Hunting for Good Will
Introduction and Initial Typological Considerations
Good Will Hunting is a Gus Van Sant film starring Matt Damon as Will Hunting, an unusually brilliant, but hardened and tough 20 year-old street kid surviving the slums of south Boston. His victim identity was solidified in childhood when he was brutally and repeatedly beat by his foster father. Will thus calcified a heavy layer of protection, covering over an inner, frightened child who refuses to take certain, specific risks in life for fear of things going bad.
As such Will is a clear example of a type 6 on the Enneagram personality system. 1 But there is a very strong and repeated attempt on Will's part to deny the fear. Consequently Will represents the counterphobic extreme of what I call the type 6 bipolar spectrum. 2 It is the tough, competent, challenging side that is presented to the public. But privately, on the inside, the psychic landscape is dominated by fear. Having watched this film a number of times in conjunction with use with my clients in my psychotherapy practice, it became increasingly evident how the film is tied from beginning to end by fear.
This public covering over of the fear on the inside is succinctly and accurately testified to by the type 6, counterphobic exemplar in Helen Palmer's video, Nine Women on Relationship:
Ben Affleck plays Chuckie, Will's longtime best friend and means of transportation. As a smooth, charming charlatan it could be argued that Chuckie is a type 7. 4 With the added elements of loyalty and defender of his friends, there is probably a type 8 wing influence at work. 5 Though Chuckie's character is not developed deeply enough to tell for certain.
Damon and Affleck, incidentally, won the Oscar for their original screenplay of this film. As such it could be speculated that Damon is a type 6 in real life, though I have no substantive evidence to that effect. My only slightly improved knowledge of Affleck's personal life would suggest that he's a type 7 in real life.
Robin Williams won the Oscar for best supporting actor in this film. In an interview on Inside the Director's Studio, Williams admits that he took considerably less money in order to appear in this film. In this same interview, Williams casts some doubt on what would seem to be his obvious real-life type 7 personality. In one particular episode of Mork and Mindy, where he "guest stars" as himself, he describes himself as a child being "terminally shy," hardly fitting for type 7. In addition he describes his problem with chemical abuse, specifically cocaine, both real and hypothetical as involving significant paranoia, a very common side effect from cocaine use, primarily with type 6 individuals. 6
Williams plays the character Sean, a counseling teacher at lowly "Bunker Hill Community College" in the Boston area, who does therapy on the side, and takes up the challenge to counsel Will at the request of an old college buddy, Gerald Lambeau. Gerry, played by Stellan Skarsgard, is a Field's Medal winner in mathematics and a professor at MIT. He intervenes in the legal system on behalf of Will when Will is jailed on battery to a police officer while being arrested for getting into a fight. Lambeau wins Will's release on two conditions: that he work with Lambeau on advanced mathematical problems and go see a therapist. While Lambeau's character is significantly more developed than Chuckie's, it is still somewhat difficult to ascertain his Enneagram type. He is mainly portrayed as a success-oriented, image-conscious, fear-of-failure type 3, 7 but elements of type 8 and type 6 crop up as well. There is a significant subplot in the movie in the relationship between Sean and Lambeau. Lambeau sets out to strongly control the therapy process in the direction that he thinks it should go - with Will following his own success model in the high-tech world. Sean adamantly defends Will's need to choose direction for himself, identifying the symbolism of the movie's title. Since type 6 projects or gives its will out onto forces in the environment, the 6 must set out on a conscious journey to take back personal power, i.e., to recover the will. Thus there is a hunting for good will.
It has been suggested by another Enneagram practitioner that Sean is a type 2. 8 However, there is a great deal of evidence to suggest otherwise. The evidence for a particular Enneatype, however, is not overly compelling. Nonetheless, due to the play on identical therapy themes between Will and Sean throughout the therapy scenes of the movie, I will be suggesting and defending the notion that Sean is best viewed as a type 6 himself, though a different subtype and variety of 6 than Will. 9
Minnie Driver plays Skyla, the girl from the other side of the tracks, whom Will falls for. She's finishing up pre-med at Harvard and is set to move on to Stanford for med school. While, again, her Enneatype is not well developed, it is surmised that she is a feeling type, likely a 2 rather than a 4, though she could be a 4 with a strong link to 2. 10 John Mighton plays Tom, the thoroughly milquetoast, passive and quietly jealous slave, er, assistant to Lambeau. George Plimpton has a cameo as a high profile therapist who is completely buffooned by Will's defensive strategies.
To say that Will is defensive and resistant toward therapy is an understatment. Will goes through a number of therapists before Lambeau settles for trying Sean whose relationship with him has significantly soured since their college days due to Lambeau's insensitivity and arrogance.
The strict realist will find plenty to criticize about this movie. Will's antics in his pre-Sean therapy sessions are pure Hollywood. With one particular hypnotherapist Will plays along as though he is uncovering childhood sexual abuse only to, in Mel Brooks fashion, break out into a satirical verse of "Afternoon Delight." This same hypnotherapist unethically allows both Lambeau and his assistant to witness the session. The redeeming element to all this is that the defensive strategy of taking the focus of attention off of the 6 and onto the therapist is precisely accurate. Will even speed reads his therapists' books in order to get the goods on them ahead of time. What real-life client of this profile actually ever did this with their therapist?
In addition, in the first therapy session with Sean, Will gets Sean so riled up that Sean reacts in a fit of violence, physically assaulting Will right there in the session. In the real world this would have gotten Sean his license to practice taken away and a tidy, little jail term to boot.
