As we/the AEA prepare for Working with Barriers to Spiritual Freedom in mid-may in Tucson, I’ve been working on the piece around “Projection” and the Defense Mechanism System. Doing this, I can’t help recall a statement made by one of our narrative teachers Peter O’Hanrahan – that our problems with each other don’t have so much to do with our Enneagram type, but with our defense mechanisms, that is, the defense mechanism itself, what we avoid and the world view we project out. Isn’t that the truth! As a Type 2, I can’t begin to express the shock I experienced when I discovered (at first through my daughter and my husband, and then my boss of many years) that my “help” was not always needed or wanted. Bigger yet, was coming to terms with my own needs and finding a way to admit them and then to address them!
In my own personal wrangling with the Enneagram I’ve found
that this is indeed the biggest and trickiest piece. The Defense Mechanism System is rife with
blind spots, and the trouble is that blind spots are by definition blind. No matter that everyone else around us has a
clear view. That doesn’t automatically
mean we will become aware, even when we’ve done this work for years! Blind is blind. This Defense System is what stands between
our passion and our virtue. There is no
transformation of the raw energy of the Passion into the Virtue unless we
manage to back into our blind spots with a different perspective so that we can
actually become aware of them and thus dis-identify from type and recognize
what may be arising, such as humility for a Type 2, or Innocence for a Type 8,
or Non-attachment for the 5.
The deeper we dig into the process, the more we become aware
of that to which we were simply blind.
We begin to recognize the clues – times when we are giving unsolicited advice
or trying to fix things; times when we blame others or make our issues about
someone else; times when we inquire against our deeply held beliefs, even
though intellectually we may not believe those things at all; times when we
examine the flip side of our idealizations and come to own our shadow.
I have found this work and practice to be infinitely worth
the effort. The prize is held in the Virtue
itself, and once we experience one, they all become available to us. It may be work, but it is none-the-less a
journey of pure joy and grace.
Robin Cameron
