E7

Introduction

Beyond the Christian description of gluttony as a disproportionate fondness for food, it can be described as a passion for more and better. This manifests particularly as a fascination with novelty, the unknown, and the exotic, an excessive dependence on pleasure, an automatic tendency to avoid pain and frustration, and a desire to be liked, popular, and admired. The strong mental energization of this type is accompanied by difficulty integrating intellect with emotions and desires. This overinvestment in the rational aspect is expressed through a strategic vision of life (often referred to as planning), coupled with strong self-indulgence (the fixation of this character) and a more or less tacit self-perception of superiority.

In the background, there is a belief that intelligence can be used to escape any circumstance. However, there is also an ambivalent experience where this character wears a mask of intelligence and superiority to hide an inner core of deficiency and low self-esteem.

The E7 uses their undeniable intelligence to explain, manipulate, and arouse admiration. Their gluttony also manifests as intellectual gluttony, making them the most curious of characters. They constantly seek new horizons, mysteries, and abstract or extravagant ideas that seduce them.

Their intelligence, combined with their self-concept as an enjoyer or bon vivant and their strongly projected positive vision of life, serves as a means of seduction. This intellectual seduction is closely tied to the strong narcissism of E7: an internal sense of value (though ambivalently colored by a diffuse sense of self-invalidation). This is usually accompanied by an exhibitionism of talents, a sense of entitlement, and a loquacious compulsion to explain things or narrate life.

E7 is often a charlatan. They talk excessively, both to seduce and to persuade. Their loquacity serves their gluttony as a means of achieving desires through rationalization and as a way of metaphorically consuming others through words. Their charm is further supported by their fresh and seemingly humble demeanor. They are eager to help and be useful—though always with a strategic motive behind it. This is the foundation of their success. However, in order to achieve this apparent satisfaction (a kind of cosmic well-being), they must first deceive themselves by denying any hint of discomfort.

Even more important than the desire for pleasure is, for this character, the avoidance of pain. Their apparent satisfaction and enthusiasm keep frustration far from their consciousness. They are often unaware of their own insatiability, a blindness reinforced by their sense of entitlement to gratification. Thus, they exude the energy of a child in an adult body who permits themselves everything, operating under the assumption that everything is fine. This functions as a protection against pain and frustration. Their self-indulgence is, ultimately, a form of optimism that smooths life’s path and allows them to forgive their own failures.

At the same time, E7 is a rebellious character. They despise authority and go against it (though often from behind, avoiding direct confrontation). They lack discipline, are excessively fanciful, optimistic, and self-confident. This, combined with their superficiality, allows them to present themselves as brilliant and interesting—particularly when displaying their verbal skills. As a result, they frequently procrastinate, living more in the realm of fantasy than in practical execution. They constantly generate new ideas but abandon them just as quickly for new ones, rarely bringing anything to fruition. This lack of commitment conceals a magical illusion of maintaining an ideal world—one that preserves their mask of being in a good place and being a special person.

Their seduction and manipulation sometimes lead to the exploitation of those who fall under their enchanting influence. They often have a talent for getting others to work in service of their ideas or needs. Their rebellion is most evident in their sharp criticism of conventional morality, often expressed through humor and irony. In reality, they oppose anything that limits their gluttony, which necessitates being unconventional and resistant to hierarchies. Thus, they present themselves as apparent egalitarians. This rebellion also ties into their search for utopias and alternatives to the ordinary.

However, their unconscious rebellion prevents them from truly enjoying the small pleasures of life—the so-called ordinary things—ultimately making them slaves to their own freedom. This is just one of many contradictions inherent to E7. In them, imagination and reality blur. They overestimate their worth and time while underestimating effort and sacrifice. Anxiety hides behind complacency, aggression behind a soft and affable demeanor, and exploitation behind an appearance of generosity. Their lack of commitment to truth is striking, making them a fundamentally disengaged and fraudulent character.

Among the different subtypes of E7, there are significant contrasts, which can broadly be summarized as a polarity between idealism and lack of it, credulity and cynical distrust, and an overly dreamy nature versus excessive materialism. Within this polarity, the Self-Preservation 7 embodies the extreme of distrust, cynicism, and materialism. Among E7s, this subtype could be described as pseudo-idealistic or, more precisely, as an anti-idealist driven by visceral distrust and a clear love for the concrete. They present themselves as oral-aggressive characters and, unsurprisingly, as the most rebellious of them all.

This subtype is fueled by adrenaline due to their intensity, bringing them closer to the lustful instincts of E8. They are both the most masochistic and the most psychopathic of the E7s, to the point where they can, on occasion, distance themselves from their gluttony and adopt a sober, self-punitive demeanor.

At the same time, his radical disbelief leads him to compensate by prioritizing material aspects and survival above all else. In the erotic sphere, his lack of empathetic capacity results in radical hedonism. He substitutes quality in romantic bonds for quantity in sexual encounters, exhibiting insatiable desire in erotic conquests. This contrasts with the social and Sexual subtypes, who struggle more to initiate erotic situations beyond the intellectual deployment of seductive arts. In this sense, the Self-Preservation subtype is often portrayed as a sensuous being, described as a playboy and hedonistic charlatan.

Unlike the Social and Sexual 7, which are idealists, the Self-Preservation 7 can be ruthless if his security is compromised and is generally more prone to confrontation and violence than the other E7 subtypes. The E7 type itself is not naturally inclined toward physical aggression, making this an exception. In contrast to other E7s, the Self-Preservation 7 tends to be highly territorial. While all three subtypes share a gluttonous craving for novelty and new experiences, the Self-Preservation subtype is far more traditionalist. Rather than constantly seeking new worlds and thrilling experiences, he exhibits habitual behaviors—always sitting in the same place at the table, sleeping on the same side of the bed, or buying multiple identical shirts.

The Self-Preservation subtype is less disciplined than the Social 7 but more so than the Sexual 7 and tends to demonstrate a strong work ethic. However, his self-indulgence finds a clear limit when it comes to protecting those he considers part of his clan. He is more indulgent toward others than toward himself. He also exhibits a higher degree of hedonistic permissiveness than the Social subtype but less than the Sexual subtype. Additionally, he possesses a strong sense of practicality, particularly regarding money and material or intangible goods, often displaying opportunistic and advantageous tendencies.

He is deeply attached to his own desires and, being conservative, to basic concrete needs, which he pursues with a spontaneity that brings him closer to his instinctual nature. Unlike other E7s, he is less prone to the imaginary satisfaction of desires and instead takes proactive steps toward self-satisfaction.

His realism and lack of idealism make him more cynical, as well as more openly critical and self-critical than other E7s. According to Karen Horney’s theory of interpersonal coping strategies ("moving toward, against, or away from others"), the Self-Preservation 7 moves against others, often showing himself to be a skilled debater. He frequently takes on the role of leader within a group and becomes the protector of his family, clan, or close affinity group, reflecting his passion for involvement and complicity beyond norms and morals. Within his group, he is generous and affectionate, defending its members fiercely. However, this generosity is often a form of manipulation to secure recognition in return.

The Sexual 7

On the other hand, the Sexual 7 can be defined as an idealist who shifts his ideals according to his whims, often without much awareness of his contradictions. Generally credulous, he fits the archetype of a high-flying dreamer, with extreme hedonistic permissiveness, a lack of discipline, and a greater tendency to satisfy his desires through imagination rather than action.

Much more fanciful, ethereal, poetic, and dreamy than the other E7 subtypes, the Sexual 7 is more emotional, tender, and excitable. He tends to inhabit a virtual reality where everything is perfect and everyone is good. Among all E7 subtypes, he is the most orally fixated, indulging in gluttony with greater sincerity and without pretense. He is also the most self-indulgent and least self-critical.

According to Horney’s framework, the Sexual 7 moves toward others. He is an integrator and seducer, whose core wound (intimacy) compulsively drives him toward deep connections—though he struggles to sustain them. At the slightest frustration of his expectations, he becomes an escapist or experiences childish fits of rage.

Among the three subtypes, the Sexual 7 is the one most inclined to remain in a childlike state, using it as a defense mechanism against life's hardships and frustrations. It is no coincidence that he is often compared to Peter Pan—he avoids responsibility, neglects obligations, and refuses to grow up.

He is driven by a kind of euphoric joy, idealizing himself and his unique gifts. In a narcissistic sense, he is the most self-focused and disconnected from reality. To such an extent that, when his behavior ceases to be entertaining, he can become irritating, exhausting, and highly invasive.

The Social 7

The Social 7 is the most idealistic of the three. Within Horney’s framework, he is the one who moves away from others, often isolating himself in an intellectual ivory tower from which he observes others with a sense of superiority. He is the most detached and "schizoid" among the E7 subtypes.

He tends to have a more active and demanding superego, demonstrating more discipline and a greater capacity for guilt. He strongly believes in ideas and theoretical abstractions, which he expresses with an eloquent, sometimes excessive, intellectual sophistication. He can be helpful and even self-sacrificing—but only up to a point. Deep down, like all E7s, he remains non-committal and an escapist.

He perceives himself as a saintly figure—a good and well-intentioned person, careful with everyone, and deserving of admiration for his moral excellence. In this sense, he often behaves like a Rasputin, acting as a counselor or ideologue who rationalizes even the most questionable actions. He positions himself as a community builder, exchanging his services for admiration and indulgence.

Unlike the Social subtype, the Self-Preservation 7 focuses on serving his immediate group rather than society as a whole. The Sexual 7, disconnected from reality, has little interest in service, despite his well-intended aspirations. The Social 7 is also the subtype that most represses gluttony, to the extent that he has been described as the "anti-seven." He also restrains his indulgence more than the other subtypes, maintaining an appearance of self-control.

Love

Despite being the most erotically developed Enneatype among the mental types, the E7 also exhibits a form of admiration-based love. This admiration takes different forms: idealization (Social subtype), self-idealization (Sexual subtype), and pseudo- or anti-idealism (Self-Preservation subtype, which tends to rebel against idealism).

Claudio Naranjo divides the three E7 subtypes into:

Compassionate love (Self-Preservation 7): Acts with a maternal orientation, protecting those within his inner circle.
Erotic love (Sexual 7): Celebrates life in alignment with the free will of his inner child.
Admiring love (Social 7): Idealizes others, believing in their greatness and noble qualities.

Physical Traits

While these observations are not absolute truths, they provide general trends among E7 subtypes:

Self-Preservation 7: Dresses in a classic and understated way, prioritizing practicality. He may buy multiple identical shirts or suits. His features tend to be more "earthly" and less angelic than the other subtypes. Common traits include broad jaws, full cheeks, wide faces, fleshy noses, and deep-set, observant, and distrustful eyes.
Sexual 7: Tends to exaggerate in dress, combining bright colors with exotic accessories. Physically, he often has large mouths and teeth, youthful features, big and expressive eyes, and a permanently smiling expression.
Social 7: Is less concerned with fashion or appearance, displaying a general lack of interest in how he presents himself. His facial features tend to be more balanced, reflecting the greater sobriety of his personality.

CHAPTER 1: THE Self-Preservation 7

Iconoclastic, rebellious, provocative, intellectual challenger, seeker of novelties... as well as easygoing, opportunistic, lover of privileges and central heating, the Self-Preservation 7 character moves through life, crossing from one side to another on a basic polarity: that of someone who is, at the same time, revolutionarily heterodox and secretly conservative. Here is the quintessence of the Flaubertian bourgeois: a great moderate, capable of punishing himself with sober regimens after a binge or with large doses of work after a period of laziness.

He is also a playboy (or playgirl) and a cheat, both in business and in emotions. A clever trickster, a satyr in need of constantly proving his seductiveness. A planner and sagacious bon vivant, whose definition is, by the way, that of one who is dedicated to enjoying the pleasures of life, especially food and drink, as well as leisure and social activities.

In the game of polarities typical of each Enneagram type, we can observe among the E7s, on the one hand, the helpful and social idealists and the sexual fantasists and charmers, and on the other, the cynical, practical, and earthy Self-Preservation 7, who are not idealists at all. With this starting point, gluttony taken to the field of Self-Preservation becomes a very materialistic gluttony of concrete sensory pleasure, making this subtype a cheerful, easy-going hedonist, light-hearted and enjoying himself, interested in sex, money, food, and the good life. But with a schizoid background, disconnected from feeling and emotionally stingy, which usually appears more resoundingly in private, while publicly maintaining a pseudo-social facade intended to satisfy its gluttony. In someone whose most acute instinct is the always-reptilia Conservation, all this yearning for pleasure is very uninterested in theoretical abstractions.

The Self-Preservation 7 is clear about what it wants: always more and better, and as soon as possible. To implement his gluttony in the world, he deploys networks of influence and mutual favors based on common greedy interests or on ties of empathy or blood (hence the specific use of the word "family," which generates so much confusion to define him), which lead others to describe him with more or less grandiose terms, such as “mafioso” or “gangster.” (Terms that, after all, end up generating a certain mythomania around this character, which we will review over the next few pages.)

He is a mental character, which occurs more often in men. The Self-Preservation 7 women present very specific traits. They tend to be somewhat "masculinized" women, who put strength and cunning ahead of what is typically understood as "femininity." As befits this trait, they stand out for their practical mentality, often also for their sexual gluttony and their few prejudices in the erotic field, as well as for their enormous capacity to support the clan or the intimate circle where, as is usual in all E7s conservation, they usually occupy the place of the head of the family.

Family Stories of Survival

The world was made to the conservative E7 preservation too dry in its infancy, especially emotionally, but often also materially. It is about a person who felt very unprotected at a tender age. Stories of broken families, patriarchal violence, parental alcoholism, having to take care of siblings, large families where there is not enough care, or a general sense of feeling threatened that is transmitted from parents to children are common. The person with this character continues to stay, even now, in a constant state of alert, with a strong initiative and even aggressiveness at the service of his needs, which translates into a great capacity to improvise in order to nurture himself: the Self-Preservation 7 is a hustler. And so he doesn't tolerate deprivation without being able to get what he thinks he needs to achieve his neurotic goal that “I'm fine, and everything is fine.”

Either through the effort to satisfy himself or, more commonly, through his more or less disguised aptitude for robbery, which does not call his honor into question, but in which his aggressiveness and possessive tendencies shine. It is common to find in this character stories of family survival, of absent parents or direct abandoners. Humble and suffering children who are not very compatible with the usual idea that the E7 lived in a children's paradise. (In this case, if there was, it ended early and abruptly.)

“I have not been an adventurer, an insatiable explorer, or a compulsive liar. Nor would my humble family economy have allowed it. I felt that I had to make a living, that I had to be smart, that I was better equipped for it than the rest, but everything at a very homely level, without large companies, expeditions, or scams (some minor theft from time to time), much more from the neighborhood... It is also true that my desire for exploration was directed more toward knowledge than real life. That way of moving in the world made me feel superior, certainly smarter than the rest. Our stories are more about home-grown rogues, who justify their excesses and nonsense with verbiage and self-indulgence.” (ORI)

The Self-Preservation 7 can be described as a survivor of its own family atmosphere. Traps, fraudulence, opportunism... everything is put at the service of covering up the anguish of the threat to the Self-Preservation of the childhood stage. That lacerating wound is still so alive that he runs toward hedonistic pleasures to try to leave his psychic footprint behind, forgetting that pain is a tireless long-distance runner that always ends up catching those who shun it: depression or alcohol can become the last subterfuges of the Self-Preservation 7 ego so that life does not hurt.

“I think I first got depressed when I was five years old, when my mother left home without telling me because my father had threatened her with a gun. Then, at fourteen, I had a car accident that left my face covered in scars. I became depressed again. I had manic and depressive cycles for the next few years. The last moment of depression I remember ended the day Claudio Naranjo asked me: ‘How are you doing with your depression?’ I replied: ‘I already feel less pain.’ He looked at me and said: ‘Pain? You mean fear of pain.’ The answer made me open my eyes. Depression was but one more evasion not to touch the wound.” (DAVID)

Added to the stories of abandonment are childhood deprivations; sometimes, having to improvise to survive in a suffocating environment that does not allow the physical or intellectual expansion of children. There is suffering, therefore, related to material scarcity, and another that comes from a lack of love and parental attention, which is displaced toward that experience of hardship. It is not surprising, then, that the Self-Preservation 7 is someone who develops the biting instinct early on, as if he soon came to the conclusion that if he does not personally take care of himself, no one will do it for him.

The picaresque novel seems to be a genre dedicated to the celebration of this character, his cheekiness and cunning. The bigardo, picaro, or buscón, like Lazarillo de Tormes, Don Pablos, the Guzmán de Alfarache, or the mischievous Justina, is usually a wandering anti-knight, in an “epic of hunger through a miserable world, where one only survives thanks to fraud and deception. La Celestina is another example: a cunning and greedy old woman who, with her tempting words, manipulation, and greed, ends up breaking Melibea's virtue. Underneath a clear satirical intention lies a moralizing and pessimistic ideology, a determinism with which their own mistakes are justified and a praise of failure.”

“At home, we used to go to bed grounded without dinner. The reasons could not be more absurd. What was happening? There was nothing for dinner, and my mother invented punishments to make the lack become something else. We lived nine people in 60 square meters. Faced with such a scenario, I developed a skill to get them to share the sandwich with me. From my older brother, I learned to make a fool of myself in front of the gate of a school for middle-class children. What a good heart they had! When we drooled pretending to be disabled, food rained down on us.” (DAVID)

“I have the powerful experience, in a care workshop with Albert Rams, of feeling how I could kill to get food, the experience of touching a regressive deficiency state that I have been fleeing from all my life because of its power, virulence, and the violence that I felt in it. It was six hours in silence through the streets of Barcelona. I made up my mind not to eat during that time and walk through the ugliest places: dumpsters, garages, and gloomy streets. My own proposal not to eat triggered fear in me, and at the beginning of the trip, I bought a sandwich in case something happened to me. In the final stretch, I was so taken by discomfort that I was stumbling and folding in on myself. I ended up devouring the sandwich I had in my backpack with animal voracity. Seeing myself in that state made me feel very ashamed.” (Meka)

Family histories of violence are not uncommon, with a father or mother being the perpetrator, and a generalized situation of chaos and disorder that the Self-Preservation 7 tries to solve by taking on responsibilities that do not correspond to them, sharpening their skepticism before any form of authority, and with an emotional retreat bordering on the schizoid in the face of intimacy.

Conservation E7

Self-Preservation 7

Passion In The Sphere Of Instinct: How Gluttony Works In The Self-Preservation Subtype

Iconoclastic, rebellious, provocative, intellectual challenger, seeker of novelties... As well as being easy going, opportunistic, lover of privileges and central heating, the Self-Preservation 7 character moves through life, crossing from one side to another on a basic polarity: that of someone who is, at the same time, revolutionarily heterodox and secretly conservative. Here is the quintessence of the Flaubertian bourgeois: a great moderate, capable of punishing himself with sober regimens after a binge or with large doses of work after a period of laziness.

In the game of polarities typical of each Enneagram type, we can observe among the E7s, on the one hand, the helpful and social idealists and the Sexual fantasists and charmers, and on the other, the cynical, practical, and earthy Self-Preservation 7, who are not idealists at all. With this starting point, gluttony taken to the field of Self-Preservation becomes a very materialistic gluttony of concrete sensory pleasure, making this subtype a cheerful, easy-going hedonist, light-hearted and enjoying himself, interested in sex, money, food, and the good life. But with a schizoid background, disconnected from feeling and emotionally stingy, which usually appears more resoundingly in private, while publicly maintaining a pseudo-social facade intended to satisfy its gluttony. In someone whose most acute instinct is the always-reptilia Conservation, all this yearning for pleasure is very uninterested in theoretical abstractions.

Family Stories of Survival

The world was made to the Self-Preservation 7 preservation too dry in its infancy, especially emotionally, but often also materially. It is about a person who felt very unprotected at a tender age. Stories of broken families, patriarchal violence, parental alcoholism, having to take care of siblings, large families where there is not enough care, or a general sense of feeling threatened that is transmitted from parents to children are common. The person with this character continues to stay, even now, in a constant state of alert, with a strong initiative and even aggressiveness at the service of his needs, which translates into a great capacity to improvise in order to nurture himself: the Self-Preservation 7 is a hustler. And so he doesn't tolerate deprivation without being able to get what he thinks he needs to achieve his neurotic goal that “I'm fine, and everything is fine.”

“I have not been an adventurer, an insatiable explorer, or a compulsive liar. Nor would my humble family economy have allowed it. I felt that I had to make a living, that I had to be smart, that I was better equipped for it than the rest, but everything was at a very homely level, without large companies, expeditions, or scams (some minor theft from time to time), much more from the neighborhood... It is also true that my desire for exploration was directed more toward knowledge than real life. That way of moving in the world made me feel superior, certainly smarter than the rest. Our stories are more about home-grown rogues, who justify their excesses and nonsense with verbiage and self-indulgence.” (Ori)

“At home, we used to go to bed grounded without dinner. The reasons could not be more absurd. What was happening? There was nothing for dinner, and my mother invented punishments to make the lack become something else. We lived with nine people in 60 square meters. Faced with such a scenario, I developed a skill to get them to share the sandwich with me. From my older brother, I learned to make a fool of myself in front of the gate of a school for middle-class children. What a good heart they had! When we drooled pretending to be disabled, food rained down on us.” (David)

“My father was a traditional family head. Really, he was impulsive and practical—very visceral and obsessed with his own survival. My mother is a torrent of emotions. My older sister is too; despite being second in line, I felt like the head of the family. For me, the conflicts began with emotional explosions, more than with my father's absences or his nonsense. Our house had two rooms and only 45 square meters. There were six of us in that tiny space! I lived in fear of those arguments, but my role was to reassure and calm my sisters. Even now, I freeze in the middle of conflicts. I always think, ‘It’s not that bad,’ and only realize hours or days later what was really happening to me. As I grew older, my mother would hide behind me to reproach my father and pour all her dissatisfaction on him. I once had to stop an attack with a knife, driven by rage, fear, and the need to protect my mother. It was extremely difficult for me, as a girl, to stand in front of her father in the midst of such a violent act.” (ORI)

“My father was a joker, but when he snapped, he could become the most violent man in the world—that’s how I lived it. I’ve witnessed the mistreatment of my mother, both psychologically and physically. I used to get in the way to stop him from hitting her. One of the most horrific scenes was at Christmas. They argued, and my father hit my mother. She stood up to him, and didn’t keep quiet, which made the violence even worse. He stayed in bed, lying down. I went into her room, called her repeatedly, but she didn’t answer. I began to panic. I lay in bed, paralyzed. After a while, I heard voices in the hallway, and I heard her tearful voice. The relief I felt was immense—it felt as though my soul returned to my body.” (Nestor)

The family environment often prepares or contributes to the moral laxity in which the Self-Preservation 7 lives. His character can also be seen as a self-protective reaction to a family environment dominated by chaos, or one marked by a certain atmosphere of selfishness and individualism. It can be likened to the sentiment in the film I Mostri (1963), where a father (played by Ugo Tognazzi) deals with the education and social initiation of his son (played by Ricky Tognazzi) through examples based on complete dishonesty and a lack of respect for others.

In this caricature of a conservative E7, the father’s immorality and hypocrisy are laughable, especially when he tells his son that politicians “only think of themselves, instead of thinking of others.” On top of that, there's this tendency toward dishonesty. He says, “So, if you want to do well, don’t trust anyone. Never! Not even your father!” And, in response to his son’s stunned look, he adds, “It’s a joke! Give daddy a kiss.”

A Materialism That Obscures Existence

The belief that the world is a dangerous place, that one is always at risk of extinction or constant threat, leads the Self-Preservation 7 to believe, as a self-protective reaction, that their intelligence and planning ability can solve things to their advantage. They seek to arrange the world around them in such a way that it works in their favor, altering unfavorable circumstances.

They won't easily let anxiety and fear show, but they will struggle between their fright at intense experiences and the desire to experience life without restraint. They want to live at the edge, squeezing every drop of enjoyment as if there were no tomorrow. Their desires are enormous, and they surround themselves with luxuries, favors, and pleasures—hours of paradise, beauty, and indulgence. They even imagine themselves as aristocrats, trusted advisors, or unexpected heirs to a fortune.

In the Self-Preservation 7, the confusion between love and pleasure is typical. This prevents a deeper meaning from emerging beyond what is immediately available and leads them to value only what is immediate—“the bird in the hand,” so to speak. Anything beyond that is considered a “flying hundred,” as the saying goes. Much like Aesop’s fable, the Self-Preservation 7 acts like the fox who, realizing the grapes are out of reach, scorns them, saying, “They're green!” This shows them to be self-indulgent and opportunistic, often avoiding great efforts or sacrifices unless the rewards are clear and immediate.

Their alienation from deeper experiences (rooted in their sense of scarcity) is further compounded by their search for concrete pleasures. The gluttony they exhibit is an attempt to conceal insufficiency with false abundance. This abundance, however, is based on the material and sensory—gourmet dinners, physical relationships, vintage wine. Their need for pleasure is so intense that it’s often confined to sensory or aesthetic experiences.

So, the Self-Preservation 7 even comes to despise abstract pleasure; they won’t appreciate things like poetry or a novel. They’re so focused on what is immediately available that they discard anything that belongs to the subtle or intangible world. While they may be fanciful, a good storyteller, or even oriented toward mysticism, the Self-Preservation 7 generally doesn’t value or love anything that doesn’t offer immediate pleasure.

This is a tremendous handicap because it limits the depth of experience to what is related to the senses, distracting them from a deeper understanding of love or the feeling of connection to something greater than themselves. It’s not uncommon for them to suffer from existential disillusionment, believing they cannot rely on anyone and must fend for themselves. This leads to a general skepticism and a lack of belief in anything.

Bipolar Tendencies

The addiction to pleasure makes the Self-Preservation 7 susceptible to falling into temptation, which often leads to corruption. A person addicted to the sin of gluttony can’t resist the temptation to fall into any other vice. The E7’s conception of life is one of enormous (and often literal) indulgence. If we understand “sin” as the diversion of one’s potential for self-actualization, the E7 renounces self-realization by clinging to exaggerated expectations of reward, which are often tied to the idea that they are special—an idea frequently forged through early relationships with their mother. Since these expectations are frequently disappointed, the E7 develops a neurotic defense mechanism to avoid depression.

E7s are not just explorers of the open mind—they seek experiences that take them from an unsatisfactory present to a promising future. However, the glutton’s insatiability is masked by apparent satisfaction. Beneath the enthusiasm lies frustration, which the individual keeps hidden from their consciousness.

The myth of Odysseus, “he of many cunning tricks,” illustrates the Self-Preservation 7 well. He goes from acting arrogantly during his conquest of Troy (similar to the mystical inflation of the Hero's Journey) to losing everything in his ten-year voyage at sea, eventually returning as a humble castaway. Only after enduring many trials does he regain his kingdom. This reflects the depressive cycles Self-Preservation 7s often go through, where depression acts as a way to avoid pain.

The manic-depressive cycle for an E7 is a strategy for avoiding emotional depth. Both the manic activation of gluttony and the depressive deactivation of painful experiences are avoidance mechanisms. Unfortunately, this leads to a hollow existence.

Both phases—manic and depressive—take the individual out of their center, subjecting them to existential turmoil. The price for denying their true emotions, such as pain and love, is high. This often leads to tendencies toward substance use or alcoholism as they try to cope with their emotional void.

“I remember that I had no desire to socialize, go to parties, or attend any gatherings—family or friends. These environments caused me a lot of stress. I felt extremely inadequate and insecure, as though everyone was watching me, judging my suitability. It made me feel inferior and ridiculous. At twelve, I found an ally in alcohol. It made me more confident, indifferent to others’ judgments, more talkative, and brave. I felt more willing to approach women. Various women! Thanks to drinking, I was able to attend parties, travel, and have many relationships. By thirty, I decided to stop drinking, realizing I could never start a family. The price of abstinence was high: insecurity in sexual relationships, depression, isolation...” (Alexandre)

Gluttony, for the E7, is the passion for more—and for much better. Since they are deeply grounded in materialism, they are more in touch with their feelings of frustration and emptiness, which drives their quest for even greater intensity. Their opportunistic nature leads them to seize any chance that comes their way. This insatiable desire makes them feel threatened by any loss of opportunity, further deepening their need to consume.

To complete this picture of their pain avoidance mechanism, here’s a final excerpt from an interview with psychotherapist Albert Rams:

David: The manic and depressive phases have been constants in my life. Over time, these phases have softened. I now speak of internalization phases. When I go into the expanse, it’s intense, and when I retreat, it’s just as intense. But I can no longer call it mania or depression; the compulsion is much less now.

Albert: I live a life quite similar to yours. The phases have moderated a lot. One significant factor was toxicity. I increased the manic phases with alcohol, joints, and coffee... Eliminating alcohol and joints—most recently coffee—has been helpful. It has allowed me to better understand the dynamics and how the down phase and up phase are connected. I’ve come to realize how unresolved issues in the down phase contribute to the up phase. For instance, in the down phase, everything feels like a struggle; discipline is hard. My last expansive period, which has lasted three years (it had never lasted this long or been this clean of toxins and other substances), has been very productive. I was running a blog that I have now closed, wrote extensively, and made myself available to many people. I even wrote an article for the AETG magazine about bipolarity. One piece of advice I gave was: whatever you're going through, do what you have to do. Don’t let what you need to do depend on your mood.

As the down phase generates a kind of buildup, it creates an enormous urge to burst. And vice versa. I’ve dedicated myself to cleaning up these phases, especially the up ones: examining what was false, what needs correcting, who I need to apologize to, and identifying what seemed radiant but wasn’t. The up phase can push you out of control, causing guilt, and lays the groundwork for the down phase.

David: How do you live in this phase while being more in contact with emptiness and loneliness? Do you experience inner restlessness?

Albert: At the moment, yes, with anguish and the darker side of things, but sometimes with a sense of calm that doesn’t exist in the manic phase. It’s a feeling that there’s nothing to do, like life is just taking me where it will. In my specific case, there’s a very important matter. You know that my daughter passed away in 1994, and through that, I became very clear about what I truly wanted in life: time. I no longer have time as I did before. Recently, during these three years, I’ve made an effort to reduce the workload. I used to work three days a week, but I reduced it to two, which has given me the opportunity to live an adventure, a story of experiencing solitude in the countryside. But now, that same feeling comes back: when you're manic, time is full of joy. But what I’ve been gaining is moderation—cutting the extremes above and below. Something that helps me in the depressive phases is the metaphor of winter. In winter, it seems like nothing moves, everything is still—unless you look at the roots. There's a whole movement below the surface. The movement of digestion, contemplation, anguish, and emptiness—the next high phase is nourished by what was experienced during that low phase.

The Need for Gratification

In Self-Preservation 7s, insatiability leads to a dual, ambiguous, and even painful relationship with sources of pleasure—food (with a tendency to suffer from digestive problems), sex (with a tendency to infidelity and changing partners), money (with a tendency to waste, speculate, or accumulate), etc. Here's a person from E7 who won’t settle for the promise of pleasure. It’s not enough to turn an insufficient present into a promising future. There is less attachment to the satisfaction of indulgence: there is more focus on going after what one wants, less contemplation. There’s anxiety around money, sex, attention that isn’t received, and the desire for recognition. This anxiety becomes intertwined with an exhausting game of polarities, involving the typical tendencies of E7s to self-indulge and procrastinate.

The Self-Preservation 7 is certainly more self-indulgent. They tend to keep their feet on the ground and don’t escape into fantasy as much. The result is that they often feel entitled to gratification. Without God, karma, or laws, without much inclination to idealize fantasies, who is going to stop them? Their gluttony dominates them—they compulsively search for refuge in pleasure to escape a deeper connection with anxiety.

Full Pantry vs. Empty

Like all head types, the conservational E7 is gripped by fear as a constant background noise that colors their entire life experience. This fear is usually denied. The Self-Preservation 7 could be seen as a “counterphobic” character, like the Sexual E6, in the sense that it confronts fear head-on, despises it, and often engages in risky, even quarrelsome behaviors. There is a constant aggressive attitude in this character.

Attachment to material pleasures is, in itself, a maneuver against fear. The survival strategy involves “filling the pantry” abundantly as a defense against the emotional and material lack (food, affection, etc.) experienced during childhood and the fear of experiencing the painful emotions tied to that.

Their lack of involvement, altruism, and empathy is often expressed in a superficial way as a lack of seriousness, combined with a lighthearted attitude and a great sense of humor—both of which disconnect them from uncomfortable feelings and serve as an antidote to pain. Much like an analgesic, the bank account is filled with money, and the bed with sex—without emotional involvement, viewing relationships as a supply rather than a genuine bond.

Confusion Between Want and Need

When gluttony takes hold, passion manifests as a constant concern for satisfying desires, rather than meeting basic needs. (These basic needs are typically covered quite well.) These desires are viewed as “basic”—earthly pleasures associated with the good life. This is a distorted form of Epicureanism, where attention is given more to the material practice of living well than to the philosophy of living well.

A real confusion occurs between what is wanted and what is needed. “We’ve counted our desires, and those of others, as needs,” continues Albert Rams. In truth, we need very little, though we may desire much. The primary needs are blurred by gluttony. It’s not about eating, but about eating delicacies (ready-to-eat food); it’s not about drinking, but about savoring it; it’s not about resting, but about being cared for. And yes, it’s about sex—both in quantity and quality—enjoying the narcissistic pleasure of seduction and conquest, always seeking novelty and challenges.

Moderation and sobriety are experienced as deprivation, especially for those with less ego awareness. The inability to satisfy desire results in anxiety, anger, envy, and suffering. Perhaps, in response to this tendency, we could look to Epicurus, a philosopher who understood this character well. While not denying pleasure as the highest goal of existence, he made serenity a way of life. He came to understand that not all pleasure brings good, nor all pain evil, emphasizing the virtue of temperance and frugality. "Send me—a friend once wrote—a little jar of cheese, so I can enjoy a luxurious feast whenever I want." Did Epicurus practice hedonism? Yes, but a hedonism of small, daily pleasures—like talking with friends, eating just milk and bread.

The Characteristic Neurotic Need

The word that describes the predominant neurotic need in a Self-Preservation 7 is "family." This term refers to how the character forms connections based on relationships of mutual interest, in a dual unconscious strategy of:

a) Trying to favor their greedy interests (to mitigate their insatiability or chronic dissatisfaction).

b) Repressing their diffuse feeling of lack, which relates to an old sense of threat to their conservation.

Thus, "family" refers to the creation of ties driven by a neurosis of “you help me and I will help you,” a type of human association that this character is often criticized for—his uncritical fidelity to his family and the implicit contempt such an attitude can lead to towards those who don't belong to his circle of trust.

However, "family" is an imprecise descriptor. Other terms like complicity, collusion, or, especially, involvement, would be more fitting, since the Self-Preservation 7 is not necessarily someone who is deeply attached to their family or who spends more time with them than with others. Quite the opposite, in intimacy, they usually show great difficulty in maintaining bonds, struggling with issues like lack of transparency, communication, affection, and trust. They may also tend to emotional isolation, radical autonomy, individualism, and independence at all costs. Oscar Ichazo referred to this character as the "guardian of the castle," thus highlighting its schizoid origin. Therefore, the term "family" should be understood in a pseudo-social sense: family here is chosen—not necessarily by blood, but by mutual interest according to the aforementioned ties.

The Self-Preservation 7 is the person who makes alliances. "Family" could be an alternative term, but not in the true sense of the word, which carries positive connotations. The term "families" describes an aspect of life. Yet, in the specialized vocabulary of the ego, there is a kind of family game to be played. In this game, the Self-Preservation 7 builds relationships with people based on ideas like: “I will be family to you, and I demand you be family to me,” or “Let's get together; I will serve you and you will serve me, and together we can create a good mob…”

They are people who show solidarity with their family, and it might seem there's nothing wrong with loving one's own. However, being excessively partial or loyal to one's own clan or group—could that be considered a form of corruption? What is the point of loving your loved ones so much and behaving as an antisocial person toward the rest of the world? Self-Preservation 7 are often labeled as "mobsters" because of their extreme loyalty to their own. These are people involved in emotional ties within their environment but behave like freeloaders to the rest of the world.

They can be funny, warm, and strategically friendly, but they do not fall into their own charm like other E7 subtypes. Instead, they tend to be more distant, somewhat psychopathic and cynical, sometimes even psychopaths. An example is Monsieur Landrú, a famous Self-Preservation 7 who seduced and murdered widows to rob them during World War I. In court, he defended his actions by claiming he did everything for his children. (Indeed, he was a doting family man after all.) Another apt term for this character's neurotic need is smuggling.

I mention the word "smuggling" because this type of behavior can lead to mafioso-like actions. This is clear partisanship. There is an element of corruption present, as selfish interest is at the core of these alliances, although it may appear denied.

Behind this partisanship lies an ancient and primordial fear of abandonment, as well as the aforementioned threat to conservation. The survival of the family structure is viewed as a kind of life insurance, a spring that allows one to survive when things go wrong. Character Self-Preservation often involves "gathering alleged life insurance," especially in relationships with others, without necessarily informing the other of the terms of the contract.

Passion for Inclusion:

In conservation, gluttony "wants the good things life offers, starting with maternal love and, by extension, the warmth of the family—along with money and sex—but all within the context of a passion for inclusion." As we pointed out earlier, the term "family" (or involvement) doesn't necessarily refer to a special experience of family bonds but rather to the difficulty in including strangers or third parties into a closed environment of trusted relationships that the Self-Preservation 7 turns into utilitarian relationships.

Many Self-Preservation 7 had a broken family in childhood; they may be illegitimate children, or one parent may have died or disappeared early, or they may have experienced abandonment, etc. In other words, there is a lack of family, an experience of not having belonged, or having felt excluded or unrecognized. They felt like “freaks” within their own family system. From there, they build their own "family" through the “I help you, you help me” mentality, as a way of ensuring the Self-Preservation and continuity of the bonds. Thus, they exalt the involvement in their quest for the inclusion they once lacked. At the same time, they find it difficult to accept others who are not part of the "clan," including boyfriends or girlfriends of children, relatives, politicians, etc.

“I experienced a deep feeling of not belonging to my family. Since I was little, I felt very different from all of them in several ways: My parents and siblings are big, fat, strong, loud, and passionate. I was small, skinny, fragile, still, with suppressed emotions... Until today, I eat different food from what they like, I don’t listen to the same music, I don’t have the same habits, nor the same social, economic, or political position. Many times I felt like the ugly duckling among a gang of ungainly ducks who turned into a swan (I’m not proud of my arrogance in feeling this way). That feeling of not belonging to the family is the core issue of my entire functioning system. The search for belonging. The mafia, the bonds of protection and complicity I learned to create are attempts to recreate a safe and welcoming environment, surrounded by those who "speak my own language," and thus give me a sense of belonging.”

“As a child, I felt very different from my family. I played the role of the independent one, learned to do things alone, and not to bother much at home, with how busy they were with their own needs. When I met new people, I didn’t want to be associated with my family; I was ashamed. My mother had no education, nor did my brothers, and they never left the town. My sister was almost always involved in small drug deals, and I felt so different... It seemed I didn’t belong to that family. I felt superior; They also told me I was special, smart, intelligent, independent, nice, and that I knew how to do everything. It was as if I had been born to improve the family; that’s how I thought I was important.”

"Families" is a term that must be understood as a passion for inclusiveness that also implies the exclusion of those who are not considered family. The border drawn between loved ones and the rest of humanity is very clear. For those inside, everything; for those outside, they don't even exist. In this closed world, there is only one whose "fidelity" has previously been verified. This is why the Self-Preservation 7 is called a mobster, someone who doesn't trust laws (the father figure) but trusts blood ties (the mother figure), although these ties are not necessarily biological.

According to psychiatrist Alejandro Napolitano, submission to blood ties has made families, and more precisely mafias, the emblem word for the Enneagram Self-Preservation 7. This serves as a way to allude to the most degraded and destructive forms of the family bond matrix. But it's clear that, behind the apparent masculine power of the mafia organization, and the relegated position of the wife, lies an omnipotent and indisputable power, symbolized in the use of blood to seal alliances and centered in the abysmal depth of the lap: the mama, the Great Mother, Gaea, Demeter, Stella Maris—the center of gravity for devotion and power.

The Self-Preservation 7 was someone whose mother looked at her in a special way, perhaps with wild admiration, with inappropriate voracity. If Saturn or Cronos, the father of Time, devoured his children so that they would not dethrone him as king of Heaven, the slow Hindu goddess Kali is known as the devourer of Time (a property archetypally related to the Father). This Oedipal son, encouraged to unseat the father, grows up with strong confusion about his place.

Their passion for inclusion is a desire to be recognized, even if they don't deserve it. The Self-Preservation 7 is, after all, a narcissist with a strong, more or less strategic will to be noticed: at every party, every dance, every club. Naturally, they want to be a special guest. This is the passion to be regarded as more than just another person, as an important figure, based on rights granted by their intelligence. Therefore, they often suffer from a strong sense of entitlement: a feeling of deserving, of superiority. They don't just want to be listened to or recognized as someone who knows, but they expect admiration.

It should also be noted that the behaviors related to the “family” or involvement type, or the passion for inclusion, have a hidden or unconscious motivation: the surrogate experience of an emotionality that replaces the emptiness or loss of the primordial sense of unity. Here lies the main stumbling block or metaphysical-spiritual distortion of the “family” passion: an ancient fear of intimacy, ultimately compensated by a substitute of intimacy around the group, the clan, or partners—not necessarily from the biological family.

“I talk a lot about living in a community, but I really don’t know how it is. It’s more about sharing resources, having a common goal, committing to spiritual life, and not feeling as alone as I sometimes do. I work less on daily tasks, which I don’t find pleasant. But I’m sure I would measure a lot by what I do and what others do; I doubt my love for others, at least I doubt my ability to put others’ needs before my own in some situations. I’m still too hungry spirit.”

The passion for involvement has, as we pointed out at the beginning of this chapter, its polar opposite. This desire to belong is experienced with a certain schizoid ambiguity: the need to be in a relationship (in a pseudo-social way) is polarized by a strong neurotic need to withdraw. The more intimacy there is, the more the sullen, elusive, stingy part of the individual will be activated. The guardian of the castle (who guards an empty and cold fortress) has a great capacity for relational sabotage. At the same time, there is also a core experience of low self-esteem in this character. While narcissistic feelings dominate the figure, the background—denied—is characterized by diffuse discomfort, a feeling of inadequacy, disadvantage, inferiority, and even envy, with a tendency to feel "bad."

“At first, as a young man, I felt incapable of being loved by a woman. I imagined that if one day I found a woman who wanted to marry me, that would be enough to make me happy. With time, a woman was no longer enough, but a pretty one. Later, I was no longer content with just one. My need for conquest spread so much that it was only enough for me if everyone admired and recognized me. Although I had many conquests, the certainty that I did not deserve them bothered me. I knew my charms had no consistency, so I did not show myself completely, assuming an enigmatic posture to prevent them from discovering my lack of true values and attractions.”

Complicity, Permissiveness, and Seductive Complacency

Regarding permissiveness, it can be said that this trait not only describes an individual’s attitude towards himself but also reflects a characteristic laissez-faire attitude toward others. When gluttons seductively indulge in the vices of others, this permissiveness turns into complicity. It is curious how this lone wolf, schizoid individual, easily organizes himself into a pack when it suits him, so that he can satisfy his desires more skillfully. All of this has a clear origin in a family unit that does not promote rules of conduct.

