Type 5
Dominant Center: Head
As a Head Type, 5 is primarily concerned with its own mentalized function of how to operate in the world with everything that is unknown to the self, managing the Fear that arises when the psyche must guess at what is yet to be uncovered. For Type 5, the response to Fear is a neutral, detached positioning of themselves that allows them to watch the world from afar, paying extra attention to the parts that intrigue them yet remaining far enough away to keep themselves invulnerable to Fear-inducing phenomena. Type 5s pull themselves away from the world, withholding themselves from it, lest the anxieties of being a fully engaged, human participant will send them into a state of frightening vulnerability.
In the context of the Head Center’s need for security, Type 5 narrows its range of focus excessively, investigating the concepts, people groups, organisms, or any sort of conceptual structure that intrigues them. 5s hope to become experts in their preferred field, not for the attention that such excellency could garner for them, but for the sense of extreme confidence and psychic control 5s find by remaining in the mental territory they “own.” Type 5 (along with Types 2 and 8) is a Rejection Type, meaning they utilize a sense of possession within their dominant Center of Intelligence as a means of ensuring their needy parts are concealed. 5s spend nearly all their time mastering their area of expertise, so that when they do choose to engage with the world through their specific lens, they can “guarantee” they won’t be exposed or unsafe.
Passion: Avarice
Because Type 5’s management of Fear necessitates disengaging from the world to a large degree, this type has a particularly difficult time being fully embodied and present to their reality in a form other than their preferred state of hyper-focused mentation. As a Withdrawn Type, 5’s orientation toward the Belonging Object is the root of their struggles with being a full person. The Belonging Object’s insufficient provision of “family” is why Type 5 is at odds with the concept of being united with the broader world (as opposed to Type 9’s full-immersion Attachment affect toward the Belonging Object). Type 5’s response is a complete removal of the world’s access to their needy parts – most obviously, their need for belonging. By removing their need (or at least, their consciousness of their need) to be a person who belongs in the world, Type 5 metaphorically removes their human life in favor of a robotic one. As a Competency Type, 5 has an intrinsic commitment to seeing the world neutrally, perfecting and mastering their own specific niche. This unbiased tone limits their experience, their perception of the world being drained of some color in exchange for the cool safety of their detachment.
This Rejection of their own need for the broader world means 5s are often unwilling to engage with people in the ways others want, lest their true need be exposed and Type 5 find themselves unsafe again. This withholding of themselves is Type 5’s Passion of Avarice (or Greed). While a physical hoarding form Avarice can occur for some 5s (typically those who are Self-Preservation-dominant), this Passion is more indicative of the hidden agreement Type 5 has made with the world. 5 agrees to never plague the outside world with their needy parts, but in exchange expects the world to not make demands of them. Instead, they prefer to only interact with the world within the confines of their psychic “contract,” which limits their engagement to spaces where 5s feel exceedingly confident and secure in their own Competence.
This dynamic means many 5s have difficulty maintaining relationships with others over time, as connection forces them out of their independent detachment and into a space where their needs risk burdening others and others’ needs risk burdening them. As such, 5s (even those who are Social-dominant) find themselves out of touch with the functions of friendships or romantic connections that are expected by less alien types. Being thrust into the complications of managing relationships – especially in moments where others become dissatisfied with Type 5’s inaccessibility – can provoke 5s to Withdraw further into their own mental world, finding people’s relational wants too heavy to carry.
When deeply entrenched in their neurosis, Type 5s tend to have distinctly schizoid demeanors, often communicating in monotone and indifferent language. Many 5s can talk about their own extremely sensitive or personal matters as though they are reading a case study rather than recounting their own life. As Rejection Types, 5s become so alienated from their sensitive parts that events that ought to impact them emotionally become intellectualized, each one another specimen trapped in amber which Type 5 can enjoy observing without having to touch its messy parts. While their delivery of their traumas may be perceived by others as funny, bizarre, or jarring behavior, 5s rarely take on this indifference as an intentional choice at being entertaining or off-putting.
Their unbiased affect is instead an intuitive function of Type 5’s personality: by removing themselves from the more “human” responses available to them, 5s have mastery and control over even the most violent, traumatic, or unthinkable forms of pain that have occurred in their lives. The severance of their own need for belonging is consequently a severance of their own humanity. Unsurprisingly, Type 5s have significant problems surrounding actually feeling – both in the Body Center and the Heart Center – the sensations and emotions that life naturally induces.
Many 5s become indifferent even to their own care; upkeep of their mental or physical health can take a backseat to Type 5’s Head Center preoccupations. Learning to come into contact with the parts of themselves that are in need of resources (outside of 5’s mastered realm) demands a maturity many 5s lack: a willingness to release the tight grip they have on their presence, attention, and time – that is, their Avarice – in favor of a full life.
Hornevian Stance: Withdrawn
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 against (or past) others, the Compliant Types (1, 2, and 6) move toward others, and the Withdrawn Types (4, 5, and 9) move away from others. Each type does this differently within their respective dominant Center. Type 5, as a Withdrawn Head Type, pulls away from others as a means of limiting contact with Fear-inducing phenomena.
