How Daniels' and Siegel's Work Crossed Paths
David Daniels and Dan Siegel were long-standing colleagues and friends. Dan stated it best in the Foreword to David’s book on relationships, “I had known David for fifteen years before he left us. We were two psychiatrists, each a bit off the mainstream path, and both steadfastly dedicated to the helping and healing profession and the integration of science and contemplative traditions.”
David would be honored that Dan Siegel, along with the PDP (Patterns of Developmental Processing, now the Patterns of Developmental Pathways) Group and Norton Publishing could publish an Enneagram-inspired book about using PDP hypotheses and the Enneagram together in therapy. The book is very much Enneagram-inspired targeted for an audience of clinicians and scientists who study affective neuroscience and interpersonal neurobiology. This table provides a comparison of the psycho-spiritual Enneagram to the PDP hypotheses about the underlying biology of the Ennegram types or patterns.
Comparing the Enneagram to the Patterns of Developmental Pathways (PDP) Hypothesized Underlying Biology of the Enneagram Types
Enneagram Nomenclature
Traditional Enneagram of Personality nomenclature developed by Ichazo/Naranjo in the 1960s/1970s and updated by David Daniels in the early 2000s.
This vocabulary is consistent with today’s literature in how the Enneagram is being studied in research and used in therapy.
PDP Nomenclature
Some may prefer this vocabulary in research and/or therapy as it is based on a developmental neuroscience view through the framework of interpersonal neurobiology.
Loss of Wholeness and the Basic Proposition as Development of Type
1 of 9 aspects of wholeness/original essence (or basic truth, holy idea) that a child lost sight of. Consequently a child develops a compensating core belief about satisfactory survival that mimics the original capacity of essence and the basic truth about life that the child lost sight of (but also creates an insatiable need).
Loss of Wholeness and Early Organizing Features as Development of Pattern
In response to a loss of wholeness in the womb (stored in implicit memory), the contrast of this simply-being whole to “working to live” in a do-or-die new world necessitates meeting three core needs (Vector). Three aversive emotions alert that homeostasis is not met, and need seeking is directed with attention and energy (Attendency) to an Adaptive Behavioral Strategy inward, outward, or dyadic (a shuttling between inward and outward).
Personality Types
Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, Type 4, Type 5, Type 6, Type 7, Type 8, Type 9
Personality Patterns
Pattern 1, Pattern 2, Pattern 3, Pattern 4, Pattern 5, Pattern 6, Pattern 7, Pattern 8, Pattern 9
Adaptive Strategy
Cognitive, emotional, and somatic strategies that all work together to ensure satisfactory survival and are aligned with the child's core belief that substituted the lost aspect of wholeness/original essence (or basic belief, holy idea).
Adaptive Strategy
Cognitive, emotional, and somatic strategies to restore homeostasis and regain a sense of wholeness that may be remembered implicitly and striven for automatically, without needing awareness. These adaptive strategies emerge from innate features of temperament and learned aspects of response to experience.
Enneagram Type Structure
Knit together in each type are cognitive, emotional, instinctual, somatic, and motivational processes. A protective intelligence or defense mechanism glues the type structure together and underlies each of the nine types. Each of the nine type structures is a result of one of the nine fundamental beliefs about wholeness that the child lost sight of.
PDP Systems and Pathways
Describes three systems and nine pathways of cognitive, emotional, instinctual, somatic and motivational processes that may intersect and are hypothesized to underlie the nine personality patterns. Each motivation Vector has a three Attendencies (outward, inward, and dyadic).
Defense Mechanism
The protective glue that holds the personality structure together, ultimately protecting the capacity of essence the child lost sight of (motivation, cognition, emotions, instincts, attention, etc.)
Defense Mechanism
Not included in the PDP Framework.
Cognitive Dynamic
- Cognitive Higher Capacity or Holy Idea
- Cognitive Preoccupation or Mental Fixation
Cognitive Processes
- Cognitive Higher Capacity (mentioned briefly)
- Cognitive Preoccupations and Habitual Narratives
Emotional Dynamic
- Emotional Higher Capacity or Emotional Virtue
- Emotional Passion
Emotional Processes
- Emotional Higher Capacity (mentioned briefly)
- Emotional Drive, Tone and Reactivity (also includes emotional regulation and affects associated with a vector’s motivational drive being frustrated or satisfied)
Instinctual Dynamic
- Pure Instinct
- Compensated Instinct of Three Sub-Types (Self-Preservation, One-on-One, Social). The nine types are channeled through a dominant instinct resulting in 27 subtypes.
Note: Research since the release of the book, has identified the pure/natural instincts that life begins with, before, they become distorted by the conditioned personality patterns.
- The Instinct for Our Species to Survive and Thrive
- The Instinct to Connect with Our Species
- The Instinct to 'Master' Our Social-Ecological Environment
Instinctual Dynamic
Not included in the PDP Framework.
Focus of Attention and Blind Spots
Where attention gets placed to support and sustain the particular adaptive strategy, including that which is not seen.
Focus of Attention and Blind Spots
The same definition.
Expressed Personality
Potential Strengths: Personality traits considered to be assets or “blessings.” Individuals within the type can be high or low on each trait.
Potential Weaknesses: Personality traits considered to be liabilities or vulnerabilities. Individual within type can be high or low on each trait.
Expressed Personality
The same definition.
