Type 1
Dominant Center: Body
Located in the Body Center (sometimes called the Gut Center), Type 1’s function is structured around preserving the psyche’s autonomy – maintaining separateness between self and other. At a basic level, the Body Types each represent a fixed way of responding to the Anger that arises when we feel as though our autonomy is lost, when boundaries are crossed, or when the world moves or affects us in unpleasant ways. Consequently, the Gut Types are defined by their psyche’s learned boundary that aims to protect them from being affected by their environment. The fundamental agenda of the Body Type is to manage Anger while preventing future breaches of their autonomy through how they act; as such, energy, movement, and force are the primary themes and issues that will persist throughout the life of a Body Type. The Body Center represents how much space the personality feels permitted to take up, and within that space, the Body determines how one does or does not respond to their environment.
Because boundaries are the primary concern of the Gut Types, specifically the presence or energy of these Types is notable. For Type 1, this Body energy manifests as a sharp, stiff, and tight presence. Type 1’s overly fixed method of managing Anger is to funnel it through the narrow aim of its Frustration affect (see Object Relations) and perform what they believe is the ideal action. Picture an event that disrupts the autonomy of the Body Type – where Type 8 overdoes its reaction, crushing its enemy to smithereens, and Type 9 denies the injustice, absorbing and forgetting their Anger, Type 1 responds to the offender with instruction and correction, not aiming to eliminate the enemy, but rather right him, transforming him from foe into friend. This abstraction applies broadly to how Type 1 is dealing with the world – Anger becomes the tool with which 1 corrects sources of wrongdoing in its field of view.
Passion: Wrath
Type 1s unconsciously hold themselves and others to a standard of purity, perfection, and ethical spotlessness. It’s hard for 1s to understand that this standard of goodness may not be the best thing for all, since their convictions tend to be so ruthlessly sure and static. 1s don’t always realize how stubborn and self-righteous their way of being may appear – their deep confidence in what they believe to be right mixed with their noticeable Frustration affect means 1s can come off severe, intimidating, or even scary to others, with their stern expression and direct communication style. While 1s rarely admit this, the standards they hold have godlike authority and elevation within their psyche, and this can make them overconfident or condescending in others’ eyes. This unconsciously Olympian position is why Wrath is used to describe Type 1’s Passion: they come from a place of specified criticism aimed at all things that don’t meet the high ethic of their inner moral compass, including (but almost never limited to) themselves.
Contrasted with Type 8’s blunt set of language, Type 1 has a communication style that often comes across sharp and precise. While they almost never intend to wound needlessly, Type 1s are willing to criticize others because the “need” for improvement appears constantly before them. This precise language is indicative of an inner specificity and particularity that arises from 1’s Passion of Wrath. Wrath is not personal or vindictive like Type 8’s form of Anger; rather, similar to an Old Testament God’s unswayable standard of holiness, the world around Type 1 must “cleanse” itself or be punished by the indifferent justice of a holy ideal. As a Frustration Type and a Body Type, 1s filter out of their holding environment anything that strikes an inharmonious chord within them, and this process happens automatically. Their desire for goodness is vital for improving the world, but 1s may not realize how intolerant they are of anything that causes them inner dissonance, and this can give them a reputation for being judgmental, having a holier-than-thou demeanor.
Their ever-present irritation at their environment’s blemishes (be they literal or intangible) means 1s are natural visionaries, believing deeply in their capability, purpose, and obligation to ameliorate all they come in contact with. Many 1s have an interest in design and aesthetics, or even broader forms of creativity like architecture. 1s at their root desire for beauty and goodness to abound, but their environment just is not completely fixable, meaning their visions of correctness can never truly be actualized. 1s struggle to see the cost of their faultfinding, especially when they fail to identify situations where fixing things is simply outside of their control. They frequently worsen and complicate situations with their efforts to improve everything and everyone that falls short of their greatest potential for goodness.
Because the world is ridden with dysfunction and moral corruption, 1s’ Wrath continues on, and they can end up at the mercy of their own idealism, carried daily into a cycle of vexation from which they long to be freed. In order to manage their Wrath, 1s need to learn how to live with their internal friction and find loveliness and value even in things that aren’t perfect. Type 1’s massive superego is extremely sensitive and conscious of things that cause Body-level dissonance – things that feel wrong – and this sensitivity can cause them to paint things all black or all white, preventing them from appreciating more nuanced situations. Perhaps most notably, 1s miss the truth that beauty can abound even when its holding environment isn’t the best it could be.