Some argue that Type 5 is the most introverted type, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find 5s with more extraverted personalities (most notably those who are Self-Preservation-blind). Nonetheless, even more sociable 5s hold the world at a distance, ensuring that they have sufficient time to prepare for engagement. The Withdrawn Types have been deemed “past-oriented” by some Enneagram theorists, since they show up to reality late, responding after the events of the present moment have passed them by. For Type 5, this lateness is not something they regret – by missing out on the world outside of them, 5s find themselves free to conceptually explore the concepts they explore.
The specific niche 5s occupy can vary between people of this core type, but without fail, Type 5’s interests are narrow and deeply investigated. This creates a stark contrast with the function of the other Head Types: while Types 6 and 7 also can have great interest in intellectualism or studying obscure topics, those in the upper side of the Head Center (6w7s or 7s) necessarily have broader interests, going through phases of study with plenty of channel-changes. However, as a Withdrawn Type, 5s have decreased interaction with the world, meaning they can develop mastery in their niche with few external interruptions. When others do start to encroach upon Type 5’s privacy, they retreat into the labyrinthine recesses of their inner fortress, severing contact with those outside its walls.
Rather than wanting to become knowledgeable on the perspectives of other experts in their field of interest, 5s seek to find undiscovered gems of their conceptual world. Unlike the vague fantasies of Type 9’s inner world, 5s dwell in a psychic palace with intricate, nuanced theories of their own making, taking one concept they enjoy and expounding upon it until it is something never-before-seen. Where Type 6 seeks to find what is true in their research, Type 5’s Rejection of the Belonging Object inhibits them from finding much credibility in preexisting work, especially when contrasted with their own discoveries. Herein lies a vital element of Type 5’s function: from the Withdrawn protection of their detachment, 5s learn to trust themselves invariably, and this makes them naturally independent by nature.
Harmonic Style: Competency
The Harmonic Styles refer to how the nine types learn to unconsciously handle life as it confronts them with unideal 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) aim to leave their perspective unskewed by bias and hope to operate from an objective and neutral lens, regardless of internal thoughts and feelings. To their own detriment, this aim at objectivity is, in itself, a distortion of reality, but the Competency Types utilize this unaffected point of view as a way of trying to believe that they can handle the challenges life throws at them without emotionally reacting or blurring the world with rose-colored glasses.
As discussed above, there’s a certain cold, robotic approach in the function of the Competency structures. For Type 5, this neutrality is rooted in their dominant Head Center. This means that 5s have a commitment to objectivity in their method of managing Fear. This language can easily be misinterpreted, as many 6s would resonate with a desire to see things objectively; 6s want truth, a desire which sends them outward to gather information and ensure they’ve referenced enough outside sources to correctly inform their perspective. But 5s, by contrast, see any outsourcing of their perspective to other people, institutions, or concepts to be a dilution of true neutrality. Type 6’s Reactivity propels them into what Type 5 would consider to be a biased panic. Type 5 is instead committed to a perspective where the subjectivity of others’ human fallibility – and Type 5’s own human fallibility – is minimized to the highest possible degree.
This commitment to seeing things without distortion is in alignment with Type 5’s preference to remain unentangled by the neediness of others and themselves. However, 5’s distant approach to understanding the world is rooted in a secret fear that if they were to bring their whole personhood to the table, they would be rejected by the world. Along with their Rejection Type siblings (Types 2 and 8), 5s are often detached even from the awareness of this fear of being too needy for the outside world to handle. This lack of awareness Rejection Types have of their needs is why they can present as overly intense or overconfident to other people. What remains within Type 5’s conscious awareness is the part of themselves in which they can feel confident, Competent, and anything but needy – their extensively investigated realms of expertise. Consequently, 5s tend to bring almost every conversation in which they engage back to the topics they find interesting, guaranteeing that in every setting, they’ll be the expert.
It’s easy to mistake this need for expertise as a desire to be seen as smart or respectable. It’s not to say 5s avoid such an appearance, but unlike Type 3’s desire for mastery and the acclaim it will earn them, Type 5 seeks expertise because it is the only way they know how to feel safe. When they completely understand the ins and outs of a topic, Type 5 can feel as though they are not at all at the mercy of unknown threats that might crop up. Of course, complete mastery of everything is impossible – and since 5s typically refuse to participate in fields where they don’t feel Competent or prepared, there are many topics and environments where they just aren’t ready to engage. They instead pull away from the world to devote their time and resources to their conceptual projects.
Object Relation: Rejection
(of the Belonging Object)
Type structure is built through a learned way of orienting toward the world called an Object Relation, a dynamic that forms as a child discovers how they relate to their parent(s). Six of the nine types orient themselves to an Object representing either Mother or Father, but the Withdrawn Types (4, 5, and 9) are oriented toward the space the child finds between Mother and Father, unconsciously creating a third Object: the Belonging Object. 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 Belonging Object provides the child with a sense of holding, home, family, and welcome: a place to exist, fully present, and be human.