“Within the family home, there were no rigid rules, especially for small transgressions. On the contrary, I received support from my mother to buy cigarettes at only thirteen years old, and from my father to buy and consume alcoholic beverages at just twelve.” (Alexandre)

In this sense, the role played by the typical seductive complacency of the E7 is significant. As in all E7s, there is not only an inclination to satisfy their own greed for pleasure but also to satisfy that of those they wish to seduce. However, the Conservationist can be as indulgent and solicitous with those who interest him as he is cold and distant with those who do not—this includes the vast majority of people. A characteristic of Conservationists is this polarity: between warmth and coldness, helpfulness and a complete lack of empathy, generosity and ignoring others, as if they think, "those who are not part of my world do not exist." Although the following description applies to all E7s, it is particularly true for the Conservationist.

Gluttons are excellent hosts and can be big spenders. As generosity is often part of seduction and a way of buying love (rather than genuine giving), it is counterbalanced in the glutton's psyche by its opposite: a hidden but effective exploitation. This can manifest as a parasitic tendency and possibly even feelings of being worthy of affection and care.

Creation of Networks of Influence

Though it serves as a substitute solution to the fear of abandonment, the Self-Preservation 7's ability to create networks of involvement is not negligible. Again, “today for you, tomorrow for me,” or “I help you so you can help me,” often turns into “I partner with you so that together we look for shortcuts and break the rules with greater success.”

“I have a network of rich and influential friends. I try never to annoy them by asking for favors. It's like an emergency net, a last frontier that, in my fantasy, will defend me from homelessness if everything goes wrong. I usually give them my advice, good humor, and thoughtful analysis of everyday problems. In exchange, at most, I let myself be invited to dinner and little else. So, in the end, I come out cheap as a counselor. This reminds me of Elias Canetti's character, the designer, who never earns anything, does everything for free, and implies that he hardly does anything for himself, not even allowing himself a coffee.” (Anonymous)

Opportunism

The Self-Preservation 7 is the opportunist, someone who must find advantages, to take advantage. It’s as if a Self-Preservation threat looms over them that must be compensated for. In this case, gluttony expresses itself as an excessive concern to escape the Self-Preservation threat by making good deals and taking advantage of every opportunity. It seems that with the Self-Preservation 7, there is no conversation that doesn’t lead to business. They engage in instant transactions because their minds are so alert to opportunities that they never let them pass. Their position is one of someone who believes that if you're not alert, if you're not in touch with the wind to catch opportunities, you will lose.

Opportunism, of course, has a childish root. According to Albert Rams:

"Paradise, the false paradise, seems to be truncated, broken (separation, abandonment, trauma...), and we are left with the idea that it was a lie... Then everything is a lie... Ergo, I can do whatever I want because there is no law: anything goes. So life is dedicated to the search and restoration of that primeval paradisiacal state, that family-mafia in which the Self-Preservation 7 occupies a place of tacit privilege."

According to Claudio Naranjo, E7s are often generous and hospitable, the kind of people who say, "I'm at your service," "Call me whenever you want," "Here’s my phone number." This can be both an unconscious seduction and a conscious idea of exchange: the opportunistic expectation that by leaving others in debt, reciprocity can be expected. Here again, we see the basic structure of the 'families,' or implications, typical of their neurotic need. The other side of this generosity and self-interested hospitality is distinctly criminal. When we refer to mafias, we cannot fail to mention the very Italian mafia: a special type of organized crime, whose name probably derives from the Arabic word mahya ('bravado, boasting, bravado') or from mu'afah ('protection of the weak'), ruled by family and blood ties. It can be said to be a product of the exacerbation of the "bad" of involvement, or passion, in the Self-Preservation 7s.

In a recent analysis of the social dimension of characters described by the enneagram psychology, it is stated:

“It’s interesting to consider how an E7 responds to the conditioning of patriarchal society, because, in a way, an E7—like an E8—is a rebel who has turned against authority. And it was surely to escape from a bad authority that this character, like the fox in the fables, became a trickster who achieves his purposes through charm. It’s also easy to understand how an unjust world becomes a nest of criminals. We even find it justifiable that in an unjust world, the underprivileged get by by stealing here and there, in view of their need to survive and help their relatives or friends. They are smart enough to realize that the supposedly good authority that governs us is only apparently so, and we may even implicitly approve of their cynicism, which empowers them to allow themselves certain liberties. Isn't it implicitly expressed in the saying, 'Whoever steals from a thief, a hundred years of forgiveness?'"

“A typical phrase from my mother was: ‘You have to have friends even in hell.’ And yes, I believed it. It’s a phrase and attitude that accompanies me and guides me in many of my social relationships. Being an accomplice to the mafia, or small mafia-like acts, justifying them and downplaying them: making personal photocopies while working in public administration, using the phone, taking work hours for personal matters, taking office supplies home, knowing that the painter overcharged my landlord but took advantage of it to charge me less, etc. I’m an accomplice in case I need their favors, in case I can benefit from it at some point. You never know, because you have to have friends even in hell.” (Concha)

An Egoist with His Own Agenda

The tendency to manipulate, sometimes disguised as friendliness or paternalism from those who believe they know what’s best for others, causes not only authenticity in relationships to suffer, but also results in a divorce from the sense of community, reaching the point of radical individualism, sometimes disguised as idiosyncrasy. This individual may idealize their personal world or feel lonely because their relational networks are not based on affection but on exchanges.

In this subtype, not even the usual pseudo-social communal appearance of the E7 helps to mask their emptiness. The Self-Preservation 7 is often perceived as an independent egoist with his own agenda, regardless of the needs of the group. Here, the child who permanently carries enneagram E7 has become a mercantilist child, who values affection according to the goods, services, or care that others can provide him.

This requires modulating the intensity of emotions: Here is a perfect compartmentalizer of reality. The Self-Preservation 7 is adept at avoiding any emotion or situation that disturbs him emotionally. He divides things into parts, breaks down problems to deactivate them, and confuses others to convince them that he is not wrong—or at least that he knows how to earn their appreciation despite it. He avoids commitments and responsibilities and has a very low capacity for guilt. It’s a bit like the famous Brazilian joke where the wife approaches her husband: “The maid is pregnant.” The husband replies, “That’s her problem.” The wife yells, “What am I supposed to do?” The husband replies, “That’s your problem.” The wife protests, “But the maid says the child is yours!” The husband responds, “That’s my own problem.”

Interpersonal Strategy And Associated Irrational Ideas

The following describes how the Self-Preservation 7 builds their philosophy of life. The misinterpretation of reality sustains their passion (in this case, gluttony). It becomes a fixation: a subjective cognitive vision that neurotically appears objective to the individual, serving as support and justification for gluttony. This is the distorted cognitive core from which irrational beliefs and ideas derive. We will focus on the most typical traits of the Self-Preservation 7.

Oscar Ichazo defined the cognitive world and relationship style of E7 as "charlatanism." The first time Ichazo spoke of protoanalysis, he used the word charlatan to refer to the individual of Enneatype VII and the word charlatanism to refer to the fixation. This word should not be taken literally: the glutton is someone who approaches the world through words and good reasons, manipulating others with intellect. Ichazo later described this personality, or ego-plan, as a dreamer. His quackery can be interpreted as taking (and offering) dreams as realities.

For Naranjo, the term "planning" to define the fixation of E7 is not entirely fitting, as it is also a prominent feature of Enneatypes I and III. However, quackery carries additional meanings, such as expressive ability and the role of persuader and manipulator of words, which allow the E7 to exceed the limits of their knowledge. More than a mere planner, Enneatype VII is an intriguer with the strategic character symbolized by La Fontaine's fox.

"Planning" evokes the E7’s tendency to live through projects and fantasies, often substituting action for imagination. Thus, terms such as "quackery" and even "fraudulence" better describe this character, highlighting the insatiability shared by gluttons and the lustful. This is especially true for the Self-Preservation 7 subtype, who, like social E8s, cultivates complicity. The word that best defines the fixation of Enneatype E7 is self-indulgence, closely linked to permissiveness with fraud and cheating, which is especially typical of the Self-Preservation 7.

A fundamental trait of E7 is permissiveness or indulgence, which I take to be the essence of gluttony. Since this self-indulgence would be impossible without the imposition of the superego or submission to authority, this character is rebellious—though sometimes in a soft or diplomatic way. Interestingly, self-indulgence is described by some sources as a feeling of pity toward oneself in response to situations perceived as adverse.

"I wanted to be, deep down, a victim of the situation and overcompensated by seeing myself as deserving of condolences." Psychoanalysis views self-indulgence as a hyper-cathartic reaction that brings pleasure and pain, and is linked to the search for personal comfort. Not surprisingly, Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan states that self-indulgence is the cause of all life's complaints.

Self-Indulgence in the Conservative Instinct

The key to self-indulgence in the Self-Preservation 7 lies in the attitude toward life. "What I need—actually, rather than 'what I want'—is what I take because I deserve it, having left a situation of handicap that I must compensate for, even if by cheating." Or, "I will compensate thanks to the tricks I’ve learned, since I am intelligent." This implies not facing things head-on, but usually through subterfuge or tricks. It also implies associations with accomplices, whom the E7 will treat with indulgence.

In this subtype, the mixture of self-indulgence, permissiveness, fraudulence, implication, and materialism makes the typical hedonism of the E7 even stronger than in any other character. Self-indulgence gives E7s the necessary reinforcement in feeling entitled to gratification. This is very much related to the playboy/playgirl orientation toward life, especially in the Self-Preservation 7, as well as the exaggerated sense that all is well—a protection of hedonism against pain and frustration. An optimistic attitude that not only makes him and others feel okay, but also makes the world a good place to live.

All of this, mixed with the typical E7 vision of a world without good or evil, guilt, obligations, or duties—where simply enjoying is enough—creates a predatory attitude bordering on lust. If the Self-Preservation 7 does not allow everything, absolutely everything, as the E8 does, it may be because their narcissism stops them (they care about "looking good"), their unconscious fear of punishment, and their family ties. The permissiveness and self-indulgence of gluttons are inseparable from the avoidance of suffering, and the hedonistic orientation is typical of this character.

For the self-indulgent, nothing is totally forbidden because there is a belief that authority is bad, and that anyone who is smart can do whatever they want. They also feel entitled to their talents and deeply believe that personal charm is the best way to succeed. In direct relation to self-indulgence, descriptors such as manipulation, fraudulence, and lying—especially in the context of scheming behavior—emerge. This includes greed (disguised), cunning, eloquence (charlatanism), seduction through intellect, cynicism, humor, rebellion, and lack of discipline.

Manipulative, Fraudulent Liar

Lying is a tool for self-indulgence. Lying and believing one's own lies (or pretending to believe them, depending on the degree of cynicism) is justified by lofty goals, helping others, saving oneself, or achieving social rights to satisfy unavoidable needs. Being an interesting storyteller, a rogue, a raconteur in the political sense, serves to convince others, to gain allies and supporters, whom the E7 persuades by promising to do the best for them. Thus, the Self-Preservation 7 achieves their goals not only by satisfying their needs or desires but also by nourishing their narcissism.

The Self-Preservation 7 is, more than any other E7, a fox who doesn't bother too much to hide his tail behind his sheep costume. This foxy passion for hiding is even more present in the more elusive Social 7, though the Self-Preservation 7 is more like a cheater. Mythomania, or compulsive lying, lurks in every E7, but especially in the Self-Preservation 7, due to their usual lack of moral restraints and defiance of established morality. They care little about the opinions of those who don’t matter to them—the majority.

Evidence of Fraudulence

With their tendency to merge into familial ties, the Self-Preservation 7 becomes prey to moral relativism that induces fraudulence. They do not respect the limits of law (the father), whether in personal relationships or often in social and professional settings. The fraudulent uses of the Self-Preservation 7 span a wide range—from large scams and pyramid schemes (e.g., Bernie Madoff) to smaller, more common emotional frauds in relationships.

Testimonies of Fraudulence

"I recognize in myself a special ability to take advantage of any situation, coupled with a large internal penalty for doing so. Between that and the fact that it feels natural to me, it’s been hard to qualify these acts as opportunistic, let alone fraudulent. I remember once, when I was twelve or thirteen years old, an important football match in my city. I bought a ticket in advance, intending to resell it on game day when there were no more left. But when I got there, there were still tickets available. I ended up selling it to an older man, who invited me to a drink after I sold it. I took the money and ran home."

“Opportunism was so well regarded, taught, and applauded at home, so intertwined with business, that it is almost impossible to see it as negative. Instead, it's viewed as being "ready," "savvy," "alive" — and those who don’t do it belong to the subgroup of the fools in this world. Life is about recognizing the opportunities that exist and taking advantage of them. You also have to get there first and brag about it. I used to be involved with auto shops and insurance companies. If a window on my car broke, instead of fixing it, I took it to a well-known workshop where a mechanic, another opportunistic family friend, handled it for me.

With the money the company assigned me for the new glass, they fixed a dent I had accidentally caused in a parking lot. Sometimes, if the expert was a friend of the mechanic, they would even pay me for a glass I hadn’t broken, and with that money, I took care of other repairs the car needed. This way, we all won. These scams required a lot of energy and time—calls, visits, manipulation, seduction, and forced smiles in a world of men.

It hasn't been easy to realize what I was losing by constantly being on high alert and in tension to take advantage and avoid looking like a fool. Now, I see how this behavior was also masking a feeling of lack, misery, and not deserving." (Concha)

“When I was fifteen, during the summer, I worked on the terrace of a bar. The work was hard and poorly paid, and the owner was the typical cheapskate, exploitative merchant with double chins. One day, a friend of my sister, who worked as a bartender in another bar, asked me how much money I earned over the weekend, including tips. I gave a figure much higher than what he usually made. “I don’t believe it,” he said. “You can’t possibly be making that much.” “Yes, I can,” I replied. “And how do you do it?” “Very easily,” I proudly said. “I stop checking the box on one out of every ten orders.” Neither the waiter nor my sister could believe what they had just heard. “Are you stealing?” “Well, I wouldn’t call it that,” I said. “What I’m doing is charging myself for the surplus value.”

They exchanged a look and gave me a speech that managed to embarrass me: “If you’re not happy with what you’re paid, dare to tell Mr. X [the owner of the bar] that you want a raise. But don’t steal!” We all knew Mr. X would never raise my salary, so their suggestion wasn’t — let’s say, with the cynicism of character — very practical. However, what I took away wasn’t a moral lesson or a sudden regret at realizing my immoral action, but two things: a) it had been foolish to boast about stealing, and b) I began to consider it strange that it was seen as cowardice not to dare, not to tell Mr. X that his conditions seemed unfair, but rather to set fire to the bar with him and all his customers inside.” (Anonymous)

“When I was nine years old, I was at a friend’s house and saw a coin on the ground. I took it, hid it, and kept it with me. It was a lot of money for me. I hid that coin in a safe place outside my house, and bought sweets little by little, so no one would notice my first theft. I wasn’t bothered by any feeling of guilt, because that friend of mine was violent and deserved to be robbed.

Although I am an opportunist, I achieve my goals in a predominantly stealthy and covert manner. That way, I don’t expose my needs and interests — which I see as a disgusting display of lack — and I don’t end up owing anyone favors.” (Alexandre)

Second-rate narcissist

Whether through hoaxes, exaggerations, or inventions, their frauds aim not just to exploit, but also to fuel their narcissism. Anyone dining with a conservative E7 at a trendy restaurant is likely to hear things like: “Pierre was telling me the other day... Or Ferran, or Gastón.”

Beyond these megalomaniacal exaggerations, their illusions of success and grandeur, which come in manic phases, this character certainly knows how to mingle with important people — VIPs — whom he intellectually seduces, placing himself in a comfortable position next to them. This allows him to shine through others and often gain fortune and influence without exposing himself, thus freeing himself from the responsibilities and inconveniences fame or power bring.

When he boasts about his high-level contacts, he does so with feigned humility, subtly showing his ability to influence as a lady would drop a handkerchief.

His style is generous and refined, presenting himself as a being so delicate he’s never broken a plate: “When describing a character of this type among his characters, Elías Canetti observes that 'he doesn’t even let them offer him a cup of coffee.'”

“When it comes to business, I try to avoid it. To negotiate, I’d have to expose myself, and if the deal benefited me but hurt the other person, I’d be accused of free-riding and bad character. If the business was bad for me but good for the other person, I would still appear like an idiot. In short, concern for others’ opinions and reactions inhibits me in business. I am good at business when I’m in the dark, when I don’t need to expose myself.” (Alexandre)

In 27 Characters in Search of Being, Naranjo describes a character (this time a real one) quite similar to the pharmacist Homais from Madame Bovary. A friend of mine was a dentist for part of his life. He seemed like a kind, friendly, talkative person. Many dentists love their profession because they keep their clients’ mouths closed all the time, giving them the opportunity to talk as much as they want.

You may have met very talkative dentists. They may not even realize it; unconsciousness plays tricks on them. It’s typical of the Self-Preservation 7, who like to do something with their hands, something useful for others. They are practical. While talking endlessly, the Self-Preservation 7 quickly discovers the weaknesses of others. “I see you bought a new car, how’s it going?” says the dentist. “It’s an excellent car, I’m very happy with it,” replies the patient. “But unfortunately, I have to sell it.” “Ah, well,” the dentist takes advantage, “I’ll buy it from you!”

With the Self-Preservation 7, there seems to be no conversation that doesn’t turn into a deal. He’s so alert to opportunity that he never lets one slip by. His belief is that if you’re not alert, if you don’t keep your nose to the wind to catch opportunities, you’ll be a loser.

Somehow, the Self-Preservation 7 will actively and passively remind you that he is a genius, a wise man, the best adviser, and that you belong to a lower category of human beings: those who would pay for the life he leads, for being so charismatic, charming, and gifted with people skills; those who must be guided by intelligent people. Added to this, the Self-Preservation 7 often has aptitudes for complex thinking and a good nose for opportunities. And in itself, that is not a problem.

The problem arises when one becomes a free rider, when one fails to live or enjoy the moment for its own sake, but instead is always thirsty, acting as if the opportunity might slip away, relying on the distorted belief that it’s better not to miss the opportunity because nobody knows what tomorrow will bring. And in that, they forgive their own selfishness.

In short, the Self-Preservation 7 needs to distance themselves from anyone who’s not part of their “tribe” and place themselves above others, something that often earns them silent enmity from those who feel despised.

Cunningness

Don’t forget, the E7 is a crook (and even more so, the Self-Preservation 7) — a rogue. He has plenty of charm, or, as the Argentinians would say, blackmail (someone who’s reluctant to do something requiring effort or obligation, especially work, or who boasts about having something—skills, knowledge, or power—that they don’t really possess). All of this is typical of this speculative character. The distorted conviction underlying this attitude is: If I help you, I can ask you for a favor when I need it.

The Self-Preservation 7 is presented as the one who knows, the one who thinks. Their cunning is often as valued as it is admired by the unsuspecting. Cunning also relates to their ability to distract others from their true intentions or misdeeds. With cunning and seduction, they manage to win others’ forgiveness and approval, taking pleasure in their achievements, mistaking cleverness for intelligence. Trapping others in their nets boosts their narcissistic self-esteem; they are not interested in knowing the real feelings of others, their constant search is for satisfaction from their own abilities.

Paternalistic

By adopting a paternal role, they place themselves in a position of power and preeminence within their clan or social network. This makes them feel important and as though they belong. By overriding paternal authority — implicitly or explicitly supported by the mother — they imbue themselves with authority. “I take care of mother because if she’s ill, I am ill.” This removes ontic insecurity and the anguish of the absence of a father, either physically or emotionally, replacing it with a narcissistic self-ideal.

“I remember the negotiation with the company that bought the apartment building where I lived. They were trying to cancel our rental contracts with minimal indemnities, and soon I was leading the negotiation against these unfair speculators. In the end, we got some good results: decades-long neighbors could stay under the same conditions, others were compensated... Needless to say, I got everything I asked for, and the company was kind enough to keep me happy so I wouldn’t obstruct their plans. In the end, we all won, yes, but... which side was I really on? The company’s? The neighbors’? Mine, to be honest.” (David)

The self-concept can be that of someone who feels like a warm, disinterested benefactor, even of society, if the person lacks conscience. Mixed feelings often coexist, where the self-image of the protector merges with a certain resentment, whether conscious or not, of feeling "bad," selfish, and unclear in their relational dealings.

And perhaps it’s not so bad. Although this awareness of not being altruistic often leads the Self-Preservation 7 to justify themselves by thinking that the world is a battle, full of wolves, and that it’s better to be smarter than others to survive, the truth is that this awareness of being little altruistic in their actions can help them grow.

Consequences of Lack of Altruism

One consequence of this lack of altruism is the difficulty in truly listening. They may be good advisers, but with them, seeking a safe space to vent or simply to be heard can be challenging. Common responses include, "That's not a big deal," or "What you should do is...". Essentially, this tendency reflects a desire to shape others’ thoughts and desires in a way that benefits them, which again ties into utilitarianism and self-satisfaction. The other person is seen not as an independent individual but rather in terms of my own needs or desires. There is a wound in the ability to trust, leading them to not just control the other, but to manipulate them directly.

The World is (Also) a Dangerous Place

The struggle of the E7 is a "rebel without a cause to 'be well, that everything be well'." This low-intensity war is not just about frauds and lies but also involves ambiguity in discourse, elusive solutions, and, whenever possible, the avoidance of direct confrontation (although the E7 is the most confrontational).

The E7 fights against any form of authority, driven by a (not entirely) irrational belief that authority is the enemy of their greedy intentions and hedonistic orientation. They interpret authority as control, something that crushes their freedom. For the Self-Preservation 7, this conviction that the world—or, more specifically, the social order with the powerful at the forefront—is hostile, leads them to focus on Conservation. They think, "The world belongs to the smart ones," and act accordingly, working as much as possible to exploit the cracks in the system.

This individual’s accommodative tendencies are reinforced, often resembling a 19th-century rabble-rouser more than a 20th-century hippie. They are rebels, yes, but there’s a tendency for these ranks to also include individuals who live parasitically from the system: speculators, tax fraudsters, freeloaders, swindlers, hedonists, journalists, court counselors, public relations, and propagandists. These individuals share a character closely related to the light attitude and intellectual superficiality of our time.

These are great manipulators, capable of diffusing any conflict around them thanks to their friendliness, affability, indulgence, and well-structured exculpatory justifications. In this process, the euphemization mechanism plays a dominant role.

The Mechanism of Euphemization

Alejandro Napolitano observes that in Enneagram E7, particularly in the Self-Preservation subtype, a surprising psychological procedure called euphemization occurs. Euphemization softens the harsh and trivializes the significant, making events seem innocuous and superficial. For instance, "naming descents" as a fall is a euphemism that removes the drama and intensity from an event, preventing full contact with reality. This damping process can be a defense mechanism, where anguish is transformed into contempt or mockery. A testimonial from a professional example illustrates this:

"Euphemization occurs frequently in the diplomatic field. I shifted from focusing on conflicts to specializing in the respectful, delicate, and considerate attacks within international human rights organizations. Although these discussions concern fundamental human rights violations, they are approached with cordiality and comfort, which is very convenient for Self-Preservation 7." (Alexandre)

In this sense, their cultivated loquacity (often paired with chattiness) plays a role. Their typical defense mechanism, rationalization, is fundamental here, as it involves attributing an admirable or more acceptable motivation to their own actions, essentially denying the greedy and exploitative aspects of their personality while projecting generosity, kindness, and helpfulness.

Cynicism

In the E7, there is a refusal to acknowledge the harshness of life or the inherent difficulties of a situation. They numb themselves from the uncomfortable reality with large doses of narcissistic and naïve idealism. However, in Transformative Self-Knowledge, the E7’s position is described as "idealistic opportunism," with the conservative variety accused of more pseudo-idealism.

The pathological optimism of the Enneagram E7, which can turn negative situations into something positive, takes on a dimension of a fake sales pitch in the case of the Self-Preservation 7. In fact, we could describe them as irredeemably anti-idealistic, capable of being very cynical and hurtful. And, of course, they don’t believe in anything or anyone, to the point where idealism might even be healing for them.

Still, the Self-Preservation 7 is anti-idealistic only to a certain degree. Their idealism manifests peculiarly—not as a utopian horizon but as the futurism of a pragmatic "visionary." Their anti-conventionalism about customs or ideas comes with a practical, applicable background, showing a disobedient Prometheus' arrogance.

However, whether their opportunistic or idealistic traits shine through, they conceal their own interests behind a facade of camaraderie, reminiscent of reaction formation—a defense mechanism. This is exemplified in Molière’s Tartuffe, where the parasite is disguised as a saint.

Strategy and Looting-Oriented

Talking about interpersonal strategy with the Self-Preservation 7 can be difficult because strategy is ingrained in their life. More than planners, they are plotters, often exceeding their knowledge with charlatanism. Their expressive ability and lack of moral boundaries make them very effective persuaders and manipulators. While planning is present in all E7 subtypes ("What wonderful things await me?" or "How can I convince others to join me?"), the specific form of planning for the Self-Preservation 7 revolves around strategy, persuasion, deception, and the need to be seen as smarter than others. Their core belief is, "If you're smart enough, you'll get what you want."

In the case of the Self-Preservation subtype, this anti-conventionalism takes on a marked strategic tone. The strategic vision is highly developed, much like La Fontaine's fox, with detours taken to achieve their goals. Their lack of altruism can sometimes be quite blatant—except when it comes to those they consider "their own."

Associated Irrational Ideas (Crazy Ideas)

Here is a list of phrases that a Self-Preservation 7 might tell themselves. These "crazy ideas" represent their distorted cognitive core of self-indulgence. By describing them, we gain insight into how this subtype interprets experiences. While not exhaustive, these ideas come from a working group of individuals of this nature:

"Above all, when it comes to hedonism, I think that, for cultural reasons, we have been criticized for what man has been extolled. The criticism is not only external but also self-directed, as I constantly question, 'How can I be happy in a world full of calamities? And when my mother is sick, what right do I have to seek happiness?' Somehow, my crazy ideas are always well thought out to look good, even when I do what I want." (María Marta)

"If I'm honest, I'll miss out."
"No one can be trusted."
"That’s why I have to take care of everything."
"If I play my cards right, I won’t be in need and I’ll have everything I need."
"If I act well, I can fool them all."
"My own can’t take care of their affairs, so I must save them from themselves."
"Before giving to others, I think about what I get in return."
"I do you favors, and you do me favors."
"If you don’t get involved in my business, you don’t love me."
"Blood ties are stronger than anything."
"I know the truth and must convince them to stop being blind."
"I can share my small doubts with others, but the big decisions I must make alone."
"For every problem, there is at least one solution."
"I only believe in what I see."
"It’s better and faster to do things alone."
"I can’t have patience with the dumb or the slow."
"The world is too big and interesting to focus on one thing or one person."
"Trust is like a crystal glass; once it breaks, there’s no gluing it back together."
"Commitment is a prison for pleasure."
"You must have friends, even in hell."
"Giving life meaning doesn’t have a clear meaning, so my own life would be fiction."
"Nothing matters too much; everything is relative."
"We all have a price."
"If I choose, I lose opportunities; if I leave it to the last minute, a better option might appear—one that benefits me more."
"It’s best to get the exquisite one when it’s on sale."
"If I commit, I am not free."
"If I make people feel good, I win them over."
"I don’t want to miss anything that feels like a delicacy."
"I can handle everything."

Other Characteristic Traits And Psychodynamic Considerations

Bon Vivant

As an expression of a life dedicated to hedonism, this character has the ability to feel good and to convince himself that everything is fine. He seeks pleasant environments for himself and for others. His image is usually neat, elitist, and friendly, in polite ways, reinforcing the power of his seduction. He likes to involve others in what he considers the "good life," wanting them to have fun with him. This is the most attractive aspect of his demeanor, and a way to maintain his narcissistic image.

Ironic, Cynical, and Sarcastic

The Self-Preservation 7 usually has a great sense of humor, enjoying life and having fun. He laughs happily at almost everything, and when it comes to humor, nothing is sacred. However, his sense of humor often serves as a means of showing contempt for the other person, in a clear display of narcissism. He is irreverent, arrogant, and mentally aggressive. This is how he expresses his rage, almost as an alternative to physical aggression, since he doesn't allow himself to act out physically. He is adept at pointing out others' flaws with every word, and can laugh at himself, distancing himself from his true emotions. Most importantly, he is not afraid of others, preventing him from taking them seriously. Etymologically, "irony" involves dissimulation, "cynicism" refers to behaving like a dog, and "sarcasm" involves cutting or biting a piece of meat—all of which suggest a disguised sadistic behavior and a tendency to mistreat while trying to appear cordial.

Self-Indulgent

The mantra of a Self-Preservation 7 might be: "First of all, avoid being uncomfortable." This reflects an anesthetic behavior in the face of suffering, a need to disconnect from the harshness of life to maintain the illusion that the “childhood paradise” has not been lost. He despises suffering as something for “unintelligent” people, while, deep down, a great fear exists—fear of returning to the deprived place of childhood, where he experienced a strong sense of threat to survival.

"My self-complacency is so great that I lose the ability to listen or see at times when an authority, or anyone, points out my mistakes or inadequacies. If criticism is launched indirectly, I am unable to recognize it as directed at me. It would affect me greatly to receive disapproval in public, so I assume an authoritarian and excellent role, inhibiting others from pointing out my flaws. For this reason, sometimes criticism comes in a veiled, indirect way, but I am unable to understand that it is directed at me or my behavior." (Alexandre)

Entitlement

As an extension of his narcissism, we encounter entitlement: a sense of superiority and entitlement due to his talent and personal charm. It's subtle. In romantic relationships, the E7’s attitude is different from that of people who go through life with an important, authoritative role. In this case, it's a more subtle form of importance: it's not that he expects to be obeyed, but rather to be heard and recognized as someone who is "in the know." A man may expect the woman to be his audience, and the same applies to a father and his son. A corollary to the need to be heard is his inability to listen, although he may not be aware of this, since he offers great empathy with his attentive demeanor.

Jealous

A fundamental polarity in this character, already pointed out in Chapter 2, is the opposition between the greedy insatiability at the forefront and the fear of lack, which is denied.

"There is a rejection of the victim in me, and this leads me to an inability to listen to someone else's complaints, whether they're about me or someone else. The idea behind it is that the weak complain, those who cannot face reality, those who resist making this world a better place." (María Marta)

Although it may seem contradictory to the oral optimism of the E7, the Conservationist tends to compare himself to others and, unconsciously, feel envy. Those who compare, suffer. Unlike the E4, there is a strong tendency to overcompensate, turning envy into insatiability. However, the underlying sense of lack and disadvantage remains, likely due to having felt excluded or disadvantaged in childhood. This explains the voracity in his relationships and the aggressiveness with which he faces the world. Feeling that his starting conditions were less advantageous, he tells himself that he needs more to catch up or succeed.

"As a child, I suffered a lot from the comments of adults, who told me I was ugly. Throughout my life, I evaluated people's happiness based on their physical attractiveness. I always imagined that an ugly person would have enormous difficulties, almost insurmountable, in enjoying joy and being happy. On the other hand, I considered beautiful people happy and felt enormous envy toward them. However, when it came to men, I thought they might be handsome, but they didn’t have the sensitivity that I possessed to offer women in a relationship." (Alexandre)

Excessive, Aggressive

This need to compare and measure creates stress and anguish, becoming a source of compulsive behavior and all kinds of excesses. Just as the miser does not want to part with what he feels is scarce, the greedy person distracts himself with abundance, faced with the fear of lack. Excessiveness becomes a door to dispersion, an inexhaustible source of problems. The greater the gluttony, the greater the need to compare, which brings the individual into contact with feelings of insatiability, creating a feedback loop that lays the groundwork for the usual manic-depressive phases this character typically experiences.

The E7 often retains a degree of aggressiveness and a tendency toward possessiveness, seizure, and even looting, sometimes leading to confusion with the E8 character. These tendencies are related to his disposition: narcissism and impulsiveness, acting before reflecting, risking everything as an art, and often exhibiting a counterphobic, even psychopathic attitude.

Utilitarian and Strategist

A good friend of the powerful, an effective propagandist, a highly perceptive planner, and strategist, the Self-Preservation 7 usually surrounds himself with people who can not only help him but also make him prosper and carry out his projects. His utilitarianism is evident in personal relationships, where friendship is only cultivated if the friend is useful to his plans or interests, or if they find him suggestive enough. He deals with information strategically, using tactics to position himself comfortably. He seeks ways to get what he wants without asking directly, and above all, without relying on others. He is accustomed to delegating his responsibilities, pushing them onto others, to reach pleasure sooner.

Impatience, Boredom

He has a predisposition and intolerance to boredom, an allergy to everyday life and routines. He needs constant stimuli and new, extraordinary experiences, even at the expense of enjoying the simpler pleasures of life. At the root of this is a difficulty connecting with emotions, resulting in a feeling of dryness in life.

He resists obligation and responsibility, often predisposed to flight or abandonment. His desire is to return to pleasure and freedom as soon as possible. It's also difficult for him to accept slowness—the natural flow of life—constantly trying to accelerate everything due to the planning ego, in order to avoid confronting his own feelings. He struggles to sustain frustration and give space to emotions, relying on immediacy and constant acceleration to avoid unpleasant emotions like anguish.

Insubordinate and Rebellious

The belief that accepting limits creates suffering leads him to challenge authority, which must justify itself, or else he will disregard it. Internally, the Self-Preservation 7 tends to underestimate and disqualify authority, despising and disobeying it. The core distortion here is: "Accepting the authority of others limits my personal autonomy."

He enjoys presenting himself as a rebel, but avoids direct confrontation with authority, instead dodging or seducing it, avoiding consequences that would contradict his image. Indiscipline and procrastination are closely linked to insubordination and rebellion. A background of invalidation by the father in childhood drives his invalidation of all other authority, which he sees as repressive or imposing. The limited capacity for self-criticism further fuels this scenario: there is difficulty in repenting, as well as little tolerance for criticism from others, all reinforced by his aggressive mentality and elusive tendencies.

Egotistic and Individualistic

His absolute priority is to satisfy his own desires, with the belief that others must adapt to his times and needs. In the Self-Preservation 7, narcissism is closely tied to objectifying others. There is difficulty in seeing his partner as a separate entity from his own desires and interests. People who don't belong to his inner circle can be seen merely as obstacles to his goals or simply ignored.

He feels a deep need for Conservation, thinking, "I can handle everything, I don't need anyone." This belief fosters his desire for immediate pleasure without considering the consequences for those around him. He also holds the misguided idea that emotional intimacy makes him lose his independence, making him less "special" or "unique."

Prone to Corruption

For some representatives of this character, the descriptor "prone to corruption" may not seem too strong. We can subject the term 'corruption' to a process of euphemization (typical of this character) and call it "the tendency to take legal shortcuts" or to interpret laws as indicative rather than as mandatory guidelines. This attitude underlies the light approach to life typical of all E7s, especially the Self-Preservation subtype.

If one does not believe in anything—if one implicitly thinks that authority is useless and that the system is corrupt—then one must do what is best for oneself. With so many people sharing this view, the community cannot function properly. When Socrates was offered the opportunity to flee, he chose to give his life as an example in support of the ideal of democracy, strengthening faith in the idea that the people can govern themselves; even if one is wrong, one can still arrive at a system where wisdom prevails. How far we are today from that attitude!

What would a Self-Preservation 7 have done, instead of Socrates?

Fraudulent and Charlatan

This character uses any available resource to achieve their ends, both words and actions. Some of the most common tools they employ are lying, stealing, confusing others, cheating, and manipulating.

They have their own morality, where benefits are prioritized over means; in other words, they don't care much about the methods used to achieve certain goals. For this, there must be a high degree of self-indulgence, personal laws, and individual interpretations of good and evil. Since these are self-made laws, they can be changed to avoid guilt or adapt to the ever-present, greedy need of the moment. In addition, this character has a remarkable ability to arrogate merits that don't belong to them, a strong desire for protagonism, and a frequent imposition of themselves, often resorting to mythomania and fantastic pseudology—especially in intellectual fields.

The Self-Preservation 7 has become an expert at getting what they want without asking for it. Their basic belief is that things aren't achieved by asking; instead, they take or cheat, or speculate to obtain them. Asking is seen as putting oneself in a vulnerable position, bringing them closer to pain and frustration. There is, again, a disregard for others. Their childhood experiences of loneliness, isolation, abandonment, and survival contribute to promoting this scenario.

Schizoid Austerity vs. Seductive Waste

At times, the Self-Preservation 7 exhibits a simplicity bordering on the greediness of the E5. They tend to have a lot of control over their finances, constantly calculating costs and benefits. They attach great importance to money and feel dizzy when faced with financial trouble. However, their difficulty in spending is counterbalanced by a great facility to invest and make "businesses," sometimes with hints of megalomania. Their practical sense influences everything: they don't want to complicate their lives and try to avoid anything that could be a source of displeasure. Underneath this, there is a significant fear of deprivation.

However, this behavior changes dramatically when, in their manic state, they pursue their objects of desire. At such times, they can become wastefully extravagant, throwing caution to the wind and committing any excess necessary. Nothing will satisfy them until they achieve their goal. Again, this behavior reflects their bipolar tendencies.

Dryness

The intense mental life leads to a physical disembodiment and semiotic embodiment—bodily and emotional dissociation where life is confused with words and speeches. Their imperviousness to pain makes them less receptive to emotions. They harbor a great fear of vulnerability that prevents them from being open to others. Beneath all the excitement and noise of thoughts and words, there lies a frozen emotional world, the experience of a nuclear coldness. This reflects the schizoid origin of this character.

At the same time, their difficulty with admiring love or spontaneously marveling at creation complicates this situation. As a result, their attitude is often more pseudo-social or even antisocial compared to other E7 subtypes.

At times, they devote themselves to work to the point of becoming a workaholic, often driven by manic or depressive moods. After periods of excessive workload, they tend to fall ill or enter phases of depression or nervous breakdown. They find it difficult to trust relationships, often taking a long time to establish deep bonds (when allowed). These relationships can quickly shift from intense seduction to emotional dryness, testing the patience of others.

Untrusting and Skeptical

They feel a deep distrust in the flow of life, questioning everything with a certain, albeit muted, anger. Fundamentally, this character struggles with devotional love and recognizing others. Similar to the E1, they believe that people are imperfect and untrustworthy, but unlike the E1, they don’t try to correct others. The Self-Preservation 7 isolates themselves from the world, retreating into their own particular "garden": the "family" or their network of connections. This serves as a defense against a life they see as chaotic, reinforcing their belief that pleasure and constant movement are the only viable escape routes.

Moreover, as someone who seeks to profit and lacks a broad sense of community, it is only logical that they mistrust others. They believe everyone acts like they do—that since there is no law worth respecting, everyone will treat rules with the same contempt. When they temporarily set aside their manic tendencies toward worldly pleasures, a nihilistic background emerges. The narcissistic balloon deflates, revealing the schizoid core, along with even greater disbelief and distrust of life.

Stubborn and Earthly

Beyond the tendency of all E7s to procrastinate, the Self-Preservation subtype often demonstrates tenacity in overcoming obstacles and standing up to adversity. This is driven by nerve, willpower, and fury. Their underlying irrational belief is: "I can handle everything."

They are obsessed with efficiency, striving to maximize rewards with minimal effort. Their mental agility and strategic abilities help them in this pursuit.

Their approach to combat is divided between mental activity and physical action. They like to feel in control of situations, which not only reinforces their narcissism but also helps to alleviate anxiety.

Their tenacity can lead to disconnection from both their body and emotional needs. The Self-Preservation subtype is the most realistic of the E7s, with a strong predisposition toward skepticism and a focus on the material and earthly aspects of Conservation. All of this is linked to their utilitarianism and advantage in social relationships. They don't behave like idealists but rather as someone disappointed by ideals—either a pseudo-idealist or even an anti-idealist. They believe that by organizing themselves well, they can avoid the deficient states they experienced in their childhood, thus attempting to eliminate the sense of threat to their sense of security.

Emotionality and Fantasy

The E7 is a mental character, a personality that breaks free from pain by separating emotional and instinctive experiences from cognitive elaboration. Avoiding contact with emotions and repressing their natural instincts, the E7 relies on intellectual understanding. This results in a freezing of emotions and an impulsive, instinctive life disconnected from deep pleasure, while the intellectual part is reduced to an instrumental and strategic mind.

In the Self-Preservation subtype, the only emotional window it keeps open is that of rage. This anger is sometimes expressed affirmatively and directly but usually transforms into cynicism or indirect aggressiveness, channeled through contemptuous irony. This emotional detachment serves a strong sense of self and the need for material gain.

This is a greedy character who feels a lack when unable to satisfy their desires—desires which they confuse with needs. Someone disconnected from their emotions is not nourished by anything, as nothing truly fills them. The E7 is, at its core, frustrated and chronically dissatisfied. The Self-Preservation 7 wants everything, but at the same time, they are unsure of whether they want something too badly, because nothing seems to interest them enough.

“On the one hand, I search for emotional intensity, but when it’s there, I get scared and pull away, playing it off as madness. Like when you get too close to a paper to read something and the letters blur, making your eyes feel strange. Well, like this. And that’s how I use imagination and fantasy: I start explaining the world with metaphors. My fall into the shadows was when I started seeing the difference between how life told me things were and what was actually happening. I had a hard time understanding what was going on with me. I can easily see where others are going; I think I have a good sense of smell (I insist on ‘believing’ it), and I anticipate. But in this process of getting ahead of myself, I don’t realize what’s happening to me or what I’m feeling.” (MONICA)

On one hand, anguish and emptiness push the Self-Preservation 7 to form superficial attachments, bonds based on mutual interests rather than love or friendship. These connections are founded on utilitarian expectations, rather than respect or altruism. On the other hand, their insatiability and difficulty in committing to deeper relationships—like with a partner—become apparent. Partners may quickly complain about the lack of transparency, communication, and trust typical of a Self-Preservation 7 in intimacy. The E7 may also struggle with tenderness and affection, as they are accustomed to going their own way, functioning autonomously, radically independent, clever, constantly seeking novelty, conquest, and self-interest, with a background that is a mix of easygoing and misanthropic tendencies. They need time to "verify" that the love they offer is "real" before fully surrendering.

Pain is an emotion that the Self-Preservation 7 harshly represses. Let’s remember that gluttony, more than just a search for pleasure, is an effort to avoid suffering. This repression leads to a superficial emotional consciousness. The E7 avoids seeing things as they are, disguising reality in convenient colors, and deceiving themselves.

The passion of gluttony—a receptive orality intensified to the point of becoming a predatory or parasitic will—constitutes a thirst for pleasure (or avoidance of frustration) in an attempt to recover the lost paradise of true freedom in their natural impulses. The E7 will suffer from the consequences of this mistake when, over time, they realize that the pursuit of pleasure, comfort, and advantage has distracted them from living their true life.

Being well, and even love, are confused with physical and economic well-being. But can one truly "be well" without integrating emotions and addressing what causes suffering? The operation of the Self-Preservation 7 is centered on distancing themselves from everything that bothers them, which translates into an avoidance of inner reflection.

“I have a lot of hidden pain. Now that I’m allowing myself to feel it, a lot of sadness and crying come up. It relieves me to let myself feel the sadness. Crying helps me soften, connect with the emotion, with the feeling, to open my heart, and to be able to be with myself, to accompany myself... I also feel loneliness, a historical loneliness; a lack of emotional support, of connection. These are the emotions I’m aware of now. They were covered up. There was this idea of a happy life and ‘Peter Panism’: enthusiasm, parties, plans, dinners, trips... to escape and not confront those feelings.” (ANONYMOUS)

As a counterpart to this avoidance, somatizations, stress, anxiety, and digestive issues are common (likely somatizations of repressed emotions such as fear, abandonment, and lack). The Self-Preservation 7 subtype oscillates between rudeness and physical resistance during manic phases and a remarkable apprehension, especially in depressive phases.