Hornevian Stance: Compliant
Karen Horney developed three types of personality that map effectively on to the Enneagram. Her theory suggests that everyone learns one of three responses in an attempt to get what they want. The Assertive Types (3, 7, and 8) move past (or against) others, the Compliant Types (1, 2, and 6) move toward others, and the Withdrawn Types (4, 5, and 9) move away from others in order to get what they want. Each type does this differently within their respective dominant Center. Type 1, as a Compliant Gut Type, is earning their autonomy by moving toward an ideal way of being, protecting their boundaries by means of sacrificing their desires in favor of “best” action.
The Compliant Types struggle with an overinflated superego which utilizes guilt, duty, and obligation to propel the personality forward in life. For Type 1, this Compliance stems from the Gut’s intuitive impressions of the world around it, sensing and separating what feels right from what feels wrong. Under the rule of their inflated superego, the Compliant Types tend to take action with a manner of serious conviction. While Type 6 looks to context to mentally determine what their duties are, Types 1 and 2 have much less flexible Object Relational patterns, which functionally means their convictions may appear immovable to others. Consequently, 1s and 2s can look like Know-It-Alls who unwaveringly believe they are doing the “right thing.”
For Type 1, their sense of obligation is funneled through their dominant Center: the Body. This means that 1s carry a great deal of tension and rigidity in their literal, physical posture, often holding themselves tightly, making precise movements. This can appear severe and robotic amidst a more flexible environment, and Type 1s may hear they need to loosen up, relax, or take a load off. It’s a lesson 1s would do well to learn, as this bodily tension is the physical manifestation of a tight, strained psychic grip on a sense of control.
Combining the idealism flowing from their Frustration affect with their dominance in the Body Center, 1s’ superegos create a high standard of how one must act or be. The world becomes filtered through Type 1’s sieve of morality: the good must be kept, the bad must be discarded – anything otherwise increases the friction between the dictations of Type 1’s conscience and the insufficient function of the world. This friction is inevitable, as the world is filled with wrongdoing, incompetence and other things 1s find irritating. This means their psyche is a pot of constantly simmering water – not boiling over explosively, but consistently spraying droplets of scorching water. Understandably, 1s tend to be quite harsh with all things, both with themselves and others for failing to be perfect. They may feel they are most critical of themselves, but others will likely find 1s to be harsh on the world around them, too, automatically condemning procedures, objects, and even people that don’t measure up to their high standards.
Because their gigantic superego is rooted in sensations of the Body Center, Type 1s can fall prey to irrational compulsions that quell the dissonance in their Gut. Deeply neurotic Type 1s may be susceptible to obsessive-compulsive tendencies, carrying out actions that are not logical yet temporarily diminish their unexplainable psychic itch. This is the truth of Type 1’s need to be perfect: their superego is so exclusively referenced internally that others’ affirmations or encouragements have very little to do with the way Type 1s feel about themselves. Their standard of perfection is not affected by other people or institutions. As a Frustrated Compliant Type, 1 is the meeting point of an idealistic, dissatisfied perspective and strict standard of how to act. Functionally, this means 1s tend to feel regularly dissatisfied with how most everything functions.
Harmonic Style: Competency
The Harmonic Styles refer to how the nine types learn to unconsciously handle life as it confronts them with unpleasant realities. While the Positive Outlook Types (2, 7, and 9) use optimism, denial, and reframing and the Reactive Types (4, 6, and 8) use pessimism, emotional expression, and skepticism to handle their problems, the Competency Types (1, 3, and 5), by contrast, aim to leave their perspective unskewed by bias, and hope to see the world in an objective and neutral lens. To their own detriment, this aim at objectivity is actually a distortion of reality, but the Competency Types utilize this neutrality to believe that they can independently handle the challenges life throws at them, not emotionally reacting or blurring the reality of problems with rose-colored glasses.
