Both the Enneagram AND the MBTI can be used to identify the personality type of one or more of the 'subpersonalities' that reside within an individual. This option can be utilized to great analytical and therapeutic advantage. But the fact that these instruments CAN be used in this way does not entitle us to conclude that they SHOULD be used in this way. Neither does it justify a conclusion that one or the other instrument should be used either EXCLUSIVELY , or even PRIMARILY for such purposes. But this is precisely what Pat Wyman implies. Her theory, which asserts that the Enneagram types a special 'part' of the individual that is associated with their 'defense system' ¹ has led others to make false claims about the relationship between the Enneagram and the MBTI, which should be carefully re-considered.

Section One: Typing Subpersonalities

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The MBTI can be used in a way similar to the way in which Pat Wyman uses the Enneagram in her therapeutic practice. Imagine that you have had a rather involved dream in which a number of characters appear. In Jungian fashion, you could identify particular characters in your dream as parts of yourself - your anima may appear as a young postal worker, your 'shadow' a mean-spirited uncle (or aunt). Even your 'ego' could show up as an 'other', in a possible endless variety of roles, depending upon who, in fact, you are - a timid clerk, an outspoken TV anchor person, whatever.

On occasion it is helpful to ask what MBTI type a particular dream character might be. Was the guy in the dream who chased you with the knife an introverted intuitive? Was the endearing elderly aunt an ENTP?

It also makes good sense, since it can be quite helpful in understanding oneself, to try to indentify the personality 'type' of one's own anima, shadow, ego, and persona in general. If you are an INFJ, like Wyman and myself, it would not be surprising if shadow figures were typically to show up as one of the INFJs typological 'opposites' - the ESTP, for instance. Although anima figures might, generally speaking, appear as a wider variety of types, individuals appear to establish specific preference patterns. It would not surprise me, reader, if the anima figures in your dreams are not often of the same 'personality type' as the persons in your life with who you have (or would like to have) romantic relations - your spouse, for example.

I myself have used the MBTI to analyze movies by typing characters AS IF THEY WERE SUB-PERSONALITIES OF THE WRITER. An example of such a movie analysis is posted on this site. But whether one is typing subpersonalities that belong to one's self or to another, it is important not to mistake a subpersonality of the individual for the INDIVIDUAL AS A WHOLE. I may recognize the shadow figure in my dream as an ESTP, but if someone were to ask me what MBTI type I am it would be terribly misleading, at the very least, if I were to say 'I am an ESTP'.

But this is, in effect, what Wyman seems to be doing. She argues, for instance, that her client, 'Kory', IS an Enneagram Eight because her shadow side, which is argumentative, assertive, and demanding, can be identified as an Enneagram Eight. And wittingly or unwittingly she extrapolates from these cases and advocates that we see this function as the primary and exclusive use of the Enneagram. We must disagree with Wyman, and assert that only in cases in which the individual's shadow side has taken over, or threatens to do so, does it make sense to say that the personality type of the shadow is the personality type of the individual as a whole. Granted, in Wyman's line of work she is more likely to see a comparatively inordinate number of such cases. But this does not mean that in ALL cases the individual's overall personality type is the type of their 'shadow'. Nor does it justify a generalization asserting that it is UNIVERSALLY TRUE that it is the exclusive, or even primary, purpose of the Enneagram to type the shadow side of the individual (or the 'defense system' that is intimately associated with it).

Section Two: Wyman's Theory

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What Wyman is proposing, although she does not call it by its name, is a theory regarding the nature of the Enneagram, and its relationship between the Enneagram and the MBTI. As in the case of all theory, the mere fact that she asserts that it is true does not make it so. Theories require proof - and this entails gathering empirical evidence and presenting a convincing argument that the evidence indeed supports the theoretical claim that one is making. Wyman, so far, has not done this. She has presented some anecdotal case studies that are insightful and interesting, and perhaps even good grounds for ENTERTAINING the hypothesis and subjecting it to further investigation. But she has not presented either adequate empirical evidence, or a convincing argument, for the position that what the Enneagram 'profiles' (to use her words), is primarily or exclusively the 'Defense System' of the individual, whereas what the MBTI 'profiles' is the individual as a whole, or what she calls the 'Core Self'. ¹

Empirical Evidence

What kind of empirical evidence would be relevant? Evidence showing that when an individual (any individual - not just one's who are in crisis) takes the Enneagram, his or her scores will identify an Enneagram type that aptly characterizes the individual's 'shadow' side. It is interesting, in this regard, that all of the examples that Wyman uses in her articles are of individuals who have Enneagram types which, if you believe the prototypes that Pat Dinkelaker and I have used to characterize each Enneazone, are in conflict with their MBTI types. 'Paula' is an ENFP, but is typed by Wyman as an Enneagram 'One', which we have characterized as a strong 'J' type that statistically appears to have a greater concentration of ISTJs (the exact opposite of the ENFP) than any other Enneagram type. 'Korey' is an ESFP, but is typed by Wyman as an Enneagram Eight (to Michael Huber's consternation, I might add). Indeed, Wyman herself, an INFJ, self-identifies as an Enneagram 'Three' (which, according to Pat and I, is best characterized by the ESTP - the diametrical opposite of the INFJ!).

Wyman seems not to be unaware of the fact that these cases, including her own, appear to express a conflict of some sort. About her client, 'Paula', Wyman says:

The qualities of an ENFP are rather different from that of the Enneagram One. The ENFP is a free spirit, creative, spontaneous, insightful, disorganized, dramatic, fun-loving, imaginative, non-conforming and definitely not neat. Paula recognized that part of herself almost like someone from her distant past. The ENFP certainly had not been fully present in her life for as long as she could remember. The qualities of the One and the ENFP were at war with each other within her with the One winning hands down.