“Since I was little, I’ve been taking medication to open my appetite. I’ve always somatized my nervous state in my digestive system, with tension and fear. Once, I had a colonoscopy, and the doctor said I had a tortuous colon, calling it a sign of high tension in my life... My neck is another area where I have high tension and stiffness.” (ANONYMOUS)

“It could be that the typical digestive issues of this character stem from not being able to assimilate the feelings they deny. I’ve had diarrhea all my life, so much so that it seemed normal to me. Now it’s less frequent because I’m more aware of which foods make me feel bad. I’ve also had a weak immune system, perhaps as a symptom of the inadequacy I feel.” (MARÍA MARTA)

Anxiety and paranoia about one’s health are also not uncommon... And here lies the best-kept secret of a Self-Preservation 7: they are hypochondriacs.

“I’ve had episodes where I ended up in places I still can’t explain. When I was eleven, I became paranoid that I was going to swallow my tongue. At night, I tested whether it was possible to swallow it. Eating became hard because I feared I would choke. The doctor blamed it on the growth spurt I had that summer. At the time, my parents were separating, and I had more information than I could handle. Curiously, when school started, I had mini-meetings with my friends to tell them my parents were separating, but not to worry. I boasted that they had more to worry about than I did. This shows the disconnect between what was happening to me, which I diverted into physical sensations, and what I showed to the world. Now, when I experience hypochondriacal episodes, I start reviewing what’s happening to me to divert it toward physical illness.” (MONICA)

We are dealing with someone who only validates “I’m fine, you’re fine” and strongly rejects both their own feelings of passion and the discomfort expressed by others. However, they also fail to fully enjoy life, as constant vigilance to avoid pain or discomfort acts as a barrier to experiencing other emotions.

“When I feel anger, sadness, etc., I don’t validate it, telling myself, ‘I think it’s not right for me to feel this because what’s happening isn’t that bad.’ Between ‘it’s not that big a deal’ and ‘they’re going to think I’m a brat,’ the emotion overwhelms me. With these two thoughts, I delve into control and image. So when I manage to go beyond this internal dialogue and embrace what I feel, if someone confronts me, I doubt again whether what I feel is real.” (MONICA)

Any claim of emotional need is understood as a lack of love or even a betrayal of their balance, well-being, and independence. The Self-Preservation 7 is highly sensitive to feeling emotionally invaded.

“For me, intense emotionality is closely related to invasion, manipulation, and disrespect for my space, my needs, and my emotions. I am learning to open myself up to feel and accept that fear and everything that moves me there.” (ANONYMOUS)

Fear is another emotion that the E7 avoids, even though they retain it.

“The last time I felt fear was in a dream. The experience was so intense that I woke up scared, tearful, and half awake. I thought, ‘This is really scary, damn it!’ I realized how little fear has let me live. I sometimes think, ‘I won’t go through this again.’ The child I once was said, ‘You won’t go through this again.’” (NÉSTOR)

As a subtype of E7 within the head triad, this character builds their ego structure on an avoidant, fearful foundation. According to Francesco Bonsante, the E7 is a personality formed as a defense against the fear of losing control, with the fear of abandonment being more visible. This leads them to avoid the experience of "emptying themselves," which is typically associated with abandonment.

Paradoxically, they become the personality least able to handle the suffering of abandonment—and any painful emotions—when life catches them off guard. The fear of abandonment, linked to the loss of control, is both widespread and repressed. Beneath their apparent optimism, there is a lack of confidence in the external world. This mistrust is the root of their need for freedom, which corresponds to a fear of being controlled and conditioned.

Their childhood conviction was that no one could provide them with protection and affection. At some point, they decided they must be autonomous and self-sufficient to ensure their well-being. This made them a fierce individualist. As a result, they will live their relationships with the belief that the other person must be at their disposal, and they will view any resistance to their needs as a betrayal. Their tendency to lie and distort reality is connected to the childhood sensation of having been engulfed by their mother. In that relationship, they felt torn between the need to "save" her and the desire to keep her in check to avoid emotional engulfment. Hence, their fear of losing their freedom.

The Self-Preservation 7 is someone who suffers from a strong fantasy of self-sufficiency.

“I don’t usually ask for favors unless it’s something very important to me, but I’ll do favors for many, somehow creating a debt, something that puts me at an advantage. Many times, people have told me I’m self-sufficient, which flatters me on one hand and hurts me on the other. This attitude often leaves me alone. Not needing anyone isn’t real—I’m aware that I need, but it’s associated with my childhood survival. When I needed something, I had to figure it out alone, and that’s deeply engraved in my body.” (NÉSTOR)

This character tends to be easily offended and will disavow anyone at the slightest provocation. He reacts aggressively to criticism, even though he doesn’t allow himself to be conditioned by it. While he is convinced that he can handle everything, inside, he is far more fragile than he appears.

“Faced with any emotion that takes me out of my comfort zone, my tendency is to move on. If I stop, it’s to think or reason why what’s happening is happening. Depending on the area (work, love, family, etc.), I look for one solution or another. Sometimes I seek justifications, explanations, to see the positive side and ‘understand’ the painful part of the situation (without feeling too much, just a little). I also get distracted and disconnect by doing other trivial things. My Achilles’ heel is, for me, not only opening my heart, but exposing myself and showing my true feelings without any games or strategy. Just doing what I want, without expecting anything in return. Let me fall.” (NÉSTOR)

“I feel an immense paradox: as if I were someone very strong on the outside and absolutely sensitive on the inside. I remember being very fragile as a child: short, skinny, quiet... I lived alone with my fantasies. I didn’t like being treated with such diminutive terms. When they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I’d say: ‘I want to be strong!’ My sister would tease me, ‘Don’t you want to be pretty, smart, rich, famous?’ And I’d respond, ‘I want to be smart... and strong!’ I don’t know where that desire came from, maybe from the feeling of being fragile amidst so many giants, in an atmosphere of emotional storms. Later, I understood that everyone in my family was very emotional, uncontrolled, inflamed... and I felt insecure. I began to contain my feelings and kept everything in silence.” (LUCIANA)

The emotional discomfort of this subtype is diffuse, yet constant, and is intertwined with narcissism. It only subsides through lenitive outlets such as sex or alcohol. Repressed feelings of inferiority or envy are common, along with a tendency to feel "bad," inadequate, or lacking. In general, the Self-Preservation 7 doesn’t feel comfortable with the world around him, despite his apparently cheerful temperament. This is influenced by his schizoid orientation and a childlike sense of threat regarding his own conservation.

His utilitarianism, his strategy, and his ability to get a slice of what’s available stem from emotional withdrawal. Someone who isn’t connected with others through the heart—the radical skeptic who doesn’t view life as sacred—finds it easy to exploit others and commodify everything.

Emotionality in the Self-Preservation 7 is profoundly castrated, left aside. This is someone who has hardened very early. The "weird mix" of E8 and E5, where lecherous and schizoid traits create an indecipherable personality puzzle, leads this enneagram type to be distanced from emotional contact.

On the other hand, the lack of emotional transparency is undeniable: dishonesty begins with disconnection from empathy. Therefore, it’s difficult for him to identify emotions like fear or anger.

“Sometimes I realize something has made me angry only after days or months have passed. At the time, I downplay it by telling myself I might be exaggerating, but later I see that it’s not the case—it hurt me. Sometimes it’s hard for me to move on, especially when the damage is caused by someone I consider ‘family.’ Here, the word ‘mafia’ often comes to mind.” (MONICA)

In general, this character fears emotional life, which sustains his typical disconnection (and ultimately condemns his greed). He exaggerates his fear of pain, believing that things will hurt more than they really will. A common thought is that if he succumbs to pain, he’ll never recover, which fuels his compulsion to avoid it.

“Emotions scare me. And when I talk about emotions, I mean anger and sadness. When I see sadness in others, I feel like they’re walking through an autumn forest. But when I deal with mine, it’s like a lake of fast-moving waters that will suck me in as soon as I step in. I’ve had times of bordering on depression; in fact, I feel like I’m finally emerging from one that lasted about three or four years. When I read Claudio’s phrase, ‘You get depressed to avoid it hurting,’ I was amazed... That’s it. While submerged in the dark, I was always afraid of touching something and going mad. It’s like a part of me hides things from me. And that part doesn’t stop me from shifting the waters so I don’t drown in them.” (MONICA)

The Self-Preservation 7 is someone used to monitoring the world, not only to detect opportunities but also dangers—controls and forms of authority that could curtail the achievement of their desires. The defense mechanism of rationalization taints everything with its explanations and intellectualization of life.

Reason is elevated to a pedestal, but that doesn’t mean the E7 behaves rationally. Unlike an E5 or E6, reason is used for convenience—to seduce or undermine an opponent, or to "order" the emotional world of others. It’s an attempt to compartmentalize each emotion without having to truly engage with them.

Linked to this need to be heard is the E7’s inability to listen, even though he may not be aware of it, as he offers apparent empathy with an attentive presence. In matters of parenting, his love for indulgence is less than it appears, due to his persuasive talent and charm.

Underlying this is the fear of losing control—losing one’s head. This includes fantasies of aggression and, in some cases, a fear of physical violence, often rooted in childhood abuse, which is really a fear of his own repressed aggressiveness.

“All the misfortunes of man derive from the fact that he cannot sit quietly and alone in a room,” said Blaise Pascal. This phrase applies perfectly to the conservative subtype: avoiding boredom is a constant in the life of a E7.

“Boredom,” as Alejandro Napolitano explains, ties into a larger issue—the relationship that Enneatype E7 has with time and temporality.

The emptiness, the tedium, are poorly handled by the E7, who rarely notices that it’s when nothing seems to be happening, when time slows down, that the roots of things grow deeper. Long before effort or expectations bear fruit, waiting becomes unbearable. The absence of immediate attractions breeds anxiety, stress, and a sense that life is being wasted—like a cow that isn’t giving milk or an existence devoid of excitement. There’s a constant urge to seek results, as the E7’s own slowness—and that of others—becomes intolerable. His chronic dissatisfaction means nothing satisfies his needs, so he keeps moving in an attempt to escape painful feelings like guilt or sadness.

Despite this internal rage, there’s no genuine desire to hurt anyone. The real struggle for the Self-Preservation 7 is recognizing the pain caused by his disaffection, his emotional neglect, and his tendency to prioritize pleasure over obligation. This blind pursuit of instant gratification often disregards the hurt and exhaustion that his impulsive behavior can bring.

Napolitano also highlights the compulsive need for brilliance and performance that is characteristic of this type. This trait often prevents the healing silences and stillness needed to truly assimilate life situations.

Emotional dryness is at the core of the Self-Preservation 7’s charm and people skills. His intense mental life distances him from emotional depth, as emotions are primarily processed in his head.

Because he has sealed himself off from pain, he’s also impermeable to other emotions. Or, at least, it’s difficult for him to express them when others are watching, for fear his "strong" self-image will be questioned. There’s a deep fear of vulnerability, of abandoning the warrior role and losing control of the situation. The phobia of pain makes emotional contact extremely difficult. Love, after all, passes through pain, and we can only reach the depths of the heart when we slow down and become receptive. The associated irrational belief might be: "If I go through the pain, I will die." This belief leads the E7 to avoid pain, compulsively seeking pleasure, sex, seduction, or leisure to escape from difficult situations.

There is a confusion between emotionality and affability. Not knowing how to access emotions easily, he presents himself as a warm person, a good host, gentle and paternal, as well as accommodating and attentive to those he intends to seduce. However, this warmth can quickly turn to coldness, distance, and even insensitivity when the other does not belong to his circle of trust. a Self-Preservation 7, without conscientious work, is very far from the concept of universal love, as if denying the essence of human nature to those whom he does not accept as part of his bonding system.

This polarity is complemented by another, which we could call greatness and smallness. a Self-Preservation 7 will try to behave in a soft and unassuming way with those who are the object of seduction, to the point of being perceived as humble, while feelings of greatness flow unchecked inside, a belief in having special virtues. "They do not claim any glory for themselves, but they want their ideas to triumph."

The Self-Preservation Enneagram E7 is adept at staying out of any situation that upsets him emotionally. He compartmentalizes problems to deactivate them and entangles others in trying to convince them that he is right or, at least, knows how to earn their appreciation despite everything. He avoids commitments and responsibilities, with very little capacity to feel guilty. In fact, he seems immune to guilt, and when it does arise, he defuses it with rationalizations and indulgence. This contrasts with a reality that seems to have crushed the motivation of Self-Preservation 7s in childhood, making them more fussy and allergic to the emotional commitments or demands of relational life. Narcissists (and this applies perfectly to the Self-Preservation 7).

Not only do they show considerable talent for rationalizing their lack of social consideration, but they also use a variety of other intrapsychic mechanisms with equal ease. However, reflecting very little on what others think, their defensive maneuvers are transparent, poor camouflage to a trained eye. Their inability to hide what is bothering them also contributes to them being seen as cocky and arrogant.

Post a Testimonial:

"People, to me, have typically been divided into two camps. On one hand, there are those I know, who care for and love me. On the other, there’s the rest of the world. This other group is made up of indifference and offense, because it is not uncommon for me to hear that someone I don’t know, or know little, has said that I am arrogant, contemptuous, indifferent, etc. Those who love me try to defend me: 'How unfair,' 'They don’t know you,' 'But you are a very good person...' and the truth is that they are right. What happens is that it becomes clear to me that those who don’t know me are also right." — (DAVID)

Arrogance is related to a repression of aggression. His narcissism does not allow him to clearly identify strong aggression, which, however, he usually conveys through words, with ironic humor or sarcasm.

"I can feel a lot of anger and aggressiveness inside. And one reason why I don't express it is that I consider it too strong, overflowing, and I feel that it won't have a place, it won't be admitted. So, I don't allow it to surface to preserve my good image." — (ANONYMOUS)

Psychological aggression is then expressed through jokes and ambiguity, with which emotional tension is ironed out. "Should I laugh or be angry?" the "victim" often wonders. It’s a bit like a scene from Groucho Marx: "Excuse me if I call you gentlemen, but I don't know you very well. I never forget a face, but with you, I’m going to make an exception. Don’t think wrong of me, lady. My interest in you is purely sexual." "The secret of life is honesty and fair play... if you can simulate that, you’ve succeeded."

"Humor is a double-edged sword for me. What would we be, or who would we be, without humor? Having a sense of humor is healthy (and this is the perfect premise and excuse to use it), but when it turns into irony, it can become a weapon to express our dark side. In my case, it’s been a way to say things that otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to. Very easily, I can see the Achilles heel of the other. I do it when I feel disadvantaged or threatened because that way I will know where I can go if confronted. Although there is no guarantee of success, at least I have a card to play." — (NÉSTOR)

In his quest for self-gratification, his aggressive impulse, generally less repressed than in other E7 subtypes, helps reinforce his gluttony. The combination of fear, lack, selfishness, and aggressiveness explains this Enneatype well, balancing between the sullen, the ruffian, and the seducer. However, his own anger frightens him, it seems inappropriate, reprehensible, and he tends to hide or disguise it to preserve "harmony" and his good image.

"Another emotion that scares me is anger because it is the least valid. When it’s loaded with anger, I’m afraid it will get out of hand and hurt someone. Or that I will lose control and be seen outside of myself. When I see someone losing it, I tend to internally cut their head off, thinking: 'There’s no need, he’s gone.' In the end, my limits for staying in control are loss of control and insanity. Whoever is unflappable wins. And sometimes, I see myself using imperturbability, even with fire inside, as a weapon. In adolescence, I always tended to pick on a friend who got angry quickly. We used to get into debates over various topics. Once he told me, 'Damn, Monica, you always want to be right.' To which I, with half a smile and fire inside, said, 'If we’re arguing, it’s because I’m not the only one who wants to be right.' Seeing his anger, I forget mine or I’m not as sorry." — (MONICA)

With such aggressiveness, the Self-Preservation 7 Enneagram type will find it difficult to hide it, especially in situations where he is free from the judgment of his surroundings. At other times, as Albert Rams says in 27 Personalities in Search of Being, he does not notice "the aggressive acting that accidental mistakes, jokes, forgetfulness, or absent-mindedness can entail."

Especially with his penchant for hurtful humor and destructive irony, he marks territory and makes anyone who plays as his opponent (i.e., who is not part of his "family" or network) feel idiotic. We are talking about a E7, and like all of his character, the Self-Preservation one also presents an avoidance of aggressive impulses, though not as much as the other subtypes. In addition, his aggressiveness makes the relationship between conservational gluttony and envy more evident, even though Enneatype Four is somewhat antipodal to Enneatype E7.

Gluttony, like oral-aggressive envy, looks outward for what it vaguely perceives as an inner lack. However, unlike envy (where there is heightened awareness of ontic insufficiency), gluttony fraudulently conceals this insufficiency with false abundance, comparable to pride, so that the passion is externalized without complete self-awareness.

This translates, in conservation, into a perpetual escape towards the pleasures of the senses as a pseudo-way of fleeing from the intimate and unspeakable feeling of frustration.

In the Self-Preservation 7, aggressiveness is not paralyzed as a masochistic defense against the hostile impulse towards the same-sex parent, which has not served as a figure of identification. Somehow, he has managed to develop an additional aggressiveness that facilitates his path toward egoic self-satisfaction. This means that when faced with a violent situation, he can alternate between paralysis or freezing out of fear, and violent reaction, even reckless.

"He was about three years old and playing with a new toy that played music. My father appeared very angry and kicked the toy, rendering it useless. I remember how internally I only heard silence. I got up, left the room, and went to the dining room to stare at the TV, not speaking and not feeling anything beyond freezing." — (ANONYMOUS)

"I was in 4th or 5th grade, about nine years old, playing with rubber bands with a friend at recess. An 8th-grade girl, about twelve, came to bother us, especially my friend. I kept playing as if I didn't see her... until the impulse took me to spit in her face. The girl froze. They've always told me that when I get angry, I’m scary. And here I would add that I too am frightened by the fantasy that I could kill." — (MONICA)

A sample of the intellectually aggressive and contemptuous behavior with authority, typical of the Self-Preservation 7, is offered by the philosopher Epicurus when he was barely fourteen years old and studying in public school:

The teacher told the class that, according to mythology, at the beginning of everything was Chaos. The young Epicurus asked the teacher, "And where did Chaos come from?" The teacher replied, "We cannot know that, it is a point reserved for philosophers." Epicurus responded, "Then why do I come here to waste my time? Right now, I am going to see the philosophers." This anecdote already reveals the Enneatype E7 character: light, irreverent, relentless, and impatient, not content simply to follow where everyone else is going.

De Crescenzo makes the following observation about the character of Epicurus, which aligns perfectly with the Self-Preservation 7:

"Who knows why Epicurus, so sweet and courteous with women, became a real viper with intellectuals, and especially with the Platonists and the Aristotelians? Probably, he wanted to be considered an autodidact and rejected any relationship between his thinking and that of others. A competitive intellect."

In Essays on the Psychology of Enneatypes, Naranjo applies the three psychic instances described by the psychoanalyst Karen Horney—towards, away, against—to each Enneatype, suggesting that E2, E9, and E7 are expansive characters (going towards the other).

However, this primary characteristic is qualified by a secondary one. The Two moves towards others (towards-towards), the Nine moves away (towards-far), and the E7 moves against (towards-against). This shows that, in addition to the warmth with which the E7 approaches personal relationships, there is also an element of rebellion and insubordination that is very present in their behavior.

Among the E7 types, the most antagonistic is the Self-Preservation type, "which is also the most similar to the E8, in its rudeness, use of vulgar language, greater self-interest, orientation towards profits, and cunning." With this, Naranjo introduces a third characteristic:

Although it is the I that most tends to go against others, I would say that the Sexual 7 is the most impulsive and extroverted-expansive, despite the little credibility of its generosity. Meanwhile, the Social 7, on the contrary, seems to be the most withdrawn in their search for goodness through the sacrifice of gluttony.

Self-Preservation 7s often camouflage emotion with fantasy, thinking they feel and speculating about it. The result is an authentic exchange where it becomes usual to give (or present) a cat for a hare.

“I also thought I felt. And this thought moved me so much! I have always camouflaged emotion with fantasy. The pleasure and happiness, with that kind of capacity for suggestion. Brotherhood, friendship, and love, with relationships of debt, interest, and loyalty. Pain and sorrow, with an intellectualized discourse on the evils of the world. Safety, with dialectical display. Rage, with fine irony. Authentic compassion, with iron protection.

I have disguised or mocked fear as a grotesque clown that scared no one and cast it away with self-sufficient bravado.

I have omitted the sharpest aspects of reality. I have tinted the black paintings of the war with a school watercolor of basic colors. I have rationalized the lacerating wounds in my life to the point of ignoring them completely. I have therefore hidden and denied my deep pain, preventing the people around me from feeling their own.

I have sung to life, secretly fearing it. I have simulated love, avoiding its frustrations. I have cheated death, hidden between your skirts. I have challenged God by becoming His entourage, to create another world, less hostile and more friendly. Finally, I have been moved by pure narcissism to feel like an intelligent fan, so important, so vital, so indispensable. And I have paid the price, of course. Survival doesn’t come cheap. And more, if it lengthens beyond forty...” (ORI)

Beneath this atmosphere of confusion lies a basic fantasy: that of feeling inadequate, not feeling good, or not knowing how to experience love. That of being an emotional idiot with a small heart.

“I live the fantasy that I don’t feel well. That emotion is wrong, and someone (unidentified) is going to scold me. When I immerse myself in the least pleasant emotions for me regarding someone, I think I’m going to be scolded. They are going to realize that I am not right (mixing emotion and reason), and they are going to catch me, placing me in an even more vulnerable and childish place. Because I put the Other in a place of superiority... and from there, it is easy for me not to let myself fall completely, associating emotion with loss of place and vulnerability.” (MONICA)

We are facing a character with a great capacity to imagine, both in the creative sense and in anticipating fears, dangerous scenarios, or dystopian futures. The fact is that, as in any mental Enneatype, the head usually shoots off at the first sight of change.

“Fantasy for me has two faces: light and shadow. Depending on how I am, I am shot to one side or the other. When it’s light, I appropriate it quickly; when it’s the shadow one, I live it as if it weren’t mine, as something that possesses me... Another fantasy to avoid taking responsibility for something happening to me. I amuse myself fantasizing about the fear of the shadow, rather than taking charge of it.” (MONICA)

Beautifully illustrated fraud, fanciful lies—mythomania or fantastic pseudology—are also common. The person tells stories that are not entirely improbable and contain glimpses of truth. They sustain them over time, present themselves in a favorable light, and become so involved in the plot that they sometimes come to believe it.

“As a journalist, I tried to stick to the facts, knowing that anyone who read me would do so with a magnifying glass. But journalism is a trade partly developed with a drink in hand. And it’s full of fanciful E7s. You compete to see who has the biggest account. And in the end, I realize I always season my stories. I recognize a desire to entertain and move. And I remember Nasrudin when he tells the people that the king stopped to talk to him. People are amazed, admiring him. Until a simple peasant asks him: ‘What did he tell you?’ And Nasrudin confesses: ‘Get out of my way.’” (DAVID)

Childhood

The Self-Preservation 7 typically develops in a family and socio-cultural environment that fuels their obsession with survival and, specifically, with compensating for early feelings of lack or abandonment by filling themselves with overindulgent pleasures. Economic or emotional instability at home triggers the Self-Preservation mechanism.

The child feels inferior, alone, and lacking in material or emotional support. Parents often send the implicit message of "there's not much for you," along with the explicit "get a life" or "be independent," which quickly become ingrained in their psyche. This is accompanied by a deep sense of loneliness. While not a universal truth, it's common for parents to be unavailable, unloving, or emotionally manipulative. On the other hand, these parents foster a sense of responsibility in their child, who then begins to adopt an independent stance early on.

“I started working very early to achieve the things I wanted. I was born into a wealthy family; I saw my father spending a lot of money on parties and cars, and then I heard my mother complain about debts and shortages. I grew up insecure because of that. I remember knowing from a very early age that I had to become independent from my family. I think the Self-Preservation mechanism is about not trusting the people you loved most.” (LUCIANA)

“I think the character I have was formed when I realized that for me, 'there wasn't much,' and I had to be strong; vulnerability was not an option. I got involved with gangs, committing petty thefts to make some money, until I started working as a street vendor, mover, and unloading trucks. At seventeen, I entered a factory, then worked in workshops and as a longshoreman at the airport, but I never stopped studying. I was determined to escape family poverty and do better in life.” (JUAN CARLOS)

The child develops the belief that they must compensate for their deficiencies with intelligence, often showing early signs of sharpness and social skills. They quickly realize that, while they may have felt physically weak or clumsy, they often excel intellectually. As a result, their perceived deficiency is counteracted by sharpness and social acumen, which serve as compensations for the underlying schizoid core. This deficiency is transformed into a false sense of abundance through an insatiable drive to not need anything they can't provide for themselves. This quest for self-sufficiency creates a minimum sense of security, but over time, the feeling of greed for the material world intensifies. Thus, they fill the emptiness inside with new possessions, masking the inner silence where they feel they do not exist.

“I was born with malformed lungs, and my breathing was always shallow. My fragility was overwhelming, and I remember showing feelings of lack, fear, and the need for my mother to hold me. But I was criticized for these needs. So, I created a parallel world and didn't ask anyone for anything. For years, I used a Type Five strategy: I isolated myself by reading books and listening to music, staying quiet so as not to attract attention.” (ALEXANDRE)

Sometimes, the child takes on the role of provider early, using their sharpness and opportunity to feel valued through gratitude and recognition. This creates an illusion of no lack, conflict, or sadness, allowing them to maintain a fantasy of balance in the family system.

“Until a few years ago, I thought I had a happy childhood; however, I don't remember much of that supposed happiness. My mother became ill when I was a child, diagnosed with bipolar disorder at fourteen, though her emotional instability started earlier. My father was an alcoholic and didn't fulfill his responsibilities. Now, I realize that my mechanism was already in place, telling me that everything was fine when, in fact, my childhood and adolescence were filled with loneliness.” (MARÍA MARTA)

The Early Loss of Childhood Paradise

The chaotic family situation or lack of care in the family of origin for a Self-Preservation 7 child swiftly ends the feeling of happiness that typically marks the early years of life. The experience of a "childhood paradise" — which can last into adolescence or even blend with fantasy in other subtypes — seems to vanish by the time the child reaches the age of four or five in the Self-Preservation subtype. Experiences of survival, lack, loneliness, violence, or intense fear cause this "childhood paradise" to fade, becoming a blurry memory in the distant past.

“I remember my father carrying me on his shoulders next to a river when I was three. I remember the scent of my mother's hug when I was four. But then, a fit of rage from my father and a flying table with food and crockery snapped me out of that dream: I had arrived in reality, and it was a disturbing and dangerous place. From then on, violence only grew. Paradise is, then, that moment before the violence, the time when I felt the attention was on me and I didn't know what was coming.” (DAVID)

The Self-Preservation 7 subtype carries within them a greedy child who often takes over their adult behavior. While the Peter Pan allegory does not fully apply here, the attachment to childhood is still powerful, especially in terms of the ability to charm and the darkness that it entails. Narcissism peaks in the Self-Preservation subtype, which arises from a peculiar childhood where difficulties are counteracted by emotional anesthesia and narcissism, especially in the face of loneliness and helplessness, which often lead to feelings of inadequacy, envy, and rage — emotions that are later managed as necessary.

“From a very young age, I remember feeling a great emptiness and loneliness always present in my house. I invented games, spent hours looking at photos in an encyclopedia, and imagined traveling to all those places in the world. I think that's where my passion for travel began. I felt very alone, and when I went out into the street, I would do so with anger, envying the other children. They had parents, and I didn't. In their homes, there was tranquility; in mine, there was none.” (JUAN CARLOS)

“The common denominator of my childhood was feeling alone. The mottos in my family were: 'You have to look after yourself,' 'No one will do it for you,' 'Family is everything,' 'He who hits first, hits twice,' 'The world belongs to the bold,' 'I'm going to tell you something, but you can't tell anyone,' 'Dirty laundry stays at home,' 'Men don't cry...' Essentially, the message was: 'You have to be a strong man.'” (NÉSTOR)

“I had a painful childhood emotionally; there was no space for my emotions. My family didn't understand what a girl's emotional needs were, and my emotional space was already taken up by my mother. I learned that if I expressed my emotions or showed vulnerability, I would be hurt, rejected, and my mother would get upset. So, I learned to suppress everything.” (MEKA)

The Self-Preservation 7 soon becomes a "hustler" — a controller and emotionally detached individual. The child compensates for feelings of lack by focusing on everything they perceive as abundant around them, deciding how to benefit from it. Feeling disadvantaged, they develop skills for optimization, advantage, and shortcuts, initially using small attempts to overcome their shyness and anxiousness.

“From a very young age, I made a living by running errands for neighbors and doing family chores. But, the greatest pleasure came from stealing coins from my father's fishmonger money. In the end, I always had money for little indulgences, which gave me power and kept me from feeling the frustration and pain of lack. It was also a way of telling my father, 'I don't need you.'” (ORI)

“My father always encouraged us to study and said that women shouldn't depend on men. The uncertainty about tomorrow, related to money and my mother's dependence on my father, became the foundation for my constant theme of survival.” (JUSSARA)

“I have four siblings, and this led me to take on responsibilities that weren't mine. My childish arrogance made me think I had everything under control, that I could save my mother, and by extension, the world. My schizoid nature (and narcissism too) emerged as I started disconnecting from my feelings and became increasingly practical. This caused me to lose touch with myself, and my ego began to inflate. I was going to show the world where the holes were. The Terran Controller had emerged.” (MARÍA MARTA)

Violent Scenarios

Although not always the case, many testimonies suggest that it is common to encounter scenarios of family violence in the childhood of a Self-Preservation 7. The child distances themselves from their emotions and becomes calculating, strategic, fighting fear with anticipation and planning. They want to become strong to defend their mother, sometimes even saving her from their father.

In order to help her navigate these experiences, the Self-Preservation 7 boy or girl becomes a kind of surrogate “family man” (regardless of gender). They learn to mediate between the elders, sometimes even becoming a shield. They internalize the family expectation (usually raised unconsciously by the mother as an emotional debt) to fill the void and "save" the family from chaos. Above all, they learn to be tricky, smart, and opportunistic. Through family messages, they come to understand that they are expected to deceive, take shortcuts, and use their intelligence—this is taught to them implicitly.

“My mother taught me to steal from my father. When she arrived drunk, she didn’t remember how much money she had in her wallet, and I went to get bills for her. It was like payment for a bad time, it was justified, and I didn’t have to ask for money to buy things, thus avoiding arguments. My mother repeated to me, and I understood well, that I wasn’t going to depend on anyone for my money. I wasn’t going to put up with a man. Later, I started taking money for myself, to go out. ‘It was all for the bad times we had had,’ I told myself. His payment for the scars he gave us. And no guilt—my mother taught me that. It was better to cheat, steal, and take what I needed than to ask. Money appeared to cover the lack of love, the unresolved conflicts.” (CONCHA)

These environments often foster a confused emotional atmosphere. The child is inhibited by the overwhelming emotions of their parents, so it’s not surprising that they show early signs of schizoid withdrawal as a defense. They also tend to become very rational and even organized—practical, a good student—using these traits to restructure their unstructured environment. Albert Rams, in 27 Characters in Search of Being, explains that “to assume a commitment, for a E7, is to find themselves once again immersed in that subtle obligation to satisfy the impossible expectations of the Family Environment.” This chaotic atmosphere directs the child toward the role of “rescuer” of the family system’s balance, which indelibly marks their emotional future.

“My mother sometimes used me to entertain my father, especially when he was drinking. Little by little, I managed to get him to rest in bed. He would hug me—trap me. I don’t remember any abuse; I knew he loved me very much. I knew I had the power to calm the ogre. I kissed him, talked to him, smiled at him. I felt betrayed by her, abandoned. She felt a lot of fear, but also a lot of power: she was the savior.” (CONCHA)

“The arguments were almost always about the same topic: sexuality. My mother wasn’t receptive to my father’s sexual appetite, and he was continually angry. I got caught in the middle. My mother used me as a shield, and my father rejected me, saying I was ‘a mama’s boy.’ I remember my mother drowning in her suffering. I was a woman who suffered constantly but couldn’t find a way to escape it. I couldn’t go with my father, and I didn’t want to stay with my mother. I felt very alone.” (JUAN CARLOS)

“I found myself in the middle of their arguments more than once, trying to avoid what was often inevitable. I obviously sided with my mother, as she couldn’t stand so much violence. I learned that mediation was a good strategy to avoid expressing my anger. I do it ironically now, and even though I allow myself to get angrier, sometimes I find myself cutting off this impulse for fear of overflowing.” (NÉSTOR)

This function has been experienced in family relationships, where the E7, in the physical or emotional absence of the father, often took on the role of alleviating the mother’s pain or depression. For boys, this has meant a distant relationship or rejection of the father; for girls, it has meant fulfilling a masculine role, forsaking the feminine dimension (whether emotional or erotic).

This support function did not manifest as it does in E1 (through rigid responsibility), but instead led to a compulsive need to please and be recognized as a skillful harlequin—someone who serves others while retaining personal advantages.

One more testimony illustrates how the rigidity of Self-Preservation 7 develops in an emotionally ambivalent environment:

“When I was a child, I didn’t know what atmosphere I would find when I got home from school—whether my mother would be singing or beating us. Even though my father attacked my mother, he didn’t hit us. It was my mother who did. I was moody, and I have a lot of difficulty dealing with people who have abrupt mood swings. Many times, we believed my father would kill my mother and us too. The need to preserve physical integrity, the fear of touch, not allowing others to get too close—this began very early. If someone comes at me suddenly or eagerly, it scares me. My body becomes stiff and cold, and I freeze, even though I need a hug.” (JUSSARA)

Sometimes it is not only the father, but the mother, who is secretly aggressive and exercises violence, either explicitly or through emotional manipulation. She seduces but sometimes leaves the child, who feels betrayed: "Mom adores me (or, more honestly, seduces me), but leaves me."

“My mother’s aggressiveness was through her suffering. She was always complaining, ‘With everything I do for you,’ always emotionally blackmailing me. Her way of feeding me was anxious. I was very thin, and her biggest concern was that other mothers might think she didn’t take good care of me. More than feeding me, she fattened me. I remember my mother’s complaints and suffering like a drum in my head. I didn’t understand why she suffered so much, and I remember telling myself: ‘I’m not like you, I’m not going to suffer.’” (JUAN CARLOS)

In the family environment, the final feeling is that the father is either a threat or an obstacle, and he is discredited. It could be said that, with the mother’s collaboration, the father becomes redundant, so there is no paternal figure to rescue the E7 from maternal seduction.

“The chasm between my father and I opened up very early and only deepened. My mother actively contributed to this. Her relationship with him went from bad to worse, and I was clearly positioned on his side. My father’s presence became accidental. For me, that was enough. It is painful to discover how my mother used me when I was so little, how she confronted me with my father, how she exposed him to the shame of being confronted by a girl. Even today, my father feels self-conscious when I speak to him, like a child hiding his guilt. I was a shy and sensitive girl who had to swallow her fear.” (ORI)

On the other hand, sometimes the father not only doesn’t exercise authority but is also unable to enforce credible punishment, failing to make the child take discipline seriously. There is no ethics, no superego, no organization. Sometimes even punishment is followed by a reward.

“As a child, I often refused to eat. Then my father would take off his belt and threaten me. I was terrified but resisted the blows. I knew that in the end, he would get tired and tell me, ‘Go to the bar and buy yourself a couple of Tigretones.’ I’d get up from the table with a sore backside, receive the money, and walk out the door, wiping away my tears, with a bittersweet feeling of self-pity and joy at my father’s loss and at the sweets. Along the way, the little respect I had for him went down the drain. I was five years old.” (DAVID)

A Me-You Without Him

Albert Rams argues that the Self-Preservation 7 often experiences an "I" that is constituted as a kind of intimacy, which is erotically charged by the mother in the case of men, and by the father in the case of women. In the first case, the father fails to fulfill his paternal role because he is subject to the mother—either due to excessive authoritarianism or because he is perceived as weak. As a result, there is no paternal responsibility or law in place.

The norms, the limits, become unreliable. In the case of women, there appears to be a "father-not-father," a father who doesn't make it clear enough that his wife is the mother and not the daughter, who is often seen as "daddy's girl."

Paradise—the false paradise—seems to be truncated or broken (through separation, abandonment, trauma, etc.), and we are left with the belief that it was a lie... Then everything becomes a lie... Consequently, the idea arises that one can do whatever they want because there is no law; anything goes.

Thus, adult life becomes dedicated to the search for and restoration of that primordial paradisiacal state, that family setting in which the Self-Preservation 7 holds a privileged place. One seeks to flee from dysphoria, from loneliness, from unpleasantness, from emptiness, and from boredom—because of that infantile environment of lack. "Not touching the unpleasant emotions, the sense of time running out, impatience, the need for everything to be okay permanently."

In this "I-you" relationship, intensely eroticized by the mother, there is no space for a third party. According to Alejandro Napolitano, the Self-Preservation 7 exhibits an intense bond with the maternal archetype and a conflicted relationship with the father (the "number three"). In adulthood, this results in a closed universe where there is no room for surprises, third parties, or otherness. There is also no room for authority, which is considered good for others, but not for oneself.

The Self-Preservation 7 tends to disregard authority, circumvent the law, and even congratulates itself for doing so. In reality, we are dealing with an arrogant character who sees no one but those within their "me-you" orbit. They love those they consider "theirs," but the rest of the world does not exist for them; they simply don't care. Their disdain for humanity is reflected in their expulsion of the third.

Enneagram seven belongs to the mother, remaining solely her child, bound and subdued by her due to either overwhelming influence or lack of personal agency. In this subtype, matriarchy shows some of its most fearsome excesses and reaches its saturation point. To be connected to the mother means, in this case, to be psychologically fascinated (fascinum means 'malefice,' and fascia, 'bond'). It is about the endogamic bond between blood and the material, which culminates in its most nefarious symbolic expressions—represented by the spider's web, the octopus, and the gallows. "Blood ties" dominate over all other types of pacts.

The alliances of law, which would normally open to exogamy, are neutralized here because the relationship with the law, agreements, contracts, or commitments are completely subordinated to blood loyalties, with all the implications that arise from this. Being the only child of the mother means contempt—not fear—towards the father and the law. In E6, the conflict with the paternal principle leads to a fear conceptualized by Freud as "castration anxiety." The decapitation or castration in myth is replaced by images of Saturn striking down the son with a ray of his gaze or devouring him like the worst of cannibals. These are tremendous images.

This maternal influence gives rise to omnipotent and infantile fantasies, which result in behaviors that transcend boundaries, as well as further disqualification of the father. These behaviors manifest as transgressive, self-indulgent, and contemptuous of authority, which forms the basis of narcissism.

One consequence of the lack of a father figure is a difficult relationship with time. This is not just about a tendency to be late, which can be corrected with effort. Napolitano notes:

"The psychological structure of Enneatype seven, particularly the conservative one, shows a specific difficulty in connecting with temporal becoming, with the deep roots of this difficulty tied to a conflicted relationship with the archetypal figure of the father. [...] Some known characteristics of type seven appear linked to this particular relationship with temporality: flight forward in time or morbid planning, the vital center of its evasive and strategic disposition."

The testimonials speak for themselves:

“I was very happy when, about to turn ten, my older brother came to rescue me from my father's house, where time had stopped for me, to take me back to my mother, who had run away from home because of my father's threats. My father said that I wasn't going, but my brother confronted him. While they were arguing, I had already packed some clothes and got into my brother's car. My father stood still. I said, 'Goodbye, Dad!' and left, finally happy. We were going to start a new life away from that alcoholic and violent Falangist whom I loved, feared, and despised, but above all, I was ashamed of.” (DAVID)

Partner of the Mother

In some way, both the Self-Preservation 7 boy and girl are chosen by the mother as a "husband" or surrogate partner, taking on a role as problem-solvers in practical matters. Many stories exist of women (and some men) of this character who have had to care for their mothers during illness or life, especially in the absence or inhibition of the father.

In general, Self-Preservation 7 women do not necessarily experience this "paternal substitution" as an overt conflict with the father but may even seem to be in alliance with him, sometimes even admiring him. However, assuming the father's role often puts them in hidden or overt conflict with the father figure.

Sometimes, we find in the biographies of women of this character that fathers are seen as figures they feel protective toward, just as they feel toward the mother. Simultaneously, this protection, along with the typical absorption of "masculine values," often comes with a disqualification of the father (and men in general), as the girl learned to do through her mother, either explicitly or implicitly.

“Personally, I have the experience of becoming my mother's savior or protector, and that gave me a place and recognition for life. My father's absences didn't help, of course. The result was that where there was a void in the role of authority, I quickly moved to occupy it. My father didn't placate my mother's emotional outbursts or protect her from her fears and shortcomings, and I had to do it. I don’t know if she chose me among her four daughters or if I took a step forward. In either case, the result is the same. My survival depended on her being calm and content. I wasn't going against her, but against Dad. Now I see more clearly that both of them put me in that situation, but as a child and adolescent, my feeling was to blame my father all the time.” (ORI)

“I took great care of my mother's health. At eleven years old, I witnessed the first abortion of my life, attending to my mother in the bathroom with blood everywhere. As a teenager, I clashed with my father because he didn't realize that his wife was killing herself with abortions, as the scenario repeated several times. Ten years later, my mother died of cancer. I took her to the doctor, to radiotherapy, to the hospital—not my father. He found himself incompetent for the task. I think that's when I began to disqualify men, finding them weak.” (JUSSARA)

Thus, we can see how the position in the original family triad is, for both boys and girls in the Self-Preservation 7 subtype, quite similar: an alliance with the mother and a displacement or devaluation of the father, beyond specific nuances and unique personal experience.

Reverse Oedipus

At this point we can affirm that, regardless of its sex, the Self-Preservation 7 is a character strongly kidnapped by the mother: we have seen how the child becomes the father's placebo substitute, the «mama's boy»-absorbing in this I protest the values of the mother. And how the girl tends to become likewise the masculinized partner of the mother (due to the absence or inhibition of the father), and sometimes also in “girl/daddy’s playmate”; his place in the family triad is that of an alliance with the mother and an opposition/seduction (undoubtedly an ambiguity) with respect to the father.

“It was usual for my father to have romantic and sexual relationships with other women. My mother was aware of some of them and finally separated. I also knew about this parallel life of my father, but I kept it a secret. I always sided with my mother and acted in front of my father with a layer of nonchalance.My father became violent at random. My confrontations with him were looking into his eyes, without speaking and showing him that I was not afraid of him. The relationship with my mother was one of compassion and defense against my father. Although I always felt that she was mad at me for something. Until I became a woman, I was not aware of the guilt I was carrying, feeling that she was angry.” (ANONYMOUS)

The mother, halfway between seduction - she makes the child feel special and emotional manipulation - complains or is anxious, trying to get the son or daughter to satisfy their emotional needs, and often even material ones. These projections of the mother are introjected by the boy or girl of this character, so that they become his neurotic "values." The girl, as we have seen, tends to "occupy" the role of "husband", with a tendency to despise or invalidate the father and to incorporate values typically considered masculine - which often also derive from projections of the mother.

In Tenderness and aggressiveness, Juan José Albert describes this process using the hypothesis of an inverted Oedipus: an identification of the self with the parent of the opposite sex, with which the boy takes the values of the mother, and the girl, those of the father. -because "the same-sex parent is invalidated as a liberating figure from the seductive erotic possession of the other parent and, therefore, as a figure that completes their gender identification". At the same time, there is “a tenacious internal resistance to the authority of the parent of the opposite sex, who has been experienced as powerful, possessive and, whether fantasized or not, incestuously protective”.