Enneagram Diagram
A universal diagram or map of the mathematical laws of consciousness. The map reveals: (1) three “corners” or “areas” of the circle that make up the Enneagram Centers Triads, (2) interconnecting linkages among the nine types, called wings and stress/security points, (3) naturally occurring patterns in the universe of motion and time, key to the development of human consciousness and precisely described in the Law of 1, the Law of 3, and the Law of 7 and (4) a great deal more being studied.
Enneagram Diagram
The same definition.
The Enneagram diagram is based on formal mathematical science and cannot be altered, substituted, or replaced.
The Enneagram diagram is a moving map of human consciousness, revealing the nine personality patterns and how they evolve.
Note: Dan Siegel uses a 9-Cell Matrix which is two-dimensional. It does not substitute for the Enneagram diagram, or Enneagram type measurement.
Three Centers of Intelligence (as Perception, Processing, and Memory Functions)
The Enneagram identifies three centers of intelligence or three ways to perceive, process, and store learned experience and are critical in the development of personality and consciousness.
3 lower centers for storing conditioned learning:
- The Body Center for instinctual and moving attention, processing, and memory attempting to restore wholeness.
- The Heart Center for emotional and intuitive attention, processing, and memory attempting to restore wholeness.
- The Head Center for logical and cause-effect attention, processing, and memory attempting to restore wholeness.
- The Body Center for instinctual and moving attention, processing, and memory attempting to restore wholeness.
2 higher centers become available with the development of consciousness:
- The Higher Emotional Center
- The Higher Mental Center
2 centers that don't require learning
- The Sexual or Reproductive Center (DNA)
- The Instinctual Center
Three Centers of Intelligence (as Perception, Processing, and Memory Functions)
Not included in the PDP Framework.
Three Centers of Intelligence (as Location of Experience of Energy in the Human Body)
The three domains of perception and processing found in the human body are experienced as energy in these locations:
- Head area
- Heart and solar plexus area
- Gut and belly area
ALIEF: Anatomic Location of Initial Energy Flow
The experience of initial response or reactivity arises as energy flows through specific regions of the individual’s anatomy and include:
- Head with cortical thinking as part of planning and anticipation
- Heart with heartfelt sensations
- Gut with visceral feelings related to bodily needs
Centers Triads – Labeled as Head, Heart, and Gut Centers of Intelligence
Describes clusters of characteristics that group together in three corners of the Enneagram diagram.
- Head Types: Lead with thinking and logical intelligence, share common cognitive theme of over-thinking and emotional issue of fear -- 5, 6, 7
- Heart Types: Lead with emotional and intuitive intelligence; share common cognitive theme of image and emotional issue of sadness/grief -- 2, 3, 4
- Gut Types: Lead with instinctive and sensate intelligence; share common cognitive theme of self-forgetting and emotional issues of anger – 1, 8, 9
PDP Triads – Labeled as the Certainty, Bonding, and Agency Vectors
Describes clusters of a trio of patterns that group within three motivation systems.
- Certainty-Safety Patterns: Share common motivation (certainty), emotion (fear), and cognitive narrative (planning, anticipation, over-thinking) – Patterns 5, 6, 7
- Bonding-Connection Patterns: Share common motivation (bonding), emotion (separation-distress and sadness), and cognitive narrative (creating image to bring and ensure connection with others) – Patterns 2, 3, 4
- Agency-Empowerment Patterns: Share common motivation (agency), emotion (anger), and cognitive narrative (a drive toward embodied empowerment and harmonizing the world) – Patterns 1, 8, 9
Energy Flow Triads (How We Build Confidence in Relating to Others)
- Active/Assertive – 3, 7, 8
- Balancing/Compliant – 6, 1, 2
- Receptive/Withdrawn – 9, 4, 5
Key piece of the Enneagram Harmony Triads.
Energy Flow Triads (How We Relate to Others)
Not included in the PDP Framework.
Emotional Regulation Triads (How We Resolve Conflict)
- Express/Amplify Emotions to Get to Root Causes – 6, 4, 8
- Contain/Suppress Emotions to Create Rationale and Logical Solutions – 3, 1, 5
- Shift/Repress Emotions to Reframe the Environment as Harmonious and Positive -- 9, 7, 2
Key piece of the Enneagram Harmony Triads.
PDP Emotional Regulation Mode
- Up-regulate Emotions – Patterns 6, 4, 8
- Down-regulate Emotions – Patterns 3, 1, 5
- Shift-Regulate Emotions – Patterns 9, 2, 7
Harmony Triads (Adaptive Behavioral Strategy in Relating to the World)
- Pragmatists (act with the world) – 3, 6, 9
- Idealists (act on the world) – 1, 4, 7
- Realists (act for the world) – 2, 5, 8
Not part of the two-dimensional Enneagram diagram connecting lines, but revealed in Ichazo's enneagon. David found the Harmony Triads useful in clinical integration work as he could work with the three centers of intelligence within a person. In David’s words:
“The Harmony Triads give each of us: (1) a type that leads with a different one of the three centers of intelligence – head, heart, and body, (2) a type that leads with a different one of the three great life energies – active, receptive, and balancing, and (3) a type that leads with a different one of the three basic forms of emotional regulation for resolving conflict – reframing into positives, containing to allow logical analysis, and expressing deep concerns to get to the root of conflict. Thus the harmony triads provide all that is necessary for a satisfactory life and the understanding of self and others.”
Harmony Triads (Relating to the World)
Not included in the PDP Framework.