Also, one can't help but to notice what my high school literature teacher warned me about concerning the stereotypical "boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back" story line. To the movie's credit we are left somewhat in doubt as to whether Will actually gets Skyla back or not, though it is implicitly assumed. In reality, however, the prognosis for this kind of relationship actually lasting is extremely poor. Reportedly, in real life, Damon and Driver had a love affair, during and after the shooting, that lasted only briefly.
Besides this, the obvious slum-genius proposition is highly improbable and borders on the ludicrous. But this, of course, is what makes movies entertaining.
However, because I am not a strict realist, but a deep romantic, I love the movie a lot. Serious Enneagram students should be able to at least appreciate its extremely accurate portrayal of counterphobic dynamics. As an alcohol and drug counselor I also see many mandated clients in therapy of this profile. They all react the exact same way Will does when forced into counseling by the legal system or a parent: "I'm not seeing no fuckin' therapist!" The counterphobic's sense of self-worth while in the trance (as Tom Condon would state 11) is strongly linked to extreme, independent competence. Seeing a therapist connotes the exact opposite for this profile. For Myers-Briggs buffs this profile is overwhelmingly ISTP/ESTP - by far the most common profiles in counterphobic 6 that get into trouble with chemicals, the law and dropping out of school early. 12
In Will's first session with Sean the stage is set for several of the subplots including Sean's own issue of fear and being unable to make a decision to move forward and take a risk. To say the least, this is not characteristic of 2s at all, let alone attacking the client with a strong chokehold!! Obviously, Sean's extreme overreaction represents going off the deep end over the loss of his wife to cancer several years earlier. Because of intense attachments, 6s are the most susceptible to having difficulty resolving significant losses. This is clear in the therapy sessions later in the movie when Will and Sean role reverse and Will confronts Sean's exact same difficulty in moving out of a safety zone and Sean pulling the same defensive maneuvers that Will does. The outcome of this first therapy session sends Sean running for an extremely common method of coping - the bottle. The next scene finds Sean in his meager kitchen, a sink full of dirty dishes and an empty fifth of whiskey, slumped at his table in a depressed stupor, another fifth of whiskey half empty on the table. In alcohol counseling vernacular this is called affective alcohol use. The more popular term is called medicating oneself. This type of alcohol use is extremely common in type 6 alcohol abusing populations and much more rare in type 2 alcohol populations.
The thread of fear begins very early in the movie when Will is shown working as a janitor after classes at MIT - a lengthy distance from south Boston - finishing extremely difficult mathematical formulas on a hallway board put up by Lambeau for the challenge of his graduate students. On one occassion Lambeau and Tom stay late and catch Will finishing up a new problem on the board. When confronted Will quickly disappears, quits the job and then lies to his friends that he got fired as the result of company downsizing. Will clearly fears exposure due to some kind of worst-case thought as described by the type 6 exemplar in Helen Palmer's video, Nine Men on Relationship:
We get strong clues as to the nature of this fear from later scenes in the movie. One scene accurately displaying this worst-case thinking combined with an obvious example of projection, when reacting to a discussion with Skyla, will be discussed below. Another scene, where Sean confronts Will's
self-defeating behavior via worst-case thinking, will also be reviewed.
The fear is that Will would be called upon to move out of his safe, predictable world into an arena that he's not used to. Thus it can be safely called a fear of success. Tom Condon refers to this not as a fear of success per se, but a fear of accomplishing someone else's success. 14 In this case there really isn't another "someone" out there, for example, like a parental authority figure expecting him to succeed in a certain way, until Lambeau comes along later. In truth, Will has not owned his own desire to succeed for himself. This becomes apparent in a later therapy scene where Sean challenges Will to discover what it is he wants to do, but Will is unable.
The pattern is also set at this point for a series of lies by Will, all in fear of what his sigificant others would think of him if they knew the truth. A tough guy could never be seen as a quitter, thus the fabrication that he was fired. Much better to be an unjust victim of a large authority institution that Will couldn't possibly take any responsibility for. This responsibility issue is huge in the movie though more frequently seen just underneath the surface. But there is a consistent moving away from taking responsibility for one's choices, feelings and reactions in favor of an implicit blame on a higher, more unjust authority. This, again, having been supported and entrenched by an abusive childhood. This is also, perhaps, best seen toward the beginning of the movie when Will appears in court to defend himself on the battery charge using his superior intelligence to cite antiquated laws still on the books to weasel his way out of convictions.
The lying gets pushed into high gear when he meets Skyla at a Harvard area bar. When Chuckie tries to hustle Skyla another Harvard student sees through his obviously faked attempt to appear like another student and sets out to embarrass him. Will quickly steps in as the heroic defender and uses his genius to squash the ridiculer. Skyla is impressed and gives Will her phone number and they get together later. But it is obvious that Will has mythologized Skyla into a goddess who has no faults and couldn't possibly love and accept someone with his dysfunctional background. He lies about his family background attempting to portray what he would consider to be a normal, Catholic, Irish upbringing. He projects his o.k.ness onto Skyla leaving her appearing like a goddess and seeing himself, deep down inside, like a scumbag in comparison - all of this, of course, hidden from the external eye.
Another scene shows Will calling Skyla from an outdoor payphone in the middle of a rain storm. But as soon as Skyla answers Will cannot get up enough courage to ask her out for another date. Upon returning to Chuckie's car, with the rest of his friends present, Will states that he forgot Skyla's number - a pretty lame excuse for someone who can remember remote pages of a history text word-for-word by instant recall.
2. Counterphobic Reaction and Projection in the Bedroom Scene
Will attempts to keep up the charade with Skyla as long as he can, avoiding contact with his rundown, slum apartment, his "family," even delaying contact with his friends. But Skyla, as a
relationship-oriented, feeling type, is not interested in an isolated fling with Will and finally manages to at least meet his friends. Later, Skyla gets wise to the whole scheme and actually comes out and confronts Will about it, calling him on his fear and projection in the following scene: 15
Will and Skyla are snuggling in bed in her dorm room late at night.