It is typical in Reichian analysis and bioenergetics to call character E7 a "rigid passive-feminine" although in women we might call it a "passive-masculine" character instead, especially, as we have seen, in the Self-Preservation subtypeprecisely because of this identification with the values of the parent of the opposite sex, “the only available parent, under whose complicity [the E7] feels powerful, but at the price of falling into a passive attitude based on the need to have to inhibit part of his aggressiveness”,

Thus, by the way, the component that would lead to the satisfaction of his desire is inhibited, which avoids the anguish of incest but also individualization and complete independence, Albert concludes.

In addition, the figure of this parent [of the opposite sex], the object of intense incestuous desires, is also feared as generating anxiety by being suffocatingly possessive. Before her, the child finds it necessary to inhibit his aggressive impulses, including the hostile ones that may later manifest in a sadistic way, which will imply the renunciation of his phallic position of independence, even though it is already anchored and defined. genitally.

As a phenomenological sample, without claiming it as a proven fact, we will read below a couple of testimonies that coincide with the reverse Oedipus hypothesis:

“My mother worked all day, while my father roamed the bars getting drunk "with the money he takes from me," she said, or participating in violent demonstrations.

My unconditional support towards her was total: it was order (and also seduction) in the face of chaos. Because of her I became a good student, a promising student, and for a long time I denied the thug demon that (despised, like my father) also lived inside me.” (DAVID)

“Father and mother. He, the night; her, the day He, the party; her, work. He, the rebellion; her, the responsibility. He was the most beautiful and desired man in the neighborhood; she, a common and demure girl. I became my father's doll; funny, shrewd, brilliant in his eyes: an accessory he displayed to feed his vanity. With my mother I became a rival. I didn't understand why she suffered so much, always poorly dressed and in a bad mood.

I was ashamed of my mother and I remember that I didn't want to be like her. It took me a long time to realize that my most faithful relationship was with my mother. I idealized my father; the distance was so great that it became Platonism. I became very much like him, but it was because of her that I became a free, independent woman. It was because of her that I had many men. I wanted revenge. I felt that I was not like her or like any other woman. She felt that she was like a superwoman who functioned like a man, but even more powerful because she was a woman.” (DAVID)

Oral-aggressive character

In the Enneatype Self-Preservation 7, this renunciation of the aggressive impulses described by J. Albert is not as clear or as great as in the social and sexual characters, since the boy or girl of this subtype has a character with more psychopathic compromises. or of greater phallic intensity than the other E7. In this way, the submissive identification with the figure of the parent of the opposite sex, which hides an attitude of pseudo-rebellion, can emerge in a much clearer rebellion, and even in a fierce contempt and aggressiveness.

Although E7 has been defined as an oral-receptive character, we could say that Self-Preservation 7 is an oral-aggressive character (like sexual E4). His aggressive attitude has to do, to a great extent, with the fantasy of being devoured by his mother. There is a fundamental ambiguity in this, an attraction/repulsion towards the mother, who appears at the same time as someone who, metaphorically speaking, nurtures but can devour, castrate, annul. Hence, then, that the Self-Preservation 7 is a character that is both extraverted and introverted.

The testimonies reflect a deep ambiguity in the relationship not only with the parent of the opposite sex but, in all cases, with the mother:

“I have always seen her as a tremendous manipulator from whom I had to defend myself. Before her, I have spent my life with the whip in my hand, trying not to get tangled up in her emotional shenanigans. Born in the post-civil war and daughter of a single mother, with the social stigma that came with it, she is a strong woman, but at the same time, an innocent and fragile girl whom I adore and hate. In the end, the relationship becomes very that because I get warm with it it takes up too much space and suffocates me, and if I withdraw emotionally, then I freeze.” (DAVID)

“Mom has always done with me and my brothers what she wanted. When he has a problem, we all have to go or he starts telling everyone that we don't pay any attention to him. But when I was little I was never there. She would place us at her friends' houses and would pick us up after days. Then she emotionally contacted us very strongly, she seduced us, but then she disappeared again and we were left hanging, missing her. Today it is still the same. She removes and puts on as she pleases, she continues to despise our father and in the end we always do what she wants. She still has the power, but we all have a lot of anger with her.” (ANONYMOUS)

Adolescence

Once the boy or girl grows up and becomes aware of the maternal kidnapping, they will try to break that bond with all their might. The adolescent Self-Preservation 7 becomes a radical independent, often from a very early age, showing great aggressiveness with everything or those who intend to exercise the limits with him that should have been put in long before and that he will now viscerally reject.

Soon he stops giving explanations at home, he isolates himself from everything that hurts him from the family of origin, even despising it or feeling that he has "outgrown it", and projects all his attention on the professional and social world. The rebelliousness manifests itself in all its splendor and will surely achieve economic independence very soon, although it will often move in a polarity between a libertine life and a responsible attitude towards work or studies.

“In adolescence I began to feel hatred towards my father and, later, towards my mother. I didn't want to be the good girl anymore. Uncontrolled aggressiveness was on. The Eight in me emerged and took center stage. I would attack anyone or anything that I felt was a threat to me. The softness made me angry and pity too, I wanted justice.” (MARÍA MARTA)

“We changed neighborhoods and I decided to continue in the same school; I felt attached to my classmates and teachers. So I fought to impose my position and every day I saw myself crossing the entire city alone, by subway and bus, when I was ten years old. From then on, I began to do more and more of what I wanted, reinforced by the fact that I had very good grades and seemed to have everything under control. pulled out” (DAVID)

“At the age of fifteen I began a relationship with the man with whom I deflowered; He was eight years older than me, a cocaine and heroin addict. This led me to know the world of drugs in depth: consumption, trafficking. Until I returned from a trip to South America, at the age of seventeen, where I was involved in the trafficking of a kilo and a half of cocaine. My audacity and some guardian angel made sure that no one in the family found out and that I didn't end up in a reformatory.” (MARÍA MARTA)

The feeling that "everything is a lie", that adult authority is not respectable, only becomes more and more ferocious. Greater skepticism and a defiant and competitive attitude also begin to take shape. The limits have not served to curb gluttony. But limits also have a protective function for people: they delimit the internal territory of security and self-confidence. In his absence, the adolescent Self-Preservation 7 will fully develop his strong instinct for self-protection, with the aim of avoiding what he interprets as an atmosphere of constant threat to his survival.

The Persona And The Shadow: For Those Who Are Destructive To Themselves And Others

Let us briefly recall that Carl Gustav Jung coined the concepts of persona and shadow to differentiate between the mask—the persona—with which an individual presents themselves to the world, and that which they consciously (or unconsciously) try to hide—the shadow: all the content of the psyche that is experienced as unacceptable and is not lived on a conscious level.

In the case of a Self-Preservation 7, the persona is built around the trait of self-indulgence. They present themselves as pleasant and gentle on the surface, but deep down, they are exploitative, constantly searching for opportunities, markets, and self-promotion.

“I can use my trickster side, seducing or with stronger arguments, to convince and carry out some project, thus gaining recognition. I have ideas (which, according to me, are very good) in which I will try to involve others. The shadow here is that I don't recognize that, deep down, I seek my own benefit above all else. Self-deception occurs when I see that the benefit is for others.” (NÉSTOR)

This lack of genuine connection with others hides their exploitative nature, as well as a schizoid tendency to focus more on themselves than on others, to the point where this form of selfishness would be unacceptable if it were not compensated by at least an equivalent dose of gallant generosity. Utilitarianism disguises itself as friendly relations, but in reality, it weaves networks where contact remains superficial and is often just an exchange of favors. This selfishness is difficult to recognize and originates from a deeper shadow: the disconnection between feeling and thinking. Narcissism arises from the denial of feeling; once empathy fades, so does love for others. This leads to selfishness and opportunism.

“Recognizing myself as selfish without further ado, without justification, has been hard. One part of my childhood learned to survive without others. This is embedded in my body, and the individualistic attitude persists, even when I catch myself speaking about teamwork. That's why I think a challenge for my (our) character is to take true actions without expecting anything in return.” (NÉSTOR)

The Self-Preservation 7 is a cynic. Their disbelief in everything and everyone, along with mistrust and skepticism, also reveals a sense of disillusionment with life that is seldom expressed. Behind this is a tendency towards nihilism, tied to the fear they experienced in childhood when faced with the sensation of a threat to their own survival. This fear feeds their permanent insatiability: filling the void with abundance to avoid feeling deprived.

“For me, a crazy idea is not knowing what the purpose of being in the world is. I want it all at once, but I don't even know what I really want. In the end, I don't focus on almost anything; instead, I try different things to fill the void. I only focus on something when I truly feel a clear desire for it.” (SIRNE)

From the Mask to the Being

The difficulty in connecting with others and the feeling of emotional emptiness are compensated by intense seductiveness. The Self-Preservation 7 can spend their life in games of seduction, engaging in shallow-touch relationships (again, not real relationships). Depth is replaced by quantity and diversity, with multiple contacts followed by more or less instantaneous withdrawals and an evident fear of intimacy. This aligns with their usual escapism in situations that make them uncomfortable or that they simply dislike. Of course, they avoid everything that makes them uncomfortable, not just emotional pain.

But beyond the obvious and superficial tricky or seductive behavior, the shadow of the Self-Preservation 7 reaches more subtle dimensions. They present themselves as strong but are, in reality, afraid, and they hide it.

They also present themselves as apparently satisfied, concealing a low self-esteem and a fear of impotence and frustration that they cannot tolerate. The generalized fear of emotions is, of course, their most intimate, fragile, and defended part. Their fear of vulnerability is masked by cynicism, and they also disguise their enormous fear of depression in the same way. A profound aspect is involved here, including contact with their mother’s experience of depression, which they could not "save" from her sadness. This is why they also fear relationships—these often recall their fear of pain and helplessness from their relationship with their mother, and even bring up the specter of depression.

This fear of intimacy primarily stems from the emotional castration they experienced at the hands of their mother. In reality, it is nothing other than a rejection of maternal love, fearing being swallowed up and invalidated by her once again. This is compounded by their lack of recognition towards their father, who was not present enough to protect them from this invalidation.

The fear of illness (both present and hidden) and even the fear of dying are also tied to this emotional invalidation and the ambiguous relationship with the mother. Any emotional pain is amplified, and they fear it will develop into chronic suffering, which can lead to hypochondria.

Lastly, another prevalent fear is the fear of being a man, often masked by the machismo or misogyny typical of men of this subtype—or the fear of being a woman, masked by a form of masculinity in women of this character.

“Suffering is difficult to manage. I become totally incredulous before life and enter a kind of emptiness; I keep all my feelings in suspension. To avoid the pain, I move. When I get into a spiral of doing a lot of things but accomplishing nothing, I know I’m in a stress phase.” (JUSSARA)

Another typical trait related to escapism is the denial of aggressiveness. While they can sometimes experience outbursts of bad temper or violent reactions when put in a difficult situation, Self-Preservation 7s often react with contempt and denial of the other, to the point that they may abandon loved ones through emotional cooling.

“The avoidance of conflict or direct confrontation contains an internal attitude of superiority and a certain arrogance. I am understanding with others, but in a rather condescending way, which surely hides a deep disinterest, distrust, and even contempt for other people. Why don't they look for life as I have always done?” (ORI)

“With one of my best friends from adolescence, with whom I spent most of my time for ten years, I ended the relationship abruptly and with little feeling. A couple of years ago, reviewing why, I realized it felt like a betrayal that I was not there for her during a conflict I had with my father. I ended the relationship by telling myself that our lives had gone in different directions. In reality, I felt such pain that I expelled her from the 'family.'” (MÓNICA)

“Beneath the apparent indifference, many times I have anger, and I don't know how to deal with it; it's explosive. When it arises, it’s as if I were six feet tall with a sharp sword in my hand. People get scared because most of the time I’m calm and controlled.” (JUSSARA)

The mask is completed with a belief in one's own wisdom, superiority, respectability, and good intentions. However, beneath all of this lies the shadow not only of a freeloader but of someone who desperately seeks narcissistic satisfaction. Why? Because there is also a diffuse, unacknowledged feeling of low self-esteem. The Self-Preservation 7 does not like themselves too much; they suspect and despise themselves. This is logical for a character who is so contemptuous of others.

They prioritize satisfying their own desires, with the feeling that others exist merely to adapt to them. If someone opposes their wishes, they are seen as a limit. And anyone who sets limits is perceived as someone who doesn't love them.

All this leads to an arrogance that doesn’t go unnoticed, especially by people who don’t feel loved or seen by the Self-Preservation 7 (which is usually the majority).

Beneath their sense of superiority, often intertwined with intellectual competitiveness, there is a deep feeling of loneliness—almost existential and nihilistic—hidden by their tendency to focus on concrete things or facts, their chattering, and their false sociability.

They suffer from this loneliness as an inseparable companion:

“I've always tried to be smarter than others. In the end, by considering them fools, I’ve ended up very lonely. My narcissism has led me to a cave. And my utilitarianism in human relations has aroused many suspicions and rejection. It has been a cure for me to realize that I can feel comfortable with people who are less arrogant than me, speaking plainly and sincerely, taking an interest in what hurts them.” (DAVID)

Arrogance is a close neighbor to contempt, and in its shadow lies the key to this difficulty with admiring love. The disqualification of all authority, mockery, cynicism, and irony all reveal a deep-seated contempt for something that was once sought and dearly loved: the father. It is also a kind of revenge against the father for failing to trust him, for abandoning him.

As we already know, someone incapable of experiencing admiration, devotion, or philia cannot feel a connection with a larger, systemic order. Hence, the Self-Preservation 7 is accustomed to settling in a world of “everything is a lie” and “anything goes.”

“I see in my life a constant search for paternal figures and a struggle to make them my friends. From an artificial situation of egalitarianism, I end up despising them at the slightest failure. This has happened to me with teachers, bosses, trainers... I was incapable of feeling admiration. My automatism is that when there is something I don't understand, I become critical.” (DAVID)

No less important is the role of being a cheater. Paraphrasing Fritz Perls, we could say that we are dealing with a malicious thug disguised in good manners. Thus, the use of privileged information and its circulation, positioning oneself above others, tactical planning, and the tendency to get what they want without directly asking for it or depending on others are common traits of the Self-Preservation 7. The shadow of this issue stems from the belief that if they ask directly for what they need, it won’t be given to them because they won’t be considered valuable, or they’ll be seen as incapable of being alone. This leads them directly to something they cannot sustain: frustration, along with feelings of impotence or rejection.

“We use seduction and manipulation to achieve our goals. We exercise a shadow ideological leadership that benefits us and inflates our narcissism. 'I am the one who comes up with the idea and wins others over to execute it.' I remember as a teenager gathering groups of friends for my fun projects, parties, excursions, trips... or family tasks that I had to do. People would come to help me, I gave the ideas, and others executed them. I’m a teacher, and I remember seducing the rest of the teaching staff, families, and students with my 'wonderful' ideas and projects.” (ANONYMOUS)

Finally, it should be remembered that the Self-Preservation 7 subtype tends to feel "bad" at its core. One of the characteristics of its shadow is precisely the denial of feelings like purity, innocence, clarity, love, and altruism. These are invalidated in favor of personal autonomy, survival, and indulgence in specific pleasures. The Self-Preservation 7 harbors a fear of tenderness and delicacy. Despite the erotic orientation of every Enneatype E7, the Self-Preservation subtype does not allow itself to be a child—that is, fragile and needy. If they surrender to that denied need, the mask of the "smart guy," of the superior and unassailable, falls off, leaving them exposed in their fragility. Faced with the danger of suffering, they cool their emotions and convince themselves that "it’s not worth it" (it’s not worth the work you have to fight for, it’s not worth the person you have to fight for, it’s not worth the pity this life demands that we fight for...). Moreover, becoming fragile to this extent would mean admitting that they have never had the role of a child, since it was either not given to them, denied to them, or they felt abandoned. In this case, getting in touch with the shadow is more healing than ever.

“What I hide the most has to do with sensitivity, fragility, purity, and innocence. Deep down, I feel very sweet, vulnerable, susceptible to any kind of tyranny or violence. I think my mask was created to defend that little romantic and dreamer who wanted to be loved but had to grow up fast. Hope is also an extremely denied feeling and is part of my shadow.” (LUCIANA)

The Evils of the World

If in the personal field the Self-Preservation 7 is not very transparent with their feelings, in the social realm, we can almost speak of omertà—mafia silence. A firm defender of their privacy, secrecy, and the safeguarding of honor and self-image, they feel betrayed easily. Based on this feeling, they tend to “frequently cut off heads and withdraw affection.”

In The Ignored Root of the Evils of the Soul and the World, we read that the Self-Preservation 7 Enneatype “considers the world as a great supermarket where you can take the most without giving anything in return.” Egoism, heavily argued and decorated with discourses on individual value, personal autonomy, and self-reliance, is perhaps the main destructive contribution to a society of social mammals like humans, who are so in need of mutual support. The Self-Preservation 7 is also one of the characters most prone to corruption. Their excessive laxity, mood swings, and moral relativism make them an easy target for any dishonest proposal.

“During my career as a state attorney, I was always very close to the attorney general, so I was able to enjoy the benefits of this position. In correspondence, I used to offer legal alternatives to the government for often suspicious projects. The bosses always wanted me around, both because of my ability to manipulate facts and interpret the laws, as well as the credibility I projected in the legal world.” (ANONYMOUS)

Perhaps the rebellious nature of the character could offset this tendency with a little social commitment. But in the end, the Self-Preservation 7—like all Sicte—can become an accommodator in ways that pose no danger to the patriarchal system, as well as a procrastinator, because “the rebellious attitude of the passive-feminine character is most clearly seen in the opposition they feel before realizing their own desires.” This internal rebellion thus ends up functioning as a self-boycott.

Dysmorphophobia and Aporophobia

To complement the theme of the shadow, we could refer to two descriptors that are more consequences than features of the Self-Preservation 7. Dysmorphophobia, or cacophobia, refers to an excessive concern with physical defects, an obsession with beauty. We’re talking here not so much about a concern with appearing beautiful or elegant—though vanity is closely related to narcissism—but rather about a search for beauty in the world and in others, closely linked to the “more and better” orientation typical of this character. This trait perfectly applies to the obsession many playboys have with collecting beautiful lovers, in the style of James Bond. Or with acquiring houses, luxury cars, or social status. But could it not be suspected that this obsession masks an intimate experience of feeling ugly and dirty?

A clearly shadowy trait, aporophobia refers to the fear or rejection of the poor. Here, we exclude the implicit sense of hatred toward the poor, and we use the word simply to describe the Conservationist's discomfort with misery, lack of resources, ugliness, unhappiness, indigence... and anything that feels like a direct threat to conservation. In poverty, they project their own history of lack, which frightens them. Both terms evoke an ancient emotion: the schizoid drive of emptiness, the infantile feeling of helplessness, abandonment, and sometimes even hunger that the Self-Preservation 7 might have experienced in their early life. The emotional sensation of nihilism and fear of nothingness is surely the most difficult experience for this type, the deepest wound, and also the most difficult to heal.

Love

It is said that all E7s are accustomed to adopting strategies or having a backup plan when it comes to relationships, whether sentimental or emotional. This helps them cope with emotional pain and commitment, which they perceive as burdensome. It drags them back into an atmosphere of subtle obligation to meet the impossible expectations their parents placed on them as children. For a person of this subtype, it is difficult to give themselves continuously in a calm and non-turbulent manner.

“I associated commitment as a couple with a prison where I would wither. At that time, I was sexually involved with men, and what I enjoyed most was the conquest. Once the relationship started to feel routine, I would jump ship. There were seasons when I was going from one meeting to another, and it wasn’t until I was twenty-three that I had a somewhat longer-lasting relationship—three years, but he had a partner and lived far away. Having him as a partner made it easier for me not to suffocate. From then on, I realized that I needed relationships to be open. Although more of a desire than a necessity, it’s something I now live as indispensable.” (MÓNICA)

The various subtypes of E7 adopt different coping strategies. In conservation, “double lives,” which sometimes extend to triple or quadruple lives, are common. Infidelity takes many forms, from systematically multiplying sexual adventures to the simpler yet equally deceptive act of trafficking in sentimental information—being unclear, non-transparent, not fully committing, or trusting. Often, it’s difficult for them to establish a deep connection, which is why E7s in Self-Preservation frequently abandon quality and depth, replacing them with the multiplicity of fleeting adventures.

“It has been common for me to have friends and lovers to escape loneliness, to feel something beyond pure sexual interest or conquest. Regarding women, the ‘hunter’ mentality has always been present. There’s pleasure in the conquest, and once the woman is conquered, interest fades slowly. People become objects. There’s a great fear of intimacy, of being exposed, which has made it hard for me to bond on a deep level. Most of us have suffered humiliation in one way or another, and that reflects a not-so-attractive image of ourselves.” (JUAN CARLOS)

“Something that’s repeated (and sometimes still happens) in all my relationships—whether family, friendship, or romantic—is the feeling of being there but not. I’m with one foot in and one foot out. I remember a phrase a friend used to say: ‘When I arrive, I’m already leaving. I need to know I can leave without feeling the weight of someone’s dependency (though it’s true that I interpret dependency as something of my own making).” (MÓNICA)

The gluttony of the E7 in Self-Preservation often manifests as sexual in nature. Here, the tendency of all E7s to confuse love with pleasure is amplified by the confusion of pleasure with erotic pleasure. The deep dissatisfaction underlying gluttony is covered by seduction and sex, as a means to escape the ever-present feeling of loneliness, which is never fooled. The lack of pleasure is interpreted as a lack of love, even as abandonment.

“There’s a paradox between the need to belong and the superficiality of relationships. There’s a need to deepen connections, but at the same time, we treat relationships like commercial transactions. We don’t accept relationships with conflict, yet the paradox is that no relationship exists without conflict. So, the feeling of not belonging is eternal.” (JUAN CARLOS)

“During a period of sexual abstinence, I realized how much I had confused sex with love. Sometimes, sex took me to heaven, to the fusion with the whole. However, I didn’t realize how much it avoided real contact. It was common to seek quick penetration to avoid intimacy. I was used as an object without respect. I pretended to be liberal, when in truth, I wanted love, someone to love, and to feel loved. Again, in search of something deeper.” (MARÍA MARTA)

Dominance of Erotic Love

The E7 is an erotic Enneatype (along with E8 and E3). This means that eros predominates over philia and agape, which, according to ancient Greco-Roman thought, make up the three "basic colors" of love from which all its forms can develop. This makes the E7 primarily silly, instinctive, and playful.

Expanding on this information with a characteristic secondary love, we can say that the E7 is an erotic-admiring Enneatype, in which idealization plays a strong role, though in the Self-Preservation 7, it is often replaced by cynicism.

Finally, adding a characteristic tertiary love, the Self-Preservation 7 is, despite their cynicism, an erotic-admiring-compassionate Enneatype. Their role as a caregiver to their family is coupled with a development of compassionate love, which is more pronounced than in the other subtypes of the E7. In other words, the Self-Preservation 7 is “sold” as an erotic enneagram type, but beneath that lies an admiring longing, cynically trampled underfoot. This need for compassionate love is often ignored, but not for that reason unfelt—leaving behind a painful emptiness.

“I feel like I sell erotic love. It’s through this lens that I present myself in the world—seducing, sowing illusion, in some way promising freedom, lightness, joy, and celebration. But today, I know it’s a trap. In truth, the erotic center speaks for an extremely lacking compassion. When the relationship is established, all the lightness and erotic freedom turn into weight, insecurity, and a need to be emotionally welcomed—often with the hyper-demand of an almost unattainable ideal.” (LUCIANA)

“The hardest thing for me is admiring love. The weakness that my father represented in our family life, alongside his usual drunken state, robbed me of the ability to trust something or someone greater than myself. Without trust, there is no surrender, and without surrender, there is no devotion. If admiring love is associated with the love of the father, it’s difficult to feel it without a protective father figure. On the other hand, erotic love could be better defined in my life as ‘porneia’ love—spontaneity and joy were never present. Indeed, sexual intercourse was marked by tension and anxiety. Before I got married, it was common, after a sexual adventure, for me to masturbate when I got home.” (ALEXANDRE)

Promiscuity

A single couple, but many lovers. Or a multitude of lovers in short, emotionally uninvolved relationships. The Self-Preservation 7 tends to like polyamory, at least in thought. They usually feel great discomfort being in a relationship, as it limits their freedom. This personality type has a strong sexual gluttony orientation: they seek sex frequently as an attempt, sometimes in vain, to connect emotionally by substituting quality for quantity.

There is confusion between giving/receiving love and giving/receiving pleasure. Similarly, there is a misunderstanding between displeasure and heartbreak. Sometimes, they behave like a "thief" of sex, with a seductive attitude that verges on predation or plunder.

The disconnection from the body leads them to try to fill the emotional void with sex or seduction. Underlying this is a difficulty with intimacy and deep connection. They usually make friends with their lovers, integrating them into their network of relationships, which results in a system suspiciously resembling a mafia structure, always surrounded by available people. Likewise, women also tend to avoid emotional commitment. In general, regardless of sexual orientation, the Self-Preservation 7 tends to seduce and achieve high productivity.

“I normally have sexual contact with others. I’ve never had a harem, but I’ve come close. During adolescence, I was always in the game of seduction and always had someone in perspective. From there, I went straight ahead, caring little if I was rejected. In fact, I felt that if I didn’t make the move, no one would, because I didn’t feel like most women. I saw myself with a different energy, which could be seen as more masculine, though I view it as high feminine energy. I remember times when, caricaturizing it, I seemed like a femme fatale. A few years ago, I ran into a high school friend who described me as a volcano about to erupt but wouldn’t explode.” (MÓNICA)

“In the case of the Self-Preservation 7 woman, I would speak, more than of harems, of promiscuity. In the insatiable search, men, no matter how valuable they are, pass as objects of experimentation. But when the authentic contact appears and it’s time to undress, fear emerges, and changing partners is the easy way out.” (MARÍA MARTA)

“Having just one man is too much! It requires a lot of commitment, intimacy, trust, and that used to scare me. Suitors usually came in pairs, never just one. When I felt unrequited by one (I have a low tolerance for frustration), I had the other for protection. That continued, or else I would look for a friend to dance with, travel with; another to share the day-to-day routine. I felt I rested from one by being with the other. Sometimes, I couldn’t stand the hobbies and affairs of one anymore, and being with another distracted me from that. I didn’t need to create conflict, and that’s how I came back later, already “recycled.” I’m talking about the past, of course! Today I am a new woman, ha ha ha.” (LUCIANA)

“From the age of seventeen to the present, I’ve probably been without a partner for about four or five months. Of course, with each partner, I combined some other adventure (no more than one), and I always had the feeling that he wasn’t my definitive partner. I’ve had a hard time trusting men, and I’ve also felt unable to seduce them. I guess it has to do with the early renunciation of my femininity, due to lack of mothering and identification with the figure of my father. For me to seduce, putting ‘women’s weapons’ into play meant humiliation. For this reason, it’s been easier for me to relate erotically with women. Later, I also understood the fear of male rejection behind my attitude, although I justified it as a perfectly coherent feminist ideology. Committing and giving myself, finally, has made me feel more internal freedom than all the tricks, strategies, and fantasies of previous relationships. Also, I gained increased confidence.” (ORI)

Don Juanism

Another way to approach it is to describe the Self-Preservation 7 as one of the most openly lascivious, next to the sexual E8, of all the Enneatypes. Some of the greatest seducers in history, such as Giacomo Casanova, belong to this type. Casanova, in the 17th century, wrote a detailed account of his gallant conquests, his picaresque escapades, his frauds, his forgeries, and his social maneuvering with nobles and monarchs. Ultimately, he led what appeared to be a lavish and indulgent life.

In Barcelona, Casanova was arrested for getting involved with the wife of the captain general. One of his noble friends, unable to have children, asked him to sleep with his wife—unaware that she was the natural daughter of Casanova himself. A portrait painted by the Venetian Inquisition at the time described Casanova as: “He comes and goes everywhere, with a frank face and head held high, well dressed… He is a man of about forty, handsome, healthy, and vigorous-looking, with very dark skin and lively eyes. He wears a short brown wig. From what I’ve been told, he has a cheeky and dismissive character, but above all, he is very smooth-talking and therefore witty and educated.” In short, the living image of an E7—capable of being “the most successful seducer in history” through a simple technique: “When he met a woman, he studied her, discovered what she lacked in life, and provided it. Ultimately, he made her fantasies come true.”

We also find another example of a heartthrob Self-Preservation 7 in a character who was probably not just fictional—Jacques Kohn, featured in the book A Friend of Kafka by Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer. The author describes Kohn, a presumptuous celebrity friend (recall that it is characteristic of the Self-Preservation 7 to “shine through others”), as “an old and defeated man,” who wears a monocle and is called “the Lord” at the literary cafe he frequents. Kohn is constantly trying to get loans from people. But what the narrator admires most about him is “his way of treating women.” He always finds something nice to say to less attractive women:

“‘My dear young friend, the truth is that I am practically powerless. Impotence always begins with the appearance of overly refined tastes. When you're really hungry, you don’t need caviar and nougat. And I have already reached a point where there is no woman that I find really attractive. There is no defect hidden from my sight. And this is helplessness. Dresses and corsets are transparent to me. There is no perfume or blush that fools me. I don’t have a single tooth left, but when a woman opens her mouth, I see the slightest filling.’”

Idealization of Love

Seduction is often linked to idealization. It is about the compulsive search—through many discards—of an unrealistic ideal. For men, the idealized image of women is an extension of the mother figure. We see this in the protagonist of the film Eight and a Half by Fellini, and similarly in François Truffaut’s The Man Who Loved Women, who, after contemplating the feminine beauty of the city, laments: “Unfortunately, I can’t have them all.”

In reality, the erotic love of the E7 hides an admirable will, not always so evident, and even less so in the cynical Self-Preservation 7. But in relationships, the tendency to imagine perfect loves, ideal partners, and people who complete you is the norm.

“Love for me was always an ideal. I also confess that I am addicted to falling in love, to the emotion of the beginning, to the initial enthusiasm, and to the strategic game of seduction. I see the difficulty of truly connecting, of creating an authentic bond, of accepting reality with its limitations and shadows. When love ceases to be the paradise imagined from my childhood desire, I experience unbearable frustration—a disappointment that threatens my survival. Instead of working to accept what is, I can enter a mad race to recover and maintain the ideal, at whatever price.” (ORI)

“A very painful moment for me was when I realized, in a SAT, that I did not know how to love, that I had a very strong ideal about love and that my self-deception on this subject was brutal. I realized how lost I was in this area and that love went beyond sexual relations. Since then, I’ve been able to open my heart and experience small acts of love. But they have been just that: ‘acts of love,’ something I do not know how to sustain over time. At least, as something that I feel is expected or is expected of me.” (NÉSTOR)

“What really touches me is perceiving that the other feels admiration for my soul, for my movement in life, for my ideals, my thoughts, my words… all that admiring, almost devotional atmosphere. I also need to feel something admirable and devotional. I fantasize that love is what gives meaning to life.” (LUCIANA)

Fortunately or unfortunately, behind the erotic push and the search for the ideal, there is usually a daily reality in a couple that does not match expectations. When confronted with this less poetic reality, the narcissistic balloon bursts, and the person must face their escapist tendencies, which stem from their difficulty in emotional engagement. Running away, French goodbyes, and various forms of escape are common when the relationship begins to heat up emotionally.

“I recognize that I fall in love with seduction and infatuation, but when love arrives, I deflate. While starting relationships, erotic energy drives me; as soon as it becomes routine, my sexual desire decreases or disappears. I enter a gray energy. From this point, I struggle to connect with tenderness as a couple (my partners even called me the 'intimate moment-breaker'). Sometimes, I feel like a fraud in relationships, only playing fifty percent. One of my crazy ideas is that if I commit, it’s for the long haul... but I never quite get there, and I play 'as if.'” (MÓNICA)

“My gluttony has led me on an insatiable search for love, not realizing that it’s impossible to find outside what I can't find within. Compassionate love is what I missed most and the one I seek the most. I disconnected from emotions to survive; it was too painful to see my mother sick, and I wanted to understand. I hyper-developed, distorting them, admiring and eroticizing love. I admired my mother more than my father. When the two figures fell, I sought answers from outside. I admired my maternal grandfather and turned to him. Later, I sought figures to lean on, needing to admire them first—dead writers like Socrates and Fromm, and living ones like Claudio Naranjo, Thich Nhat Hanh, and many others.” (MARÍA MARTA)

Underlying all of this is an obvious fear of intimacy, a territory that is unknown and slippery. The specter of childhood abandonment and the emotional chaos experienced in the family of origin are constantly revived.

“I’ve spent most of my life not knowing how to open up to love. Though I’ve had periods of being in relationships, I’ve spent most of my time alone. It’s not that I said, 'I don’t want a partner' or 'I don’t want children,' but I knew I experienced it differently, as if the idea of a partner or children had little to do with me. Being a couple suggests intimacy, connection, tenderness, communication, trust, conflict, limits, seeing me, seeing you... I didn’t know what any of that meant, I hadn’t developed it, and it made me panic.” (ANONYMOUS)

The I-You Axis

The typical sequence of an E7 begins with narcissism and utilitarianism. They choose someone based on qualities like beauty, charm, purity, innocence, or virginity. “If I am wonderful—it seems to say—and I choose you, then you must be wonderful.” From there, if escapism doesn’t prevent commitment, hyper-demanding behavior begins, often related to the tendency to idealize love and strip it of all conflict. This bears a resemblance to how a sexual E1 might reform the couple, but without imposing moral rules, rather focusing on how they should behave to reflect well on the chooser.

This relates to a tendency to not see the other as an independent being, but as an extension of themselves when they are “adopted” (or consumed) as a family member. This is especially true with the sentimental partner, understood as an appendage, a reflection of oneself who is spared an independent existence. The Self-Preservation 7 only sees the other to the extent that it serves their need for pleasure, self-aggrandizement, and the satisfaction of object libido. Thus, not only do they ignore the other’s needs, but they also overlook how the other may feel about their behavior, as the relationship is experienced as a possession.

“Egoism, for me, is the difficulty of seeing the other as separate from me, from my goals. There’s something very bidirectional. In relationships, if I give, they must give back to me, but without me explicitly stating it. It’s like playing a game where only I know the rules. I see it as selfish because I don’t consider the other, and then I resent them for being with me.” (MEKA)

This often happens with children as well. It’s hard for them to accept that children have their own desires or needs different from what the Self-Preservation 7 believes or wants. "You need what I tell you you need," they’ll try to sell eagerly. "I know what’s best for you," etc. The obvious danger here is viewing children as instruments to continue satisfying the neurotic need for success, recognition, money, or business, which results in a more perverse form of "shining through others."

But where does this confusion of "you" with "self" originate? Naturally, it comes from early submission to blood ties, to what we call “family,” and which Alejandro Napolitano describes as “a way of alluding to the most degraded and destructive forms of the family bond matrix,” often symbolized by mafia-style blood pacts that seal alliances, tied to a mammon-like attachment to the mother.

The I-thou relationship, intensely eroticized by the mother in the E7’s case, mixes identification with the mother and Don Juanism, with the homosexual tendency this implies. Napolitano notes, “An unconscious hostility towards the mother arises, displaced towards other women,” as this subtype, mostly male, shows notable misogyny as a natural outcome of the capture by the mother. The same happens with women—misandry (contempt for men) and a relationship of admiration/rejection towards the mother.

“Throughout my therapy, I’ve realized this contempt for the father figure, but it was much harder for me to uncover the pain and fear my mother exposed me to—the battles that weren’t mine, which I had to handle. I not only had to protect her; I had to take on emotional responsibility for my sisters. But I made her story mine and only recently could I understand her manipulation and her responsibility in all of this—and the anger it provokes in me.” (ORI)

“I realize my promiscuous movements with men were a form of disrespect towards my mother and all women, in addition to a desire for revenge on men. Brief historical note: my father was unfaithful all his life, and my mother always accepted it. I was outraged! I was angrier with her for accepting it than with him for betraying her. Now, I realize I’m coming from both of them.” (LUCIANA)

Napolitano explains that misogyny (and misandry) is sustained by the deified existence of a single female figure: the mother, sometimes extending to Mother Nature, Goddess Fortune, or the Sacred Ecology. The inability to exercise an unfaithful eros toward that character in children’s literature, and thus open up to the world and its true possibilities, often results in a perpetual, unconscious dedication to the maternal image. This displaces infidelity and restricts dedication to real-life couple relationships.

For women, the opposite is true. She takes the place of the father, “protecting” the mother, becoming her oedipal partner. With the father, she doesn’t eroticize him, but identifies with his values, taking on the role of friend, companion, or sibling to him (sometimes in severe competition or even at war). Later, in relationships, her anger toward the father shifts to men, especially when she chooses male partners, seeing them as inferior.

“My relationship with men has always been difficult because I couldn’t show any neediness, vulnerability, or even receptiveness. I sacrificed much of my femininity to stay worthy, strong, and safe. Distrustful, above all. In fact, though I don’t feel homosexual, I’ve had more relationships with women than with men simply because it was always easier for me. I could say I masculinized myself, without realizing it.” (ORI)

The Betrayal of the Bond

In relationships, claims of an affective nature are often understood as a lack of love, and the same applies when a partner does not return an idealized image. The Self-Preservation 7 type projects love onto the "family" universe, where commitment is often diluted and influenced by utilitarian conditions. Any deviation from the demands of dedication, service, affection, or maintaining a good image of oneself is interpreted as a betrayal of the bond.

When feeling betrayed, the Self-Preservation 7 can act directly and without euphemisms, almost like a mobster. It is not uncommon for them to become cold towards their partner or loved ones, distancing themselves, condemning others to ostracism, silence, or indifference. Their attitudes can become very hard and cold in these situations. At the same time, they cannot tolerate emotional distance, which they interpret as neglect. This makes it difficult for a Self-Preservation 7 to close relationships. The usual behavior is to leave a door slightly ajar, especially with ex-partners.

"My feeling with the people I love is that they have to be available to me. I am very sensitive to their neglect. I may keep quiet about it, but inside, I feel betrayed and resentful if someone important to me neglects me, either by starting a relationship with someone else or simply distancing themselves for no reason." (DAVID)

"This leads me to believe that you have to get involved. 'If you don't get involved, you don't love me.' 'I get involved for your sake, and you have to get involved too.' And so on. The family is seen as a herd, a flock of birds, or dolphins dancing together... Each one free in their individuality, but all as one. The crazy underlying idea is: blood ties are stronger than any other." (MARÍA MARTA)

The great difficulty in committing effectively leads them to become tired of relationships that involve a lot of emotional engagement. They don't want to be deeply involved, but at the same time, they become "bored" when a relationship doesn't seem exciting. Their lack of involvement makes it easy for them to leave the relationship. It could almost be said that when they begin to love someone, they leave, using a bond-avoidance maneuver, which they typically perceive as threatening or limiting.

"The first characteristic that comes to mind in love is emotional cooling. When harmed by someone I consider family, I go through a phase of anger, which quickly gives way to internal hardening, accompanied by impassiveness and a conviction that I don't care about what has happened. To me, it doesn't seem like a big deal. Therefore, imperturbability and emotional invalidation go hand in hand... It then becomes difficult to return to the relationship because of this difficulty in recognizing what is authentic." (MÓNICA)

"In relationships, I usually leave a door or window open most of the time. I can blacklist someone if they have hurt me or someone I love deeply. In that case, forgiving them can take a lifetime. I can seemingly forgive, but deep down, I don't forget. And I don’t feel like it's rancor, but it has to do with trust—trusting again." (NÉSTOR)

Fear of Intimacy

The feeling of lack also permeates the realm of love and sex. Despite a large number of lovers passing through their life, it is not uncommon for a Self-Preservation 7 to feel lonely, lacking opportunities for affection due to their difficulty with emotional investment. This fear likely stems from an early sense of emotional rejection by their mother.

Although affected by feelings of guilt, they try to escape by distracting both the other person and themselves from their misdeeds. [...] Making the other fall into their trap gives them a narcissistic boost, but they are not interested in understanding the real feelings of others. Their constant search is for the satisfaction that comes from their own abilities.

In this way, their selfishness and desire for independence hinder their chances of forming deeper and more satisfying relationships. As they are prone to anticipating future failure in their interpersonal relationships or pointing out flaws in their partner, they may unconsciously sabotage them to avoid the risk of future emotional pain or a more committed relationship. When asked what they truly want, they often feel pressured and refuse to give an honest answer about what they want in their love life.

The Self-Preservation 7 type has a compulsive desire for connections while rejecting them at the same time. They tend to spread dense networks around themselves to satisfy various appetites, making no one irreplaceable. Naturally, their relationships are very relative. They do not feel deeply tied to anyone, and even though they may act as defenders of their own, they can abandon people in their circle when they no longer need them.

This is clearly reflected in their ambiguity toward love. They seek to seduce but then quickly become bored, disconnect, and continue their frenetic pursuit of new, unexplored territories. This is because they are terrified of what would ultimately heal them the most: the development of a deep, real, and committed love bond.

Historical Figure: Christopher Colombus

Christopher Columbus, the Fabulators

In the life of the famous Admiral Columbus, there are few clear facts and many dark uncertainties. Even today, historians dispute his place of origin. Catalans, Genoese, and Corsicans, primarily, continue to argue over the birthplace of the discoverer, who was able to obscure his family background due to his Jewish origins. It is also not entirely certain that he was the first to arrive in America, as recent discoveries place Viking navigators on the coast of Labrador as early as the 9th century. There are even indications of Chinese maritime voyages in the 15th century.

The only point on which all historians seem to agree is in listing a series of character traits that align with the description of an Enneatype E7. Christopher Columbus was "a man animated by the exploratory impulse typical of this character, and the first to put into practice navigation guided by the stars."

He was not the kind of person who lived in the clouds; rather, he was a man of action, not a thinker—practical, earthy, adventurous, and somewhat impulsive. Yet, his interpretation of his own actions was fanciful. Not only did he believe he had reached the coast of Asia, but even more surprisingly, he seemed to have no problem enslaving Indians whom he sincerely wished to convert to Christianity.

Although the utilitarianism and practicality of Columbus are beyond doubt, there are solid reasons to think that the admiral must also have been a fanciful charlatan—one who believed his own fantasies, albeit well-reasoned ones. This trait must have been especially useful to him when the sailors of the Pinta, the Niña, and the Santa María began to have serious doubts about finding land as the Discovery adventure progressed. "Columbus deceived the crew every day about the miles traveled."

Speculating on the cordial and egalitarian treatment the admiral might have given his subordinates in those moments of tension would be futile. Even more so considering that the Enneatype E7 (Self-Preservation subtype) tends to be egalitarian toward those hierarchically above but usually exhibits a certain authoritarian and even despotic inclination (perhaps influenced by Enneatype One) toward subordinates. Columbus had the opportunity to demonstrate his authoritarianism during his long tenure as Captain General of the newly discovered lands. However, in 1499, he was returned to Spain in chains due to his abuses and corruption in office.

Before addressing this matter, let us return to the days leading up to October 12, 1492. When the situation became untenable on board and the sailors had begun a mutiny, the admiral made a bold prediction: they would reach the Indies in three more days of sailing. He made this claim on October 9. During those three days, Columbus managed to maintain peace on board, and miraculously, he was right—perhaps another example of a special predisposition for planning, so typical of this character, especially in the scheming, controlling, and pragmatic Self-Preservation 7.

What Happened During the Journey to America?

The Catholic Monarchs had promised a reward of ten thousand maravedís to whoever first spotted land. In this regard, Columbus's dishonesty and greed must also be noted, as he falsely claimed to be the first to glimpse American land. In reality, Rodrigo de Triana was the lookout who had this privilege and to whom the prize should have gone.

Taking credit for others' achievements seems to have been a constant in the life of this cunning opportunist, who managed to monopolize voyages to the Indies and exploit his public image long after that date. Sometimes, he did so through theatrical displays, such as when he crossed the Peninsula as a penitent to be received by the Catholic Monarchs, who had withdrawn his privileges.

