Enneagram 8: The Challenger
(Tumblr removed the original post, so here’s a revised version.)
Healthy Eights are intelligent, courageous champions of the downtrodden who love to achieve the impossible. They know how to identify and use power, and understand and embrace vulnerability. Their defining traits are not wanting to be controlled, and their personality is best summed up by “go big or go home!”
Eights are fiercely independent and defiant of authority
Eights want others to challenge them back
Eights want the truth or nothing
Eights want control over their own life
Eights can over-indulge their senses
Eights radiate energy and enjoy confrontation
Eights struggle to embrace their soft underbelly
Eight’s antagonism can sabotage their relationships
Enneagram Wings, Strength & Growth
8w7: are energetic, enthusiastic, and outgoing (7 influence) but can also be ambitious, impulsive, and reckless. They are the most energetic and entrepreneurial wing, and more social and expressive than other Eights.
8w9: are approachable and open to cooperation (9 influence). They are often good mediators and successful negotiators, who tend to be less reactive and more able to console others than the other Eights.
Under stress: Eights withdraw from others and become disconnected from their emotions, suffer sleep problems and neglect their physical needs, become secretive and paranoid about others’ intentions and/or refuse to compromise (unhealthy 5 influences).
When feeling secure: embrace and no longer hide their gentler nature, have learned they do not need to be right all the time, listen to others’ views, permit others to care for them, and abandon vengeance (healthy 2 influence).
Advice for the 8: tell someone you trust to warn you when your behavior becomes excessive, and befriend your inner child; avoid black and white thinking and hold back from destroying people who cross you; remember how ‘big’ your personality is and don’t run people over with it. Instead of reacting in anger, ask yourself if you are avoiding another emotion. Let people in.
Influences on MBTI Types:
ISTJ: more aggressive and confrontational than other ISTJ Enneagram types, prone to being direct when others are not pulling their weight in common areas (work, school, etc), may develop too-rigid of black and white thinking, based on factual evidence and influenced by personal experiences (Si/Te/Fi, with inferior Ne lack of development / 8 blocking Ne’s natural desire to “open up to other possible interpretations”).
ESTJ: the 8 builds on the ESTJ’s natural desire to show competency and strong leadership in the outside world, and will shift the ESTJ into a strong patriarch / matriarch position over their family unit (Si “roles”). They will be aggressively protective of themselves and others “in their tribe,” while being intolerant / frustrated by family members who are not aggressive enough in being industrious or standing up for themselves (their expectations may be too high for their kids, which ties in to lower Fi development / the 8’s lack of being in touch with their sensitive side).
ISFJ: the 8’s influence on ISFJ would make them fiercely protective of their loved ones, as well as painfully obvious as to how they do not “fit in” with other SFJ types; Fe’s influence to fit in might conflict with their 8 desire to challenge authority, and make them less flexible in considering their moral absolutes (and how they feel others should be treated) could be wrong (inferior Ne resistance).
ESFJ: would use their Fe-dom to recruit others to common causes for the betterment of society, and show aggression when challenging anyone who abuses their position of power and against injustices; Si’s influence would make the 8 care more about immediate impact, rather than far-reaching influences, and their positions would be strongly-expressed but not always fully fleshed out on a systematic level (inferior Ti).
INTJ: a more aggressive and confrontational INTJ than others, who builds up and relies on their inferior Se when tackling the 8’s need for “indulgence” – may be more proactive in chasing what they want, in involving oneself in the external environment, in tackling challenges to prove they can do it, and in their sexual appetites. May not seek authority positions, but also will refuse to follow incompetent leadership, and be reckless under pressure.
ENTJ: the energetic visionary who fills the room, who suffers no fools, and who may have a problem with grinding the opposition into dust in their pursuit of fulfillment. The 8 would play heavily into tert-Se “desires” and make them a highly energetic, insatiable type prone to over-excess; the inferior Fi might, as in the ESTJ, make their expectations for family members / children / employees higher than what they are capable of (paired with Ni’s tendency toward grand-scale expectations), while the 8 would play off Ni-perceptions in contributing to a black and white worldview.
INFJ: 8 would make this INFJ someone not content to just dream, but to build; it would create much more reliance on, and indulgence of, inferior Se needs, and run the risk of over-indulgences in dangerous ways (not knowing when to stop, how much their body can handle, or whether that might get them hurt). Since their Fe is secondary to Ni, their vision comes before the people involved, and the INFJ might develop a caustic attitude to anyone with less ambition and/or who challenges their black and white thinking. Likely to loop Ni/Ti in shredding other people’s arguments, and may not develop aux-Fe properly, out of fear of vulnerability.
