posted September 16, 2012 08:45 PM            

Type Description

People of enneatype Eight are essentially unwilling to be controlled, either by others or by their circumstances; they fully intend to be masters of their fate, to "take charge," to do whatever needs to be done. Eights are competitive, strong willed, decisive, expansive, practical, and tough minded. Eights typically have an enormous amount of energy and frequently have powerful physical appetites. There is an unapologetically expansive quality to the physical presence of the type Eight personality. Eights generally don't have to announce their presence for others to know they are there. The central problem for individuals of enneatype Eight is that the need to avoid being controlled can manifest in the need to control, the need to be "in charge," the compulsion to dominate. This can lead to all sorts of practical difficulties, as the world is not always liable to conform to the dictates of the Eight's will, but the deeper problem for the Eight is that the need to avoid any semblance of being controlled can rob the Eight of the fluidity, receptivity and acceptance that is generally necessary to live a full, balanced and truly happy life.

Eights often experience life as a struggle for existence in which only the fittest survive. Life thus dictates competition from the point of view of the Eight, and Eights naturally intend to be the ones who survive. They typically adopt a survival strategy that involves either a rise to the top of the existing hierarchy, or an "opting out" altogether of the current system and its structures of power. Eights of the former sort are typically found in positions of leadership, whether it be of their own family, company or political party. Eights of the latter sort tend to be independent contractors, free-lancers of all sorts, and even outlaws - those who, in other words, exist outside of the accepted framework of civil society and its often artificial system of rules and obligations. Eights of both basic tendencies need to feel financially independent, and while most Eights do manage to find some means of making peace with their society, they always retain an uneasy association with any hierarchical relationship which does not position the Eight at the top.

While some Eights adopt something of the "lone wolf" persona, most Eights have quite a number of social connections, whether to family members, friends or business connections. Eights are very much present in the world and are frequently extroverts. True intimacy however does not come easily or naturally to Eights. Soft and tender emotions tend to make Eights feel "weak," and, more to the point, intimacy requires Eights to lower their defenses and thereby become vulnerable. Vulnerability, in turn, triggers the Eight's fear of being controlled. Thus, intimate relations are often the arena in which the Eight's control issues are most obviously played out. Questions of trust assume a pivotal position. Eights tend to test their intimates to see if they are worthy, to see if they can be trusted not to betray the Eight's confidence. Betrayal is absolutely intolerable to Eights and any hint of it can provoke a powerful retaliatory response. Eights are looking, ideally, both for someone they can respect and someone they can protect, a paradoxical combination to be sure, but, while the Eight's loneliness can only be assuaged by finding an equal, the Eight's feelings of vulnerability can best be assuaged if they know that their intimates depend on them. While Eights do not trust easily, if they do admit someone into the inner sanctum, they generally prove to be stalwart friends and steadfast allies. Not all Eights do form truly intimate relationships however, as some Eights are simply unwilling or unable to compromise their sense of self-sufficiency.

Eights are often prone to anger, one of the few feelings they allow themselves to feel in its pure form. As mentioned, the experience of tender emotions such as compassion, love, sorrow, melancholy and pity can cause the Eight to feel vulnerable, as such emotions are caused by, and in turn cause, a feeling of ego permeability and "openness." Anger, on the other hand, embodies a feeling of being in opposition to the world and, at least as the Eight experiences it, a sense of the importance of overcoming that opposition. In the Eight's experience of anger, ego boundaries are consolidated, the world kept in opposition, and the Eight focused on domination. The ability to accept the more tender emotions into consciousness, far from being a weakness is actually a sign of true strength. In this light it is worth remembering that one of Gurdjieff's students, J.G.Bennett, noted that at the end of his life, Gurdjieff's face wore the saddest expression he had ever seen. (Perhaps it looked something like the face of Johnny Cash as he sang Trent Reznor's "Hurt.")

Eights frequently consider "morality" to be just one more means by which society attempts to exert illegitimate control over them. It is, they reason, the weapon that the constitutionally weak use to keep the naturally strong "in line." Eights, like counterphobic Sixes, are suspicious of rules, and often take an oppositional stance to authority. But, as Eights are generally strategic, they seldom take on a battle they know they cannot win. Their rebellion and lack of respect for "the rules" therefore, is often camouflaged. While Eights tend not to respect external systems of rules, they often have their own internal sense of right and wrong, which consists of personal loyalties and freely chosen commitments. These the Eight will fight to protect. Eights are often said to have an internal sense of "justice," and it is true that Eights are acutely aware of the ways in which power is used and abused. When unhealthy, they are perfectly willing to misuse power however. Only the strong survive, and whoever gets in the Eight's way might have to be sacrificed to the Eight's ambition. Healthy Eights however develop a generosity of character which is almost the direct opposite of the unhealthy Eight's selfish self-assertion. Healthy Eights, those Eights who have developed the capacity to love, are among the most generous character types in the Enneagram. Martin Luther King should be considered in this regard. He found power in restraint and strength in humility. Unhealthy Eights, on the other hand, are the most brutal of the enneatypes. Unhealthy Eights are bullies who enjoy intimidating those whom they see as weak and who feel little compunction about walking over anyone who crosses their path. They are crude, brutal, dangerous and grotesquely insensitive to the feelings of others. An element of sadism frequently enters the picture, sadism being a clear and obvious manifestation of the attempt to attain power by means of domination and humiliation; a weakness posing as strength.

In the traditional Enneagram, the passion of type Eight is said to be "lust." This should not be confused with the insistent desire to enjoy the pleasures of the senses, sexual or otherwise, which is more characteristic of the gluttony of type Seven. The lust of type Eight has an expansive quality to it - rather than the need to "take in," the lust of type Eight manifests in the need to push outwards- to assert the self in order to attain the objects of desire. As with the passions of all the enneatypes, the term should not be read in its narrow or conventional sense, and the lust of type Eight need not manifest sexually. When it does, the Eight often finds it difficult to marry the often enormous desire for purely physical gratification with the more tender emotions of love and compassion, and herein lies one of the keys to understanding why the passion of type Eight might be considered a vice or sin. Whether the passion of lust manifests sexually or not, it involves a quality of self-assertion, a tightening of the ego boundaries, a stance that is often oppositional between the Eight and the other. What the Eight primarily desires is power...power sufficient to insulate the Eight from ever being vulnerable or weak. Such power is always a delusion however, and it is the search for it which prevents the Eight from attaining true health and integrity of character. Naranjo comments thus: "Hidden as it may be behind the enthusiastic expansiveness, jollity and seductive charm of the lusty, it is the loss of relationship, the suppression of tenderness, and the denial of the love need in the loss of wholeness and sense of being. Enneatype VIII pursues being, then, in pleasure and in the power to find his pleasure, yet through an insistence on overpowering becomes incapable of receiving - when being can only be known in a receptive attitude. By doggedly claiming satisfaction where a semblance of satisfaction can be imagined...he perpetuates the ontic deficiency that only feeds his lusty pursuit of triumph and other being substitutes."

Eights with a Seven wing tend to be more expansive extroverted and openly aggressive than those with the Nine wing. They are more likely to be sensation seekers and are generally more overtly ambitious than those with a Nine wing. Eights with a Seven wing especially tend to relish intensity of experience. Conversely, Eights with a Nine wing hold more of their energy in reserve and exhibit more of a grounded, even stubborn quality. They are generally less obviously volatile than Eights with a Seven wing but can slip just as radically into open aggression when pushed.
http://ocean-moonshine.net/e142857369/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=11&MMN_position=35:35