However, before continuing with his opportunistic tendencies, let us examine his nature as a charlatan. In Columbus's case, this trait reached the level of mystification and megalomania, displaying a narcissism mechanically aimed at fostering a personal legend built on plagiarism, exaggeration, and half-truths.

Even during his return voyage from his first sea expedition—when he was only twenty-four years old—he began attributing to himself marine adventures that he had likely overheard from crew members. "Columbus began to attribute to himself marine adventures, surely overheard by some of the crew members on that voyage and others he made," says historian Cardona. Why did Columbus behave this way? For vanity? More likely due to his own frustrations and to boost his self-esteem.

We should also add that he sought to construct an image that better suited his narcissism. Rather than being remembered as a daring cabin boy climbing the poles to mend sails, he wished to erase his past as a simple passenger guarding fabric bundles woven in his father’s house.

The Opportunist and the Myth-Maker

However, greater opportunities for adventure awaited him. In 1476, Columbus embarked on what would be his second sea voyage—this time to distant England. Once again, he was tasked with guarding his father’s merchandise. But this time, the threat of corsairs was real, and the ship was well armed with culverins, bombards, and falconets.

Imagine the excitement the young and dreamy Christophoro must have felt when, rounding Cape St. Vincent, the trading ship he was on encountered corsairs under the command of Guillaume Casanave de Coullon, in service to the King of France. The battle was fierce, and the galley in which Columbus traveled began to take on water. In a daring act, the young man leaped into the sea and clung to a piece of wood. After long hours of anguish, he reached a fishermen’s beach, where he was taken in and cared for.

It was from these people that he learned he had just fought against his "uncle" Coullon. His "uncle," indeed—for some strange reason, attributable to the mythomania typical of his Enneatype, young Christophoro had imagined since childhood that he was the nephew of the famous pirate. Since the fishermen praised the feats of the French corsair, Columbus kept quiet about his Genoese origins and instead spun the tale that he had been serving under his "uncle," taking part in various bloody battles. He told this hoax to anyone who would listen, thus weaving his own legend.

And there’s more.

The previous year, in Chios, he had also claimed to have commanded a ship owned by King René of Naples—after learning that a certain Columbus (probably an Aragonese) had been on that ship. He further asserted that he had sailed under Colombo the Younger in 1459. The fact that he would have been less than ten years old at the time hardly mattered. Who was going to verify the accuracy of his claims?

Columbus was determined to forge an interesting marine and military history for himself, recounting his dreamlike adventures with charm and confidence—qualities that, as a good Mediterranean (whether Genoese, Corsican, or Catalan), he did not lack. Convinced that deception and theatricality would be crucial in his life, he resolved to use them for his benefit—though, notably, never to harm others [italics added].

Thus, for instance, when he later demanded grand titles to undertake his daring expeditions, he remained silent about his early profession with his father, as well as the real reasons for his first voyages. He claimed to have commanded a galley for King René in 1473 (which he wrote as "Reinel") and to have fought in the battle of Cape St. Vincent, as well as in engagements with Colombo the Younger, who had attacked four Venetian galleys returning from Flanders.

What a treasure this young Columbus was: a true fraud... Arrogant and vain, Christopher Columbus preferred to go down in history as a fearsome and feared corsair rather than as a vulgar fabric and brocade merchant. To this day, there is still speculation about these adventures of Columbus that he himself was responsible for propagating. As one fanciful historian speculates:

Is it not possible that Christopher Columbus, in that early period of his life—of which hardly anything is known—had embarked on a Viking ship and, under the orders of some chief worshiper of the god Thor, such as Erik the Red, had already reached the shores of the continent that would later be called America?

Legends, mysteries, enigmas... This is the life of Christopher Columbus. There are those who doubt that, as he wrote in his own handwriting, he visited the island of Thule (modern-day Iceland). The great Salvador de Madariaga gave credibility to this story since Father Bartolomé de las Casas, who accompanied Columbus on his American adventure, provided this testimony:

In some notes that [Columbus] made on how all the five zones are habitable, proving it by experience of his navigations, he says as follows: I sailed in the year four hundred and seventy-seven in the month of February, ultra Thule, island one hundred leagues, whose southern part is far from equinoctial 73° and not 63° as some say, and is not within the line that includes the west, as Ptolemy says, but much more western, and to this island, which is as large as England, the English go with merchandise, especially from Bristol.

Columbus's text contains some true data, such as trade with Bristol, but at the same time, he makes blunders regarding latitudes, which again opens the field to doubt and the suspicion of mystification.

Columbus knew how to sell himself very well in his time, but not everyone bought his speech so easily. Columbus was not heard at the Portuguese court of John II. The Portuguese king was surrounded by highly experienced sailors, before whom Columbus was only capable of contributing vagueness, half-words, and mysterious stories about the possibility of reaching Cipango by sailing west. His only proof was his visionary faith, which, in the end, turned out to be founded on something more than fantasies.

The half-planner, half-visionary, and fanciful character of Columbus also comes to the fore in the description of him by his friend and ardent admirer Bartolomé de las Casas:

He conceived in his very Christian heart the confidence of finding what he sought as if this orb had been placed in his ark. But because, according to what I understand, when he was determined to look for a prince who would help him and turned his back, he was already certain that he would discover lands and peoples, as if he had personally been there.

However, King John II, "despite paying attention to him, asked him to give specifics and not vagueness." The historian Salvador de Madariaga defends Columbus, arguing that "it must have been a real torment for him to have to remain before the king muttering the degrees and widths of the sea in full confusion, when there within his soul he felt as much clarity, decision, and fire as the sun."

The king, much more stubborn, gave Columbus a firm no because, among other things, he considered that the navigator's requests far exceeded what was reasonable and violated the rights of the Crown:

In effect, Columbus requested to carry out the expedition with the title of Grand Admiral of the Ocean Sea, the honorary and effective title of viceroy of all the lands he discovered, and a title that granted him ten percent of all the fabulous treasures that, according to him, he would find in said land.

It is very common for an E7 with a Self-Preservation instinct to hang pompous medals. Like magpies, they are attracted to the shine of metal, especially when it comes to money.

Faced with this snub, and surely fearing being involved in a process due to the strange and sudden death of the castaway Alonso Sánchez—whom Columbus had picked up from the sea and who is speculated to have given him valuable information on navigation to the West—Columbus decided to secretly leave Portugal. It is also possible that the reason for his departure was debt.

Before leaving, he copied the Toscanelli map, a forgotten chart on which he placed all his faith for his expedition. With this map, he was able to appear before the Catholic Monarchs to defend his plans. He did it behind the back of King John II who, had he known, would have considered him a traitor.

When, on October 12, 1492, Columbus arrived in America, he believed he had reached Cipango. For a long time, he continued to cling to the idea of being in Asia, and his fantasy led him to conclude, in his exploration of the Paria Peninsula, that he had found the Terrestrial Paradise and that the Orinoco River descended from it. Though earthy and practical as a good Conservationist, Columbus was also guided by dreams, as a good E7. Proof of this is the fact that he was always focused on finding the passage to the Pacific Ocean in order to finally reach the East Indies, his long-awaited initial objective.

His facet as a charlatan and swindler is clear if we pay attention to the fact that Columbus promised the Catholic Monarchs and anyone who would listen to him a colonization of the newly discovered lands based on obtaining easy riches, which he predicted with great zeal and which ultimately were not fulfilled, unleashing strong mistrust and resentment towards the admiral.

Again, in his relationship with money and power, Columbus turned out to be a lousy administrator and even an embezzler. His management of the viceroyalty ended up being disastrous. The family aspect of the E7 was powerfully developed in him. Nepotistically, his brothers Bartolomé and Diego were promoted, bypassing any hierarchy. In a short time, the discoverer turned Hispaniola into a fiefdom of Columbus. During his viceroyalty, his appointments of relatives to high positions continued to arouse great suspicion against him. Combined with his authoritarian and embezzler traits, this led to a series of riots that Columbus tried to repress violently, ultimately costing him his privileges in the Indies.

Not content with his excesses as governor and failing to secure the expected riches, Columbus attacked the indigenous people and sold some as slaves, thus disobeying the orders of Isabella the Catholic, who had made clear her wish that the indigenous people be treated as subjects of Castile.

In conclusion, Columbus acted in a pseudo-social way before the authority of the Catholic Monarchs but then did as he pleased when their authority—something he did not recognize in his inner heart—was muffled by distance. A very typical attitude of E7, but even more so of the Self-Preservation instinct, with its proverbial lack of moral scruples.

Abounding in the family aspect, Columbus seemed to despise all who were not of his tribe. "Suspicious and very distrustful, he only trusted the men of his clique, who were not very good, with the exception of Antonio de Torres."

Columbus was often noted for his cunning, as in the famous episode where he used an old adventure novel trick. On his fourth trip to the New World, he remembered that the Regiomontanus Calendar announced a total lunar eclipse for February 22, 1504. So, posing as a magician, he told the indigenous people that he would take away the moon if they did not provide sustenance for him and his crew. The act worked flawlessly, and the terrified indigenous people begged him to return the moon, which he theatrically did, demonstrating his mastery of deception.

His pride was that of a nobleman, a musketeer, a narcissist who built a heroic, self-sacrificing, and reckless self-image, lie by lie, fantasy by fantasy, through suggestion, luck, and, above all, self-suggestion.

A Cinematic Example

Schindler's List
Steven Spielberg, 1993
By Ori Hernandez

This film is based on the novel Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally, published in 1982. To write it, Keneally interviewed everyone alive who had known and dealt with Schindler, so it serves as a good approximation of the historical facts. Spielberg, for his part, focuses on a specific stage in the protagonist's life: the German occupation of Poland and the final stretch of World War II. Shot entirely in black and white, the film stars Liam Neeson in the role of Schindler, along with Ben Kingsley as the Jew Itzhak Stern, who, with his extraordinary sobriety, offers a perfect counterpoint to the character’s overwhelming and disproportionate personality.

Character

Born in Zwittau on April 28, 1908, Oskar Schindler was a German businessman and member of the Nazi party who saved the lives of approximately twelve hundred Jews during the Holocaust by employing them as workers in his kitchenware and ammunition factories, located in what are now Poland and the Czech Republic. Both the novel and the film present him as an opportunist who, initially, only sought to make a profit, but who eventually became the person who saved the lives of his employees.

The end of his life was marked by economic difficulties, in which he was helped by the Jews he had saved from the Holocaust. Oskar Schindler died in Hildesheim on October 9, 1974, and was buried on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

The Movie

The first images give us the context: the German occupation of Poland, the start of World War II, and the recent order that all Jews must move to the big cities to be registered and controlled by the Waffen SS. We see whole families parading, arriving in Krakow, with their houses on their backs, their hearts heavy, disoriented, and fearful.

These images contrast with the appearance of a tall, blond, and very handsome German. He is choosing a suit, tie, cufflinks, and a gold pin with the Nazi insignia, collecting all the money he has stashed around his house. He arrives impeccably dressed at a restaurant frequented by the senior staff of the German army. By bribing the waiter, he gets a discreet but privileged table. With an air of carefree mystery and seduction, he serves and awaits his opportunity with the patience and finesse of a feline. His moment arrives with the entrance of a high-ranking SS officer, accompanied by a lady and another officer. He shows a ticket to the waiter while asking him to bring a bottle to the newly occupied table.

— Yes, sir. What do you want me to say?
— Tell them that it’s an invitation.

He was completely unknown, but in a couple of hours, he managed to end up at the center of the party with all eyes on him. He ends up inviting all the army commanders to a sumptuous dinner, washed down with the best wines from the cellar. He ends the night embracing the most important characters, who, moreover, strive to appear at his side. The result of this investment is his photo with the Nazi high command displayed in the main offices of Krakow. First objective accomplished: the appropriate contacts have been made.

Scenes of the humiliation, ridicule, and submission of the Jews pass before our eyes again. An endless line forms outside an office building to sign up for job lists. Misinformation, contempt, and harassment are everywhere. Once again, we see Oskar Schindler, who seems to take better advantage of the situation the worse things get. He walks tall, elegant, and oblivious, alongside the queues of devastated and suffering people. Nobody looks at him. With a determined step, he advances until he finds Itzhak Stern inside one of the buildings. Stern was an accountant for an old Jewish factory that is now bankrupt. He asks about it and they discuss their plans.

“Sir, I am required by law to inform you that I am Jewish," is Stern’s first curious response when Schindler addresses him.
“Well, and I am German. Matters settled,” concludes the businessman, who wears the swastika on the lapel of his silk jacket.

Our character has no principles or criteria other than his own self-interest. He is not on one side or the other, but simply on his own side. He wears the swastika because this gesture opens doors for him and provides him with interested relationships, without further ado. For him, it is not a problem to mingle with Jews if he needs them, nor does he mind whether they live or die. He proposes to Stern that he be the director of his pot and pan factory to supply the German army.

— When the war is over, we'll see. But meanwhile, you can earn a fortune.

The plan is perfect, but he doesn’t have enough money to buy the factory. He needs investors: Jews with money they can no longer spend. He offers them a part of the production so they can exchange it on the black market. Stern, who looks at him dumbfounded, wants to know what Schindler will do:

— Let’s see if I understand it. They will put in the money; I will do all the work. Excuse the question, but what will you do?
— I will take care of publicizing the company, making it stylish. I’m good at that, not the work. The presentation!
— I don’t think I know anyone who would be interested in that.
— You should be interested, Stern. It should interest you.

Schindler knows very well that the Jews are not in a position to choose, and he is going to get a cut. A final scene in this opening of contrasts illustrates his skills as an opportunist and profiteer. All Jewish families in and around Krakow are forced to move to the ghetto. They must leave their homes. The sad images of people collecting photographs, cutlery, clothes, and paintings collide with the following scene in which Oskar Schindler arrives at a recently expropriated luxurious and stately flat in the center and lies in bed exclaiming:

— It couldn’t be better!

Meanwhile, the legitimate owners settle in a crowded, dilapidated shack with other families, consoling each other:

— It could be worse!

Finally, he gets his factory and sets off to use his contacts in the military to gain loyal and constant customers for the duration of the war. He also hires Jews from the ghetto as workers in his factory, saving more on labor. His advertising campaign is accompanied by lavish gifts obtained on the black market for his powerful German clients. Of course, his strategy works perfectly, and he starts making money hand over fist.

He only seems to care about his success. He lives in continuous and disproportionate ostentation. He is shown as a restless, hedonistic, refined, heavy-drinking, heavy-smoking womanizer. In a way, he is dreamy, selfish, ambitious, but also generous, because he likes to make those around him participate in his excesses, like a good narcissist. He doesn’t look around except for his business.

This is well exemplified by the scene where Stern is mistakenly detained and put on a train to Auschwitz. They warn Oskar, who manages to get him out in the nick of time. A terrified Stern apologizes for forgetting his blue essential worker card.

— I tried to explain to them that it was a mistake! I am sorry! I've been stupid! laments Itzhak.
— What if he was five minutes late? What would have become of me? Schindler answers, very angry.

Stern had just escaped by a hundredth of a second from being taken to the concentration camp and almost certainly to his death, but Oskar didn’t even notice. He can’t see it. His extraordinary egocentricity prevents him from doing so. By focusing on his own needs, he betrays the devastation surrounding him. For the rest, he continues to live in constant extravagance: women, drink, food... Nothing is enough. He always pursues something else and is never truly satisfied. He appears to be a calm, affable, and confident man, but in reality, he never rests, not even while swimming in all the worldly pleasures within his reach. He exhibits an insatiable gluttony.

In these moments of success and opulence, he receives an unexpected visit from Emily, his wife, while he is in bed with one of his mistresses. It doesn’t change him in the slightest. He comments to his wife, while the other hurriedly dresses:

— Look at her: Poor thing, she’s nervous. Do you know something? Would you like it?

It seems that the problem does not concern him.

Later, he goes out to dinner with his wife, and they spend the night together. It is surprising to see that they really know and love each other. Oskar talks to her about his business with enthusiasm and sincerity. He is happy because he has far surpassed his father in the number of employees at his factory. He puts a lot of interest in his need for recognition. He is also interested in what they say about him in his hometown, indulging in his dreams and delusions of grandeur... He seems fulfilled and enthusiastic like a child.

Finally, he declares to Emily:

— One thing was always missing. In every business I started, it wasn’t me who failed. Something was always missing. Even if I had known what it was, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it, because it’s something that can’t be tamed and that makes the difference between failure and success.
— Luck! his wife points out, attentive.
— The war! answers Oskar.

After their pleasant evening and night together, Emily asks Oskar if he wants her to stay. He suggests that she decide. Emily replies that she will stay if he promises that no doorman or maitre d will ever doubt that she is Mrs. Schindler (she is obviously asking him to be faithful and respectful in order to stay with him). The next scene is at the train station. Oskar, standing on the platform with his imperturbable smile, and Emily at the window, sad and desolate, back in Czechoslovakia. He seems unable to commit, to surrender to giving and receiving love, or to give up his continual carousel of erotic experiences, to his deceitful freedom.

Success in business continues. Actually, the factory is run by Stern. Schindler is not interested in the accounts, the bills, or the details. The detailed reports from his accountant give him a headache. He is only there to sell his product and collect profits. Stern is also in charge of recruiting the workers from his ghetto peers. He doesn't hire them for their professional skills but to give them the opportunity to obtain the status of essential workers—a condition that prevents them from being detained, deported, or killed. Oskar looks at this with indifference and condescension at the same time. If it doesn't detract from his profits, he doesn't care what his CEO does either. Once again, we see his permissiveness and indulgence, his lax and ambiguous morality. Nothing concerns him enough to complicate things. Just his benefit.

However, there is one scene that seems to disturb him somewhat. While he's enjoying a hearty meal, as usual, Stern asks him to give the mechanic a minute, as he wants to thank him for giving him a job, which has saved his life. Without too much enthusiasm, Oskar agrees. A skinny, worn-out man, somewhat older and one-armed, enters. He is full of praise, bows, and thanks Oskar, who is visibly uncomfortable. He becomes even more uncomfortable when, at the end, the mechanic repeatedly exclaims:

"You are a good man, God bless you!"

When the worker leaves, Oskar’s face has changed, and his appetite is gone. Later, he berates Stern for putting him in that situation. When the worker tells him that he is good and thanks him, something seems to disturb him inside. He doesn't feel good. Moreover, a real fraud is known—he is taking advantage of everything and everyone. How can anyone consider him a good person? Despite his apparent self-indulgence, internally, he does not feel worthy of praise. He strongly rejects it, and yet something about this episode has touched his heart.

External events are rushing. The situation is worsening for the Jews. They build a concentration camp nearby and take all the Jews from the ghetto in a long night of massacre. In charge of the camp is Commander Amon Göth, an SS captain, a ruthless, whimsical lunatic who does target practice from his balcony with the camp's inhabitants before breakfast.

The brutal massacre in the ghetto, in which Oskar stands paralyzed on his horse from the hill, brings about a change in him. Until now, he seemed not to see what was happening around him. Now, he no longer looks the other way. He begins to show an awareness, though he still hides it. It seems that the pain and suffering of others are starting to penetrate him.

Oskar begins to use his tricks and bribes to ally himself with Göth and get his factory workers to leave the camp every day to work for him. He develops an obsession to protect his own. He organizes parties for the commander, full of food, drink, and women. He gets drunk with him, jokes, and appears as his accomplice. Finally, he keeps his workers by telling them that they are specialized workers and that he would lose too much money training others. The only one he can't get out is Itzhak Stern, who is forced to work as an accountant and secretary for Amon Göth. He communicates this with visible sadness and excitement:

"I couldn’t get him out of here. I’ll come every week, on Wednesdays. I'll be able to know how it goes."

As he leaves, he gives Stern some food. He is genuinely worried about him—not just about losing his accountant, as in the train scene. Perhaps, to his own chagrin, he has formed a bond.

In this way, he becomes incriminated and more involved with concrete people. There are numerous signs of this progressive transformation. A Jewish girl visits him at the factory to beg him to save her parents from the camp, as they are elderly, and Göth is getting rid of the old.

"They say no one dies here, that your factory is a refuge. They say you are good," she says. Oskar snaps.

"Who says?" he demands.

"Everyone!"

He gets very angry and, faced with the girl's pain, yells at her:

"Cry, and I’ll have you arrested, I swear to God!"

He has her in front of him, and he cannot bear her pain. Once again, he can't look the other way.

Later, he talks to Stern about this situation:

"People die. It's a fact of life! He wants to kill everyone, and what should I do? Bring them all here? It's dangerous—dangerous for me!"

At this point, he tries to justify Göth. It's not that he has a good relationship with him, but he softens his cruelty by being, in a certain way, indulgent. Although internally he despises him, Oskar tries to excuse him to Stern. Deep down, he cannot understand or accept that Göth enjoys killing and causing so much suffering. He is just a hedonist who has lived thinking that he did no harm by taking advantage of the opportunities that were presented to him. The world belongs to the smart ones, he seems to say. By excusing the captain's atrocities, he is also somehow exculpating himself. It is one more example of his self-indulgence and permissiveness. However, Stern tells him how, a few days ago, Göth randomly killed twenty-five Jews in a barracks. This puts the harsh reality in front of him. In this conversation with his accountant—and now friend—he can’t help but acknowledge, with horror, Amon's insatiable cruelty.

"It can't be that he enjoys that," Oskar mutters, horrified.

And he gives Stern the names of the Jewish girl's parents, along with a gold lighter, to get them transferred to the factory. He also makes a gesture of kindness toward Göth’s servant, Helen, whom he sees emaciated and extremely depressed, as she is daily subjected to the capricious cruelty of her boss. He comforts her with hopeful words, advises her to get stronger, and gives her chocolate. At the end, he gives her a kiss; she flinches, frightened.

"It’s not that kind of kiss," he reassures her. It is a loving, compassionate kiss—a fatherly gesture. Helen thanks him, both surprised and touched. Perhaps now, he is exhibiting the patronizing and compassionate attitude that he would have liked to receive as a child.

That night, he stays with Amon, who is totally drunk. They drink together, but Schindler never loses his composure.

"I always watch him, and I never see him drunk. That is true control. Control is power!" Göth comments with a mixture of envy, admiration, and suspicion.

It is true that Schindler never relaxes. He is always alert and never loses control. He takes advantage of this conversation to convince the commander that true power is shown when we have the capacity to kill and don't. He compares him to the Roman emperors:

"Sparing the life of someone you think is going to die... That’s power, Amon, the Good!" he whispers.

The captain succumbs to this subtle dialectical manipulation, which is Schindler’s way of trying to mitigate Göth's enormous violence and thirst for power. It works for a few days—yes, only until Göth gets bored with this practice—but some lives are saved thanks to this ingenious trick.

Although he proceeds stealthily and with the utmost care, events begin to spiral, and Schindler becomes less attentive to his own protection. As he opens his heart and his gaze becomes more compassionate, the protective shell softens, thus exposing him more and more. The next scene shows a train loaded with Jews being moved like cattle. As they wait under the hot sun, Oskar proposes to Amon Göth that they be hosed down. Göth takes it as a joke, thinking it will be something cruel to entertain himself. Schindler laughs, playing along, but insists:

"Give me that treat—it'll be fun."

Finally, he manages to refresh all the passengers and has them cleaned in the filthy cars. He personally collaborates, rolling up his sleeves, to ensure that the water reaches everyone. The SS and the captain watch in astonishment and confusion. Göth smiles but doesn't know what to think. Fortunately, Schindler cannot conceive of doing this out of anything but compassion or simple kindness.

"Another wonderful day," Schindler exclaims, mockingly, in his particular way of ridiculing the system.

By the last year of the war, the order arrives to close the Plaszow camp and send all its prisoners to Auschwitz. This is one more step in barbarism—and also in Schindler's evolution. At first, he is saddened and seems to lower his arms before the unstoppable machinery of death of the Reich, as evidenced by a private conversation with Stern. It sounds like a farewell, almost an elegy, where they have a drink together, emotion rising to the surface.

It seemed like a final goodbye. However, Schindler is not resigned to watch impassively the death of his friend and all the rest of his workers. He is still rebellious and fanciful, so he conceives another plan. He proposes to Göth that he keep the people from the factory and build his own camp in Zwittau, his hometown. Of course, this is achieved with money again; he must pay the greedy captain the price he sets per person.

Once again, Amon cannot understand his motivation:

"Where’s the business?"

But it is so much money that he cannot refuse. From here, Schindler begins to draw up a list with Itzhak Stern while delivering suitcases of money to Göth. He is stretching the list to the limit of his solvency. As Stern types names, Oskar asks:

"How many?"

"Four hundred, five hundred, eight hundred..."

"More, more, more!" Schindler insists, feverish.

He seems to finally find meaning in his efforts, in his ambition, in his life, and in the act of saving as many lives as he can. There is in him an honest, compassionate impulse, but also an obsessive determination to save his own. He continues to believe that he has the power to safeguard his partial and completely unreal image of the world that he has built. In his personal fight against evil, he feels powerful. He thinks he’s winning the game. Visibly sorrowful, he hits the economic ceiling and realizes that he can no longer include anyone else.

“Finish the page and leave a gap at the end!” urges Stern.

Itzhak pulls out the last page of the list while saying with a moved gesture:

“Look, this list is the absolute good. This list is life. Beyond its margins, the abyss opens.”

Beyond ambition, selfishness, cruelty, unreason, and death, there is this simple and heroic gesture—this act of love—that makes him not only lose his enormous fortune but risk his own life to save others. It is the hope, the way out from the Nazis and the war, in general. In his new ammunition factory, they don’t build a single projectile that can be fired, because he has miscalibrated the machines on purpose. The Zwittau-Brinnlitz field, in the seven months it was at full capacity, was a model of lack of production.

The radios finally announce the unconditional surrender of Germany and, consequently, the cessation of hostilities. The war is over!

“The time has come for the guardians to enter the manufacture!” orders Schindler with determination.

Jews and Germans, meeting. In front of all of them, Oskar Schindler begins his speech by lamenting the losses of the Jewish people and thanking Stern for his courage and solidarity (now we understand that all the time, he was an example for him and a mirror in which to look at himself). Then follows an authentic denunciation of himself and his behavior:

“I’m a member of the Nazi party! I am an ammunition manufacturer! I have taken advantage of slavery! A criminal.”

The character appears in all his ambiguity. These statements are true and false at the same time. Prisoners and officers know this, but they can’t object to anything. He then exhorts the guards not to carry out orders to annihilate all the prisoners in the camps before midnight. He encourages them to return home, to their families, as men and not as murderers. They all leave, one by one, until the factory and the field are empty of guards and officers. His powers of persuasion are still intact, but now he serves more than his selfish interest. Finally, he observes three minutes of silence for the countless victims of war. He does not shy away in the least from feeling the pain of such suffering and, therefore, accompanying those who are suffering. He no longer feels the compulsive need to run away.

The story could end here, and it would already be a good story of a transformation process for a Self-Preservation 7, but we are missing the last scene in which our character appears: the limit, the farewell, the fall.

One of the workers miraculously preserved a gold tooth. They manage to extract it and melt it down to make a ring, which they give to Schindler. Already at the door of his car, Stern hands it to him. They are both moved. It has an inscription, a verse from the Talmud that says: “Whoever saves one life, saves the whole world.”

The gratitude and recognition of all his workers, and perhaps, by extension, of the entire Jewish people, seems to offer Oskar Schindler the redemption he never thought he was entitled to. Deeply shaken, he breaks down for the first time, both physically and emotionally. He is embraced and supported by his faithful friend and companion, Itzhak Stern, and also by the women, who come closer. He cries like a disconsolate child in the arms of his parents. Meanwhile, he laments the continuous wastefulness in which he has lived, the lives he could have saved, and despises himself for all his previous life.

His pain is also that of the definitive fall from his false paradise. The world is as it is, and his power to transform it is limited. Reality hits him in the face and in the soul. He has saved a few Jews, but evil and death still exist; he cannot change that. It is overwhelming evidence, before which one must surrender. He becomes small, and that is when he falls. But he is loved and accompanied in his fall. He is not alone. This is a profoundly significant and restorative scene for a Self-Preservation 7, no doubt.

Finally, one of the women offers him a prisoner's shirt to go unnoticed during his escape. It is the uniform that the Jews had worn during six years of war and persecution. It is the suit of humiliation and degradation. It is to put yourself in the other's skin, to equalize and unite to the fullest in suffering.

For the first time, he ditches his luxurious silk suit. He leaves then as a naked person, stripped of the costly egoic wrapping in which his life had passed.

It is often said that healing lies in the wound. Oskar Schindler's story points out that by living with what he had been running away from all his life—pain—by looking at it fully, acknowledging his own too, surrendering, crying, letting himself fall, and leaning on others, he obtains a greater reward than all those achieved until then in his opulent, greedy, and superficial life. The help and love of his fellow men, belonging and recognition, support and protection: just what he always craved with ferocity, only he looked the wrong way.

Jokes

Mullah Nasruddin, a famous character in Sufism, often offers profound lessons by appearing as a fool—and sometimes, he seems to embody the characteristics of a Self-Preservation 7 type fool, as in the following story, where he reveals the typical tricks of this character. Nasruddin is accused of stealing from the public treasury, but there are doubts about whether it was him or someone else. Nasruddin, ever astute, asks his lawyer:

—Why don't we send an expensive gift to the judge to facilitate the discharge process?
—You're crazy... that judge is very upright and would irreparably condemn you.

The next day, the judge, without hearing many arguments, condemns the other inmate in a blunt manner. Leaving the court, Nasruddin's lawyer tells him:
—What a surprise! I would have sworn we would lose this case, and that you, Nasruddin, would be convicted. It was lucky that you sent him such an expensive gift... I imagine you did!
Nasruddin replies:
—I confess that I did. But I couldn’t resist the temptation to send it to him in the name of the other prisoner.

A common theme in the Self-Preservation 7 is their usual difficulty, not only with commitment in relationships but also with being transparent and forming deep connections. In the following story, two widows meet in a cemetery: one is very happy, cleaning her husband's tombstone and singing joyfully; the other is very sad and crying profusely. After a while, the grieving woman looks at the happy one and asks:
—Oh, ma’am, how long have you been a widow?
—One week.
—And how do you manage to be so happy when I’ve been here for three years and still haven’t gotten over this pain?
—Because after many years, it is the first time that I know where it is and who is eating it.

At other times, the Self-Preservation 7 is indeed transparent, but their clarity takes on a cynical tone:
The judge asks the woman:
—Tell me, what is the reason you want to divorce your husband?
—My husband treats me like a dog.
—Is he mistreating you, hitting you?
—No. He wants me to be faithful to him.

As the representative comic character of Self-Preservation 7, we have chosen Herminio Bolaextra, "the reporter with the three eggs," created by the brilliant Spanish cartoonist Mauro Entrialgo.
Herminio works as an editor for the tabloid newspaper El Caos, where he dedicates himself to doing what he knows best: manipulating and exaggerating. His nickname is due to the curious fact that he has three testicles, a detail that underscores his tendency to boast. He is addicted to Ricard liquor, has bizarre habits, is a scoundrel, and often frequents cocktail bars, indulging in all kinds of erotic excesses, drugs, and alcohol.

Herminio is irreverent, characterized by teasing people, putting himself above others, and attacking them with his sharp humor—all thanks to his mental agility. He is also a loudmouth, a provocateur who aspires not to go unnoticed, a freeloader, and an unscrupulous person who seeks to climb on the shoulders of others.

Transformation Process And Therapeutic Recommendations

How can someone who tends toward corruption, but does not realize it because they believe they deserve pharisaical rights, someone who exercises atrocious individualism, who sees others as utilitarian means rather than ends in themselves, become a virtuous, altruistic, sincere, and humanized being? How can someone who believes they are superior, smarter than others, but at the same time feels so inadequate, almost in danger of extinction, take an accurate measure of themselves and others? How can someone who is not present because they are scanning the future, the horizon, concentrate once and for all on the here and now, enjoy the moment calmly and without bingeing on gluttony, but savoring pleasure in sobriety and tranquility? How can a visionary and lover of generalizations finally concentrate on the details? What do they need to let go of, and what do they need to take, someone who, in their neurosis, does not understand genuine implication and instead exchanges it for an interesting complicity?

The Self-Preservation 7 subtype that has not undergone a transformation process does not trust anything or anyone. They are usually skeptical and do not validate anything beyond what is concrete or palpable; they are materialistic and anti dealist. Their heart is closed, and they show themselves to be as emotionally stingy as an E5. Their process involves assuming a greater order in which, behind every change, there lies a meaning and a deep reason, and the person could recognize this as Tao, completely. God, if they could make themselves small, if they could feel trust in their neighbor and recover an admiring gaze before the wonder of life.

Therapeutic Recommendations

In the relationship with oneself, a first therapeutic recommendation is to dare to live with the punctured balloon, without trying to patch it. From there, one can experience an existential enrichment of another kind. This time, in a more genuine place, without falsifying or being fraudulent, without inflating their curriculum, talents, or charms. By recognizing fraudulence, they will be able to live without it.

Let us bear in mind, however, that it is difficult for the Self-Preservation 7 to recognize fraudulence, masked as it is by the experience of having acted in the name of helping their family, or camouflaged by the victimhood of having had to take care of others. It is difficult for them to see clearly that having taken advantage of all this is, in itself, fraudulence and not a right.

It helps to cultivate intimacy and vulnerability, recognize oneself as a person, and give up the crazy idea that they can handle everything. It helps this character to see themselves as a child: a child who had to find their own way in life, without paternal guidance and without the tender love of their mother. It is a fundamental step for all Self-Preservation 7 types to recover the natural needs of the child since they have placed the emphasis on what they think they need in the concrete aspects of survival. Their egoic image is also fed by this value of having survived, and they may feel like a hero in this sense. However, it is difficult for them to see the enormous emotional void they suffer because acknowledging that lack leads them to relive the experience of abandonment and loneliness.

In the therapeutic process, it is necessary to build a trusting relationship before touching this fragile part, which is difficult in itself, since they tend to escape from therapy when pain is involved. The therapist must have the ability to fuel the curious mind of the E7; at first, accepting their escapes, stories, and fun, while patiently accompanying them to explore their inner world. The main objective is not to let them escape from the therapeutic relationship and to help them endure the commitment. The Self-Preservation 7 is, among the subtypes of this character, the one who least recognizes the emotional world. In therapy, it is easier for them to feel their emotions in the form of somatizations—physical pain, muscle pain, contractions, chest pains that scare them... It is important to take time for them to learn to recognize these signs and redefine them as emotions and feelings, accompanying them into a world they do not know and that scares them.

The therapist needs to have great sensitivity to see the child behind the big charade, not be seduced by the affability they display to befriend them. It is not uncommon for the Self-Preservation 7 patient to offer, for example, concrete help for the therapist's life, attempting to position themselves paternally as the helper.

Keeping one's word and not escaping from commitments are matters to cultivate. It would be ideal if, in the end, the Self-Preservation 7 came to be considered and to consider themselves as someone authentic and clear, someone in whom others can trust and share intimacy, fragility, and contact. Someone open to the world, to life, to love, and especially to their own interiority. Someone capable of deep commitments in their relationships, whatever their nature.

It also helps to be oriented toward a spiritual here and now. The Self-Preservation 7 does not present the problem of going astray along the paths of spiritual inflation; that is to say, they do not commune with the New Age or with positive psychology that sells cheap well-being. But being too practical misses the spiritual nuances of existence. It is important to pay attention to the nuance and sacredness of each moment. Help sacralize and ritualize. Cultivate the sacred in any of its forms. Develop faith in impulse and in organismic self-regulation.

"Contact with the subtle helps me overcome the sole interest in the material. To feel an inner god running through my veins, to be able to look up at the sky and feel small, to accept a wise authority without criticism, to understand that not all authority is inherently corrupt or overwhelming. And, above all, practice some form of altruism. Look carefully for a terrain in which to put it into practice and keep that area of my life protected by a sacred atmosphere of discretion." (DAVID)

Yes, it is important to engage in the practice of some form of altruism. This means an activity of service to others for which no type of compensation is obtained, and if possible, carried out discreetly, without giving it any type of publicity like "Look how good I am." Thus, contrary to what happens in other E7s, it helps the Self-Preservation subtype to develop a healthy idealism. This being a very earthly Enneatype, they surely will not forget that spiritual and social justice must go hand in hand. As the Buddhist doctrine of the bodhisattva announces, there is no individual salvation. The opposite would represent, for the Self-Preservation 7, a disconnected spirituality (and here their character disposition and their most genuine vision will go hand in hand).

"What has helped me a lot in recent years is the definition of an ideal and my concrete commitment to its realization. That has occupied my time in a satisfactory way and has removed from my mind so many fantasies, so many desires, so many hobbies, so much anxiety. Sometimes I have been frustrated by the lack of external recognition with the intensity that seems to me to be deserving. But I feel comforted with the certainty that my work, my effort, helps some people and also myself. It is a simple job, which rewards me with a subtle pleasure, but much more satisfying than the other pleasures that wake me up when I am idle. It brings out a genuine joy, which comes from within!" (ALEXANDRE)

Authentic altruism can emerge when the Self-Preservation 7 begins to see their inner child and feel empathy and love for them. This will help them see others as people, human beings, and not as objects or easy adventure partners.

The development of admiring love is important: feeling small before someone or something bigger than oneself. Review the relationship with the father, with the intention of developing respect for their figure and toward healthy forms of authority. Understanding what the word "respect" means is essential.

In this sense, it is essential to remain for a long and consistent time in therapeutic relationships, or as a disciple/teacher, without giving in to the impulse to escape by telling oneself that there is no time, or that there is something or someone better and more interesting, or that this one doesn’t work... and the other one doesn’t either. It is useful to do impractical, creative things, from walking, reading without candles or going to the movies, to theater, performances, or bodily activities, all without looking for profit.

Body work helps cope with excessive mental activity, as well as manual work, dance, Tai Chi; all this, in an atmosphere of simplicity. In this field, it is a priority to work on sensitivity, to explore the sweetness of movement, to open the doors to emotions and to a love that is more erotic than phallic.

It also helps to define, know, and express one's own limits, clearly recognizing where one is not going, and doing it directly, without detours or justifications. The path of the E7 is to find the balance between these two phases: in euphoria, work on containment and sobriety; in depression, tranquility, feeling loneliness as an encounter with oneself, and experiencing humility in the face of the typical arrogance of the character.

It also serves to conform and become transparent: accept death and physical decrepitude, dare to show the lout, the disorganized, the chaotic, the bungler that is in them. Another way to put it: dare to seek and experience whatever innocence remains in them. Dare to hope (not to fantasize about the future), stop being a cynic. Hope is assuming responsibility. This phrase by Jacinto Benavente is a lesson to be learned: "Thinking badly in order to excuse ourselves from doing good is the pessimism of petty spirits. To think badly and to do well is the pessimism of a great lord."

Living in the Present

Living in the present is essential, even if it strips you bare and leaves you feeling empty. Do not seek light in the future. The smallest spark of light in the darkness of the present should be celebrated. But if no spark is found, then the very darkness of the present should be embraced as a form of anniversary.

“It helps me to trust—trust in life, not in what I plan will work out. Trust that life places me in the right place for my growth.” (MARÍA MARTA)

The Power of Simple Acts

It helps to be punctual, and to engage in simple, clear ways of respecting others, and respecting oneself. For example, listen carefully. Do not indulge your own plans, projects, or responsibilities. Fulfill them, and on time. Pay attention to the small details, as respect is shown in these moments. There's a reason for the saying "God is in the details"—it’s the way to communicate that you value others. Keep your promises. Be honest, set realistic goals, and always assess what you can achieve so that you don’t begin a thousand things at once but focus on a few attainable ones.

This approach is especially important in the therapeutic process. A therapist should help the Self-Preservation 7 patient create realistic projects and allocate time to review the steps taken. What might superficially appear to be behavioral therapy will, at a deeper level, become a way of rebuilding the father-child relationship. In childhood, the father may not have guided the child or helped them fulfill themselves. It's important to challenge the narcissistic image of the type—the one who seems to have everything together—by openly revealing your state of mind, your problems, weaknesses, and fears. This requires leaning on intimate confession.

Silence and Self-Awareness

Seek silence, retreat, and meditation to escape mental noise and excessive planning. For patients who react negatively to meditation (since it can sometimes trigger anxiety), active meditations may be more appropriate. Examples include walking, engaging in manual work, writing, etc., which can create a space for silence and a more refined attention.

In the manic and depressive phases, recognize how the manic state lays the foundation for depression, and how depression lays the foundation for mania. Do what needs to be done regardless of mood (avoid self-indulgence). This approach helps reduce anxiety. In the face of depression, silence and discipline are advised—tolerating a low level of stimulation. In the manic state, expressed through excessive pleasure-seeking or irritability, energy management becomes crucial. Engage in sports, bioenergetic catharsis, crying, or even screaming in the forest. Avoid overworking, disconnected sex, or filling your schedule to the point of collapse, which could trigger the opposite—depression.

Being Present with Emotions

Doing must be slow, allowing yourself to feel what you are feeling—whether it's fear, shame, anger—without necessarily needing to verbalize it. This means accepting emotions such as fear, loneliness, disappointment, and the simple acknowledgment that it's okay to feel bad without labeling it as good or evil. Contacting your feelings, needs, tenderness, and sensitivity without judgment is essential. Differentiating between need and desire is a healthy approach to sobriety. Be thankful for what you have.

Distinguish between pain and suffering. Do not overly defend yourself from pain, and avoid calming the mind when suffering is significant. Don’t smooth over what is happening; instead, confront and deal with discomfort by living in conscious pain. Allow for improvisation, avoiding constant plans and letting life unfold.

“In moments of pleasure, when I realize it’s coming to an end and I get attached to it, I repeat two mantras to myself: ‘It is what it is’ and ‘What has to be, will be.’” (MÓNICA)

Relationships and Decisions

In relationships, it’s important to set aside utilitarian motives and to separate advantageous interests from a true sense of community. This helps guide decisions and leads to consistency in them. It’s important to avoid remaining in one’s own solitude, as well as from the indulgent court. Instead, it’s beneficial to take sides for just causes, be resolute, and clearly stand by them.

It’s also important to give space to others and open up to the unknown—not just those you love, but also those who are not part of your "circle" or "family." Love and suffer alongside others, understanding that it makes no sense to love some and not all. Treat strangers as if they were part of your world. Developing trust and surrender, even when trust is not fully earned, is vital. Experience pain—your own and others'—because it connects you with kindness and your neighbor.

Talking less and listening more will help significantly. Value both the other person and yourself, and feel the pain that you may cause to others. This can bring you closer to a more open heart. Likewise, allow yourself to feel anger when something is wrong, instead of withholding it and later applying cold revenge or falling into cynicism.

Managing guilt or the hole left in your self-image after expressing aggression is difficult, but facing it is better than pretending it doesn't exist. In relationships, it’s crucial to be honest and transparent, expressing what’s really happening behind closed doors, without falsifying or disguising your feelings. Establish honest and sincere relationships, being clear about your emotions and needs while considering the other person.

Love and Relationships

In love, it’s helpful to delay seduction and even forgo it, slowing down to truly appreciate the experience without acting on impulse. By doing so, you gain a better understanding of what you truly want, rather than simply being a passive participant in seduction. Later, in a relationship, it’s important to cultivate an atmosphere of intimacy, presence, and listening—both exposing yourself emotionally and allowing the other person to do the same. Create spaces for intimacy that are not governed by time.

“For me, rest comes when I am able to see and accept reality as it is. As I dare to question the ideal, the real world unfolds before my eyes, and my heart opens to the pain too. Giving myself to the person I love, truly seeing her, embracing her shadow, and letting myself be embraced in mine gives me immense rest. I feel more honest and worthy of being loved.” (ORI)

Honesty and Transparency

If you plan to have more than one partner, it’s crucial to abandon a double life, remove the secrecy, and be honest with everyone involved. Give them the option to choose, even if it risks loneliness. Additionally, it’s important to shed the protection of "you"—hiding behind others, such as your partner—and to learn that you are whole and can step into the world on your own.

