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So does anyone have any thoughts on how we come to have the personalities that we do? It is said amongst all the teachers I've studied that we are born with our point already fixed, that it is pre-determined, and that it does not change throughout life. Once a 7 always a 7 type of thing...
I've also heard some really fascinating theories about how this might happen though - how that is determined in the womb. It's similar to how our sex is determined in a way. We know some babies are born girls and others boys, but we don't stop there - we've long since researched into the phenomenon and found out about X and Y chromosomes and all this, and thus we understand how boys are born boys and girls girls. So what about our personalities?
Also, it begs the question that there is a biological basis or need involved. If our personalities are an act of our biology - i.e. it's Nature and not nurture - then why is that? Biology doesn't seem to do hardly anything extraneously, in fact if you look through the eons Life is amazingly efficient and adaptive to its exact environment and limitations. So how does the personality of the human fit into all this?
Have any ideas? Thoughts?
z+*
I've also heard some really fascinating theories about how this might happen though - how that is determined in the womb. It's similar to how our sex is determined in a way. We know some babies are born girls and others boys, but we don't stop there - we've long since researched into the phenomenon and found out about X and Y chromosomes and all this, and thus we understand how boys are born boys and girls girls. So what about our personalities?
Also, it begs the question that there is a biological basis or need involved. If our personalities are an act of our biology - i.e. it's Nature and not nurture - then why is that? Biology doesn't seem to do hardly anything extraneously, in fact if you look through the eons Life is amazingly efficient and adaptive to its exact environment and limitations. So how does the personality of the human fit into all this?
Have any ideas? Thoughts?
z+*
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Re: How we get our personalities....
Fri, July 25, 2008 - 10:03 PMI know a few 8's who have lived through significant trauma or abuse.. hence the champion for saving the underdogs
I know a few 4's who were neglected as children and started life thinking they were broken or different or unwanted
I know a few 2's who were told to be good and help out as children
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Re: How we get our personalities....
Sun, December 14, 2008 - 12:53 AMHmmm.. Yes, I can see that in this light, the personalities COULD arise in a seeming response to childhood situations or patterns... But you could also take those 8's, 4's and 2's you've known and look at their situations in a different way as well... perhaps if we are indeed predisposed as a certain type, we then FIND a specific kind of trauma or situation to crystallize our ego structures around in early childhood. Thus a child born a 2, in all their childhood experiences, they will most imprint those messages that are strongly catalyzing to a type 2 personality pattern.
Another way to see this reasoning is that for each 8 one might know who has lived through a significant trauma or abuse, you can also find any other type who also has and has transformed that experience in a significantly different way. Abuse and trauma is no more exclusive to 8's than being told to be good is exclusive to 2's, right?
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Re: How we get our personalities....
Mon, December 8, 2008 - 10:20 AMI've heard it is due to our parents and their roles in our early childhood. There is a book on this called Enneagram -
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Re: How we get our personalities....
Mon, December 8, 2008 - 3:57 PMI think it could in part be genes (my family is VERY strong on 5s) and part on nurture. Yes, there are 8s who've been abused, but I don't think it's a prerequisite. Actually I think parents who over-cater to their children and let them rule the house can also end up with an 8.
I'm a 7, and I think most of it comes from my genetics/ astrology...and perhaps being highly encouraged to try anything.
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Re: How we get our personalities....
Tue, December 9, 2008 - 9:07 AMEvidence supports both the nature, and nurture conversations, so there must be trth to both. I submit the combination of genetics coupled with significant childhood experience creates or daily personality. In the "imago" theory, we spend our lives trying to heal childhood wounds... meaning our nature (genetics) lead us to the method for dealing with our nurture (experience) and voila, here we be.
As a 4, I was born into a creative, sensitive male being. I was told that was bad and wrong. I still struggle daily to let myself be me. And here i am, stuffing my thoughts and ideas and emotions in the attic while my nurtured counterpart Johnny Depp makes movies... hehe,
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Re: How we get our personalities....
Tue, December 16, 2008 - 12:38 AMClaudio Naranjo says that each of the enneatypes is a form of neurosis that we develop in response to an unpredictable world - a PTSD kind of adaptation. At some point in infancy our parents are not there for us and in response we develop a false persona that helps us get by and shield our true self from being hurt. Naranjo is critical of what we in America have done with the Enneagram, especially the Riso-Hudson notion of a "healthy",say, Three. None of the enneatypes can be "healthy", in his view because they keep us from finding and expressing our true nature.
That suggests to me that we are not born with an ego, an enneatype, or a personality. We find something that works for us, ad hoc. The task , in later life, is to take down that mask and redeploy our true self. -
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Re: How we get our personalities....
Tue, December 16, 2008 - 9:23 AMI get really tired of people blaming their families...My family did the best they could. Life just happens, ya know?
I guess if we grew up in war torn Afghanistan or something we would have an obvious source for our ego constructions. We should all feel blessed if we had food in our bellies and a roof over our heads! -
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Re: How we get our personalities....
Tue, December 16, 2008 - 6:46 PMI feel very blessed, and yet I have an early childhood memory of my mom not being there. I was in my crib crying out for her, and she, I expect, was downstairs in our apartment building doing laundry. I don't blame her, it just happened. But that sparked my young ego to develop some kind of coping strategy. That strategy coalesced over the years into an enneatype.
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