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Point Eight: The Boss
The preoccupations of Point Eight include:
- Control of personal possessions and space and control of people who
are likely to influence the Eight's life.
- Aggression and the open expression of anger.
- Concern with justice and the protection of others.
- Fighting and sex as a way of making contact. Trusting people who can
hold their own in a fight.
- Excess as an antidote to boredom. Late hours, heavy entertainment,
bingeing. Too much, too loud, too many.
- Difficulty in recognizing the dependent aspects of the self. When affected
by others, can deny real feelings by withdrawal, by claiming boredom, or
by internally blaming the self for past misdeeds.
- An all-or-nothing style of attention, which tends to see things in
extremes. Other people appear to be either strong or weak, either fair
or unfair, with no middle ground. This style of attention can lead to
- Not recognizing one's own weakness and the automatic denial of other
points of view in favor of the single "legitimate" opinion that
is going to make the Eight feel secure, or
- The exercise of appropriate force in the service of others.
Helen Palmer
The Enneagram:
Understanding Yourself and the Others in Your Life
Harper & Row, 1988, 392 pages
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