“The key for me, at this moment, is to accept what’s happening without imposing how I think it should be. I experience what’s there... even if the energy doesn’t spark within me. And above all, I accept that even if I’m not feeling energized, it doesn’t mean I’m withering in the relationship.” (MÓNICA)

Family Dynamics

In the family, it helps to leave behind the role of "savior," "referent," or "godparent." Instead, reclaim the position of the father, who is the one who should occupy that previously usurped place. It also helps to redefine the relationship with the mother—daring to see her flaws and seductive tendencies. Free yourself from any manipulative maternal influences. By recognizing the hidden rage towards the mother, you can finally rest in accepting her as she is.

Self-Awareness and Empathy

It is essential to be aware of the environment. Others have their needs, too. Avoid taking yourself as the absolute center of reference. See the other person, and see yourself in them. Understand that another person may have different needs and that their not pleasing you doesn’t mean they don’t love you. The other exists independently of you. You are not the center of the universe; you are the center of your own life.

Confront yourself more than others. Don’t take, exaggerate, misrepresent, deceive, or fabricate. While you may be a great storyteller, don’t use this skill to escape your problems—use it to create literature instead.

How a Healthier Self-Preservation 7 Might Look:

I would value others and connect with their emotions.
I would accept each moment as it is, without intellectualizing my feelings.
I would simply stay with the feeling, being transparent, without judgment or pretense.
I would stop speculating about tenderness, hugs, and love, and give myself freely, without fear.
I would accept that I don’t love as many people as I might believe.
I would acknowledge my flaws without judgment and rest in that acceptance.
I would stop lying to avoid conflict.
I would recognize my pain, wounds, and allow myself to be vulnerable.
If I feel pain, I can slow down and allow my heart to soften.
I would believe in people and trust life, flowing without control or anticipation.
I would trust that what I need will come in time.
I would cultivate altruism.
I would feel that not everything is in what I see and touch—that I am part of the universe, and not everything depends on me.

Sexual E7

Sexual 7

Passion In The Sphere Of Instinct: How Gluttony Works In The Sexual Subtype

When the passion of gluttony invades the sexual instinct, the emphasis shifts to an attempt to live in an extraordinary state of exaltation, an idealization filled with possibility and hope. Psychic energy is invested in an enchanted and fanciful approach that represses the instinctive need, transforming it into a mental seduction. Gluttony becomes a desire for more pleasure through intellectual seduction, aimed at satisfying idealizations and dreams rather than instinctual needs. The Sexual 7 idealizes the other and lives in his mind a relationship that serves only to maintain an idealization of himself, thus losing the nature of instinct. The search for intimate and sexual pleasure becomes a romantic dream of multiple satisfactions, while deep down, there is a fear of surrender. He is more interested in being chronically infatuated with life experiences, people, and things.

It is as if the Sexual 7 views life through the eyes of a lover. He idealizes the other, invents him, and lives in his head a relationship that serves to maintain another idealization: himself. The search for intimate and sexual pleasure becomes a romantic dream of multiple satisfactions. For fear of surrender, he uses pleasure, laughter, and humor to bond, creating the illusion of an absence of frustration and abandonment. He denies the aspects of suffering that may limit his arousal or ironically minimizes them. Joy! His specialty is turning any negative trance into a positive, creating a love object that gives him satisfaction. The search for pleasure, the natural energy of the sexual instinct, is channeled into satisfying himself with his own mental creations. The sexual impulse becomes a continuous magical flowering of thought. In the background, there is an interest in gaining attention through grace, sympathy, or talent to nurture a narcissistic self-image as a smart and nice child.

It is said that love is blind, and the Sexual 7, with that look of love, lives enthusiastically, maintaining a blindness before the limits of existence. And when he realizes that the difficulties are insurmountable, he is able to convince everyone, starting with himself, that the goal is not worth working for.

The life of the Sexual 7 is a fiery frenzy of experiences. The volume of life rises insatiably in an apparent joy that covers internal discomfort in an attempt to escape pain and fear. In fact, he is not very much in touch with what is pleasurable. Behind the effervescence, there is restlessness and anxiety that transform into agitation and movement. He associates enjoyment with speed and intensity, confusing quantity with quality. Happiness, for him, lies in finding no limits to impulse or desire, and so he gets into compromising situations, feeling excited and putting his own life to the test. In his flight toward intensity, in the absence of boundaries, in doing whatever he feels like doing at all times, he feels alive.

“Already as a child, I had a lot of freedom and autonomy, thanks to the fact that I always managed to convince my parents of my ability to move around the world. That way, I managed to stop them from controlling me like my classmates. When my parents separated, the routine lacked clear rules, so I got more freedom of movement, no limits. I learned that anything is possible and that I can do whatever I want.” (ILARIA)

This voracity for autonomy and constant excitement makes the Sexual 7 a very impatient character, impulsively leaping from one experience to another. Like a child who wants it now, because the waiting time until satisfying his desire is a malaise. It’s hard to hold the void. And when he wants something, he goes.

We could say that his psychosexual development has been fixed in the oral stage, with a dependence on satisfaction linked to the pleasure derived from maternal nurturing. The mouth and lips are his elective organs of pleasure. Sucking is the foundation of the affective bond, so that what comes from the other becomes something of his own. The passion of gluttony defines the passionate attachment of a character who always wants to incorporate more and more of the good that the outside world offers, with the illusion that this can bring back the love and happiness he lost in childhood.

Freud speaks of a cannibalism that we recognize in the Sexual subtype of E7, avid in its nourishment. With egocentrism, he does not recognize the other as a self-existing individual but as someone who can offer something good. He is a narcissist who places the satisfaction of his needs at the center of any relationship. This greed also appears in behaviors that are dependent on anything offering gluttonous satisfaction: tobacco, alcohol, food, sex, and drugs. Everything, always more.

The child did not develop the ability to become independent from a mother who, to satisfy her frustration, seduced him by promising unlimited gratification. By making the mother fall in love, he seemingly achieves everything but loses touch with the deep need for warm intimacy. As an adult, he will continue to confuse the pleasure of filling himself with breast milk with that of genital intercourse between adults, love with permissiveness.

The combination of illusion, enthusiasm, and fantastic planning is what the Sexual 7 calls enjoyment. Delight is a mental pleasure: an anticipatory idea of what he will experience. More than enjoying, the Sexual 7 gets excited and exalted by something that doesn’t have to be pleasant. He confuses consuming with enjoying, movement with enjoying, effervescence with well-being. He rejoices in the present with the potentialities of the future, of what may be, rather than with what is real in the here and now. He is more in fantasy than in reality itself.

“Until I met my wife, I didn’t know what it was really like to enjoy. I realized that I was consuming and devouring, but not enjoying or savoring.” (ENRIQUE)

The attraction to any rewarding stimulus or anything that simply catches his attention makes him jumpy and changeable. He is a quick, mercurial character who, when he wants something, goes for it shamelessly, bordering on insolence. The permanent excitement confuses feeling, and for that reason, he is confused and often found among emotional characters.

“I’ve always been a bad student. Since I was little, I was interested in a thousand things at once. After doing them for a while, some ceased to interest me just as quickly. But what has been learned remains, the sensation of what has been lived does not disappear.” (RICARDO)

Humor has been his specialty. Everything is a source of jokes, which he uses as a tool for social interaction, to seduce and to give well. Or to subtly attack with passive rebellion through ironies and the most acid ingenuity.

“I got older and, as I had been raised with the minimum effort and in the absence of good training, I was a terrible student. I soon developed another attitude, which gave me power over others: irony. This was, for a long time, a tool that filled the void, due to lack of studies, vulnerability, and fears, making me feel inferior to others. When someone felt bad, they always had the excuse to say they were joking. The funny thing is that I didn’t accept jokes from anyone and was very touchy.” (PEDRO)

The Sexual 7 shows clear resistance to acquiring the responsibilities that the adult stage entails, to managing difficulties. An eternal child, he is incapable of accepting the consequences of his actions. He refuses to grow up because of his identification with childhood satisfaction. He presents a marked emotional immaturity, with strong insecurity and a great fear of not being loved and accepted. This resistance to growth entails great difficulty in caring for himself and others or establishing equal relationships, especially with a partner. In fact, his childish immaturity easily makes him a liability to them. He hides behind excuses or lies to conceal his inability to grow. He talks about fantastic projects, incredible businesses, great love affairs... These fantasies (generally impossible to fulfill) allow him to seduce with promises of a world without pain, while blaming the other for the bad that happens to him.

“While in university, I remember a great fear of showing myself incapable and not being up to the task, so I avoided any confrontation with the professors. Confrontation that would have allowed me to overcome the shortcomings I had. Pride, mixed with underestimation of myself, kept me away from what could make me grow. Even though my skills improved, insecurity and the fear of not having the necessary knowledge to manage my professional life still lingered.”

The Sexual 7 presumes to be nice. He is the life of the party, a skilled seducer of young girls or young men, even at notoriously inappropriate ages. He seems very sure of himself, even arrogant and haughty, and it is just a front to hide his fears and indecisions. Behind his almost imperishable smile and his presentation as a jovial and fun person, enjoys hiding someone tremendously insecure, afraid of loneliness.

Once I got married, my wife grew tired of my behavior [the irony] and made me see the damage it caused to others, but especially to her. I used her at times to make fun of things and remain the center of attention in the group. This made me change my approach and adopt another one that he knew well: talking about everything, even without knowing much, with great passion, and, above all, not letting others speak. For me, listening was superfluous; the important thing was showing off my speaking skills. I had mastered those quite well in hand-to-hand combat but not in front of an audience, where my fears manifested due to a lack of self-confidence.

Insecurity is also reflected in the emotional field. Despite his apparent independence and autonomy, the Sexual 7 is in need of large doses of affection and attention, especially from a partner who can offer them. However, due to a lack of awareness of this need, when the relationship becomes more serious and begins to require greater commitment and responsibility, the E7 becomes frightened and often causes the breakup.

“At that time, I had been in a relationship for six and a half years, including a year and a half of living together. When I returned from SAT III, I decided to end it. After six days, I packed my bag and left home. In conversations with my partner, she persistently asked me to stay, to give what we had built a chance. Back then, those words seemed like basic Chinese to me. I truly believed I was leaving for a search, for an idea superior to that of being in a couple. I will always remember the face of my ex-partner during those discussions—exorbitant, not understanding anything at all—and me, with a passivity that made her very angry. I had no awareness of what I was destroying in the blink of an eye. Moreover, I didn't consider how destructive and harmful it was for someone to have the rug pulled out from under them so abruptly and violently. It was like a bucket of cold water.”

“I made the decision to end the relationship suddenly, and the next day I left the house where we lived together. I had been dissatisfied for a long time, but I was afraid the relationship would fail. That’s why I put so much energy into sustaining it. I remember very well that when I came back from my Introductory SAT Program and told her about my experience, I felt like this was the opportunity. I made the decision, informed her the relationship was over, and acted without turning back. I didn’t feel any empathy toward what she was going through. I maintained a cold detachment, equal in intensity to the indifference that had been present throughout the years we’d spent together trying to make the relationship work.”

We can also find many Sexual 7s who, out of fear of loneliness or need for affection, remain in relationships marked by conflict. However, they are usually unfaithful, at least mentally, often fantasizing about multiple relationships with different people.

“In every therapy session, on the subway, in almost any group, I found a woman with whom I fell deeply in love.”

“In general, I recognize that what I lack in my partner manifests itself as fantasies of falling in love with someone who possesses the characteristics I lack.”

The stories of Sexual 7s often show how children were attached to their mother or father, with an ambivalence of idealization and, at the same time, avoiding the experience of being "consumed" by them.

Like all E7 children, the Sexual subtype takes on the task of making the often depressed or suffering mother happy. Though they have little success, they maintain the illusion of gaining her love by bringing life, grace, and joy. This illusion repeats in adulthood with the compulsion to seduce and distract the partner from their own hell, while they themselves flee by distracting themselves. Committing to a partner awakens the terror of being trapped, without freedom or a life of their own.

In sexuality, they find pleasure in seduction and admiration. They enjoy the cognitive usurpation of the other person: they’re not as interested in love and sometimes not even in the act of sex (more common in the Self-Preservation subtype), but in the excitement of conquest and falling in love. With some frequency, once the other person is conquered, a sexual relationship doesn’t even occur, or it becomes a mere formality because, deep down, the excitement and motivation for the conquest has vanished. What they desire is to verify, again and again, that they can captivate. Once a person is conquered, they move on to the next to show that others cannot resist them. Women or men become prey, which, once "hunted," are trophies. It is relatively common for Sexual 7s to keep track of the people they’ve had sex with, like a seduction marathon. This history of "captures" feeds their self-image. The more trophies, the more they feel valued. This appropriation of attention is achieved through pillage and manipulation, which feeds their narcissistic idea of being superior to others.

“I planned my meetings with the person I liked in a very complex and effective way. I prepared possible answers, seduced and made friends with her acquaintances, even if I wasn’t truly interested in meeting them, so I could coincide with her more. I managed to have apparently casual and somewhat magical encounters with her. Later, I discovered that I was terribly afraid of having a sincere and open meeting with the girl. The idealization of her was complete, since I barely knew her. The moment I got to know her a little, all that love for her disappeared immediately.”

The Sexual 7 enjoys building anticipation before "making a move," warming up the atmosphere with words and gestures. They are intellectual seducers rather than physical ones, using humor, glances, wit, and even details to suggest desire. They plan their conquest without pause and practically seduce, and even engage in love, all in their head.

“I am skilled at using exactly the right words, hinting or asking for what I want in a tangential, indirect, and subtle way to get what I want. The precise use of words and language games supports my subtle manipulations. With that, I used to create an atmosphere of mystery to be more interesting: unfinished sentences, ulterior motives, half-hidden messages, double meanings, riddles...”

The tongue serves as a form of cognitive masturbation, indulging in the pleasure of dazzling others with one’s ideas: "I’m so cool!" As he speaks, he is captivated by how interesting and intelligent he is. He is so self-referential that he only listens to himself. He delights in his own words, even while politely leaving a little space for the other person to introduce their comment, already thinking about what he’ll say next. He continues to recreate his internal dialogue and never stops talking, even in silence. Intellectual attunement itself is confused with emotional or sexual attunement. Intellectual connection, to him, is a form of seduction.

“I think I started to use that ability (to speak and convince) to compensate for a lack of love. As a child, I was convinced I wouldn’t be chosen in a competition. I would surely lose. So I leaned on my ability to speak and imagine to attract love and admiration. As a teenager, I discovered that there was also sexual pleasure I could offer to be chosen. I felt that being "easy" was the only way to get a guy. Besides, I never felt pretty or worthy of deep interest. That attitude lasted until I had a real relationship, which would have ended quickly if I hadn’t expressed my interest in a serious relationship with my partner. Until then, my relationships lasted two or three months, maybe because they were only linked to the sexuality I offered, with the illusion that they would become deep, long-term bonds over time.”

The Sexual subtype is the most disconnected from the body among the E7s. They don’t pay much attention to what happens to them physically. Perhaps their body serves as a ballast to give free rein to the utopian vision of their ego. Physical needs are seen as inconveniences to fully enjoying life. Sometimes, they physically abandon themselves, avoiding even the minimal frustrations and obligations that come with having a body and its needs.

This neglect of the body manifests in areas like hygiene and health. There is resistance to acknowledging or accepting sickness; they don’t want to feel discomfort and can self-suggest to avoid physical pain. Among the E7s, they are the most "ungrounded," with less connection to the material world. To "fly," they leave the body behind. The Social 7 maintains a better relationship with their body: they take better care of themselves, eat better (even excessively neat), groom themselves, and care for their image. The Self-Preservation 7, whose connection with pleasure makes them more of a gourmet, also maintains a better connection with the earthly and the senses.

This same chaos and carelessness is reflected in their clothing and appearance. A Sexual 7 can often be distinguished by their style, straddling the line between originality and caricature. The anarchy is almost complete in the combination of garments, such as colors. Their taste in clothing is often poor, creating unsightly compositions of shapes, colors, and sizes that can almost hurt the eye. In this sense, they can be extravagant and bizarre, with an originality that is as humorous and burlesque as it is grotesque and ridiculous. This carelessness also aligns with their tendency to find pleasure not in the body or genitals, but in the mind and fantasy.

This character finds joy in delay, in prolonging the excitement. For example, on a sexual level, he delights in sustaining an erection and postponing orgasm as much as possible, sometimes even avoiding it altogether. He usually postpones consummation, savoring the moment, enjoying the anticipation, not so much because he dislikes it, but because of what the subsequent drop in excitement will bring. The moment it wears off, that excitement fades, and relaxation—or even depression—ensues.

This pleasurable arousal stretching doesn’t just happen in intercourse. It extends to the realization of any project or pleasant experience (unpleasant ones are directly avoided). In some way, he awaits the "cosmic orgasm" in all life experiences. He increases the intensity of future enjoyment by leaving the best for last, so that the experience lasts longer and allows him to continue fantasizing, in an increasingly pleasurable illusion, until finally, the culmination arrives. In this way, the Sexual 7 becomes a kind of mental ejaculator within his imaginary worlds.

“I believe that the hidden limit is the compulsion to reach the peak of the experience, the moment that gives the maximum pleasure. That experience that is the highest, the one that can satisfy everything, that can fill everything. I believe that this search is what makes me a limitless sucker. An unprecedentedly optimistic oral.”

Behind this tendency to postpone realization is not only the avoidance of the energy slump that it implies, but also a deep fear of failure—of not being enough, of not being valid. There’s a fear of not living up to the idealized image he’s created in the other person. The unconscious catastrophic anticipation of eventual frustration can lead him to start sexual relations or a shared sexual life later than other characters (though not on an individual level, since he usually starts to masturbate quite early and does so relatively frequently). This fear of failure, combined with the nervousness caused by continuous cognitive activation, favors sexual dysfunction due to overexcitement.

The distorted sexual instinct, in its literal erotic sense, is expressed in this character not as a spontaneous search for pleasure but as a tendency toward mental seduction, an abuse of suggestion, and the creation of fantasy atmospheres designed to feed his narcissistic self-image. Instead of nourishing the skin, the senses, and the emotions, he seeks illusory gloating. He avoids making love quietly (spontaneously, freely, openly) and enjoying sexual contact.

Contrary to appearances, the Sexual 7 often has many problems enjoying sexuality. In a field where enjoyment might seem assured for a glutton, he becomes neurotic and substitutes genuine contact with lubricious substitutes and non-graphic narratives that distance him from more authentic sexual experiences.

The Characteristic Neurotic Need

The passion of the Sexual 7 is defined as suggestibility, understood as the neurotic impulse to attract both others and oneself. It is a passion for enchantment, for achieving a look that makes one feel special. It is also a form of self-enchantment, creating a bubble of happiness in which one can spend life gently, far from suffering.

The Sexual 7 has specialized in making joy, not only for themselves but for others as well. They know how to spread it, fascinate, excite, and hypnotize, ensuring that others are caught up in their stories and do not make room for discomfort, conflicts, or demands. They are like a child trying to confuse their mother with seductive words and gestures so she doesn’t realize something they’ve done wrong, while also achieving the satisfaction of making her laugh. In this way, they fulfill two needs: avoiding punishment and feeling good about lifting Mom's spirits. The ideal self-image is nurtured, although guilt remains as background noise, which they will defend themselves from throughout life by inventing new, imaginative justifications.

Suggestibility is a distortion through which they flee from an emotional world they have not learned to sustain, and above all, from emptiness. By filling themselves with the fantastic images of a parallel life and believing in them, they compensate for their lack of confidence in the developmental nature of life. With suggestibility, they avoid the discipline and effort required to satisfy a need. By jumping into fantasy, they avoid checking whether they can actually achieve their desires, escaping potential frustrations and confusing action with thought, all while feeding their narcissistic self-image, which convinces them that they can do anything.

Emptiness appears to them as boredom or a mediocre, flat life. Boredom detonates the fuse—they risk losing the meaning of life or falling into depression. It tastes like death itself. The Sexual subtype, along with the others, fabricates illusory images and plans to feel alive. Suggestion is their way to avoid anxiety and sadness, which lurk at every corner. They disguise an unpleasant internal space by fleeing into an enchanting world, just as they would react to something painful with laughter, seemingly covering it with humor.

A suggestible person is an enthusiast who gets caught up in making situations feel more beautiful, pleasant, and easy than they really are. They are an idealist who tries to view life with colored glasses, dreaming to the point of phosphorescence. A chronic optimist, they are adept at recycling negative facts into something interesting, humorous, or even enjoyable—turning shit into whipped cream. They dream so much that they end up not distinguishing reality from fiction, falling into their own illusion and enchantment. Claudio Naranjo has defined them as a charmer enchanted with themselves. In this sense, the Sexual 7 is the most deluded of the three subtypes of the E7, deceiving themselves without even realizing it, inflating balloons of ideal worlds to which they remain attached. They don’t keep their feet on the ground.

“In my mind, I continuously imagined fantastic situations and experiences. As a young man, I participated in cycling competitions, and then the mere fact of seeing a bicycle race on television made me identify with the winner or the domestique who sacrificed until the end. I remember feeling like a commentator when pronouncing my name... I felt the emotion and even chills in my body, as if I were really there. I got so excited that I even cried with emotion because in my mind I felt that I had achieved it.”

As a child, the Sexual 7 learned to survive by inventing a wonderful reality in which they took refuge, convincing themselves that it was real and true. They were able to avoid the fear of not being loved, not being seen when they were ill or sad, by offering only the image of a happy and joyful child that their parents could sustain. In this way, they learned to feel great and ready to solve the lack, feeding that narcissism that sustains them in frustrating moments or relationships. They rely on the juggling they manage in difficult situations and their ability to leave others fascinated or confused, infected by the same fantasy.

In other words, they have developed the ability to influence others, affecting their way of thinking to lead them to act in the way that interests them. As an expert manipulator in a world eager for illusion, this E7 offers happiness, making them attractive in the eyes of others. They give off a fragrance of optimism, subtly seducing those around them. Their power of contagion convinces them of their worth, and this self-conviction, in turn, has the power to fascinate.

“I’ve realized that I respond to things I don’t know by making up the answer. I speak with great confidence and charm, without knowing that I’m really making it up. I believe what I explain.”

They build a mental bubble that supports the credibility of the chimera they tell themselves. It also operates as a filter for potential frustrations. A painful situation is transformed into something funny, wrapped in politeness and gallantry. More than convincing, they spread their points of view through their own conviction. Enchantment and spell are not only given through words but with their whole being. Suggestion means an adequate staging that includes the body. The Sexual 7 is a talkative mime, quickly moving from one side to another. This captures the attention of others and makes it difficult for them to think calmly. They speak with ups and downs in their tone of voice, adapting to the content of the speech. No detail escapes their incisive gaze; they know exactly where the other’s attention is at any moment. Their face gestures with grimaces, winks, and tics.

The more credibility and the appearance of solidity a person has in a dream, the more it fulfills the dual function of being an analgesic and repressing anger at the limits and difficulties that relationships entail, avoiding confrontation and conflict. The Sexual 7 is a strategist who happily leaves the other with their problems, without feeling the responsibility or the need to define themselves within relationships and the facts of life. They are skilled at escaping commitments and complications.

Their position of multi-possibility allows them to always take the most exciting, beautiful, and pleasant option at any given moment, maintaining the viability and credibility of a fantasy that adapts to external circumstances that may threaten it.

In this way, the constant flight forward and never backward is characteristic of the Sexual 7. As soon as a fantasy is threatened with dismantling, they react by covering it with another illusion, an even more grandiose invention. When faced with a lie that might be discovered, they create an even bigger one, one that surprises even more. They leave no cracks where frustration can sneak in.

This combination of a wide range of points of view and speed in handling causes a mental invasion, both in themselves and others. There is no time to process each of the multiple options the Sexual 7 presents. It’s not a brainstorm; it’s a downpour. There are so many thoughts that prevent themselves from flowing and feeling life as simpler. As for their interlocutor, given the speed and number of arguments coming at them, they don’t have time to think or generate counter-arguments or resistances. They soon find themselves so involved in the fantasy of the Sexual 7 that it’s hard to escape.

“I remember, in my youthful pranks, that with a friend, we would sneak into nightclubs pretending to be reporters from a fashion magazine. We entered with a spectacular camera and a super flash that dazzled everyone, taking many photos. When we got to the owner, we told him a story that his club had been chosen for a report, and he ended up inviting us for drinks and more. It was a whole process of managing the owner and the environment in every way: at the word level, with the movements to take photos from certain angles and places, in the interview, invented, with gestures of interest and astonishment, telling stories and anecdotes about the magazine and our work, etc. It was about capturing his attention from many fronts and in a very fast way so that he didn’t even have time to think about what was happening. Sometimes we got so involved in the act that we even thought about founding a real magazine. Other times, we had to improvise a quick exit because the situation got difficult. What gave us the most pleasure was, when leaving the club, laughing, knowing the camera had no film.” (ENRIQUE)

The Sexual 7 is an enthusiastic character, possibly the most exalted in the entire enneagram. In fact, this burning passion is one of the effects they seek, like a drug, in their greedy consumerism of life experiences. When the excitement level drops or becomes difficult to sustain, they jump to another stage, seeking a new source of illusion. This variability makes them inconstant. They start activities they don’t finish and are as creative as they are unstable.

“It’s hard for me to finish things because I immediately start new ones. Although I read frequently, I haven’t finished a book in years, no matter how good or interesting it may be. There’s always a book even more interesting to read that I’ll start but surely won’t finish.” (ROGER)

Although they appear to be in a state of permanent joy—something built on fantasy—that euphoria is fragile. In other words, people with this character type experience frequent mood ups and downs, even though they are always seen as high-spirited. There is a tendency toward manic-depression, although it is hard to perceive the depressive aspect since, when they experience discouragement and feel down, they withdraw and disappear from the world, behaving like a schizoid. They only show the euphoric aspects. The Sexual 7 defends itself with joy from its own potential for sadness. Paradoxically, this flight from discomfort condemns them to chronic anguish.

For psychological maturation, a certain amount of suffering is necessary. However, the Sexual 7 disagrees: “How can suffering be good?" He is so afraid of pain that he defends himself by inventing a future pleasure, based on possibilities that are not real. This state of perpetual illusion, longing for an ideal world of permanent happiness, condemns him to chronic dissatisfaction in the present, generating a background anxiety that distances him more and more from himself.

In his projection towards the promising future, the Sexual 7 continues to build happy fairytales.

“For me, it is the mind that takes me out of suffering. I am not able to be in it consciously for very long. I project. I am always projecting. When I touch on something that dissatisfies me, a love block or a professional disability, I resolve it in fantasy. I see myself dominating everything, seducing everything, so as not to remain in pain. And I agree with the denied and very painful childhood. There is a lot of projection of falling in love, of the other loving me without limits. But I am disappointed, almost with a programmed clock. There is a stage of enthusiasm, of total infatuation, and then a vertiginous fall to my limits and to those of love itself.” (ANONYMOUS)

In his fantasy world, he will have what he wants, and there will be no frustration. In reaction to discomfort, he plans endlessly in a state of potentiality. It is a chronic hope for something good, happy, and fantastic... Future happiness is invented. In planning, he is able to handle desire and aversion at a high intensity.

“In the future, that ideal may appear, which I never have in the present. So the future is always better than now. Sometimes it's hard for me to value everything I already have in the present, and I worry and make an effort to achieve that perfect future that never comes.” (ROGER)

The Sexual 7's passion for imagination carries with it an attraction to the magical and supernatural, especially the occult, mystical, and spiritual worlds. He is interested in the mysterious, the metaphysical. The abstractness of these territories makes it difficult to delimit, concretize, and verify—something that, ultimately, would mean a limit for his overflowing fantasy.

The Sexual 7 is also a fan of tricks, riddles, and everything that has some secrecy, even miracles. He may even harbor the belief that he has some kind of special and magical gift that attracts people, a conviction that triggers his contagious autosuggestion. The normal world is unsatisfactory for him, and he explores the limits of knowledge, the esoteric... It is common to find him as an astrologer, tarot reader, yoga or meditation teacher, psychonaut, magician, or hypnotist.

“I have a very strong attraction towards abstraction. I studied mathematics, and now I dedicate myself to studying and painting abstract oil paintings.” (ROGER)

“I know more than you, I am smarter, faster, and my ideas are more original than yours. To maintain this illusion, I set a very high bar for the other person, scrutinizing him to discover where he fails, and so on. I place him internally in a situation of inferiority, and therefore myself in one of superiority.” (CARMELO)

In summary, the basic motivation of this character is to escape the pain and frustration that come with living. He defends himself with humor from his discontentment, deluding himself and trying to prevent any future discomfort. Since the future is unpredictable, what better way to guarantee yourself a promising and wonderful outlook than by making yourself happy and content? Thus, the Sexual 7 creates in his fantasy a platonic, virtual, and unlimited world that he adapts at will to achieve well-being.

To a certain extent, this approach would be adequate, as the ultimate intention in everything we do is to seek happiness and well-being. However, the Sexual 7 takes this attitude to such an extreme that, since suffering is inherent in existence itself, he sees himself in permanent need of escaping from reality as it is. This prevents him from adapting to the world and maturing.

Interpersonal Strategy and Associated Irrational Ideas

Each character in the Enneagram employs its own adaptive strategy, along with a particular cognitive defect known as fixation. This interpretation of reality connects with passion and sustains it. Many other convictions about life stem from this core strategy and are also disconnected from the person's current reality, manifesting as irrational or unrealistic ideas.

An irrational idea is a rigid and unrealistic belief that forms part of the person's fundamental values and identity. The person has lost awareness that it is a subjective construction and, instead, experiences it as an absolute truth. It gives meaning to their experiences and provides guidance for their behaviors and relationships with themselves and others. These irrational ideas are usually formed in childhood when adaptation to the environment is the priority. In adulthood, they continue to exert the same influence as they did in childhood, limiting the person's range of adaptive responses. Although the environment has changed, the person still operates with an outdated version.

Self-indulgence is the fixation of E7. While all those with a sweet tooth may indulge themselves, this trait is possibly more pronounced in the Sexual subtype. Forbearance, the tendency to forgive offenses and judge the mistakes of others without severity, might seem like a virtue rather than a fault. However, in E7, this apparent benevolence is manipulative. It is overused for everything and serves to allow the person to do whatever they want and forgive themselves for any failure.

In the Sexual 7, indulgence serves to avoid guilt for hurting others or failing to meet commitments. It supports a false narcissistic image of someone who believes they can do anything, taking pride in avoiding sadness, helplessness, and the sense of failure. Guilt is attributed to life's difficulties or to others. If there is no one to blame, the person simply forgets about the goal to be achieved or the people they have hurt (through the defense mechanism of denial) and shifts attention to the next scenario.

Self-indulgence also utilizes the defense mechanism of deflection, devaluing any unpleasant stimulus so that it fades away without deeply affecting the person. The Sexual 7 is adept at devaluing things they cannot achieve or people who reject them or feel they cannot seduce or win over. They give themselves permission for all kinds of pleasures designed to satisfy their hedonism while avoiding any frustration that might cause discomfort. They justify their indulgence by telling themselves it is okay to do whatever they want, ensuring that others don't get too upset and that they are liked and seen as pleasant.

Such an attitude has serious consequences when it comes to education. The Sexual 7 projects its constant need for meaning onto children. This mechanism makes it difficult for them to establish limits and rules for minors, convincing themselves that freedom and child autonomy are the most important things. They find it hard to contain a child's anger when faced with frustration, just as they struggle to contain their own. They deceive themselves by believing that love is giving permission, when, in fact, it is simply avoiding opposition and justifying their own freedom by granting others limitless permissions. This is a clear manifestation of the narcissistic personality's defense, which cannot accept rejection or authority.

In other words, the Sexual 7 is able to live in the world without formally adhering to rules or requirements, and they do so with the self-confidence of not being noticed. Their behavior is not only unthreatening but also pleasing to others. It is like mixing fire and water without either one being extinguished or evaporating—an art of trickery and mischief.

Once the fantasy of pleasure is activated, it becomes unstoppable, like a snowball in free fall. The only way out is to discharge this level of excitement by not containing it. For example, indulgence in seduction might look like this: "I like this person so much, they are so special, so beautiful, so… The sensation is so overwhelming that I can't contain it, and I must tell them, I must kiss them, it doesn't matter if I have a partner, right now it doesn't matter. Life must be lived, I must be faithful to what I feel…" The person throws fuel onto the fire, justifying the desire to bypass limits—whether imposed or agreed upon. From fantasy, they move to a mirage, and then to a dream, almost hallucinating, experiencing invented and fictitious scenes as real in order to justify any desire to relieve anxiety.

Self-indulgence in the Sexual 7 draws on the ultimate "carpe diem" philosophy (seizing what interests you from the world), dismissing any past commitments under the guise of self-kindness. They avoid thinking about the future or assessing the real consequences of their actions. They justify themselves for their actions, believing they have earned the right to indulge.

This is why the Sexual 7 is often unfaithful, engaging in love affairs they quickly forget about as soon as another person captures their attention, starting the process all over again. Leniency in the Sexual 7 uses an infinite array of justifications. Their rationality is loaded with theories that are extremely flexible and adaptable to the context, always tilted in favor of their own interests. Quackery is the clearest manifestation of this narcissistic behavior.

The Sexual 7 also manages a broader, more flexible moral and value system, which allows them to avoid guilt and remorse while feeling consistent and even good about themselves. As the Zen master says, "If you want to control a cow, don’t keep it in a small barn—better let it graze freely."

The Sexual 7 is a "grantor of indulgences," much like the popes of Rome who sold forgiveness to their parishioners. By allowing others to break the rules, they justify doing the same. This is the strategy: forgive others' transgressions so that they can transgress too. In a mafia-like manner, they create complicity through concealment. While similar to the Self-Preservation subtype, the Sexual 7 does this in a more strategic and hidden way, whereas the Self-Preservation subtype exhibits it more openly, almost narcissistically.

To achieve this, they use their gift of words and quick thinking to charm their "victims," always with a smile. Like a representative of Dionysus on Earth, or even Satan in the desert, they cunningly tempt, knowing how to push the right buttons and using their personal charm to lead others into their field. Granting permission to others is a way of neutralizing potential open criticism and avoiding accountability for their actions. It is an anarchist attitude—where everyone does as they please, and no one interferes. In this absence of restrictions, trust is abused, and others' trust in them is also taken for granted. Of course, all of this is wrapped in a false aura of happiness, pretending not to notice or confront the abuse. Moreover, the Sexual 7, in a more manipulative and even perverse process, may incite others to grant themselves the same permissions.

"I had a very modest and puritanical girlfriend who, on one hand, made me feel like a very good person, but on the other, when she wanted to smoke a joint, she made me feel immoral and lustful. Under the argument that smoking enhanced our sex life and made us connect more deeply, she eventually gave in to smoking. Later, the same process repeated itself with cocaine. Although I felt a certain remorse for seeming like an addict, it quickly passed once I had done the drugs and achieved my goal. Years later, after we had broken up, I ran into her again, and she was heavily addicted to cocaine. She made a joke, real though, calling me a pervert for introducing her to it. I no longer use it, and I feel really bad."

You may also fool yourself by postponing managing your own actions, telling yourself: “Next time I won’t do it, just one more time.”

"I remember when we were kids, we used to sneak into the neighbor's house to steal figs. With friends, we justified our actions by saying that we'd heard him mention how figs on the ground attract rats to his house. We laughed, thinking of ourselves as tree rats, but we always felt we were doing him a favor. Like we were better than real rats."

Aware of the moral ambiguity of their behavior, the Sexual 7 may self-impose compensatory systems as penance for the permissions they grant themselves: "I know what I did was wrong, but in exchange, I'll do something good in this other way." Of course, the balance between fault and compensation is determined unilaterally by the E7, making justice equally questionable.

In the Italian commedia dell'arte, this character can be recognized as the Harlequin, the "servant of two masters," who typically wears a multicolored suit as a sign of his changing opinions. Alternatively, the E7 justifies their actions with the argument: "Since others do it, I’m allowed to do it too." In all these compensatory situations, the Sexual 7 identifies with an authoritative figure, a reasonable father, or an appropriate normative system. However, just as they rebel against authority and their father, they will eventually rebel against their own internal authority and give in to their desires. They might even justify their actions with childish reasoning, thinking that no one will notice, like a child hiding under a blanket, convinced no one can see them.

"Once my mother asked me how much fruit I had eaten. I told her two apples. She gasped, saying it was impossible because she had only bought one. I was surprised at how she could have known."

At the root of this indulgence may be the benevolence the mother displayed when dealing with her child's mistakes. Her permissiveness, which didn’t set boundaries by breaking the child’s rules, was interpreted by the child as a sign of love. The child felt special and learned to bypass those limits. This evolved into a permanent demand: "Show me you love me by letting me do what I want." Self-indulgence, granting oneself permission to do what they want, reflects an expression of love—initially from the mother and later from the adult to themselves—while setting limits translates into heartbreak.

We see parents who even suggest to their child how to avoid consequences:

"When I was seven years old, I stole money from the teacher who left her purse in class. She found out and told my father. Later, at dinner, my father gave me a speech about how one shouldn't take another's money, but he didn't speak directly. In the end, he said that sometimes people borrow money but forget to mention it. I was relieved she hadn’t punished me, but the consequence was a subtle guilt that remained, along with the lesson that I could lie and get away with it."

There are often absent parents behind a Sexual 7 who themselves lead lives of deception or cheat on institutions. The child learns that being better than others means knowing how to avoid punishment, and that rules are simply restrictions, not necessary protocols for coexistence. This lack of values makes it impossible for them to adopt an adult position when faced with a norm they don’t share and wish to fight against, as someone who seeks to assert themselves maturely.

“I was born the seventh of a family of seven, which led me to become the king of the house, being extremely pampered not only by my mother but by everyone and the entire neighborhood. This led me to believe I was the center of the universe and that everything in it belonged to me. To make matters worse, I was raised without limits and over-protected by my mother, with my father absent, though not physically, when it came to education. I quickly realized that with a little crying, I could get what I wanted, and I did.”

“I am the youngest of four siblings. I was Mom's protégé, her most beloved son. My father represented the highest authority. I got everything I wanted by seducing my mother with my humor and ideas. Afterwards, she would talk to my father and almost always convince him, so in the end, I got my way without directly confronting the authorities.”

Below, we group the most common irrational ideas and beliefs of a Sexual 7 into four blocks. Some overlap with other sweet tooth subtypes, all of which, let’s not forget, share indulgence as a common factor.

Hedonistic: Seek pleasure and avoid pain

Without pleasure, there is no life.
Life is a party without limits.
I was born to enjoy.
Why be wrong if you can be right?
There is always a positive side to things. Everything's fine.
Better an invented life than a real life.
Better to avoid pain; it doesn't work.
If I suffer, I die.

The Sexual 7 puts all its cognitive machinery at the service of avoidance. As far as possible, they avoid pain. With their mind constantly awake and controlling, they scan for any threat of suffering and avoid it by diverting attention to other things, paired with some of their escapist strategies. With a clear preference for saying yes, and very few noes, this excessively optimistic character always seeks the positive side of any experience, no matter how difficult it may be.

“If I work in August instead of spending my vacation at the beach, I’ll sell it to myself in such a way that working the busiest month of the year seems like a great plan. 'There’s more parking space,' 'there’s less workload,' 'I can enjoy the afternoons by the pool,' etc.”

Everything is good for a Sexual 7. Even in situations of deep pain, such as the death of a loved one, they can turn the situation around and use fantasy to paint it in a rosy light. With their gentle charm, they are capable of setting up a trap that is as perfect as it is cloying. Anger, frustration, or tears are unwelcome, whether from themselves or others. Those who bring such emotions are a danger, giving off “bad vibes,” and are subtly pushed aside, expelled from the paradise of happiness. The inner world of the Sexual 7 is like the feeling of having smoked marijuana: a light and superficial joy that covers a deep feeling of emptiness.

Rebel: No limits or authority

There’s no point in limiting desires; you only live once.
If you limit me, it's because you don’t love me.
Happiness means doing whatever you want.
I am the authority, and I do what I want.
If something is good, more will be even better.
I can suggest you to get pleasure.
A river uprooted, a gain for fishermen.

The Sexual 7 believes that no desire should be limited. They interpret any desire (which they view as a need) as completely legitimate and should face no barriers. They rely on self-indulgence to bypass limits or seek the support of accomplices to get away with it. Almost any means is fair game to get what they want. Thanks to their ability to influence, they extend the limits of their desires to their partner and friends, though not so much in larger groups. This distinguishes them from other subtypes, as they handle smaller, one-on-one interactions better.

“In a relationship, I always push the limits of our sexual life a little further, with fantasies, partner swapping, orgies... Step by step, I subtly and seductively push the other person’s will, always attentive to their reactions so I can ease up if I sense they’re getting uncomfortable. I am an expert in walking the tightrope on the edge of a precipice, although it’s not uncommon for me to get burned by playing with fire.”

Traveling the world, seducing anyone, trying different jobs, experimenting with drugs, going on spiritual retreats, sampling various disciplines, partying, meeting lots of people, reading all kinds of books... These are endless experiences that are worth living and available to anyone who wants them.

“Since I was a child, I’ve always felt called to do great things. The inability to deal with mundane events paved the way for me to take refuge in a fantasy world, in which my difficulties were overcome by intellectual qualities, which became the protagonists.”

While this is a trait common to all E7s, the Sexual subtype is one of the most rebellious and unsubmissive characters in the entire enneagram. They are not a friend of authority, believing that they know more than the authority figure or could do things better.

However, they are also unable to present themselves as an authority unless they want to impress. They often take refuge in large groups, where they instigate resistance to authority from within, taking advantage of their fine ability to detect inconsistencies. They know how to prepare each individual to help them destabilize the established hierarchy, generating confusion and even chaos if necessary. This is how they play out their competitive nature.

In general, there has not been a reliable and consistent experience of authority in their life but rather a threatening and potentially harmful one. The poor relationship with the father or his absence, or the contempt they felt towards the father figure, is at the root of this attitude. As they are fearful and insecure, they also ambiguously seek recognition from authority. They are searching for the absent father and the approval and support of the father-figure friend they never had.

“We are servile, but servile in the sense of winning over the powerful. To avoid confrontation, we do what we’re told, but there’s no loyalty in what we do. We don’t oppose directly because we fear authority, but we do oppose it in hidden ways... an ambivalence about it.”

In any case, they are convinced they can do whatever they want because they haven’t encountered limits to suggest otherwise.

“I was raised without limits, over-protected by my mother, with my father absent, though not physically, when it came to education. The lack of limits led me to believe I was the center of the universe and that everything in it belonged to me.”

The struggle with the father is the basis of their hidden rebellion. What they cannot see is that, in this underground war, hidden under the skirts of their mother, they lose the opportunity to confront their father and clearly earn the right to be a grown man.

Condescending and permissive

There are no obligations, no wrong or guilt. It's okay; it’s not that serious.
There’s permission for everything.
Forgiving everything is a magnanimous attitude that speaks to the world from the greatness of my heart.
I will not lack anything; I need everything to live.
If something fails, I always have alternatives.

One of the maxims of this character is that everything can be postponed except pleasure. Indulgence minimizes negative consequences and maximizes possible benefits, at convenience, and through fantasy. “Nothing happens” is the fixed tagline that automatically activates when a painful experience occurs.