Skyla: Will, come to California with me.
Will walks out of the room half dressed and Skyla collapses on her bed uncontrollably weeping.
The first thing to notice, typologically, is Will's immediate focus on knowing, or in the case of type 6, a sense of certainty about something. 16 At the deeper levels, certainty is often at the core of type 6 thinking and behavior. It befuddles Will completely that someone could have a sense of "knowing" something without it being able to be absolutely predicted in the future.
This leads immediately to Skyla's prompting of the fear issue. At this point Skyla fulfills the definition of "soulmate" given by Sean to Will in the therapy session that follows: "someone who challenges you." She challenges Will to be honost about his feelings - specifically fear, as though this could just be openly discussed. But the average, let alone unhealthy, counterphobic has little recognition, let alone inate ability, to deal with fear so openly and honostly. Actually, for many counterphobics of this variety, fear is only experienced or recognized as a sense of thrill such as the moment before jumping out of an airplane skydiving or engaging in some other kind of edge-of-danger experience. The counterphobic has, from very early on, defended himself by compulsively pushing away fear so as to be able to challenge the danger. Thus, at this point in the conversation, Will is probably being as honost as he can be, consciously, about his fear. He is incredulous that he could actually be "accused" of being afraid. How could he be afraid when he fearlessly goes and beats up another guy on the playground? But Skyla serves as the mouthpiece for Will's unconscious experience by revealing the intense amount of fear that he is living by.
And Will does, in type 6 style, take it as an accusation which immediately gets his defensive reactions going. He launches into an all-out, worst-case scenario description of what he thinks will happen to him in the future - he, of course, being the victim in the scenario.
Tom Condon mentions this as one of several key things to look for in discriminating between type 8 on the Enneagram and the counterphobic. The difficulty is that the victim can be well hidden inside the counterphobic and may not quickly or easily be revealed, even in a therapy setting. Clearly, Will, at this point, reveals his victim identity that he is attached to. Condon rightly states that this is a way of coping with uncertainty and having a paradoxical sense of control over a situation. 17
But, of course, this is poor and dishonost relating that only contributes to an escalation of hostility in the situation. In fact, it is this dynamic as portrayed in this scene of the movie that lies at the root of most domestic violence situations, as I have observed in my therapy practice. And it isn't a matter of gender. At least half of the numerous situations I have dealt with in my practice, that have escalated to some kind of domestic violence, have been initiated by worst-case scenario projections, accompanied by irrational accusations, by the type 6 female - often being of the opposite, phobic variety.
But, in reality, the biggest culprit in this situation is the dynamic of locking in on a belief that the type 6, Will, in this case, is unwilling to let go of. This is where, I believe, most nontype 6 people experience the sense of "rigidity" in type 6s. In spite of it being entirely irrational, Will is convinced of the bad thing that will happen to him if he moves to California. It is my understanding and belief that type 6 is the most "religious" of the Enneatypes due to this intense issue of locking onto a belief. 18 By "religious" I don't mean, of course, that this is necessarily associated with a church or formal experience in any religion. A type 6 atheist could be "religious" in this sense of the term in that he may be locked onto a belief that he is unwilling to see a different side to; that is, the "belief" is serving the ego's defensive structure. Thus, the "belief" is not an honost one, but a defensive one. This dynamic also, then, lies at the heart of extreme religious fundamentalism. In Will's case it leads, as so often it does, to warfare and sabotages the relationship.
Money, for some type 6s, also represents power and authority, as it clearly does for Will. Those who have it are large and powerful and those who don't have it are small and downtrodden (an underdog or implicit victim). Projection surrounding money sets up a powerful comparison by the 6 where he feels less than and reacts defensively, accordingly.
Skyla identifies the projection - "don't put your shit on me." Will's worst-case, projected belief is his own problem that he attempts to accuse Skyla of, another example of avoiding responsibility. But Will is not about to be convinced that he is afraid, even after Skyla spells out the exact nature of fear clearly. To try to help the conversation Skyla admits openly to her own natural fear, then presses Will for more honosty.
Now caught under the intense light of inward examination Will moves to get out of the room to avoid his sense of guilt and shame. When Skyla blocks the door Will launches another attack in the form of another projection. Will is the one who cannot face and resolve his shame, guilt and anger from his past and, instead of owning it, assumes it is Skyla that can't handle his past. This is a totally false assumption, since feeling types are more than willing, capable and adequate to accept and understand someone with a checkered past. But for Will, the die is cast, and now everything that comes his way from Skyla is interpreted as a putdown of some sort when it clearly isn't meant to be. Will is most strongly offended that he should actually need help, a reflection of the extreme, independent side of the counterphobic. As is characteristic with many counterphobics, Will can't accept a good thing and pushes it away. Helen Palmer's counterphobic exemplar again says it well:
3. Counterphobia in the Sixth Therapy Session
This worst-case, scenario thinking and its sabotaging effect, along with several other important issues for type 6, is consciously fleshed out by Sean in the sixth therapy session in the movie that shortly follows:
Will interviews for a job set up by Lambeau at the NSA (National Security Agency) and soon is very skeptical. He launches into the most brilliant, worst-case scenario thought ever devised, essentially looking at all the terrible things that will happen in a lengthy, detailed chain of events if he breaks a code for the NSA. This uproarious, worst-case scenario is woven without interuption, blending into Will repeating the story in Sean's office during the 6th therapy session of the movie. Will, thus, talks himself out of the job based upon his belief in this worst-case scenario, "holding out for something better."
Sean: You feel like you're alone, Will?
