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Was A $160 Personality Test Even Worth It?
The Enneagram gave me a type. I’m still figuring out what I paid for.
I spent a good $160 on an Enneagram personality test, only to get a label for patterns I was already figuring out on my own.
I won’t bore you with a rundown of all nine types. Apparently, I’m a Four, the Individualist.
At first, there was relief. Someone had put words to things I recognised but hadn’t quite articulated. There is pleasure in reading a description and thinking, Yes. That is exactly what I do. For a moment, you feel understood without having to explain yourself.
Except at certain points in my life, I could also see myself as a One, the Perfectionist. And sometimes, when I felt at my worst, I recognised myself in a Seven, the Enthusiast.
When I asked AI about this, it seemed to have an explanation for every contradiction: stress, growth, different sides of the same personality. Confusing? I thought so too. I began to wonder whether it was helping me question the result or simply finding ways to make it fit.
Then came the deep dive, the rabbit holes, and Claudio Naranjo’s writing on character and neurosis, followed by the horrifying discovery that envy might be my defining problem.
