Beyond Perfection: Type 1 Subtypes
I’m fortunate to have taken a training on Instincts & Subtypes with Peter O’Hanrahan. He shared theories on how we develop a dominant instinct for either Self-preservation, Social belonging, or One-on-one relating. Said theories exceed the scope of this post, but Peter used a poignant metaphor I’d like to adopt—a 3 legged stool. He spoke of one’s dominant instinct as a “short leg” that throws the stool off balance. The key is to balance the stool by evening out these 3 legs—but how?
The first step is to know your Subtype, a.k.a your dominant instinct, so you can "check" the tendency to invest more energy in that instinctual arena. If you don't do this, you're pretty much sunk as far as working with these instincts (at least from my somewhat opinionated point of view).
Once you've learned to “check” the instinct you rely on most heavily/automatically, some energy starts getting “freed up.” Now you can redistribute that energy towards the other two instincts. I like to think of this as juicing up the secondary and tertiary instincts by “using them on purpose” - making conscious efforts to go forth and relate to the world through them.
With this in mind, let’s explore the subtype energies as they manifest for Enneagram Type 1s:
If you’re an Enneagram 1, it can benefit you to understand how your improvement-orientation, eye for error, standards of excellence, perfectionism, righteous anger, criticality, and literally EVERY component of your type structure get channeled primarily through a particular instinctual drive!
Where is your error-correction drive and/or perfectionism “aimed?”
Is it aimed at your own self-presentation, your home life, family life, physical spaces, organization, structure, and material needs?
Is it aimed at institutions, communities/society, codes of conduct, and who is (or isn’t!) following the rules and participating in the collective effort?
Or is it aimed at individual others who are personally important to you, who you hope will share (and live up to) your high standards? Those with whom you wish to form a “united front” of self-improvement efforts and ethical living?
These are three very different ways of “living out” the Type 1 passion of Anger. Your Subtype not only affects how others perceive/experience your “One-ness,” but also the kind of self-work that will be most effective for you (and your specific expression of the type). Let’s dive a bit deeper:
Self-Preservation 1: “Worry/Anxiety”
These 1s truly take an "I am the problem" approach to perfectionism. This is what the worry and anxiety are all about: the idea that oneself is not good enough and/or improving fast enough. These anxious feelings lead SP 1s to focus on keeping things under control. That means being very self-controlled, and creating structure/order in their internal and external environements - a pursuit that continues until they feel everything is finally "right" and "in order."
While they experience a somewhat constant low-simmering anger (which they are apt to describe as frustration/irritation), they may try to transform the heat of anger into personal warmth. They attempt to stifle their anger and "be nice," because they believe that expressing their anger would make them very much less than perfect. However, in scrutinizing the environment to pursue control, they can't help but bring attention to flaws/mistakes they see. And this is where their self-presentation of kindness may "slip" a little bit allowing irritation to leak out.
Social 1: “Non-adaptability/Rigidity”
For these 1s, perfectionism (i.e. anger) goes towards groups, institutions, and society. Efforts to perfect oneself are more about becoming a perfect role model for others, in hopes that people will follow suit. These ones show their feelings of frustration when the rest of the group/society doesn't pick up on cues regarding "how they should be doing things."
To quote Beatrice Chesnut, these 1s express anger through "their passion for being the owner of the truth." Their right way is the only right way. They may not be aware that this belief can give a tone of righteous superiority to their self-presentation. All of the above makes Social 1s the "staunch moralists" among the group (for lack of a better term). If the rest of the community believes there is more than one right way, they'll have a difficult time convincing Social 1s to get on board with that way of thinking. This relates back to the term "Non-adaptability." These 1s have a pre-set, fixed standard of what's right. And they hold firm in it - even if the entire community disagrees.
One-on-One 1: “Zeal/Jealousy”
These 1s take their perfectionism/anger and "point it outwards" in very direct ways. They may not focus on perfecting themselves, and certainly aren't satisfied to act as role models and hope others follow along. These 1s are true reformers, with a strong drive to improve other people - especially those who are personally important to them. There is less questioning of ones' own correctness/morality in this Subtype, and more focus on "helping others meet their highest potential."
A certain sense of entitlement can be found in these 1s; they believe improving others is their right/duty. The term "Zeal" denotes an impassioned advocacy for one's own vision of how perfect things could be - if only others would agree to adopt higher standards. "Jealousy" has been used to desribe this Subtype because there is a fierce guarding of intimate connections with others - a feeling that these connections have been earned trough "goodness" and hard work. Any (seeming) threat to those connections makes these 1s feel personally wronged/attacked and as if their own goodness has been called into question. In this case, anger feels like a justified response.
To explore more about Type 1 and its subtypes, check out our monthly support groups on the first Sunday of each month or join us at our next monthly workshop! You can see all of our upcoming events here. You can also work one-on-one with us by emailing us here.
*Shoutout to the Enneagram masters: I owe my understanding of Instinctual Subtypes to a long list of authors and teachers, but extra special credit goes to Peter O’Hanrahan, Helen Palmer, Beatrice Chesnut, and Ginger Lapid-Bogda