Integrating the enneagram and the anthropological structures of the imaginary for multidimensional maturity in the personality

ABSTRACT

Personality fixations that have had utility in the past can later become problematic for holistic psychological development. Adult ego development research, combined with psychoanalytic assumptions, provides a way to understand multidimensional maturity through addressing and transforming the unconscious. The Enneagram and Gilbert Durand’s Anthropological Structures of the Imaginary (ASI) are two frameworks that can be integrated to help clients experience transformation in unconscious self-limiting phenomena. The Enneagram can address unconscious thoughts and feelings while the ASI can address unconscious images. Given that different personality types have different deeply structured characteristics, combining these two models can provide specifically tailored guidance to varying personalities towards multidimensional wholeness. A case study as well as implications for clinical work are provided.

KEYWORDS:

• Integration
• wholeness
• personality
• psychosocial maturity
• transformation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Durand (1960, 1992) hereby reinforces the affirmation of his master Gaston Bachelard (1948), with a first axiom: “the images that are raw psychic forces are stronger than ideas, stronger than the actual experiences” (p. 20, our translation). Therefore, these “images [are] loaded with ambivalent emotions and symbolic correlates, organized into coherent networks which feed all symbolic expressions. The result is that human rationality is always acquired second” (Wunenburger, 2013, p. 9, our translation). A second axiom in Durand’s ASI focuses on temporality – under both the Eastern and Western conceptions of time – of the imaginary which comes in the form of functions designed primarily to help tame the passing of time and deal with the existential anguish of death: “Finally, the imaginary is basically a temporal psychic activity, that is to say both subject to time and able to challenge the destructive time exposing us to death” (Wunenburger, 2013, p. 9, our translation).

2 It seems that Durand (1960, 1999)’s notion of imaginary is related to the unconscious, since he states that in some situations images and symbols can reach the archetypal level (Wunenburger, 2013).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christopher Kam

Christopher Kam is a doctoral student at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, Canada. His research involves the integration of personality, unconscious imagination, and adult ego development. His area of focus in his academic work involves the integration of psychology and spirituality. He is also a Registered Psychotherapist in the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario.

Christian R. Bellehumeur

Christian R. Bellehumeur, Ph.D., is a full Professor in the Faculties of Human Sciences and Philosophy at Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Canada. Member of the College of Psychologists of Quebec and member of the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario, he holds a master in pastoral counselling, and a doctorate in psychology from the University of Ottawa. His main research interests focus on the applications of Gilbert Durand's theory of Anthopological Structures of Imaginary (ASI) in the contexts of human development, psychotherapy, and recently, eco–psychology.