I don't believe Sean's opening question to Will in this scene is pure coincidence. Aloneness is a crucial, existential issue for type 6. This dynamic is effectively and insightfully developed by Tom Condon in his video working with a type 6, retired dentist. 20 It could be stated that this existential fear of aloneness, in fact, drives the worst-case scenario thinking, because it is the imagined thought that provides a "companion" for the 6. As Condon says, it's as though the 6 is never alone when in the trance of it. And it's safer to construct an imagined thought than to have to deal with the reality of a real person who might not conform to the 6's expectations.
Regarding Sean's character depicting a type 2, his definition of "soul mate" seems to me to also argue against this. It would be interesting to have 50 type 2s write down their definition of "soul mate" and compare their's to Sean's - "someone who challenges you." 2s are certainly not into challenge when it comes to soul mates. Most likely we would hear things like "emotionally compatible," "romantic and shares inner feelings," "have common interests and love to spend time doing things together," etc. The reverse play on the therapy issue of taking a new risk at the end of this scene again suggests there is an occassional role reversal between the two and that, as a 6 himself, Sean is struggling with the same issue. Also, this aspect of "challenge" is a strongly oriented counterphobic trait. At a recent workshop he gave, Tom Condon, himself a counterphobic type 6, jokingly used a "reverse psychology" challenge on the audience as a way of getting counterphobic 6s to participate in a panel discussion. 21 As screenplay writer, Matt Damon seems to indiscriminately inject type 6 lines into many of the characters at certain points as he does with Skyla in the prior scene.
Will's response to Sean's specifically pointing out the worst-case, scenario thought and its sabotaging effects is another example of type 6 projection. Will's frame of reference is defensive, bipolar - opposite sides - as in a military conflict: "take the professor's side on this?" This projection - Will thinks Sean is acting this way toward him - is called "a line of shit" by Sean. This projection by Will is a distraction that redirects the discussion away from the important point of the self-sabotaging, worst-case thinking. Will never has the chance to face it and recognize it for what it is. The defensive reaction again takes the attention away from Will and attempts to put it on Sean.
Another significant dynamic revealed in this particular scene is Will's type 6 approach to his gift - "I didn't ask for this." Clearly his genius is more seen as an unwanted burden he has to bear, an implicit victim of the forces of the universe, than as a positive, wonderful gift given. Like the counterphobic exemplar, good things are automatically suspect. One will be called upon to do things by others against one's will, the caution echoed by the male type 6 exemplar cited earlier.
Recently I had a 16 year-old, counterphobic, male client tell me honostly that he intentionally did worse in his school performance so that his teachers wouldn't notice his inate intelligence and thus require more from him. This describes the difficulty of this profile simply enjoying and experiencing the pleasure of their strengths in the world as a reward unto itself. With many 6s there is a very strong sense of reward needing to come from the environment, outside of oneself. For many 6s enjoying their strengths or their job is a guilty pleasure that is totally forbidden. For this reason many counterphobics in my alcohol practice "reward" themselves on the weekend with heavy alcohol use to make up for having to endure their stress-filled jobs that they are bound to by loyalty and have no other choice. I have frequently called this "bipolar, reward drinking," because the individual is overresponsible during the week and bounces to the opposite, underresponsible extreme on the weekend. Some alcohol counselors using the Enneagram have mistakenly typed these individuals as type 1s. 22
The final exchange in this scene illustrates several other key components of type 6 dynamics. Sean hopes to have Will see that he truly wants to use his genius gift in a productive way, otherwise, why in the world would he extend himself to such an extreme degree, going way out of his way in taking the janitor job at MIT? But Will, who is totally out of touch with what it is he really wants, can't recognize or acknowledge it, though he would want to put up a confident, competent front for the sake of the public. It certainly isn't that not knowing what one wants to do is strictly a type 6 phenomenon. All other 8 Enneagram types have plenty of representatives who experience this. The counterphobic aspect is the covering over of the not knowing with an outer, public competent self and then fooling oneself with regard to it. I believe the point Sean is mostly trying to make is to simply have Will be able to be honost about it and admit it, instead of Will's "bullshit answers for everybody."
Again, I can't imagine a type 2 therapist acting toward a client in this manner with regard to ending the session prematurely. The 2 wouldn't conceive of acting so confrontationally. Even healthy type 2 therapists tend not to take the risk of not being seen as "loving." This is a clash between 6s, except Sean has progressed enough to at least have had some self direction. In addition, the near constant use of vulgarities hardly is characteristic of 2s. This is antithetical to the 2's identity, again, as a "loving" person.
The last scene that we shall review that offers substantive evidence of type 6 character occurs just several, brief scenes later in the movie. Will, having come to his senses, somewhat, regarding his overreaction to Skyla, calls Skyla to say "goodbye," but can't muster an "I love you" back to her. Chuckie then takes on the "soul mate" role and challenges Will on to bigger and better things, because Will owes it him, an appeal to type 6's motivation to satisfy others rather than themselves. This, then, leads up to Lambeau visiting Sean at Sean's office to confront Sean regarding his dissatisfaction over the lack of direction for Will from counseling. The control issue is paramount here with Sean realizing the counterphobic sensitivity of Will regarding attempts to control him and the strong possibility of rebellious reaction against the faintest hint of control.
Lambeau: (condescendingly) This is a disaster, Sean. I brought you in here because I wanted you to help me with the boy not to run him out.
Will now walks into the office and the argument stops.
Sean very quickly brings up the common type 6 issues of hiding, trust and abandonment. Type 6 tends to be one of the more strongly attaching of the profiles, leaving them more susceptible to magnified pain and mistrust over close relationship losses or failures. The bipolar dynamic tends to push the type 6 into an all-or-nothing thinking and behavior pattern. Excessive amounts of trust are placed in others in positions of strength or authority, then when these trusted figures fail, the overgeneralized belief that, therefore then, no one can be trusted, sets in.