Although it is a great unknown, guilt is one of the staunch enemies of the Sexual 7. It can surface as anguish, anxiety, or even nightmares. To avoid facing it, they develop the ability to point fingers and find blame in any situation, sometimes bordering on paranoia. Most of the time, they carry out this maneuver with elegance, using seduction and suggestion to shift the responsibility onto anyone else, even though they may also resort to childish tantrums.

On the other hand, feeling accused is one of the worst situations for them. When cornered, they will defend themselves with a strong attack, sometimes hitting blind spots. Anything to avoid taking responsibility for the pain caused.

“When a situation turns ugly, I pick up my spurs and disappear from the scene; I don’t want bad vibes or conflicts. On the other hand, when it comes to enjoying myself, I’m a loyal friend: there’s always time for another joint, another beer, another deep conversation until dawn.” (VINCENT)

Egocentric: Feels special

Me, me, and then me.
I have something special/magical that attracts people. I am an oracle; I’m lovely.
I have to be funny and fantastic for them to like me.
I exist if I dazzle, if I seduce, if I show beauty.
If I don’t show myself, I am not here.

The Sexual 7 has a unique ability to divert attention to a topic related to him or an area of life in which he has something to say, often taken from the latest book he's read. If he doesn't know much, it doesn't matter—he'll make it up, as long as he's the center of attention.

The interest shown by his interlocutor is the most precious mirror in which he can contemplate his own reflection. There, he becomes the enchanting charmer, and seeing the other person enjoy his conversation and company feels like glory to him.

His narcissism leads him to deny not only pain and frustration, but even signs of exhaustion, even when they are more than obvious.

"I define my narcissism as a stationary engine because my desire to conquer has never been based on hard work or the opportunity to obtain results through collaboration and help from others. Instead, it’s been based on my ability to jump over obstacles and have the world produce for me, as a result of my kindness and my ability to turn everything I touch into gold."

Other Characteristic Features and Psychodynamic Considerations

Talkative

The Sexual 7 is a distinctive form of chatterbox. He tends to talk excessively, even more so than the other subtypes of E7. This individual is loquacious and constantly fills the air with words. He seems to have an inability to remain quiet, engaging in superficial conversations with scattered themes that lack depth.

Verbal incontinence, combined with rapid mental activity and effervescence, turns the speech of a Sexual 7 into a bombardment of words. This verbal cascade becomes overwhelming, like a hypnotic series of light ideas that, one after another, end up feeling burdensome.

The underlying motivation is to release anxiety and fill both the inner void and interpersonal space with words. It’s also a way to control emotions—his own and others'. What matters most is not necessarily what is said but the act of expression itself (language in phatic function). It's pure oral incontinence. If a Sexual 7 is asked to recount what he just said, he may struggle to repeat it, as he doesn't even listen to himself.

“My mother always told me when I was little that I didn’t stop talking, even underwater. One day, I was even tempted to try it—to speak underwater... and I think I succeeded. With my brothers and cousins, we used to play, speaking to each other underwater, and I became famous for doing it the best, almost always winning. My mother laughed and agreed with me; I felt important and loved, and I thought how important it was to speak well.”

Grandiose, Exaggerated

This individual has delusions of grandeur, viewing life on a large scale, making excessive plans that he later struggles to fulfill. But this grandiosity and exaggeration mask a deep need for validation to lift his fragile self-esteem. He confuses admiration with self-love, measuring his personal worth by how dazzled others are by him.

His narcissistic self-inflation seeks to compensate for his inner emptiness and feelings of unworthiness, insecurity, and guilt—feelings he is often unaware of. Deep down, he reassures and indulges himself through the recognition of others, making it unsurprising that he is considered a "charming charmer."

Exhibitionist

Exhibitionism here refers to the continuous attention-seeking behavior of the Sexual 7. His attire (often garish, sometimes adorned with feathers or exotic accessories, and generally anything but discreet) and his manner of moving and speaking reveal an intense desire to be the center of attention. He resembles a peacock, but with a peculiar understanding of elegance—more like that of a mountebank or a buffoon than the standard ideal.

Invasive

His verbal incontinence and exhibitionism make the Sexual 7 sexually invasive. With words and gestures, he invades both mental and physical space. He can easily divert attention or shift the focus of a conversation with parallel comments, introducing distracting new points, making jokes that shift the mood, or blurting out superficial remarks out of context. He interrupts conversations, either directly or through whispered side comments. He excels at destabilizing meetings or conversations that fail to engage him or that don't center around him.

He sneaks into parties where he's uninvited, shows up unannounced, and takes places or privileges he hasn’t earned. Of course, once he manages to gain attention, he rarely lets go of his central position, feeding his narcissism.

Impertinent, Cheeky

This individual combines boldness with a shamelessness that borders on rudeness. He can approach and confront sources of power with such daring that it veers into irreverence. In his approach, he is often direct and self-assured, even softening the impact of his impudence with jokes and various complications, easing the tension at every turn.

However, beneath his apparent friendliness and humor, his words can be scathing and corrosive. In his irony, he hides competitiveness and even contempt. He uses his dialectical skills aggressively to ridicule opponents with devastating precision. His impudence springs from the incontinence of his desires, acting impulsively and going straight for what he wants. It is a manifestation of his rebellion and lack of discipline. Whether subtly or openly, the focus is always on destabilizing others and attracting attention. Depending on his fear of the situation and how much power he attributes to the other, he might use covert rebellion tactics or more open, daring approaches. In meetings or conferences, it’s common for him to interrupt a speaker with incisive, far-fetched questions no one understands. Though the topic might not interest him, he abuses his speech as a way to show off to the group.

The Sexual 7’s impudence can be so extreme that he dares to preach the virtues he himself lacks, such as ethics and honesty. It’s not uncommon to hear him moralize, giving advice about what is right from an idealistic standpoint. As Groucho Marx once said, “The secret of life is honesty and fair play; if you can simulate that, you've done it.”

"Clown" with Little Sense of Ridiculousness

He can approach social situations with ease, aided by his lack of self-awareness and courage to use himself as a caricature. He is especially witty at making fun of himself. He feels little shame, often mocking his own flaws as a way of disarming them. He is skilled at parodying his life.

The Sexual 7 often doesn't know how to be anywhere other than the joke. His constant humor, which is useful in many situations, becomes overbearing and grating. The abuse of humor makes him invasive, impertinent, and inappropriate at times when humor is not called for.

Self-Referenced

Admiring himself through the fascination he provokes in others becomes a springboard to feel superior, with aggressive and haughty attitudes. The more admiration he receives, the more he believes he is "special" and unique.

His self-referentiality is so intense that he disregards the value of others, reducing them to mere admirers, a silent public who gives him the ego boost of capturing their interest.

Dreamer with Magical Thinking

It is common for him to indulge in esotericism, parapsychology, exotic religions, and to surround himself with an aura of new-age spirituality. He might also practice healthy lifestyles or other attention-grabbing behaviors, all while presenting himself as someone of transcendental maturity.

In the end, he remains a dreamer. He spends much of his time in the fantasy worlds he cultivates, disconnected from reality and oblivious to real-world problems.

Pseudo-Empathetic

Although he has enough empathy to identify with others and tends to be kind and even emotional, his difficulty in connecting with genuine interest in others is substantial. The Sexual 7 has a great emotional disconnection from those who return his attention—something he is largely unaware of but which causes him pain. Over time, he feels alone and isolated because he does not establish real connections, only through his self-image. Although he is inflated by his abilities and triumphs, deep down he is aware of his lack of real achievements and feels fraudulent, insecure, and fragile.

Selfish

Like all E7s, the Sexual subtype can be defined as selfish. His desires come first, and everything else takes a backseat. He doesn’t see others; he only focuses on himself. He believes that he doesn’t need anyone else to be okay and that he can handle life’s challenges on his own. Although not as cunning as the Self-Preservation 7, he is still a slave to his desires and shows no scruples when pursuing what he wants. Once he achieves his goal, there is no remorse for the means used, similar to a child who, unable to control his frustration, grabs the candy at all costs.

Fraudulent

Self-indulgence becomes a justification for fraud. The Sexual 7 can tell himself and others any story, using the most unlikely alibis to justify his dubious actions.

He lives in a constant state of fiction, entertainment, and comedy, allowing him to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. Unlike the Self-Preservation 7, he tends to believe his own lies, even convincing himself of them.

Rabid

While mentally oriented, he has an emotional tendency that is suppressed. Outbursts of hysteria are not uncommon—moments when his understanding is clouded, and he behaves like a small child throwing a tantrum when ignored.

This feature also ties to the general sensitivity of the E7. These individuals have such a heightened sense of personal importance that anything can offend them, and when it comes to sexuality, this hypersensitivity intensifies.

Anti-Hierarchical Escapist

They tend to form non-hierarchical, horizontal relationships, whether with subordinates or superiors.

They establish a sense of camaraderie, closeness, and complicity that, on the surface, fosters trust and easy communication. However, their managerial style is often condescending, granting permission for others to say and do as they wish while delegating much of the responsibility to subordinates.

Ultimately, they tend to procrastinate on their own tasks, relying heavily on co-workers. The same pattern occurs in their personal relationships:

“I establish open relationships with my partner so I can be with anyone else I want. I even encouraged them to smoke joints and become addicted, so they’d feel calmer and wouldn’t question me every time I did something.”

Clueless

In addition to escaping from his responsibilities, he is absent-minded—often a "freak" who lacks grounding and the ability to get organized in the practical aspects of life. It is unclear where his head is or what his existential priorities are; what is clear is that his thoughts are not of this world.

Childish Optimism

He is an optimistic, lively, and fun person... at least on the surface. He has often been called "the clown of the Enneagram" due to his immense ability to laugh and make a joke out of any situation. In fact, most great comedians are Sexual 7s.

His optimism and humor serve not only to highlight the humorous side of situations but also affect his cheerful spirit—his liveliness and joy. Optimistic ingenuity is the lubricant that allows the Sexual 7 to glide through life without the friction of living.

The Sexual 7 has remained in an early stage, where the child laughs at anything. There is still no broader understanding that anticipates the sufferings of life, and in response to any face or stimulus from the environment, the child returns a smile. The hope and joy of living are so intense that they can only be expressed through a smile, given with dedication and enthusiasm.

Impatient, Impulsive, and Intolerant of Frustration

Although he anticipates a lot and acts from the mind, he is often carried away by his impulses. The Sexual 7 has a low tolerance for frustration and wants to be one step ahead of reality itself—like a capricious child who, when he wants something, wants it now.

In permanent motion, jumping from one space to another both physically and mentally, he is usually nervous and fidgety, with a lot of physical agitation and difficulty staying in one place for long. Internally, he is also changeable and variable, easily alternating ideas and arguments. Physically, he is jumpy, with zigzagging, sharp, hurried movements. He finds it difficult to sit still or remain in the same position for long and has trouble stopping or resting. This constant mobility even causes him to frequently change his job, address, or partner. Restless agitation is a mechanism to avoid contact with his inner world, where he might confront discomfort. It's like surfing the waves of life's discomfort, tiptoeing through situations.

Behind the impatience and speed lies a fear of being lost or giving up anything. The Sexual 7 believes that if he stays in one place—either externally or internally—or simply slows down, he will miss out on fantastic possibilities in the world’s great market. Stopping would also mean dulling the initial excitement sparked by something new and enduring the boredom that comes with the stability of the known.

Hypochondriac

Avoiding suffering and repressing pain leads to hypersensitivity to any sign of physical discomfort, which quickly turns into constant worry. The Sexual 7 has not received attentive and adequate care and has not found a listening ear from the adults who should have protected him. In this sense, he has experienced abandonment. Furthermore, by taking on a minstrel role to alleviate his mother’s sorrows, he had to hide his own. This lack of care, along with a fear of death, results in any physical symptom causing him to enter a state of diffuse anxiety that can develop into hypochondria. This indeterminate form of care reveals both his deep fear and, on the other hand, an attempt to care for himself.

Hypochondriasis intensifies when, lacking the ability to process his anxiety, it manifests as psychosomatic symptoms, leading him into a vicious cycle.

Emotionality and Fantasy

Claudio Naranjo explains that the E7 is the most emotional of the intellectual characters, and, in turn, the Sexual subtype is the most emotional of the sweet tooths. In the diagram of the psychology of the Enneatypes, the Sexual 7 is the emotional one on the left side of the enneagram star. This means that it combines a high intellectual component with a significant emotional nuance. Therefore, in addition to understanding experience and life, the Sexual 7 needs to feel it and be passionate about it.

This intense character likes to live at a high level of arousal and energetic activation, especially mentally, where the will to artificially generate joy is prioritized above all else. Internally, the Sexual 7 feels like a very sensitive child, who fears deep, intimate contact just as much as he longs for it.

Suggestion is like dreaming to repress the perception of pain. The experiences of idealization and the fuel for this abstraction of reality is emotion, which incites and directs fantasy.

While feeling the emotion, the Sexual 7 is narrating it live. He puts words to it, like an announcer at a game broadcasting life as it happens. In other words, more than feeling directly, he thinks about what he is feeling, driven by an irrepressible impulse to narrate everything, to describe (to himself) reality.

This connects with the "horror vacuum" mentality of our culture, which the Orientals have rightly described as the "crazy monkey mind." It’s relatively common for a Sexual 7 to explain in great detail the experience of an emotion, while simultaneously fixating on the facts in the version that best suits him, turning the experience into a story rather than directly feeling the affection. He is a character who specializes in interrupting romantic or special moments, where the experience of the moment and the fleeting nature of the subtle are most important, with inappropriate comments, honoring his status as a talkative parrot.

Describing the emotion while living it is essentially manipulating the experience. On one hand, it allows him to exalt enthusiasm when it is pleasant, and, on the other hand, minimize it when it is not interesting. Putting cognition to the affective is, therefore, a filter with which he distills the pleasant emotions, which are the ones that interest him. To a head triad type, the uncontrollable nature of the emotional world is frightening. He experiences it as potentially dangerous due to the vulnerability it may leave him in. Intellectualizing life, on the other hand, provides a form of control that gives him a certain feeling of security.

Idealization not only enhances the experience but also triggers an emotional activation along with it. Unlike the social and Self-Preservation subtypes, who are more controlled, the Sexual 7 is emotionally very active (hence a certain similarity with the E2). But don't be fooled by appearances: his emotion is triggered from his head rather than the experience itself.

Idealization, therefore, is a powerful defensive tool in this character, acting as a regulating filter for the sensations of the emotional world. It amplifies pleasant emotions and minimizes unpleasant ones, manipulating the experience to make it more fun, kind, and sweet—distancing it from routine, the grayness of everyday life, boredom, and the feared emptiness.

With his idealization of emotional experiences, the Sexual 7 appears as someone hung up on life. It is as if he is floating, disconnected from reality. Although he is a passionate and intense Enneatype, he is not so passionate in expressing emotions. He appears rather distant, lost in the clouds, and instead of sharing his feelings, he substitutes genuine emotional contact with companionship, seductive affability, and the creation of suggestive atmospheres.

The Sexual 7 has specialized in self-activating joy, a symptom of happiness and the most stereotypical emotion of the subtype. It is not uncommon to see him caricatured as Peter Pan, the eternal child: hands on hips, wide smile, sparkling eyes, feet a few centimeters above the ground... Just as a Sexual 7 perceives life—or rather, how he intends to live it: full of opportunities, new experiences, adventures, joy, good vibes... Joy is, therefore, their predominant emotion. He tends to tell himself his life is happier than it is, taking on the role of a lighthearted joker, always with a joke on hand to avoid moments of intimacy or solemnity, which bother him so much. An example is his tendency to whistle, hum, or engage in some kind of sound, either internally or externally, during times of stress, boredom, or simply during a mundane walk from the parking lot to work—adding music to the gray routine of everyday life, due to his difficulty sustaining a reality that seems empty of content.

The second most common emotion in a Sexual 7 is anger. But how can someone so connected to joy feel so angry? This character, in permanent flight from frustration, is paradoxically very sensitive to it. The negation of something makes it even more present. Since a response to frustration is an explosion of rage as a defensive reaction to try to set limits, it is not uncommon for the Sexual 7 to resort to somewhat childish manipulative behaviors.

These toddler tantrums eventually plunge the Sexual 7 into chronic dissatisfaction and anger, which increases with age, until the epitome of fun and good humor becomes a grumpy old man.

Now, both the sensation and expression of rage are partially blocked by its antagonistic relationship with joy, with which he feels so identified. The Sexual 7 will try to avoid being seen as angry, although there will be times when he cannot contain himself. He prefers to withdraw from the world at the slightest sensation of discomfort, anger, or sadness, so that his cheerful and happy image is not questioned.

It is precisely in this withdrawal that angry expression is most common. The closest people—parents, partners, or children of this subtype—know well that it is in the domestic sphere where they show their irritability most. In less trustworthy or secure environments, he does not dare to be angry, but he may show rebellion, often with a true desire to sabotage.

In the intimacy of the home and in the security provided by his loved ones, the Sexual 7 can take off his mask, his humorous antics, and finally show his hidden face. He gives free rein to his frustration and the irritation that has been swallowed outside. He permits himself to appear cold or monosyllabic, taking off the fancy costume, in a strange version of the warrior's rest (in this case, the clown's).

Children can become easy targets for his irritability when his manic side expresses itself negatively, especially since they are direct competitors to the Sexual 7 in its more capricious, childish side. This relationship with children is, in fact, and although it is not usually directly recognized, one of the most common reasons why a Sexual 7 seeks therapeutic consultation.

The perfectionism of the E7, aligned with the perfectionist E1 according to the internal psychodynamics of the enneagram, is another reason why the denied anger of the sweet tooth emerges more frequently in the warmth of the home. Just as the Sexual 7 is lax about boundaries and rules outside the home, where self-indulgence is more evident, at home he can transform into a demanding and controlling tyrant, attentive to the smallest detail, with a quick trigger for yelling or raising his voice at the slightest frustration. Patient and kind outside the home, frustrating and insufferable inside. Fun outside, boring inside.

And just as life is painted rosy when everything is going well, it can turn catastrophistic when his plans go awry. Fantasy, here, serves to amplify negativity. He becomes paranoid and sees everything as black, until he is consumed by rage. The Sexual 7 now becomes mentally obsessive, reveling in anger, frustration, and how attacked he feels. He visualizes expressing all his anger, losing himself in internal self-talk that will never come to fruition due to his fear of confrontation. This negativity and the explanations he gives himself about the situation justify his aggression toward others, his rebellion, and his greedy compensations meant to "balance himself."

Sadness is another double-edged emotion in this subtype. It is relatively common to see a Sexual 7 weep, grieve, and even cry in response to a sensitive movie, an emotional song, art, or some nostalgic situation. However, this occurs due to identification, not because they are in contact with their own pain.

Melancholy, stirred by an external stimulus, does not necessarily connect the person with their unresolved emotional issues or their most genuine affectivity. In fact, if the situation begins to stir them internally, their alarms and defense mechanisms will activate to escape the present, blocking the sensation. They may even use these perceived bitter situations to compare themselves, reflecting on how well they usually feel and how lucky they are, compared to the misfortune of others: "How lucky I am in life and how well I am," they might think to themselves.

“When I entered Gestalt training, I had never done any therapy or self-knowledge course. In addition to curiosity, I started because my partner was also going to do the training. I remember that, in the first round of introductions, people shared stories and conflicts in their lives that surprised me enormously. Inside, I thought: 'Poor things, how much they have suffered, and how lucky I have been, with a happy childhood; I am very well.' At that time, I was heavily addicted to cocaine, without a job, and quite lost in my life.”

The current movie or book that serves as a source of sadness also becomes a stimulus for suggestion and immersion in the emotional world of the protagonist. If it's a sad fantasy, the Sexual 7 will take care of giving it a happy ending. For this character, it is easy to get carried away by nostalgic stories, to navigate and abandon oneself to melancholy, but they live all of it on loan, always from the outside, without touching the core of the pain itself. There is something pleasant in this melancholic crying; they are sweet tears, easy to hold back, even to amplify, while the personal, real, and deep pain remains safely locked away.

The empathy of the Sexual 7 allows them to feel the sorrow and anguish of the stories shared by friends, patients, relatives, or students. Of course, with the same condition as before: that this feeling of sadness does not threaten to touch their own misfortune. Being an opportunistic and self-interested character, this version of empathy is not meant to truly tune in with the other but is rather manipulative.

A strategist and conqueror, like a true E7, the Sexual 7 will use any tool at their disposal to make the most of the bond and the situation. The sadness they might display can, therefore, serve some strategic interest, becoming part of a seductive game.

“During a workshop, faced with an emotional situation within the group, the therapist told me: 'Your eyes get glassy while your fangs are sharpening.'”

The Sexual 7 is also influenced by fantasies of self-sacrifice, imagining themselves in painful situations as a way to present themselves to the world with the aura of a martyr or a hero. Naturally, these stories always have a happy ending, one of triumph in which they gain the benefit of being idolized and sanctified as a superhero. All of this occurs within the safety offered by the world of ideas, where their dreams have little or no contact with reality.

For a Sexual 7, it is both costly and restorative to get in touch with deep sadness. When they finally manage to open up to it, they will discover that it is a deeply liberating and healing experience. To promote this, a therapist, family member, or friend of the Sexual 7 must arm themselves with patience and avoid excessive irony, unexpected shifts, or evasive seductions, until they finally recognize the demand to "be okay" that they self-impose.

Fear—the last of the four basic emotions—is the most present in the daily life of a Sexual 7, though in a less visible way. Being the basic emotion of the mental triad (E5, E6, and E7), the Sexual 7 is unaware of the enormous fear that underlies the joy and optimism they present in their life. They deny the fear and bury it deep, but as soon as it is scratched, it will emerge powerfully, and they will feel how its tentacles paralyze their work.

Ultimately, fear is nothing more than an anticipation, and the Sexual 7 is a specialist in anticipation. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that fear is at the root of so much anticipation, in a micro/anticipation system that feeds itself. Extremely childish when it comes to adult life decisions, Sexual 7s often commit themselves with gleeful nonchalance to tantalizing challenges, imagining the benefits without considering the risks, efforts, or consequences. Thus, once the time to act arrives, fear can suddenly erupt with full force, including somatizations and panic attacks.

Suggestion and fear make for an explosive combination. The Sexual 7, with active physical fear, can become a hypochondriac, an easily startled person who, at the slightest symptom, begins to activate catastrophic fantasies, convincing themselves that they might be seriously ill. Obsessiveness can also be triggered here, with repetitive thoughts about the origin or repercussions of these symptoms. In the end, in their attempt to control and secure themselves through thought, they end up provoking pathological fear, entering into a neurotic feedback loop.

At the core lies the fear of death. For a narcissist who believes they are so special, above good and evil, imbued with an infantile omnipotence, death represents an unattainable limit. They find it impossible to face their own mortality or simply treat it with apparent denial or unconcern. For a Sexual 7, death is an unapproachable source of limit, fear, and nonsense, one they will rarely dare to confront.

By not knowing how to face fears in an adult way, the Sexual 7 often escapes by transferring their responsibilities to others, trying to push their problems onto others with seductive manipulations or taking refuge in some excuse or symptom.

At other times, they simply act recklessly and forget their previous commitments, revealing themselves to be someone unreliable, uncommitted, and deceitful, throwing stones and hiding their hands. Self-indulgence serves as a balm against any possible remorse for their behavior of "passing" or withdrawing from things that do not interest them.

“I remember my first shifts and my almost contemptuous way of handling them: 'If all the doctors have done them, it won't be so difficult.' Or the decision to have children, so young and so brave, until my first daughter was born, and I had my first anxiety attack. It is a feeling that everything 'is sucked,' until the first complications arrive.”

As life shows them that there are crises and bad decisions, the Sexual 7 may become more and more difficult to deal with. There is also another fundamental fear, though denied, in relation to authority. It is the fear of being denied the privileges granted by their childish character, of being exposed for their dealings, or of being put on the spot.

As for guilt, those with a sweet tooth—especially the Social subtype—are the most likely to encounter it. However, the Sexual subtype also experiences guilt, albeit from an infantilized place and not as a central figure, but as background. Since their fixation is self-indulgence, guilt and fear do not appear at first. However, as they progress in their self-knowledge journey, the Sexual 7 will inevitably confront their deceit and manipulative tendencies, both toward others and themselves. Therefore, acknowledging their elusive tendencies and coming into contact with the feeling of guilt will be part of their path toward health.

It is a fact that it is difficult for them to admit their deceit when it is pointed out. When this happens, their narcissistic need for perfection, the demand not to fail, turns into guilt. As a character who lives intensely in the fantasy of everything that affects them, they can even recreate pain, laying the foundation for a new depressive cycle. Somewhere in this character (regardless of their sex), there may also be a hidden feeling of guilt for occupying the father’s place and trying to win him over through maternal favors.

Hidden ambition is, ultimately, another source of guilt, stemming from their infantilized adult attitude. This regressive behavior makes it difficult for them to transition from a child to an adult, from a girl to a woman, which would be so necessary and healing.

Undoubtedly, fantasy is one of the most prominent aspects of the Sexual 7. Almost their entire character structure is based on escaping suffering and seeking pleasure. While this may seem logically consistent, as no one in their right mind wants to suffer, in practice, it is an unfeasible utopia. Existence implies pain. And suffering, ultimately a wise indicator of appropriate behavior, helps one grow.

But this character seeks to deceive life to escape what frustrates and hurts. To this end, they escape from the reality that does not interest them and build a parallel universe of their own making. They are skilled at telling themselves distant fictions of what they are living in the present, manipulating facts to benefit themselves. Fantasy requires a highly developed capacity for mental representation in this character. Now, fantasy and lies are not so far apart. Telling things in a suggestive way often borders on the artificial.

Autosuggestion helps them believe their own lies. Fantasy also involves a high degree of infantile regressiveness. Children do not understand the limits set by existence or the structuring experience of maturation. Sexual 7s are childish personalities, big children who do not want to mature. One of the advantages of this infantilization is precisely the ability to use fantasy as a mechanism to avoid pain. A Sexual 7 who has not gone through a profound psycho-spiritual maturation does not truly understand, nor accept, that disappointment and frustration do not kill but teach.

Since childhood, fantasy has been their greatest companion in adventures. Relying on their internal world, the Sexual 7 child takes refuge from a paradoxical reality when the external situation becomes complicated or uncomfortable: conflicts, shouting, scolding, sad moments, boredom, emptiness, discomfort. They develop, hand in hand with fantasy, an internal safe space where they isolate and protect themselves. The fundamental issue is to retreat into the cave when things go wrong, a tendency they will repeat throughout their life, closely tied to the psychodynamics shared with E5s.

The apparent extraversion of the Sexual 7 hides the secret of their jealously guarded feelings. In reality, they are shy, internally reserved, and withdrawn, even though they present themselves to the world in an expressive, spontaneous, and seemingly open manner. When the child withdraws from the world, their maturation process slows, which keeps them childish and fosters a lack of limits and connection with reality, reinforcing the cycle of fantasy.

Fantasy is central to seduction, a key issue in this subtype. Suggestion amplifies nearly every gesture of the person who attracts you, often turning it into obsessive desire, making it difficult to see them realistically. Instead, you project an idealized figure onto them. The fantasy takes over, constructing a plot with a future full of beautiful plans, a setting with perfect lighting, and ambient music to set the mood for falling in love. This house of cards, built so artificially and in which the Sexual 7 believes wholeheartedly, will become their downfall when it inevitably collapses, with them as the first victim.

Delusions of grandeur are common in this narcissistic character, who easily envisions themselves as a great teacher in any field. These fantasies fuel their enthusiasm to dive into numerous disciplines that catch their interest: meditation, yoga, running, or a martial art. They approach every activity with excitement and attraction but soon leave, bored and disconnected, because the engine of fantasy only pulls for a short time. When any activity or relationship requires effort in the medium term, they fall out of love and shift their focus to something new, restarting the cycle of enthusiasm and disappointment, much like a hamster on a wheel.

Despite this, with the support of autosuggestion and deception, they often feel competent in areas they've recently abandoned without much effort. It's not unusual to hear their opinions, sometimes with convincing arguments, on subjects they know little about. They may even teach courses, hold workshops, give conferences, or write manuals on knowledge they've barely touched. Their attitude of presenting themselves as experts in areas where they know only the basics makes them the stereotype of the sorcerer's apprentice—like Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse in Fantasia, who usurps the role of the master, casting spells he later doesn't know how to control or stop.

“When I arrived in Barcelona, I didn’t have a job and needed one. Among other things, they offered me the chance to teach a basic computer course, a subject I knew little about. Without thinking twice, I said yes. The next day, I bought a computer book and a computer, studying and practicing the subject I was going to teach the very next day. It wasn’t all that bad since they kept offering me other courses on safety, hygiene at work, accounting, payroll, and management. I said yes to almost everything they offered. The director of the school was surprised by the breadth of my knowledge. But inside, I couldn’t deceive myself, and I was so anxious that I didn’t sleep at night.”

There is a tendency to try to guess what others are thinking, without much empathy for what they may actually be going through. This is accompanied by poor quality of presence, as they withdraw from conversations and relationships at the slightest opportunity to be distracted. In dialogues, they rarely listen. Instead, there's constant chatter, and when they allow the other person to speak, they are probably thinking about their next "brilliant" argument. Fantasy occupies almost all of their psychic energy, leaving little room for others.

Within what we might call their "mental onanism," this character often prefers to be alone, lost in their fantasies and delusions, rather than in the "boring" world of personal relationships—especially if these relationships don’t offer excitement, novelty, or if they aren't the protagonist. In large groups, they do their best to stand out, often through humor or slapstick. If they fail to do so, they typically retreat and take refuge once again in fantasy. In smaller groups or the intimacy of one-on-one situations, where they feel safer, they display invasive self-confidence and a happy, light rhythm to take the lead, becoming the protagonist and the center of attention.

Childhood

Even if they do not remember it or are not aware of it, the Sexual 7 is a person who suffered in childhood, and to such an extent that they learned to panic about pain and not want to feel it again. He neither wants nor, on many occasions, can touch suffering. The logical no que fer to suffer or to suffer in the case of the Sexual 7 has developed to the extreme that the threshold of pain has been so low that it stops fulfilling its function; because for an adequate adaptation to the environment it is necessary to experience a certain degree of suffering and learn to deal with it.

The Sexual 7 tries to build a bubble of illusion that defends him from suffering, and becomes so strict in that defense that it ends up turning against him and he has to withdraw from the real world in order to survive the slightest emotional ups and downs, since the slightest inconvenience becomes unbearable. Such an attitude is based on a childhood of emotional withdrawal that ends up being channeled into the world of fantasy and the substitution of reality for plans and projects that are often abandoned without fulfillment. Schizoid behavior is gradually replaced by a new way out into the world that is, at the same time, an escape from oneself.

That is why the Sexual 7 becomes the caricature of Peter Pan. A shallow boy who never grew up, who was tied to his fantasy world and is unable to take responsibility for his actions or provide emotional support. Something that translates into a disengaged and overwrought adult, who lacks grounding, a firm sense of reality that has been displaced by fantasy and suggestion, in order to smooth out the rough edges of life. Already as a child, then, the Sexual 7 learns to drug himself emotionally.

There are three key elements of the context in which this character is built:

Lack of limits. The Sexual 7 is not hardened in coping with frustration, he is not tough enough to deal with daily difficulties and inconveniences. Since childhood, he has been spared the obligation to produce this hardening, since no one has put limits on him or, if there have been, in the family itself he has received the teaching of how they can be avoided. Little trained in resistance to frustration, the child gets what he wants, in any way: the end justifies the means. The lack of frustration has prevented him from growing stronger, resulting in a capricious and spoiled child. This lack of limits can respond to one of these two factors:

a) Aversive, harsh and difficult environment in which he has suffered a great lack of attention, support and recognition. In this context of lack, painful, wild, the child experiences it like a jungle where everyone has to find life as best they can. There are no clear rules, no limits, and it would seem that the only law that prevails is that of the jungle: survival!, and that everyone manages as best they can.

“Don Ernesto is a grumpy and lanky bastard. It is Don Camilo, his father, the director, who manages to hit me with a brutal slap in the face in front of my mother without her complaining. Day in, day out, it rains, slaps and blows to the head, the rule on the hands and nails, arms crossed, humiliation, studying as something terrifying. The fear in the flesh.”

“Once, when I was about four or five years old, my parents bought some very nice desks for my two older brothers and one for my sister. They didn't buy me one with the justification that it was small and I didn't need it yet. As a consolation, my older brother left me a small drawer in his desk to put my things. One day we had a big fight and he, obviously stronger than me, kicked me out of his desk by force, pulling out the drawer and dumping all my things on the floor. I felt humiliated and it was the first time I remember touching vulnerability and helplessness more directly. From that helplessness and with my ears down, I put my things in a corner on the floor under the window. He was afraid because, even without having a place of his own, he also had nowhere to go. I think it was there that I understood that in direct confrontation I had everything to lose, the fight had to be more strategic, based on skill and cunning rather than force, it was a kind of permanent guerrilla warfare. I remember repeating that saying "better morning than strength."

b) An environment of laxity in which he is mother's favourite, a sensible, pampered, capricious child who often gets what he wants without being hindered. Parents are perceived by the Sexual 7 child as ambivalent figures without a clear definition of authority. The mother is usually closer in terms of the basic tasks of food, health and care, while the father is usually an absent or discredited figure in the family environment, sometimes even by the mother herself. A seductive mother who presents the father as an ogre. This relationship between the parents may be colored by a certain competition between them, which is manifested in education, in the rules that are set at home. Faced with this inconsistency in the criteria to be followed in a normatively ambiguous environment, the child becomes a skilful opportunist capable of taking advantage of the option that suits him best at any given time, and he develops the ability to get away from what does not interest him.

“I was born the seventh of a family of seven and that led me to become the king of the house, being extremely pampered not only by my mother but by the rest and by the entire neighborhood. This gave rise to believing that I was the center of the universe and that everything in it belonged to me. To make matters worse, I was educated without limits and over-protected by my mother, and with an absence, although not physical, of my father in that regard. I soon realized that with a little crying I could get what I wanted, and I did. than to education.”

Symbolically, it is a happy but effectively poorly nutritious breastfeeding; hence his confident and optimistic but disconnected and superficial personality.

Identification and fusion with the mother. Generally, the Sexual 7 has remained attached to the mother, who tends to adopt a permissive role, while at the same time taking pains to make the child feel special and to make him feel excessively pampered and capricious.

“My mother was my world, I merged with her. I did not differentiate between "I and the world" as an external instance that demanded action from me. I got everything from the world (that is, from my mother) without acting, with a simple gesture. My mother took care of me for too long. At the stage where the baby becomes a child (eighteen months to three years) and experiences the impulse to differentiate himself from the mother, to know the world, to assert his own will and autonomy, I experienced it very badly. My mother and her caretakers were very present and I was held back in my discovery of the world. I relate an image that can be significant: I can now walk and I see things around me that attract me. I walk determined to look for a ball... I feel a very strong inner impulse, I want to take the ball and show it to my mother... I start to walk excitedly... Suddenly, I feel my mother's arms that grab me by the armpits and they stop me sweetly. My mother takes the ball and gives it to me herself.”

Another possibility is that the mother is ambiguous. On the one hand, they can be very affectionate and, on the other, they cut off contact and leave without a reason clearly identified by the child.

“She was the authority within the house, she represented both the norm and limits to be followed as well as the warm and loving focus. It was the reference on a day-to-day basis, given that depending on the mood of the day, one had to regulate one's behavior. I had the sensation of a certain state of alert in front of her, since she could be both warm, affectionate and permissive as well as hard, dry and extremely hurtful.”

This double attitude, flattering at times and frustrating at others, has special influence in the sexual sphere. It is as if the mother issued a double message regarding sexuality, without there being a clear guideline in this regard.

On the one hand, she can be permissive and even flattering that her son seduces, attracts and even is daring in sexuality. She encourages the child to take sexual risks, is reinforced with specific comments and sometimes even conveys the feeling that she herself may unconsciously put herself as an object of distrust in front of her own child. Let us remember that the E7 trait in general, but especially the Sexual subtype, is one of those that went the furthest in Oedipus, the one that ended up closest to the mother, in many ways. Obviously, this closeness is the result of seduction and permission from the mother as well as the absence of a father who sets limits.

But on the other hand, those same more eroticized behaviors of the child can be penalized with repressive comments and rejection behaviors that can even lead to humiliation.

“My mother had an ambiguous behavior regarding the approaches that I could have with her. Sometimes she was cuddly, she hugged me tight, she gave me very effusive kisses and she even bit me with great passion on various parts of my body. We tickled each other and I loved it. I even remember that sometimes she would let me touch her breasts while she smiled. Once I started the tickling game and when I touched her chest she got very angry and physically rejected me. He told me it was dirty and filthy. I felt very humiliated and I didn't understand why sometimes yes and sometimes no.”

Absence of reference father figure. There is no clear father figure who sets limits for the child. Deep down it is as if he had been abandoned by his father and the only way out is to throw himself into the arms of his mother. With some frequency, the father is of a mental nature: E7, E5 or E6, from which a certain unconscious identification with him could be deduced. In other cases, this character constitutes a reaction against an authoritarian father (for example, an E1), against whom it seems better to practice a soft rebellion.

The image of a hesitant father will generate insecurity and suspicion in the face of any future hierarchical system, at the same time that it will favor a chronic rebellion in the face of any regulation that begins against the father, often supported by the mother. It is the lack of trust in the paternal authority that turns him into an indomitable, rebellious character, with the courage to approach authority as an equal and even with insolence.

The inconsistency of the authority and the fear and distrust that they cause feed their paranoia, in an attempt to anticipate and prevent what may happen. The constant anticipation, unlike what happens to the fearful E6, has in this case a tint of escape towards the illusive fantasy and, ultimately, to an imaginary world in which fear does not exist and there is only happiness.

“Until adolescence, I have no stronger memories of my father. Precisely at that time, when I needed him most, I discovered that behind the image of a good impression he gave, there was a great deal of suggestion and falsehood. On several occasions, lost in my personal and professional path, he encouraged me with professional plans and projects. However, when it came to action, he would retreat and wasn’t there.

Under his suggestion, I planned to set up several businesses (a gym, a nursery, and a pub), but it always ended with his reproach that I hadn’t put in more effort and wasn’t responsible. The truth, however, was that I didn’t know what to do.”

With some frequency, that fearful and ambiguous father figure is replaced by another second-level male figure: a grandfather, or someone else, who becomes the reference. Deep down, the boy needs to find a male figure who, on the one hand, provides the confidence, recognition, and support that he needs from an adult man, and on the other hand, saves him from his mother. This character has been defined in character analysis as passive-feminine, in the sense that the man identifies more with the values of the mother, while in the E7 woman, there is an identification with a seductive man who often takes the place of the father. This substitute male referent is the one who provides the boy with the confidence and acceptance he did not get from his father.

“I often went to my Uncle Enrique's house, a very open person with whom I felt recognized. He gave me space and spent a lot of time with me. He was also somewhat of a rebel, in the sense that they allowed it. He gave me permission to do things my parents didn’t.”

“Money was scarce, and mom had to work (she taught dressmaking), while dad was rarely home for the same reason. So, for the first five years of my life, I was mostly looked after by my grandfather. He taught me to draw, took me for walks, and played with me. He was the classic grandfather, with big hands, immense permission, sweetness, and patience. My love for him was the love of a small child. He belonged to me; he was mine.”

The Sexual 7 was a child who, from a very young age, already stood out among those his age for being more alert, quick, and intelligent. He understood right away, almost effortlessly reaching the demands of his environment. He stood out for his cunning—or his ability to cheat, manipulate, and lie when necessary. However, he was also often hypersensitive, fragile, sickly, attached to maternal care, and phobic to the aggressiveness of the outside world.

“I was very funny, ironic, told jokes, and made people laugh. Once, when I was eleven years old, I imitated a number by Pepe Viyuela, who was doing a clown show on television, where he tried to open a folding wooden chair and sit on it. That’s when my fame as a clown and buffoon began. I did it so well that people accepted it, asking me to do it over and over again. They finally wanted me, so I exploited it to the fullest. My self-confidence, my creativity, and the spark allowed me to be accepted. It saved my life in school. I cheated, lied, cajoled, flattered, seduced, ironized; I was the favorite friend of the mothers and fathers of my friends. People no longer saw just the failure behind huge glasses. That’s how I created the character.”

He knew how to win over adults with sympathy, grace, and flattery, in a strategy promoted by the mother (and sometimes by the father), who laughed with the child, transferred admiration to him, and reinforced the exploitation of his talents.

“The teachers told my father, when they made him go to school because I was misbehaving, that I was a smart kid. I must have been, since I heard a song twice and already knew it by heart. I quickly discovered that being funny and likeable attracted the attention of others. So, it didn’t take long for me to become the character who attracted attention, and this made others count on me.”

He was also a restless, curious, nervous child. It was easy for him to play alone, creating his own world of illusion. He engaged in imagination games, creating stories of fantastic piggy banks with a doll.

“I could spend hours and hours setting up imaginary scenarios with little plastic soldiers or Playmobil dolls. It irritated me when my older sister’s hands dislodged them, making me furious, sometimes threatening to chase her away. The feeling was like an oasis in the desert.”

It’s as though this ability to play and be alone was lost as he grew older. Loneliness, which was not painful at first, began to seem so over time, and more and more difficulties arose to be alone. It’s common for adolescents to turn outward, toward people, moving away from the inner world.

As he grew and the external world demanded more and more, his character solidified. He focused on cunning to achieve goals with as little effort as possible—or fell into the trap.

“To compensate for the low self-concept I experienced at school, I used magic and gossip. I lied about my achievements and feats—making up all sorts of qualities and experiences: ones I had lived, seen in others, read, or imagined. I got hooked on these lies because they had the desired effect: they gave me the attention I needed and didn’t just see me as a child glued to limiting glasses. I invented a parallel reality where there was no pain, only success and glory. The impulsiveness of lying was such that I didn’t have time to process all the creativity. And of course, I was caught quickly. Then I was overwhelmed with such shame that my body, and especially my face, burned.”

It’s not uncommon for a willful mental decision to change one’s way of being to emerge during adolescence. As if, at a given moment, the Sexual 7 child realizes that his way of being in the world is painful or unsatisfactory. As an adaptive strategy and cognitive decision, he begins to strive to change. This transformation enhances cognitive skills, such as telling stories, humor, falsehoods, and imagination.

“I decided to be different and model my character to win friends. I no longer wanted to be the outcast. I decided not to go back to being a loser. I decided, without knowing it, to be an E7 and win over everyone. When I arrived at La Salle school, the course had already started, and I didn’t know anyone. The children spoke strangely (Mallorquin); I was a foreigner. So, I became the class clown, the smart-aleck. I painted the blackboard decorations and the virgins in May.

When that stopped being enough, I became a scoundrel. In recent years, I got ahead by falsifying grades, deceiving my father, the friars, and the whole world. I only thought about how to cheat and be funny.

At this point, my sense of being myself, my identity, became completely malleable. I became adaptive to circumstances, a chameleon. I adopted identification as one of my favorite mechanisms. Depending on who I was with, I could modify myself, mimicking the qualities of the character that I knew they liked. I designed the character and acted it out. I think I identify myself precisely through disidentification. I am what I want to be according to the circumstances. I internalized the paternal introject: “Either you adapt or perish,” and the maternal one: “Wherever you go, do what you see.”

“Little by little, I stopped lying, thanks to feedback from my closest friends and family, who no longer wanted me to tell them all those lies. I no longer had to invent anything; they loved me as I was. That embarrassed me, and I began practicing with great effort another way of relating. The truth is, it was hard for me because my life seemed bland to me, so I didn’t lie but did things that I thought would earn me respect among my peers and relatives.”

But what is the wound that causes this character? He is confident and fearful, although he appears to be quite the opposite. On one side, this feeling of an aversive, threatening, and frustrating environment occurs not only in the family but also at school or with friends. This reinforces the acrobat who dedicates himself to calming down in aggressive environments. The Sexual 7 becomes a born survivor, developing strategies that allow him to survive at any cost in a dangerous context.