The Competency Types end up out of touch with their more sensitive feelings. For 1 as a Body Type, this neutrality is a response to feelings of Anger: their psyche mutates rage into a more useful form: dissatisfaction and irritation. Picture Anger as a hose turned on, water pouring consistently out. Type 1 functions as a thumb pressed down on the nozzle, narrowing the flow and strengthening the pressure of the stream of water. 1’s Anger manifests as sharp, high-pressure jetstream, and understandably, others around them can experience this Anger as needlessly severe. It’s important to understand that this violent stream is a response to high internal pressure.
Competency Types neutralize their perspective with a focus on excellence and mastery. Many 1s can be intensely task-oriented, and in combination with their Frustration affect, this means they can be extremely particular about process and procedure, feeling the need to ensure whatever they are doing is done “perfectly.” Contrasted with Type 3’s need to be seen as perfect, 1s have little need or interest in others seeing and praising their efforts. Rather, this obsession with perfection is aimed at scratching that internal itch in the Gut which asserts there is a specific way to act. Type 1s are intensely hard on themselves, but not to meet others’ standards – as a Frustration Type, their Object Relation dictates a constant referencing of one’s inner vision. Type 1s tend to abhor working with others, most notably those who aren’t as committed to their thoroughness and integrity of work. Often they prefer to just work on projects alone, since they come to learn that others just won’t perform at the standard to which 1s adhere.
Because of their commitment to doing things well, along with their tendency to be intolerant and critical of all things that don’t meet their standards, Type 1s can end up with a reputation for being too harsh, judgmental, and unfeeling in their relationships. 1s can function similar to an objective decider, a judge who carries out the law and refuses to be partial or get too involved. Type 1’s ultimate commitment is to their inner boundaries, and it can be nigh impossible to sway their positions and beliefs.
Object Relation: Frustration
(with the Protecting Object)
Type structure is built through a learned way of orienting toward the world through an Object Relation, which is a dynamic that forms as a child learns how they relate toward their parent(s). As a Compliant Type, 1 is oriented toward the Protecting Object, who metaphorically is Father, the one who provides the child with a sense of confidence in their own ability to move into the world to pursue their own dreams, agendas, and plans, guiding them along the way. However, every child receives and absorbs some form of wounding from their parents, and their psyche consequently learns to orient toward the world through an internalized Object – a distorted minimization of what should be the parent. This Object is not a full person; rather, the Object is a representation of the supplier of the child’s needs that did not do its job. The Protecting Object is meant to be a function that encourages and brings independence to the child by cultivating their individuation, a need which Type 1’s psyche does not perceive to be met.
The Compliant Types experience a perceived wound from the Protecting Object when they begin to learn how to move toward the things they desire, but feel unsupported in their attempts to make autonomous, self-motivated decisions. This sense of hurt from being overlooked by Father leaves the ego feeling as though it is unable – or perhaps, unallowed – to charge toward its own goals and wants. As such, the Compliant Types learn to do not what they most want, but what they feel is morally obligatory or necessary. This means that a pattern of guilt underpins Types 1, 2, and 6. When the Protecting Object fails to support and guide the child, Type 2 Rejects Him, Type 6 Attaches to Him, but Type 1 becomes Frustrated with Him.
As an Object Relational affect, Frustration refers to the ego response that departs from the parent’s insufficient provision, causing the child to try securing these resources for themselves. However, the child’s immaturity causes them to seek in excess the resources they once lacked, not knowing when enough is enough. The Frustration Type’s psyche remembers what they initially wanted and refuses to accept reality in any form that does not match their “memory”, meaning life for them becomes a never-ending search. An inner target persists within the Frustration Type, transforming everything into an arrow flying toward it. This dynamic produces a sensitive and constant measuring of how close or far reality is to the target’s bullseye – the psyche’s ideal. Needless to say, Frustration Types become hinged upon finding the arrow that hits the bullseye, and dismissing all the “misses” in favor of the rare and precious “hits”.
The Protecting Object ideally sets up safety nets and guardrails that allow a child to foster their own independent will; Father is meant to put training wheels on as the child learns to bike. The Compliant Types feel Father does not do a good enough job protecting them and forming boundaries to guard against “wrong” choices that might derail them from their goal. Through the Frustration affect, Type 1’s psyche becomes preoccupied with creating those boundaries as a way of “Fathering” themselves. Here lies the crux of Type 1’s neurosis: as the child aims to find the best way to move toward the goals on their own, they lose sight of their desires and become obsessed with creating the boundaries that ought to have been established by the Protecting Object. This over-management of their internal environment results in an over-binding of the self, and unsurprisingly, this often leads to a severe appearance and tight, rigid body language in Type 1s.