For Type 5, as a Rejection Type, this need for belonging has been severed from their consciousness. What remains is an orphaned child, having no home, no place to belong, but no interest in finding it, either. There’s a real alien quality Type 5 always has, and it’s rooted in this Object Relation – though Type 5 still does need a place to belong, their ego is so out of touch with this need that they feel indifferent to the idea of it. Contrast Type 5’s Rejection affect with the affect of Type 9’s Attachment to the “holding” provided by the Belonging Object. Where 9 feels perpetually responsible for a sense of unity within self and outside of self, Type 5 feels just the opposite, finding themselves entirely apathetic to the psychic family’s presence. This is why Type 5 struggles with relationships – the space of connection and holding that most people find in friendships and romantic relationships holds no immediate psychic value for the ego structure of Type 5. Every once in a while, 5s come into contact with their own need for relationship to the outside world, but for the most part, they find themselves content in their alienation.
The Rejection Types are characterized by a personality monopolized by their dominant Center of Intelligence, which stands as the only realm of reality in which the Rejection Type can forget the reality of their psyche’s wound. For example, Type 8 feels Rejected by the Nurturing Object, blinding themselves to their own need for Mother’s tender love and seeing, and they retreat to the Body space – Father’s comfortable realm of autonomy, independence, and will. Type 2 is Type 8’s opposite: feeling Rejected by the Protecting Object, they remove their sense of need for Father’s support and cheerleading, as well as their own need for an autonomous self and will; they then retreat to the comfortable, unwounded Heart space, where they model a self based on Mothering. Type 5, however, rejects neither Father nor Mother but the familial space formed between them – the Belonging Object.
This dynamic is what creates their sense of apathy toward really belonging – even Type 5s who are Social-dominant will keep the broader world at arm’s length. While 5s may want relationships with others, there’s a risk held in truly being known by others. The Rejection Types unconsciously aim to remain in control of every dynamic they enter: Type 8, as an Assertive Type, demands this control through an expansive presence, and Type 2, as a Compliant Type, earns this control through an image of generosity, but Type 5, as a Withdrawn Type, moves away from others and withholds themselves as a means of holding power. It’s common for 5s to conceal personal information and more vulnerable parts of themselves (or at least, the parts that feel vulnerable) even in their more intimate relationships. As such, it can be quite difficult for others to truly get to know a Type 5, as they are secretly (and often unintentionally) holding a tight leash on the parts of themselves that others can see and access.
Herein lies the essence of Type 5’s Passion: Avarice is a possessiveness of self, a concealing and hoarding of their own essence and intellectual pursuits. The Rejection Types do have a true desire to offer something to others, and as such, many 5s have aims of contributing to others (and the world) in a meaningful way. However, Avarice restrains Type 5 into only “helping” the world from a place of complete detachment and separation. 5s are unwilling to part ways with their indifference to the Belonging Object’s resource: a true, safe place to land, and a family to come home to.
This becomes a common catch-22 for Type 5s: they have profound and unique insights they could offer others, but whether they recognize it or not, they insist on engaging with the world through one specific realm: the Head Center. As such, it’s common for 5s to want to interact with others through the lens of their own intellectual interests while avoiding other forms of “knowing” others or being known by them. When others try to pull 5s out of their preferred realm into more emotional or active territory, the response tends to be a monotone and deadpan absence of engagement. This hyper-intellectual and narrow realm of focus, as well as discomfort with their own wet, emotional, and human needs perpetuates the Rejection Type dynamic for 5s. They mandate that others relate to them not as people, but as floating brains, putting forth the symbols of their own abstracted insights in place of their true personhood.
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 5, we hope to re-illustrate some of the more confusing or inaccurate conceptions of this type.
Perhaps the first and most regular misunderstanding people have about Type 5 is that Type 5 is a classic academic. While it’s true that 5s are deeply invested in cultivating the studies they’ve given themselves to, they don’t at all fit the world of traditional academia. The nature of fitting in any world is at odds with Type 5’s Object Relation described above, as their perspectives will continually be formed independently, without feeling much of a need to cite their sources. An external network poses threats to Type 5’s safe detachment. Type 6, by contrast, feels obligated to prove their perspectives with preexisting, reliable, and well-established resources, making them a much better candidate for academia.
Many Type 9s mistype as 5s, too, primarily because of a horrendously inaccurate depiction in much literature written about Type 5. Many teachers of Enneagram theory have inappropriately illustrated 5 as a type obsessed with maintaining their strict boundaries. While it’s true that 5s enjoy their privacy, preoccupation with boundaries is a behavior rooted in the Body Center. Types 8, 9, and 1 are the types aiming to remain undisrupted by the world at large. A fear of intrusion is a fear of boundaries being crossed, a fear 5s don’t have to the same degree as the Body Types, since they dwell in the Head Center. The Head Types, ultimately, are concerned with finding security, not autonomy. 5s aren’t militant about boundaries because they rarely even have a clear sense of their own embodied existence – they exist in such a mentalized state that they often miss moments where Body Types would feel disturbed by their environment.