“The insults that my classmates hurled at me for wearing glasses were painful, lowering my self-esteem and making me feel worthless, as if my whole being were just hateful glasses, and that occupied everything. The contempt they showed me, as well as the injustice I felt when someone broke or damaged my glasses, generated an immense rage in me. Since I couldn’t express it by physically defending myself against the aggression, it turned into fire in my body. I could feel the heat rising and burning my face. Then I would explode with rage, like a volcano, insulting and throwing gestures left and right, which only caused more laughter among my classmates, who observed the disproportionate scene.”

The emotional ambiguity of the family environment causes the Sexual 7 child not only an affective lack but also insecurity and chronic internal devaluation, based on the belief of not being valid or worthy of being loved. The Sexual 7's self-esteem has been damaged since childhood.

As this child grows, they will try to alleviate this low self-esteem by seeking validation through seduction, finding security in cunning and intelligence, which will create an internal schism between feeling and thinking. This lack of love, which makes them feel and believe that they are not "lovable," translates into a deep mistrust of affective ties. They live in a permanent state of escape from emotional commitment, unable to trust anyone, and fearing that even their partner will eventually hurt them.

"My difficulty in assuming a committed relationship can be explained by the noticeable improvement in my sexual experiences with women with whom I did not have a committed relationship."

Paradoxically, what is shown is the opposite: since childhood, the individual has become accustomed to projecting the image of being a happy person. They become a clown, reinforced by the environment. It is hard to see a E7 sad, not because they are never sad, but because when they experience unpleasant emotions, they withdraw from the world and become schizoid. Both the Sexual 7 and the Self-Preservation 7 are manic-depressive characters.

"When my grandfather died, I was stunned by mom's pain, and I don't know about mine. My pain is that of a small child, deaf and strange. I know physically. This will be the dominant trend in my life. Of all negative emotions, I learn by deduction; they are invariably summed up in a dull and strange anger with which I isolate myself and that, sooner or later, I somatize. Shortly after grandpa died, when my brother was born, I fell (running down a road) and broke my mouth and nose."

The mother's selfishness manifests in various ways. Some were abandoned, others had to care for their mother's serious nervous problems (depression, psychosis, etc.) without protection from their father, who left them at the mercy of her moods. Some were overprotected and became the object of their mother's love and redemption from her frustrations.

The Sexual 7 child also does not dare to directly confront the authority of the mother, because they fear her or do not feel strong and confident enough. This submission generates a fury that is swallowed and played covertly. Eventually, they become aware that, adaptively, it is more profitable and comfortable to enchant the mother (and the authority), even at the cost of falsehood, and then do what they want.

The Sexual 7 learns that ties can be manipulated depending on what they need at any given moment. This movement of seduction and attraction, followed by abandonment and withdrawal, is what they will repeat as an adult in their relationships. It is an unconscious revenge against the mother, repeating the same treatment they received from her—ambivalence of "now I take you, and when I have you and you open to me, I leave you."

"I have always sought the stereotype of Nancy, and that has led me to miss many encounters with wonderful girls because I always saw something in them that I did not like. I think deep down it was fear of commitment, of losing my freedom, or some problem related to my mother, to whom I was closely linked until her death."

Persona and Shadow: What Is Destructive For Themselves And Others

By persona, we mean the mask that one constructs to present oneself to the world and to interact with others. The shadow, on the other hand, represents what is hidden from oneself—whether consciously or unconsciously.

In the Sexual 7, the shadow is denied and obscured by the light. This type presents an image of a bright and beautiful life. It is common in therapeutic group work to hear comments of admiration for the E7, as, despite being neurotic, it seems to suffer the least, or at least appears to adapt to a more pleasant and comfortable life (which, of course, is not true). This false perception is even more prevalent with the Sexual 7, who is the most optimistic and humorous.

Chapter 4 described the main characteristics of the Sexual 7, and here we will delve into what lies behind the cheerful and jovial appearance: its shadow.

The first aspect of self-denial is pain and suffering. Any obstacle to achieving desires becomes a source of discomfort, which the E7 feels the need to flee from. The fantasy bubble protects them from discomfort, but it also weakens them by preventing the development of resilience. They defend themselves so fiercely against pain that they lack the strength to endure the discomforts of maturation. Highly vulnerable, when real difficulties arise, they cannot deal with them and retreat back into the protective bubble.

Their apparent chronic joy contrasts with a hypersensitivity that makes them touchy and suspicious. A minor misunderstanding is enough to create frustration. Their sulky, childlike outbursts reveal the shallowness of their joy and their inability to contain aspects of themselves that might shatter the illusion of a life without limits or difficulties.

The compulsive search for well-being and satisfaction (often through fantasy) makes them devour experiences, as an insatiable oral type who cannot remain deeply immersed in the pleasures they imagine. Since they do not indulge in pain, they do not truly indulge in pleasure either, leading to chronic dissatisfaction.

The mistake they make is seeking happiness in what they will feel, as an avoidance of present suffering. This creates a happiness complex, not grounded in simplicity, where true contentment resides. The fear of feeling pain is the central shadow. It stems from the fear of not knowing how to escape, of falling into an abyss of impotence and loneliness—a cold, unfeeling world. Depression is the monster lurking behind their perpetual smile and movement: the feared possibility of fear-induced paralysis and the pangs of loneliness.

It is not uncommon, upon delving into their inner feelings, to uncover a sense of loneliness or even sadness (if they allow themselves to feel it, as all their effort is focused on avoiding it), manifesting as a chronic sub-depression. The Sexual 7 has atrophied the muscle of feeling, compensating with an overdeveloped rationality that makes them cold and distant.

It is paradoxical that someone so eager to present their cognitive display to an audience has such poor quality relationships. Their consumerist greed leads to superficial interactions, a non-relationship with others. They may appear sociable and close, but in reality, they are insensitive and distant, pretending to be considered while reacting with hypersensitivity to even the slightest insult.

They base their entire strategy on keeping relationships on the surface. The deeper the connection, the greater the risk of friction and conflict, which are inherent in meaningful coexistence. In generating an atmosphere of joy and happiness, the conscious or unconscious objective is to prevent the other from entering areas that might reveal dissatisfaction or criticism. This way, they avoid not only the danger of feeling bad but also the responsibility of making others feel good, a task they only feel skilled at when everything remains superficial. If the relationship goes deeper, they risk confronting their impotence.

Though surrounded by many people, they rarely maintain quality relationships or deep connections. They share fun and joy, but without intimacy and truth, their relationships ultimately leave them with an undefinable void, which they try to fill with external distractions, like music. Beneath all the kindness lies the shadow of indifference—a lack of deep empathy. This emptiness, which cannot be satisfied by authentic love, drives them to constantly reconstruct their mask, denying their profound need to be welcomed and loved.

Another aspect they keep hidden is the loneliness they feel. When relationships are cold, they have no internal place where they can find warmth. The avoidance of pain causes them to freeze, turning their inner world into one of helplessness and orphanhood, where they feel hopelessly lost and alone.

In relationships, their difficulty with commitment is notable. This childish behavior makes it hard for them to emotionally commit to an adult partner, as they are really seeking a mother or father to care for them. Behind the seduction lies the search for a mother figure who will nurture them, offer emotional protection, not set limits or frustrate them, and give unconditional love, allowing them to do as they please, with the guarantee of emotional fidelity (though they themselves are unlikely to offer such fidelity).

In an adult relationship, this imbalance becomes unsustainable. The other person becomes burdened while the Sexual 7, by not taking things seriously, becomes less and less responsible. The partner ends up carrying the load, and as the relationship progresses, if the partner does not set boundaries, the Sexual 7 becomes more parasitic. They cling to the idea that the other person will take responsibility for what they neglect, trying to recreate the idealized pattern of being the spoiled child of a mother who protects them while they play and focus only on themselves.

This low quality of presence is concealed through indulgent, childish arguments, which prevent them from confronting feelings of guilt that they are not immune to. With rationalizations, they reaffirm that guilt doesn't exist or present other dismissive arguments. When guilt does appear, they automatically reject it, redirecting it toward others with another round of arguments, creating conflicts.

Allowing themselves to feel guilt and accepting it would mean unmasking the idealized image of the “good person” who can do anything. To admit failure would reveal a deep narcissistic wound, exposing low self-esteem and the harsh truth that they do not want to grow up or, worse, that growing up feels like the most hellish sentence.

Also, pausing to examine the other person or to deepen a relationship is dangerous because it would force them to face the reality of their idealized image. The compulsion to experiment and what they call "curiosity" or "love of adventure" hides an overflowing orality and anxiety to fill the void. The constant shifting from one place to another compensates for the lack of connection to their inner world, to real self-knowledge. The noise they create masks the insecurity of not knowing which direction to take, while confusing others to prevent them from discovering the emotional absence or the lack of substance.

Although they may appear interesting and full of opinions, as soon as they begin to open up, it becomes apparent that there is very little depth, that they are hollow inside.

Another aspect the Sexual 7 hides is their connection to anger. Through autosuggestion, they repress all the irritation caused by the limitations and difficulties inherent in relationships. They rarely express anger directly but channel it through rebellion—either passively, by resisting, or actively, by destabilizing others. This tendency to avoid anger causes a buildup of frustration, which threatens to burst in an explosive, childlike outburst. Before such an outburst, the anger will have imploded internally, as confrontation is so terrifying that it becomes hermetic. Suddenly, they shut down and become the most controlled and serious person in the room, reverting to E1 rigidity.

Faced with an upset, the Sexual 7 typically doesn’t express their feelings. They don’t ask for explanations nor reveal what is happening inside, but remain silent, withdrawing without discussing the issue. But isn't this a form of charlatanism? Yes, but it is internal. The external silence contrasts with the internal noise of repeated, obsessive thoughts, which can last for days.

Internally, they remain resentful, and destructive thoughts emerge. In that moment, they would run away and end everything—leave their partner, friends, and job—and retreat far from the situation. With resentment, a mental cage forms around them. It becomes so large that they feel trapped, struggling to find a way out, unable to break free from the image of the happy person they have built. Even knowing that they are harming themselves and others, they feel powerless, at the mercy of the situation. Like others with anger issues, the way out of this cage may be an unexpected outburst of anger, often at the wrong time or directed at the wrong people.

This irritability, often accompanied by voluntary social withdrawal, may hide deep despondency. It’s important to remember that the sweet tooth (especially the Sexual 7 and the Self-Preservation 7) aligns with the manic-depressive character in DSM-V. The Sexual 7 primes easily, but then feelings of sadness and emptiness emerge. They become disheartened, losing all interest—even in pleasure. They are left drained, with difficulty concentrating and plagued by recurring negative thoughts, sometimes even suicidal.

The ease with which the Sexual 7 can sink into discouragement when their expectations are not met is striking. In extreme cases, it presents a tendency toward bipolarity, characterized by the stark alternation between phases of manic optimism and depression. This is the deep shadow behind the exaggerated joy and enthusiasm of the exuberant Sexual 7. It is not easy for them to recognize themselves in this state and in their sensations, as their character is primarily structured around fleeing from them.

“This process of transformation made me realize how we Sexual 7s cover up the anxiety that is depression. It seems strange to imagine an anxious, subdued, energyless person, almost like an Is. Yet, it is true. I now feel that, when faced with something frustrating, I give up rather than explode. That very unpleasant feeling, as a first and immediate response, also drives me to dissipate it through doing something or talking. Today, I understand that the best thing is to stay with that frustration for a while, feel it, and let it pass until it fades.”

Another blind spot for the Sexual 7, which is quite obvious to others but hidden from themselves, is their tremendous selfishness. First, they think about their desires, and then, depending on what suits them, maybe they can consider others. A skilled opportunist, they prioritize their own interests, disregarding ethical principles to achieve their goals or gain advantages. They exploit others' mistakes, weaknesses, and distractions. The Sexual 7's opportunism is often accompanied by a lack of integrity. They employ means and strategies that border on fraud. It is difficult to remain consistent with ethical values while also being selfish. So, the Sexual 7 opts for values that are flexible and adaptable to their current interests, in order to avoid conflict with their narcissistically positive self-image.

This fraudulent permissiveness can reach such extremes that even they don’t trust themselves. Their variability and inconsistency gradually erode their self-esteem. An example of this is the very creation of this book. On several occasions, texts were requested from various Sexual 7s as material. They all agreed, but 99% never fulfilled their commitment.

During the Symposium on the Psychology of Enneatypes in Brazil in 2012, at the meeting of Sexual 7s (about twenty-five of us), we were explicitly asked to collaborate by distributing tasks that made sense at the time. A few days after the congress ended, they were contacted via email, and almost none responded. Despite follow-up attempts, nearly none sent any material, as requested. Perhaps a few sent a comment or a paragraph with some reference.

“But to be honest, I, as the coordinator of the book, also fell into indulgence and self-justification. One of the justifications I used was that others did not send their material on time. However, since Claudio commissioned it from me back in 2010, until it materialized in the book you hold, I went through countless phases of procrastination. Ultimately, it was necessary to set a firm, immovable deadline to truly commit to finishing it. I take this opportunity to apologize to my colleagues, while also thanking them.”

Although the Sexual 7 belongs to the fearful group, they are unaware of the extent of their fear. This is yet another shadow aspect. On the surface, they appear spontaneous, uninhibited, and expansive—someone who does whatever they want. They seem affable, confident, and self-assured. Much of this image is a result of autosuggestion. In reality, the Sexual 7 is a shy extrovert, a deeply insecure and fearful person internally. This instability is overcompensated by a large dose of boldness and exuberance. If they confront their hidden fears, they may collapse or experience chronic anxiety.

Their irresponsibility in taking charge of themselves has self-destructive consequences. They are like a big child who does not know how to care for themselves or commit to their true needs. Despite the significant power they have to grant themselves what they want, they neglect almost vital aspects. More than fulfilling their real needs, the Sexual 7 avoids the frustration of their desires. They are not committed to their adult side, which involves responsibility and discipline, but rather to their younger, impulsive side.

Even so, they often have a very intolerant superego—a rigid, internalized father figure—against whom they rebel, becoming undisciplined and unsubmissive. In this way, they sabotage themselves, neglecting and abandoning their own well-being. They do not know how to create a nurturing father figure and, as a result, are not a consistent or loving authority for themselves.

For example, when it comes to money, they can be a spendthrift on a whim they may want at the moment. However, they can also be stingy when it comes to food, clothing, health, etc., neglecting these essential aspects.

“...I prefer to treat myself to something I like to eat for the whole day.”

In fact, they can be reckless with both what they have and what they don’t. They take loans, convinced they will repay them one day. Sometimes, they are supported by their partner, parents, or even their own children. They tend to overextend themselves and become a burden.

“With money, I often think, ‘Why save for tomorrow?’ I convince myself that tomorrow God will provide and send me everything I need.”

If they remain unaware of the toxicity of their neurosis, it worsens over time. Symptoms become more pronounced. Like an addict, they require increasing doses of autosuggestion and self-deception, whose effects become less stimulating. This builds internal anxiety, eventually leading to the very thing they have been avoiding: chronic pain and discomfort.

In fact, they have an addictive personality, prone to altered states of consciousness through substances or magical worlds that allow them to escape. With difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy, they live as though asleep in a dream they call life. When they eventually realize this, they experience regret, and a decline in their energy and ability to act as they once did. The once vibrant clown, overcome by neurosis, becomes, in the end, a sad clown.

Love

As a typical E7, the Sexual subtype has an overdeveloped sense of erotic love, with admiring love being less active but still present, and compassionate love being the least developed. Compared to other E7s, the Sexual subtype has specialized the most in erotic love, with their primary orientation being toward enjoyment. A manipulative use of eros to achieve their desires is characteristic, as we will explore below.

This Enneatype is connected to desire and linked to the inner animal and the reptilian brain. In other words, they are someone who focuses on their needs and offers a rather egocentric form of love: the love of a child, focused on enjoyment, laughter, sexuality, and play. This corresponds to filial love, which is more concerned with receiving than giving. Therefore, the Sexual 7 often appears to be in love with life itself—passionate and sensual. They love everything that generates bodily pleasure, such as theater, music, and the arts in general.

The desire for pleasure is experienced primarily through the mouth, as this character is deeply focused on orality. They seek pleasure not only through sex and physical activity but also through food and talking for the sake of talking. They find enjoyment in touching their lips, biting their nails, placing objects in their mouths, sucking on them... in short, they look for ways to pleasure themselves at all times.

They are very greedy. Their desire for pleasure is irresistible, particularly when it comes to tasting everything, though they are not prone to overeating. In fact, it is rare for a Sexual 7 to develop compulsive eating habits, and it’s uncommon to find a fat or overweight Sexual 7. They are generally slim and slender, moving from one excitement to the next, like butterflies flitting from flower to flower. Although erotic love is the most active in the Sexual 7, it is, in reality, a false form of eroticism—a fantasy version—because it confuses true erotic pleasure with the excitement of novelty. What matters to them is the conquest.

This compulsive pursuit governs all forms of eroticism—pleasures in life beyond just the strictly sexual ones. While the Sexual 7 may seem highly erotic, they are, in fact, incapable of experiencing true eroticism: enjoying relationships and situations. They are the "premature ejaculator" of the enneagram, whether male or female. In this context, premature ejaculation refers not only to a literal sense but also to how they experience life: not enjoying the pleasure itself but getting swept up in the excitement of the moment, which quickly fades into boredom, sadness, and a loss of meaning—a dreaded void.

This void will be filled with a new emotion: new love conquests, new intellectual influences, new projects (often unrealistic and unattainable), new physical activities, new foods, new languages, new countries. Life becomes a vast supermarket, full of all kinds of goods, none of which can satisfy a hunger that grows incessantly, like a hole that widens the more they try to fill it.

“...getting hooked on pleasure, believing that more of the same would give me more pleasure, until I became dissatisfied again when I didn’t get it.”

“The fundamental orientation of my need is pleasure. I am addicted to pleasure. Where there is no pleasure, I make it or invent it. I realize I don’t do things for money or prestige (though I do that too) but to enjoy myself. I can't stand boredom. I can't stand emptiness or ‘little,’ and I always need more, never the same.”

This predominance of erotic love originates from very permissive childhood experiences. A child who asks and receives everything builds an omnipotent adult, one who struggles to differentiate themselves from the world, who feels entitled to everything—a world that is there to provide for their needs. Everything is easy, and they only have to reach out and take what they want.

“...and I knew that by pretending, acting out, and manipulating, I would eventually get what I wanted.”

“I longed to be small for a long time because I didn’t like the adults.”

“I tend to ‘not need’ anything, and one way of not feeling need is by not showing it. So I never usually express my need. In relationships, I don’t ask, I take. This leads to having little respect for others and for the environment. It’s as if the world is mine, and everything and everyone is there to be used by me.”

Regarding the discovery and evolution of sexuality, there is a strong tendency toward arousal and erotic activation from childhood, although, due to biological development, this is initially not linked to genitality.

“I started looking at pornographic magazines when I was eleven, with my older brothers—first stealing them from newsstands, then came the videos, the fantasy, because biologically, I hadn’t even had erections yet.”

“My experience of sex and pleasure, as far back as I can remember, was like the force of gravity: a sweeping impulse that destroys everything. Around the age of ten, I already remembered with pleasure the contact of hands with my classmates during gym classes and mutual masturbations during excursions.”

The sexual impulse is experienced as uncontrollable, accompanied by guilt typical of a society that criminalizes pleasure. The need for jouissance is so strong that it is experienced internally, in the mind, rather than outwardly, where physical contact and communication would typically help.

“I went into an obsessive masturbatory convulsion that marked my sexuality. For me, sex was something mental, and I had many difficulties understanding it from a physical perspective. So, with all my potential in my thoughts, I went out into the world to enjoy and escape as much as possible, which I succeeded in doing daily.” (GEORGE)

“I had my first formal girlfriends, the first disappointments, but almost always with a feeling of little satisfaction, not knowing how to satisfy myself or the other person. I enjoyed relationships more in my imagination, in my head—coming up with strategies to fall in love, imagining witty conversations, irresistible looks that would end up seducing the lady. In sex, I was very concerned with doing it well, with satisfying the other person. If I gave her what she needed, she wouldn’t leave me, and so my pleasure became her pleasure. If I gave pleasure, I was loved, which also created anxiety: ‘I have to do it right, I can’t fail; if not, they won’t love me.’ Sometimes, sex seemed more like a chore than enjoyment.”

Much of the excitement that drives the Sexual 7 is, therefore, more fantasy than reality. They are mentally stimulated by imagination, where agility and freedom exist, unlike in actual, live situations with a partner.

“Imagine instead of sharing and doing. There is no frustration in imagination. Shared sex doesn’t exist. Lots of masturbation, lots of magazines, lots of imagination.”

Exposure to others forces them to confront the fear of rejection and the phobia of intimacy, where they cannot hide or falsify themselves so easily. This fear may delay their first full sexual relationship.

“At the age of nineteen, I had my first relationship with a girl. It was a new experience because up until then, they had always been idealized, platonic loves, but I had never even kissed a girl. I remember being scared and feeling insecure, thinking that at my age, I was very behind. There was real fear of being rejected by them. I fantasized, afraid that when the girls found out I had never been with anyone and saw my inexperience, they would laugh at me and leave.”

“As a teenager, I was always a good bullfighter but a very bad matador. I liked the conquest but then lost interest and soon turned my attention to another girl. I’ve always gotten along very well with them, but what’s called sex, I only started having when I met my wife, and that was at the age of twenty-four.”

“As I got older, I noticed fewer and fewer friends accepted mutual masturbation. X cinemas with pornography appeared. I became a regular (weekly) attendee of those rooms, in which I masturbated a couple of times. I didn’t start having sex with women until I was twenty-two or twenty-three.”

The Sexual 7 adolescent is more interested in falling in love, passion, and conquest than in engaging in full sexual relations or having a relationship with a partner. They are often more focused on self-satisfaction, masturbation... The erotic thrill of excitement is more attractive than the act of consummating sex. Their motto could be: Maximum excitement with the least possible effort.

“The desire came from fantasy, not so much from physical desire itself. I fantasized about what it would be like to practice what I had seen in magazines for years. I fantasized that if I lost my virginity, I would be more accepted by my friends and finally become a man.”

“One more step was to start mutual masturbations with other men in X theaters. The combination of pornographic images and someone touching me was very pleasurable. The darkness, the anonymity, the speed, and the movie, which I liked a lot, made these acts the most pleasurable sexual practice. When I began a relationship with a woman, I stopped visiting the cinemas. Although I soon realized that the meetings in X cinemas were more pleasant than relationships with women. I now see that my visits to have sex with men there had a lot to do with the ease of pleasure. I could get pleasure without cost, without effort. There were no words. It was so cheap. With no obligation. And varied: I could be with whoever I wanted and reject anyone. Pleasure drove me. Sometimes, I felt an overwhelming urge to go. I remember the joy and excitement when I walked into the dark theater filled with warm hands eager to caress me. I felt: ‘This is my kingdom.’”

All this excitement, however, is experienced with great guilt and remorse. In his idealization of pleasure, he can fall into addictions of different kinds, as he is focused on enjoyment and experiencing "trips" of all kinds.

“At the age of sixteen, the debauchery increased, and I began living non-stop on the streets, experiencing the best of each house. So, I educated myself between alcohol, joints, and all kinds of drugs. [...] At eighteen, life warned me through my body—how could it be otherwise for an E7? I had severe hepatitis (almost a hepatic coma). I was leaving home, addicted to acid—it was much better than alcohol. I immersed myself in painting and playing the guitar. Since sex was complicated, even though I had friends, I decided to rent a house in the 'Chinatown' of Palma. I made friends with some prostitutes, with whom I learned and playfully practiced all the things that occurred to me and more. They were very productive years of vice and debauchery.”

Erotic love is accompanied in Sexual 7s by a clinical picture marked by two well-known symptoms: hedonism and early frustration. The search for pleasure leads him to take an irresponsible attitude, prolonging leisure time and delaying duties, tasks, and responsibilities as much as possible. Frustration intolerance is well-known to those who have lived closely with a Sexual 7. If the world is a big tit, any plan that goes awry awakens tremendous anguish in him and unleashes the Mr. Hyde inside.

Although it is a "sexual" character in the Enneagrammatic sense, meaning prone to intimate contact and to showing himself in short distances, one-on-one, the Sexual 7 fears emotional intimacy, where he enters the danger zone. His favorite intimacy is him talking, gently tricking his partner, while affective intimacy—from heart to heart—makes him uncomfortable and activates his strategies. A deficit shared by E7s in general is compassionate love. More specifically, Sexual 7s show difficulties in developing this benevolent love, tenderness, related to a mother's love, which we share with the rest of the mammals and which has its anatomical seat in the limbic brain.

Such a deficit brings with it a lack of compassion, primarily manifested in their inability to stay in the face of human pain, to stop and feel, to genuinely support and seek support. Faced with the needs of others, he leaves. A Sexual 7 does not pay attention to the sick, deserts funerals, and does not take care of children, the weak, the needy, or the poor. He is not empathic, paradoxically due to an excess of empathy: he identifies completely, merging with the pain of others.

Although he seems incapable of feeling compassion and appears cold, detached, or absent, he is actually hypersensitive to pain and emotions, which he perceives as heartbreaking. The fear of feeling pain, perceived as immense, is such that he moves away as much as possible, putting distance in the middle as soon as he senses any eventual contact with it. He feels too much, and in his autosuggestive fantasy, he anticipates that emotion intensely—hence his aversion to pain.

His typical attitude toward pain is to normalize it, resort to light jokes, or laugh at misfortune, not letting it weigh him down. Getting in touch with that pain is, in fact, a fundamental part of his transformation process. His life is marked by the crazy idea of having had a happy childhood, a fantasy instilled partly by his family and which fits perfectly with our consumer society—a gigantic factory of happy babies who miss nothing, with toys and fun for children from zero to ninety-nine years old.

It is common for him to be fed as a child in his family environment with the belief of “how lucky he has been,” in a home where “he has never lacked for anything” and similar phrases. As if pain didn’t belong to that realm, as if there had almost been no suffering for him—whose rights did not include feeling pain or frustration. The Sexual 7 feels that he has no right to suffer. "The world is full of pain, but in my life there is none; I have not even touched it," is his mantra.

It can be said that the first interference with compassionate love arises from the force of erotic love, which contaminates it (with its manipulator) and blocks the capacity for surrender. The neurotic needs for total freedom and hyper-security stop even the projects of building a family.

“It costs me that time, to which I have always fought, is no longer mine. And that love that flows from me toward Ricard, my son, also saddens me. It saddens me to know that one day he will leave. I still feel stingy. I still don’t dare to give myself up because I don’t dare to hold the farewell. Love, if I do it, it hurts.”

“It’s hard for me to commit: marriage, children... Crazy idea: Are they going to take everything away from me? If I ask lawyers and they assure me that, even if we know each other, I’ll have a flat to protect myself, it helps me say yes.”

“There may also be confusion between the experience of sex as something purely genital, oriented toward orgasm, and a more tender, shared sexuality, which is displaced in this subtype—the result of the same process of atrophy of compassionate love. Madness of thought and sexual energy as a substitute for tenderness. I confused sex and love, so when the passion was over, I thought the relationship was over.”

Another important interference in the development of compassionate love arises from hyper-attention to the outside, from the insatiable need for recognition, which falsifies generous giving.

“The continuous search for acceptance and love from my parents, giving up my aggressiveness, sensitivity, independence, and energy, I later carried into my daily life, becoming a 'love beggar,' doing a thousand things and giving up a thousand others to achieve success that they wanted for me. Being kind, caring, attentive, and not getting angry, being available and caring was my strategy for gaining acceptance and love from others. Although deep down, I was never satisfied, feeling false and suspicious of the appreciation and praise of others. But I was so terrified of rejection, of not being loved, that I didn’t show who I was, for fear of not being accepted.

When someone seemed especially interesting to me, I poured all the power of my charm on them, flattering them, taking an interest in the topics that interested them, to get their full attention and be someone special to them. And if I managed to get that person to take me into account, I felt even more special. I needed reinforcement from the outside to be able to believe in myself.”

The strategic hypervigilance of the Sexual 7 in order not to feel pain and get what they want is another added difficulty for the proper development of benevolent love. It leads him to bury his feelings because, in his eagerness to plan, he can come to see the other as a rival who eventually tries to prevent him from getting away with it. So, disconnecting from his emotions is essential. If he cuts off his emotions, he stops the emotional resonance box with the other and can exercise seduction and develop his strategies coldly, without guilt or pain.

It can be deduced that an interesting way of working for this subtype is through experiences of generous giving, such as fatherhood or motherhood—a path of selfless, tender, and compassionate love that awakens the heart and opens the floodgates to experience one's own and others' emotions, leading him to discover true empathy and compassion.

“We have a beautiful son, Ricard. He drives me crazy and upsets some of my most ingrained habits (like not being able to waste time by saying nothing). I learn with him and with the different relationship that is established from his birth. Especially because of the ever-real feeling of selfless love that I feel. That makes me dare to hold the pulse with what I have committed to: family and work, fundamentally. As a father, I begin to understand mine: their parental love.”

Finally, it cannot be said that the Sexual 7 fully lives this type of love—looking up, adoration, recognition, respect, affirmative towards the divine and the mystery; this fatherly love that has to do with the neocortex and is exclusive to human beings. The origin of this insufficiency can be traced back to the relationship with the father figure. A father's deficit is observed—failure both to get closer, often due to absence, and to face him face-to-face, perhaps due to an excess of alignment with the mother.

“That was the first time I felt, or allowed myself to feel, that I recognized that I hated my father from the bottom of my gut. The relationship with my father changed after I allowed myself to admit that I had a lot of hate toward him, to take it out, to express it, even though I was ashamed of it.”

“The attachment to the figure of the father suffocated me. I realized that I could not detach myself psychologically from him; a ballast that, although I was in India, I had taken with me—the feeling that my almighty father wouldn't let me grow up.”

The Sexual 7 tends to be suggestive also in admiring love, developing a great admiration for his love reference figures, to which he positions very high and places enormous expectations. Since he generally feels more intelligent and sensitive than the people around him, he believes that he needs teachers capable of appreciating and improving his talents. His high expectations with all father figures (teachers, professors, institutions) are proportional to those he has for himself, implemented by an overflowing imagination.

The Sexual 7 tends to be suggestive even in matters of admiring love, developing a deep admiration for their love figures. They place these figures very high and set enormous expectations for them. Since they generally feel more intelligent and sensitive than the people around them, they believe they need teachers who are capable of appreciating and enhancing their talents. Their high expectations for father figures (teachers, professors, institutions) are proportional to the expectations they have for themselves, fueled by an overflowing imagination.

The grandiosity of these expectations becomes too heavy a burden and is consequently compensated by a series of disappointments. Parents and teachers are systematically labeled as inadequate, lacking, and disappointing. The result is a strong sense of frustration, misunderstanding, and, above all, mistrust. The seemingly rebellious attitude of the Sexual 7 is their way of expressing disappointment and anger toward a father figure who is always perceived as unreliable and treacherous—a father who cannot be trusted, who does not offer support, who does not instill confidence in themselves or in others, and who does not encourage them to believe in their own ideas and work.

Beneath their hidden defiance of authority lies the wound of a sad child who has never felt truly heard or recognized by their father or father figure, which hinders their growth. Making fun of authorities behind their backs is reflected in defensive self-mockery. As a result, they adopt a sarcastic stance toward life, which prevents them from taking things (or being taken) seriously. This leads them to retreat into their imagination, sometimes substituting fantasy for a reality they find uninhabitable.

Imagination distances them from admiring love, as fantasy becomes the projection horizon for their frustrated desires. The more frustrated they feel in real life, the more they lose themselves in the madness of projects, political utopias, imaginary loves, travel plans, sports, cinema, literature, philosophy, or spiritual practices.

Their ability to express themselves and captivate others interferes with the development of admiring love. They can appear committed to a specific cause, driven by an intense initial fervor, even to the point of becoming its spokesman. However, this enthusiasm deceives both themselves and the group, hiding a commitment that is short-lived. Another difficulty with admiring love arises from their fickleness, which is rooted in the neurotic equation of maximum recognition for minimal effort. The awareness of making minimal effort leads them to project self-criticism onto authority, often viewing it with fear or feeling they’ve done something wrong when a police car or boss approaches for a conversation. Their internal judgment is projected outward, making it harder for them to respect and look up to authority with affection, as the feeling of alertness is triggered.

Beneath this fear lies a deeply hidden insecurity, barely recognized and even less discussed. The Sexual 7 covers up what they do not know—both cognitively and emotionally—where they struggle to cope. In action, they have difficulty accepting their physical limitations, clumsiness, or lack of motor skills. This insecurity is sometimes concealed by a contemptuous attitude. On the other hand, the prevalence of erotic love also complicates their ability to admire others. Their excessive focus on their own needs makes it hard for them to place themselves in the shoes of others, especially in matters of authority. They struggle to see life from the "father's" perspective, to assume their approaches, emotions, and rules.

“I feel that I am part of a coordinated international effort to change society. I truly believe it. There is a model for a fair society... You just have to imagine it, raise it, and people MUST ACCEPT IT. Sometimes I feel that my transformation process is an unacknowledged battle against others. The progress of others can hinder my own. I am searching for a method (meditation, therapy, etc.) that is easy. When problems arise, I don’t ask myself what is wrong with me, but rather that I haven’t found the right method.”

Historical Figure: Franz Liszt

A laborious and troubled existence, Franz Liszt was a composer and pianist of enormous fame, who became renowned for his great technical ability and tremendous talent, which exceeded the parameters of the time. The public adored him, generating an authentic "Lisztomania," as the poet Heinrich Heine coined at the time. Liszt's piano concertos were all the rage. During his time in Berlin, women fought to acquire his pianist's gloves, his handkerchief, the broken strings of his piano, pieces of his clothing, or even cigarette butts smoked by him. Such was the fanaticism unleashed by Liszt, the first of the great concert pianists.

The son of Adam Liszt and Anna Lager, he was born in Raiding (Hungary, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) on October 22, 1811.

His parents lived in a simple house, as their economic circumstances did not allow them to aspire to more. Despite the hardships, the family was not daunted by the difficulties. The arrival of the child was a great joy for the parents, who closely followed their son’s progress. Franz was a frail, delicate boy who was frequently ill. As sometimes happens with children of this character, he possibly grew up with a sense of disadvantage and a withdrawal more typical of an E5. He suffered from nerves and, on more than one occasion, was afflicted with very high fevers that put his life at risk. His precarious health greatly affected his childhood. He often missed class and therefore did not achieve a good level of schooling, leaving large gaps in his education. The young Franz was raised in the Catholic religion. The church and the gypsies, with whom the family had frequent contact, would mark the little boy for life. Music was very present in the Liszt household. His father played the cello and the piano and would often invite musician friends over to play together. These musical gatherings fascinated little Franz. By the age of six, he asked his father to teach him how to play the piano.

The boy was an avid learner, and his father quickly realized he had already taught him all he could. The only way for him to continue progressing was to move to Vienna, which, along with Paris, was the capital of the musical world at the time. They settled there in 1822. As soon as they arrived in the city, Franz began studying with Carl Czerny and taking music composition lessons with Antonio Salieri.

Although the first months were especially difficult for the young and timid student, he adapted to the new disciplines and to the new life. He showed great musical gifts and was clearly a special child. His father, who was struggling with financial problems, began organizing private concerts for him in the halls of the Austrian aristocracy, despite Czerny's objections. Czerny warned him that Franz was too young. Everyone was impressed with the little interpreter, but he was not being respected for his childhood or his age.

Although he was requested and applauded, what marked his future was a kiss. At the age of eleven, he had the opportunity to visit the small house where Beethoven had lived and play for him. When he finished, the grandmaster smiled and nodded. Then, he got up and kissed him on the forehead.

Always aspiring to do more for his son, Adam considered that they should take a new step in his musical education. In September 1823, they set off for Paris, arriving on December 11. They settled in front of the house of Sébastien Erard, director of the famous piano manufacturer. There, a close friendship began that would last more than forty years, and Liszt would consider Erard his second family.

Once in Paris, Adam set out in search of the best teachers. Very soon, the young Liszt became known in all the salons of the aristocracy. He was noted for his early skill; it was unusual for someone so young to have such mastery on the piano. It didn’t matter who he was, where he came from, or how he felt in this adult world. Adam Liszt spared no effort to make his son known. The press was quick to praise the young Hungarian pianist as "a little prodigy" and "a charming boy." Franz quickly became the darling of all Paris.

Adam carefully managed his son’s career and began planning concerts and ambitious tours of other countries for him. Unable to forget the difficult economic times, Adam was very aware of expenses, travel costs, and clothing. He was not guided by greed, but by prudence, aiming to avoid taking a false step and reliving hardship. However, fierce criticism began to circulate. Czerny, among others, angrily reproached him for exploiting his son. And indeed, soon the young Franz, who worked tirelessly, composing piano pieces and even operas in addition to giving concerts, began to show signs of increasing fatigue. But the machinery was in motion, and there was no question of stopping. His father’s ambition overran Franz Liszt’s childhood.

At the same time, critics applauded the art of the young virtuoso. When Franz was fourteen, L'Indicateur wrote: "There is nothing mechanical about him. The fire of his gaze, his attitude, his poses, everything shows that this soul is in motion from his fingers." The successes and the trips were unstoppable, and all of this affected the young man more and more. He had no friends his age; it was impossible for him to put down roots anywhere, as they constantly moved from city to city. His schooling suffered, and all of this contributed to reinforcing the shy and introverted character of the musician while laying the foundation for his later manic-depressive tendencies, typical of the character.

Franz sought refuge in composition and reading, much of which was religious and mystical. Suggestive and imaginative, fanciful and spiritual, during the long hours of travel, reading was a faithful companion that softened the harshness of the road and the loneliness he endured. But the wandering, uprooted life bothered the young man to the point that he wanted to end it all once and for all. Driven by his interest in religious life, he even suggested to his father that he wanted to enter the clergy. Adam’s refusal was resounding: "Your profession is music," he answered, forcing the young man to give up that idea. Franz obeyed his father's order without question, but his refusal only increased his anger toward him for forcing him into a life he didn’t want. He loved him and despised him in an ambivalent way. This constant sense of not being seen by his father, of seeing his will imposed upon him, of not being respected, would also mark his rebellious, anti-normative, and unconventional character—distrustful of authority.

Throughout his life, Franz would face great sorrow. On August 28, 1827, when he was barely sixteen years old, his father died. He was unable to attend either the mass or the funeral. Not even days later did he visit the cemetery or the grave. All this was too painful for Franz, and he tried to avoid it, perhaps because of the resentment he had accumulated against an emotionally absent and exploitative parental authority. He felt devastated and felt the loneliness even more acutely. So he decided to return to Paris. Overnight, he understood that his childhood years were over. From that moment on, he had to take care of the affairs that had until then been managed by his father and financially support his mother. Tired of so much traveling and so many concerts, he considered that he could give piano lessons to earn a living.

The new occupation did not leave him much free time. He had to go from end to end of Paris to give his classes. He started very early and ended his day at ten at night. It was then that he began to lead a disordered life. He started smoking and drinking excessively, looking for intensity he could not find in his daily routine. It was clear that teaching did not satisfy him either. He ended up in a deep sorrow for leading a predictable and routine kind of life that he did not want.

Among his students was Caroline de Saint-Cricq, a seventeen-year-old girl from an aristocratic family. The young woman’s mother, fascinated by the musician’s personality, supported the affair. However, a few weeks later, the mother fell ill and died. The father, upon learning of the affair, did not hesitate to forbid it, citing the difference in social status, and dismissed Liszt with a stroke of the pen. Franz fell into a severe depression for years. His discouragement was so great that, on more than one occasion, he considered starving himself to death. The desire to become a priest was revived in him.

This time, it was his mother and a parish priest who dissuaded him from the idea. It was not easy for Franz to survive as a child prodigy and find the right direction in which to move forward. Emotional ups and downs were frequent in him, alternating between manic and depressive states, where he could go from a state of joy to deep sadness. During this stage, he could not escape depression, not even at times. Literary avidity was one of the pillars that kept him afloat: escaping into narrative was a form of leniency.

He also began to approach circles of social-religious doctrine. Not without effort, at nineteen, Franz resumed his worldly life and reappeared in the aristocratic salons. He finally managed to snap out of his lethargy. A creative fever arose in him that he had never felt before. The depressive phase was followed by a manic phase, a new stage in his life. He became aware of the growing role of the artist in society and was determined to fight for art to stop being treated as a consumer good or status symbol. He felt unique, and he was ready to prove it to the world.

The lonely and introverted boy (typical childhood of an E7) gave way to a seductive young man, easygoing and very focused on the outside world. Franz shone, seduced, and captivated in Parisian salons with his demeanor. Young, blond, slim, elegant, and distinguished, he became the object of the looks and desire of the ladies of high society, who fell for his charms. By the age of twenty-one, he was the favorite of the most elegant ladies, fascinated by the musician, his talent, and his seductive capacity.

The lonely and introverted boy (a typical childhood of an E7) gave way to a seductive young man, easygoing and very focused on the outside. Franz shone, seduced, and captivated in Parisian salons with his demeanor. Young, blond, slim, elegant, and distinguished, he was the object of the looks and desires of the ladies of high society, who fell for his charms. At the age of twenty-one, he became the favorite of the most elegant ladies, fascinated by the musician, his talent, and his capacity for suggestion.

As time went on, Liszt became a well-educated, virtuous young man with an aristocratic, Parisian manner. He had elegance, grace in conversation, and knew how to persuade. His goal was to find a place in the social life of Paris, gain recognition for his genius, and become someone. At that time, he composed little and led a dizzying worldly life, as if there were no tomorrow. There was an unleashed gluttony in him. Seduction was his best weapon, and falling in love—today with one lady, and tomorrow with a different one—was their way of life. Despite his social success, Liszt felt empty; a deep malaise that he couldn't define.

At the end of 1832, during one of the splendid evenings he attended, he coincidentally met Countess Marie d'Agoult. At that time, she was married and had two daughters. She was a highly educated woman with a careful upbringing and played the piano very well. Both Franz and the countess were struck by each other. From that meeting, the young musician began to frequently visit the beautiful aristocrat. They both sensed something deep was forming between them, and neither wanted to avoid it.

Despite the difficulties, the love they felt gave them the strength to swear that they would love each other forever, on Earth as in Heaven. Liszt's numerous mistresses were the subject of gossip in the salons of the time; however, after meeting Countess d'Agoult, the musician thought only of her. He felt that his Don Juan stage of countless adventures had come to an end. Over the weeks, the relationship grew stronger, rapidly consolidating.

In 1835, Marie d'Agoult became pregnant by Franz, and the idea of running away together became a matter of extreme urgency. The lovers had to leave Paris as soon as possible to avoid scandal. Preparations were made in secrecy, and the couple quietly left for Switzerland.

According to the social norms of the time, having a lover was not scandalous. What was reprehensible was abandoning everything—position, family, reputation—for him. It was a fault that was hardly forgiven. Accompanied by his lover, Liszt isolated himself from society in Switzerland, where he produced a series of rebellious, audacious, and transgressive works. Slowly, he was solidifying himself as an eminently modern, individualistic, narcissistic artist.

A feeling of incomprehension, of loneliness, grew within him; he did not feel comfortable performing in front of an audience that only expected a moment of fun and entertainment from him. He felt that art was something else. He found in poetry a model for music, which, according to him, should not only be used to flatter the senses but also to express ideas.

At twenty-four years old, he was clear about the path he should follow to advance as an artist, despite times when discouragement might have overtaken him. As a child, he instinctively repudiated artistic domesticity. