Type and False Identity

Two-day workshop with Helen Palmer
Date and location to be announced.

Please see current schedule for other Enneagram workshops in the Narrative Tradition. 

Personal identity is “who I think I am.” It’s a self-concept that builds in childhood and expresses itself in ways that make people of the same type look very different from each other. All Twos, for example, reach out to meet the needs of others, but some Twos identify with assisting powerful people, while others are identified with helping the underclass.

On panels, people of the same type express the same point of view, yet each speaker also projects his or her own unique identity. No two speakers are ever the same as each brings one’s own personal history, cultural background and special quality of charisma to the interview.

Once formed, we rarely question our identity. It is so much “who we are” that we do not recognize it as a highly sophisticated construct built from imagination, imitation and a need to be appreciated. Our identifications protect us from feelings of anxiety, discomfort and uncertainty about facing the unknown. Yet the same identifications that insure emotional continuity also bind us to ordinary consciousness.

Many of the activities in this workshop depend upon the aspect of consciousness commonly called the inner observer. Through short panels, interactive dyads and type group exercises, you will see how psychological mirroring, idealization and placement of attention interact to maintain personal identity. Throughout, we will return to the spiritual practices of dis-identification, which distinguish between spiritual being and “who I think I am.”

Psychological-Spiritual Curriculum overview

Other topics:
Projection
Presence and Self-Forgetting
Spiritual Antidotes
Virtues of the Heart
Retrieving the Holy Ideas
A Spiritual Strategy for People in Relationships
Type and Intuition
The Enneagram for Counselors, Spiritual Directors and People Working with Others

Trifold School current offerings

San Francisco Bay Area workshops and classes