ENFJ: an aggressive, charming combination who sees social wrongs and challenges them head-on, without fear, prone to over-indulgences of excess through tert-Se, who has a vision for a group of people, and leads them through competency, bombastic speaking skills, and sheer presence; Fe-dom would both soften the 8’s bluntness and aim it squarely at those the ENFJ feels are responsible for the current abuses. Inferior Ti issues would come from a lack of ability to self-analyze, or sense when their FeNi conclusions are too rigid. (See: Martin Luther King Jr.)
ESTP: an aggressive, physically imposing, confrontational, argumentative combination, who does not believe in backing away from a fight, literal or figurative, whose lower Ni development helps him/her spot people who are weak or incompetent; prone to not mincing words, challenging authority figures, and often undertakes leadership to appease the public’s general welfare (tert-Fe, which can often make the ESTP-8 “charming” and offset the tough edge). (See: Winston Churchill.)
ISTP: inferior Fe would make this ISTP even more out of touch with how people perceive them and how to soften the blow than other ISTP Enneagram combinations; they would see no reason for social appropriateness and instead, channel their intense energy into external projects. Often sharp-tongued and unable or unwilling to let faulty thinking go unchallenged. Has absolute faith in their Ti/Ni insights, may run the risk of a lack of nuance or in understanding emotional motivators, and have little respect for irrational or sensitive people.
ESFP: develops a strong tert-Te in order to achieve things in the outside world, is often confident, self-assertive, and prone to easy boredom; likes to seek out constant challenges at work / school / their personal life, and may create drama where there is none to self-entertain; values a few people very much (especially if they identify with them through Fi) and will champion them with total conviction. Quick to react, may dislike or hide their own emotions / suppress them, or learn to loop to avoid them, and often out of touch with the long-term consequences of their blow-up.
ISFP: a very physical introvert, whose hatred of authority plays off their Fi into total defiance, refusal to go along with anything they do not believe is right, etc. Often shapes itself into not wanting anyone else to be controlled or oppressed either, which can lead into aggressive behaviors directed toward those they see as immoral, cruel, incompetent, or bullies. Since Fi/Ni has such close associations, they often lack nuance in their thinking and are prone to black and white moral absolutes. (See: Arya Stark in Game of Thrones.)
ENTP: Ne shapes the 8 into the realm of the abstract, where they become combative and confrontational when it comes to ideas, defending them, and standing on rational ground; often innovative and successful if they can harness their power toward finishing a project rather than abandoning it; tert-Fe lends them a charm that helps soften the brutal aggression, but also keeps them out of touch with their emotions in combination with the 8’s desire to seem “tough”; often scorns “weak,” or “emotional” types and individuals; often pursues sensory pleasures more than the other Ne-dom types and over-indulges due to lack of Si inner body awareness.
INTP: the coworker who calls out the boss and/or coworkers on their utter stupidity and incompetence, rather than keep their mouth shut, but who does not much care to lead; the 8 will wreak havoc with tert-Si, in making them sensory-indulgent; like the ISTP-8, out of touch with how others perceive them, or in respecting others’ emotional cores and needs; often totally sure they are right, even if their theory is half baked (Ne’s tendency to ‘share’ before it gathers all the Si-details).
ENFP: has much more aggression than the other ENFPs, whose Ne/Fi makes them conflict-avoiding; will deliberately challenge people and use Ne/Te to rip holes in their arguments and/or underline more successful tactics; develops Te to prove competent in the outside world, may resist and /or avoid Fi development and as a result, be out of touch with their true desires and gentler self; like the ENTP, prone to aiming their energy into the abstract, and in aggressively defending, promoting, and actualizing new ideas. May try to dampen their natural open-mindedness, and develop rigid moral views as a result (indecisiveness is weakness!).
INFP: a defensive INFP who fights authority figures at every turn and battles their own indecisive nature, seeing their tendency to want to change their mind as weakness in themselves; has way more energy than is usual for the INFP type, and may not know when to slow down, prone to falling into inferior Te a lot in an attempt to prove themselves strong (but more often, inferior Te comes into play in harsh criticisms of general incompetency).