Sean, then, brings up the strong type 6 character trait of loyalty, especially as related to group dynamics. 23 I have found in my practice that this is a little bit more difficult to spot with the counterphobic variety of type 6 because of their self-image of strong independence and being a leader. Most counterphobics recoil at the idea of being a follower. In fact, most counterphobics have a strong, internal, critical view of most phobic type 6s. But, in fact, when looked at more carefully and honostly, there can be a kind of group dependence there that the counterphobic doesn't want to admit. This sense of the group defending the member strongly suggests the projection of power onto the group. And, of course, the idea of "taking a bat to your head" connotes the awareness of a response to some kind of threat, the attention focal point for type 6.
Further down, Sean, specifically points out the sabotaging behavior - pushing people away - that was discussed and illustrated earlier using Palmer's counterphobic exemplar. Unfortunately, Sean doesn't mention the specific defense mechanism involved, which is projection with the help of worst-case scenario thinking. 24 This type 6 assumes that he will be hurt, so best make the failure happen ahead of time, rather than to wait for the boom to lower in the unknown, unexpected future.
Sean then takes on his own strong, type 6 defensive role of Will. He sees himself as a protector of Will, understanding from his own personality how attempting to control the counterphobic will only result in a mindless, rebellious, overreaction against the controller, in this case, Lambeau. This is, again, strongly reinforced toward the end of this argument when Sean confronts Lambeau's "pushing" and "riding." Sean has also progressed enough to realize individual personality differences, and that what works for some, doesn't work for others, something Lambeau fails to grasp.
Lambeau is a confusing, mixed bag of Enneatype energies in this interaction. While the type 3 image-conscious, success orientation is loud and clear, there are also strong odors of type 8 control and two dimensional viewing of others along with type 6 projections of his own - wrongly imagining that Sean is jealous of his success when that is Lambeau's own issue which he fails to own up to.
The whole scene is reminiscent of two parents fighting with each other over what they think best for the child. Typically, while Sean understands the counterphobic reactive dynamics, he places little or no emphasis on Will's need to take responsibility for his thoughtless overreactions. This is crucial in recovering "good will." The counterphobic must learn to make decisions by thoughtful action in one's own best behalf instead. It still never ceases to amaze me how most counterphobics in my practice would rather suffer negative consequences for the sake of maintaining their attachments to challenge and crisis.
The following, 7th therapy session in the movie is Will's next-to-final one with Sean. Sean is about to submit Will's therapy file to the judge, supposedly, one would assume, to determine elimination of the jail sentence based upon successful completion of the original two requirements. We are never told precisely how long this period has lasted, but it doesn't seem to have been over a year, perhaps as little as six months.
Very quickly the scene turns to Will's childhood, physical abuse, with pictures of Will's abused body exposed from his file. Ironically, this is the only time that the two have discussed Will's past, in spite of Sean telling Lambeau in an earlier scene that they haven't been able to discuss the present because they haven't gotten through the past yet. This discussion leads Will to inquire whether Sean had some experience with abuse in his own childhood. Sean relates a history of an alcoholic, violent father who would beat his sister and mother except for the fact that Sean would act out, drawing his father's attention and getting the beating instead. This distraction would protect his mother and sister from getting the beating. This is also strongly suggestive of type 6 and is very common in these kinds of "dysfunctional" families. There is a strong, other-oriented, protectionistic element in type 6, 25 especially combined with being a scapegoat or "sacrificial lamb." This is the strong, heroic quality in type 6 acting in a crisis to rescue others. 26
In the midst of this conversation another strong, counterphobic trait of Will's comes out. In discussing their mutual childhood abuses, both were given a choice as to which instrument of physical punishment would be used on them. When asked why Will would make the seemingly illogical choice of a metal wrench over a belt, Will's response is "Because fuck him, that's why!" - an obvious rebellious reaction against the authority figure, inspite of the wrench likely inflicting more damage.
Having made the experiential connection, Sean makes an attempt to have Will open up emotionally by directing the focus of attention toward absorption of guilt. The dynamic of assuming it had something to do with me and/or the assumption of guilt for something going wrong in the environment is a strong type 6 character trait. Though it is not on the surface for Will, as are most vulnerable issues, Sean attempts to probe deeply by repeating the statement "It's not your fault" to Will.
Will's initial, repeated answers of "I know" are obvious intellectual assents. But Sean is shooting for the heart and it starts to become apparent to Will as Sean physically moves closer and closer, symbolic of increasing emotional closeness. At the point when Will realizes that Sean is going for the heart the strong defensive reactions come out - "don't fuck with me." The trust issue is paramount here. Can Will let out his genuine, true feelings without getting hurt by the trusted authority figure? This interaction was anticipated in an early scene in the movie when Lambeau seeks out Sean by appearing at Sean's classroom door in the middle of a lecture to his students. Coincidentally, or so it seems, Sean's topic happens to be trust in the therapy relationship and how important trust is for a therapeutic breakthrough with the client. This has its greatest application with type 6.
The therapeutic breakthrough occurs when Will finally allows himself to burst out weeping while embracing Sean. Will then spontaneously, and rather mysteriously, cries out, "My God, I'm so sorry." This seems rather odd since Will and Sean have just been talking about excessive assumption of guilt that is not his. What would Will, then, be so sorry about? We don't really know for sure. Perhaps he's sorry for all the hiding and lying; perhaps for sabotaging the relationship with Skyla; perhaps for sabotaging his success; maybe all of the above. The movie might be suggesting the answer in the two scenes that follow. Will is shown in deep thought on his transit ride home, followed immediately by the eighth and final therapy session of the movie where Will announces that he has, indeed, accepted a job offer, taking the risk of moving out into the unknown.
Indeed, the therapy has worked both ways when Sean announces that he is "anteing up" again, intending to look for new love. The film then ends with Will also deciding to take the risk of love and intimacy when he heads out to find Skyla in California in his newly-acquired, beater car from his buddies as a 21rst birthday gift. Will has searched for and found good will - his ability to make a decision to move himself forward into a new and uncertain future, out of the zone of fearful clinging to neurotic certainty winding up in self defeat.
Recently I participated in an exemplar panel at an Enneagram workshop. I was seated next to a woman who identified herself as a type 8 and was relating a particular problem she was having with her husband. The problem centered over responsibility of taking care of their recently acquired dog. The woman was feeling a fair amount of resentment over repeatedly being cast with the responsibility of taking care of the dog when it was her husband's dog in the first place. An attempt was made to try to type the husband so that someone of the same type in the audience could play the role of the husband, a technique that was very useful in this workshop. In this process the woman described her husband as "fearless." I suggested to this woman the possiblity that he might be counterphobic type 6. However, after a brief bit of bantering back and forth with the audience, the "consensus" conclusion was that the husband was a type 1. It was an extremely frustrating moment for me in that it again revealed the more superficial understanding of the types by the popular Enneagram community.
It is type 1 that, without complaint, takes up responsibility and wouldn't think of demanding someone else do what they require of themselves. It is type 6 that frequently attempts to control the environment and get others to take responsibility. Also, the aspect of someone being "fearless" strongly suggests the counterphobic dynamic of making a public showing of proving to themselves and others that they are not afraid. Never in the history of my association with Enneagram literature or workshops has "fearless" ever been associated with type 1.
Several years ago, my friend, John Fudjack, helped me to understand what some of the problem might be with regard to this difficulty the popular Enneagram community has with counterphobic type 6. John pointed out that in his own correlative research between the Enneagram and the MBTI there were very few E/ISTP representatives in type 6 because they are not representative of "spiritual-seeker types" who would read such literature as Enneagram Montly. 27 In contrast to that I had always been working with this population of counterphobic type 6s who could practically have cared less about spiritual seeking - that population that sought its "spirituality" in chemical use and frequently got in trouble with the law. John was correct. In fact, in a recent research project by Tom Flautt and John Richards, where the researchers tested and polled members of the Association for Psychological Type, the results showed just one response from each of ISTP and ESTP out of a total of 42 type 6 respondents. 28 While we would want to be careful about overgeneralizing, nonetheless, there is a definite tendency in that direction.
Will Hunting is a representative of the latter group, most associated with chemical and legal difficulties with very little interest in spiritual seeking. Therefore, the popular Enneagram community, being mostly acquainted with the spiritual seeking variety has very little exprerience by which to identify the more rowdy group. This is illustrative, I believe, of the depth of the Enneagram system and how easy it is to look too superficially at individuals. I have made plenty of mistakes in the past with regard to typing clients, famous people and others I am associated with. I've also been criticized for being excessivly type 6 oriented even though I'm not a type 6 myself. While it is true that I have made some mistakes seeing type 6 where it was not, it is, in fact, even more true that I made mistakes seeing other types when the person was type 6.
Good Will Hunting provides as good an example as I have seen of this variety of counterphobic type 6. It is my hope that the popular Enneagram community will be able to gain insight from this movie and deepen its vision for this personality style.
1. The Enneagram is a spiritual depth system of typology unlike any other system in the study of personlity in that it looks at the unconscious, motivational energies along with complex movements of nine different personality energies based upon varying circumstances, interactions with different people, phase of life concerns and anything else that could possibly have an effect on one's personality. It is beyond the scope of this article to introduce the depth of this system, whose spiritual, insight-based approach goes well back before the modern era of psychology and personality understanding. An excellent description of the system can be found in Don Riso and Russ Hudson's The Wisdom of the Enneagram: The Complete Guide to Psychological and Spiritual Growth for the Nine Personality Types. (New York: Bantam Books, 1999). On video, a brief introduction can be viewed in "Better Management for a Changing World, Vol. 8: The Path to Effective Leadership: The Enneagram as a Management Tool." (Silver Springs, Md.: CC-M Productions, 1997). Type 6 is motivated by its core energy of fear that is manifested in opposite (or bipolar) extremes of response - movement away from sources of fear (phobic) and movement toward sources of fear (counterphobic) as a way of obtaining psychological relief through a sense of certainty no matter if the outcome is actually helpful or not to the individual. It is a strong thinking, analytical personality with a major concern for predicting, anticipating future possibilities, mostly of a negative or threatening variety, so as to not be caught off-guard, a state of uncertainty. While most type 6 individuals tend to lean toward the phobic or the counterphobic pole for the most part, all type 6 individuals are capable of quickly jumping from one pole to the other based upon varying environments and/or circumstances. Type 6 is the classic Freudian therapy character structure and makes up a disproportionate number of individuals in the U.S. seeking both mental health and alcohol/drug counseling. Since Freud himself was a type 6, he tended to see analysis and treatment through his type 6 worldview which has had a pervasive effect on the entire world of counseling and psychology to this day. Refer to the above-mentioned volume by Riso and Hudson for an excellent, lengthy chapter describing type 6, and to the bibliography at the end of this article. Also of interest, see Judith Searle's The Literary Enneagram: Characters from the Inside Out. (Portland, Or.: Metamorphous Press, 2001), pp. 197-230, for excellent, classical literary examples of type 6. For therapy cases see Claudio Naranjo's Transformation Through Insight: Enneatypes in Life, Literature and Clinical Practice. (Prescott, Az.: Holm Press, 1997), pp. 297-345, in addition to literary examples.