It’s imperative to note how Frustration Types (1, 4, and 7) do not know when to stop seeking for themselves that which their psyche felt was lacking from the Object. Within Type 1, the stern, guarding, and guiding function of the Protecting Object becomes the resource they oversupply to themselves, and consequently to others. Type 1’s Anger becomes the vehicle with which these boundaries are enforced, and unsurprisingly, it causes them to be very strict with themselves. While many types can relate to being hard on themselves (most notably 3s and 6s), it must be remembered that Type 1’s harshness is an eternal tightness in their Body, not an impulse to measure up to standards held by other people or external authorities.
The personality’s inner world is not reality; Type 1’s ideal sense in the Gut of how the world ought to be creates a constant friction with the actuality of the world outside of them. This pattern of incongruence between the personality’s ideal and the disappointing world is the defining trait of the Frustration affect of Types 1, 4, and 7. Because 1 is a Compliant Type, its Frustration is funneled through the high and tight standards of a hulking superego. Type 1 is therefore, at some level, always irritated by the ways the world around them is not aligned with the vibrational “knowing” within that indicates to them what’s right and what’s wrong.
Common Misconceptions
Enneagram type structure is rarely understood at an elemental level. Without knowing the “bones” of a type, many supposed Enneagram teachers have written terribly misleading descriptions of each type. No type is an exception to this issue, so by examining the specific parts of 1, we hope to re-illustrate some of the more confusing or inaccurate conceptions of this type.
Type 1’s tendency to see things as too black-or-white through an overly moralistic perspective is a quality that other types may relate to, most notably Type 6. Type 6 is another Compliant Type answering to a severe superego, standing on principles of right and condemning what they deem wrong. An important distinction between these types is that 6 is a Head Type, meaning their superego filter is controlled by what they mentally think is wrong. Their outsourced Head Center, and the sources from which 6 pull their beliefs, becomes the determinant of what they deem right or wrong. Type 1, by contrast, is answering to a superego in the Body Center. The Body does not appeal to intellectual sources, meaning their standards come from an immovable “knowing” or sensing within their gut, and not from a conceptualized map, as with Type 6. Practically, this means that 6’s principles are informed by external trusted sources, whereas 1’s principles come from the instinctual responses of what “feels” right in their Body.
Type 1 is often referred to as “the perfectionist” that suffers from a harsh inner critic. While it’s true that Type 1s are very strict with themselves, their standards are sourced from the body, meaning their sense of obligation is a response to instinct, not thought – so 1’s “right” actions feel obvious, clear, and natural to them. The idea of an “inner critic” denotes an internalized voice in the mind that makes demands that are at odds with one’s true desires. This is not the function of Type 1 – again, this behavior is more typical of Type 6. While 6 can be extremely moralistic, concerned, strict, and serious like Type 1, their superego is a product of the internalized perspectives in the Head Center. As such, many 6s suffer from a harsh inner critic – the internalized voices (a psychological authority) 6s feel they must obey compete with each other, making it challenging for 6s to determine what they believe they must do; all the while they are anticipating the response of the authority (see Attachment affect). 1s, by contrast, have virtually immediate access to what feels right and what feels wrong. Because their superegoic demands stem from their Body Center, 1s are not “determining” anything; rather, they are sensing something nonverbal and automatically aligning themselves with it.
It’s very unlikely true Type 1s would be deemed critical and harsh of themselves but not critical of others. Their Frustration affect means their dissatisfaction is constantly leaking through their presence, facial responses, and language. Regardless, it must be noted that 1s tend to boil with rage toward themselves when they feel they have failed to align with their own standards – but this does not extend to the standards of others. In fact, 1s are often indifferent to disappointing others, so long as they believe their actions are consistent with their Bodily sense of moral truth. Such impartiality is particularly painful for those who love Type 1s, since others’ disappointment seems to evoke responses that appear cold, robotic, or apathetic. Type 1s are rarely answering to anyone but their own internal ethic, so their choices and perspectives can be immovable, even when in need of recalibration.