life. For instance, in real life, a Type Seven with a Type Eight wing and a Type Seven with a Type Six wing will have very different styles. Each basic type has two subsidiary subtypes, resulting in eighteen different subsidiary subtypes when combining the nine basic types with their wings.

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