2. The phobic side of type 6 is much better represented and discussed in the literature than is the counterphobic side. One of the better volume's discussing the counterphobic side along with neurotic expressions of type 6 in general is Claudio Naranjo's Character and Neurosis: An Integrative View. (Nevada City, Ca.: Gateways, 1994), pp. 222-224. Helen Palmer, a self-described counterphobic type 6, has a brief discussion in The Enneagram: Understanding Yourself and the Others in Your Life. (San Francisco: Harper SF, 1991), pp. 235-241. For a look at individual, real-life, client descriptions of counterphobics see Michael G. Huber's "Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Correlations with Enneatype-6 Alcohol or Other Drug Clients in Clinical Settings in Southeastern Wisconsin." Journal of Ministry in Addiction and Recovery, Vol. 6(2), 1999, pp. 75-100. Another excellent, real-life, counterphobic example is Bill W., cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous. His counterphobic type 6 personality is developed and described in Michael G. Huber's "The Characterological Nature of Bill W. and Alcoholics Anonymous as Depicted in the film My Name is Bill W." Journal of Ministry in Addiction and Recovery, Spring 2002. Another movie that is an excellent example of counterphobic personality is Eric Brokovich, starring Julia Roberts, herself a real-life counterphobic type 6, who plays the real-life character of the title name.
3. "Nine Women on Relationship." (Berkeley, Ca.: Workships in the Oral Tradition with Helen Palmer, 1994).
4. In many aspects type 7 is the opposite of type 6. Attention for the type 7 goes strongly toward the positive with regards to keeping life stimulating, positive and upbeat in the quest to avoid pain and boredom. The core driving energy is gluttony for stimulating thoughts and experiences. Charm is listed frequently as a major tool for relating to others, though other types exhibit "charm" as well. On the low side of the personality, "charm" is used to finesse others in order to escape facing difficult realities or to gain personal advantage. See the above listed references for full descriptions.
5. Type 8 is the most outwardly energetic of the types with the most access to anger as energy to get things done or to meet a challenge. Type 8 strongly buries its experience of personal vulnerability for the sake of being on top in a challenging situation. The main core energy is lust and typically reveals itself in aggressive behavior. In the Enneagram system adjoining personalities can affect and flavor the main personality energy in different situations and circumstances, and are called "wing" energies. Therefore, it is sometimes stated that a type 7 with a type 8 wing influence can be somewhat different than a type 7 with a type 6 influence. Riso and Hudson in Wisdom provide succinct descriptions of the these variations for each type. Since both type 8 and counterphobic type 6 are "aggressive" types, they can appear indistinguishable on the outside. In Riso and Hudson's Wisdom, a 15 item scale for each type is provided. Most of the items in the inventory for type 8 would be readily identified with by most, strong counterphobic type 6s.
6. "Inside the Director's Studio," Bravo Network, January 12, 2002.
7. Type 3 is the image-conscious, success-oriented individual typified by the entrepreneurial "motivational speaker" archetype. Energiezed by self-deceit, the unhealthy type 3 believes its true self to be the image (normally a successful one) it displays to the outside world. It has significantly lost touch with the inner world, especially the feeling life which eventually betrays the individual's difficulty in being able to make authentic connection with another, but all the while appearing as though it has. It is quite common in movies to have this confusing display of personality energies due to the screenplay writer's difficulty identifying and characterizing these energies in the performers, especially outside their own personality type.
8. Type 2 is the stongest feeling of the types and is motivated by pride, the unconscious drive to be strong so as to be important, supportive and needed by a specific, significant other. Type 2 has an inborn ability for empathic connection and is most oriented toward emotional need. Type 6 and type 2 are often confused since they both are strongly other-oriented, like to help and are "sensitive." The difference is type 2's acting from a sense of superiority in contrast to type 6's acting out of a less-than, underdog identification. Type 6's paranoid, obsessive mindset also distinguishes itself from type 2 which operates out of a trusting orientation rather than a mistrusting one.
9. Some Enneagram teachers discuss variations of the main types as affected by the classic Freudian instinctual drives: self-preservation, social and sexual. These also are mentioned and described briefly for each type by Riso and Hudson in Wisdom as well as by others. In this case, Will Hunting is a fairly straightforward case of the sexual subtype of counterphobic 6, sometimes referred to as the strength and beauty subtype. A guess for Sean is that he is a social subtype of a more phobic variety of type 6.
10. Type 4, like type 2, is also a strong feeling type with good empathic ability, but is driven by envy, placing it in an inner, less-than position, as opposed to 2's better-than position. Oriented toward the passionate, creative and unusual, 4s have difficulty overromanticizing others and specific aspects of life, leaving themselves dissatisfied with the present and longing for something in the future that will finally bring ultimate happiness. Type 4s tend to have stronger convictions than 2s and are more likely to get involved with challenge and controversy than 2s. Thus Skyla appears to move back and forth between type 2 and type 4. Since the Enneagram looks deeply into the person, many movies typically do not develop certain characters well enough to be able to tell their Enneagram types with a great deal of certainty.
11. For excellent video descriptions of type 6 and an example of a session with a real life type 6 in a live setting see "Enneagram Workshop: Tom Condon Discusses 5's, 6's, 7's." (Kansas City, Mo.: Credence Cassettes, 1997) and "Enneagram Workshop: Tom Condon Working with a Six." (Kansas City, Mo.: Credence Cassettes, 1998).
12. See note #2 in reference to Michael G. Huber's "Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Correlations with Enneatype-6." In addition to differences in subtypes of type 6, Sean would also likely be a different MBTI profile. INTJ or INTP would be the most likely possibilities. All 16 MBTI profiles are found within type 6 as a whole. M. Scott Peck, once referred to as "America's Psychiatrist," identifies himself as an INTJ and gives more than adequate evidence of being a counter-phobic type 6 in his book In Search of Stones (New York: Hyperion, 1995). In their research with members of the Association for Psychological Type, Tom Flautt and John Richards found only one representative each for INTJ and INTP for type 6. The overwhelming responses came from Type 5 for these MBTI profiles, which is, likely, reasonably accurate. See "Myers-Briggs and Enneagram Type: Their Relationship and Complementary Use." Enneagram Monthly Vol. 7, No. 9, October, 2001, pp.1, 17-19. However, it must be stated that Enneagram paper and pencil inventory tests are notoriously inaccurate, especially compared with the MBTI. For this reason well-known Enneagram teacher, psychiatrist Dr. David Daniels has wisely emphasized the use of his own inventory tool as a good insight discussion initiator rather than something to firmly nail down one's type. Accurate Enneagram typing requires personal interviewing and, frequently, repeat contacts with the individual. Even with this, frequent mistakes occur with typing.
13. "Nine Men on Relationship." (Berkeley, Ca.: Workshops in the Oral Tradition with Helen Palmer, 1994).
14. Tom Condon, "Tom Condon Discusses 5's, 6's, 7's."
15. Transcribed scenes from the movie Good Will Hunting are used by permission of Miramax Films.
16. This is the emphasis in the brief overview description of type 6 by Dr. David Daniels in the CC-M video production. See note #1.
17. "Tom Condon Discusses 5's, 6's, 7's." Also, see note #5.
18. Naranjo, Character and Neurosis, p. 221.
19. "Nine Women on Relationship."
20. "Tom Condon Working with a Six."
21. Tom Condon, "Enneagram Subtypes." Workshop at Loyola U. Chicago, Sept. 28, 29, 2001.
22. Type 1 is best described as the internally overcontrolled personality. This type, as a part of the character structure, routinely and unconsciously super controls the impulses of the Freudian id, leaving these individuals feeling and acting overly responsible. There is an eye for practical error and a reforming tendency that is often referred to as "perfectionism." In spite of the core unconscious energy being anger, anger is actually rarely shown by these individuals due to this chronic overcontrol of the impulses. The anger is best seen as available energy to take responsibility in very practical ways and in getting tasks accomplished. Like type 2, type 1 also operates out of an internally superior position. In the popular Enneagram community there is, currently, a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding regarding type 1 and type 6 - type 6 individuals excessively being typed as 1s. Because certain type 6 individuals are critical and "perfectionistic" and at times are overcontrolled, stuff emotions and act superresponsibly, they frequently get typed as 1s. The significant, important difference is that these type 1-appearing traits are only temporary based upon environmental conditions. Type 6s will also evntually reveal their inner victim identity, operating out of an inner, assumed, less-than position, while 1s operate out of a superior internal framework. And even though it's been said that 1s think they are thinking types (they are fundamentally doing types) their thinking is quite different than 6s. Type 6 thinking is defensive in nature while type 1 thinking is not. There is a significant difficulty in the popular Enneagram community today in regard to being able to distinguish between various kinds of "perfectionism" and "criticalness" and how they are psychodynamically developed and expressed. An example of this problem was evident when a woman at a recent Enneagram workshop, who had typed herself as a 1, participated in an exercise where she complained about how resentful she was that she couldn't get her husband to work on a remodeling project. This idea of getting others to be responsible is completely foreign to type 1 experience. Type 1s just go ahead, without complaint, and do the necessary task, and have a very difficult time expressing their frustrations and resentments with others. This woman was likely a type 6. A seminal article was written by John Howe who believed himself to be type 1 for years, even teaching Enneagram workshops himself before having to face the difficult reality that he was, in fact, a type 6. See "Missing the Point." Enneagram Monthly. Vol. 4, No. 7, July/August 1998, pp. 1, 28-29. In my article on "MBTI Correlations with Type 6 AODA Clients," I cite the likely errors of typing by authors Jenifer P. Schneider, MD and Brenda Schaeffer, MA in their article "The Enneagram and Addiction Recovery, Part 1." Enneagram Monthly. Vol. 3, No. 10, October 1997, pp. 1, 19-21, where the authors likely mistake type 6 individuals for type 1s.
23. In one of their earlier volumes Riso and Hudson call the type 6 "The Loyalist." Personality Types, Rev. Ed. (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Co., 1996), p. 216.
24. For descriptions of type 6 projection, see Naranjo, Character and Neurosis, pp. 238-239; Palmer, The Enneagram, pp. 250-252 and, especially, Tom Condon's video, "Tom Condon Discusses 5's, 6's, 7's."
25. Anne Linden and Murray Spaulding name the type 6, "The Skeptic-Protectionist." The Enneagram and NLP: A Journey of Evolution (Portland, Or.: Metamorphous Press, 1994), p. 71.
26. See the description of the "level one" type 6 individual as "The Valiant Hero" by Riso and Hudson in Personality Types, pp. 226-228. In addition, in his introduction to type 6, Naranjo writes, "If we use fear or cowardice to designate the ruling passion of enneatype VI, however, we need to point out, as in the case of anger and other emotions, that this important emotional state need not be directly manifested in behavior. It may be, alternatively, manifest in the over-compensation of a conscious attitude of heroic striving." Character and Neurosis, p. 223.
27. John Fudjack and Pat Dinkelaker, "The Enneagram and the MBTI: Searching for Common Ground, Part 3" Enneagram Monthly. Vol.2 No.3, March 1996, pp.12-16.
28.See note #12.
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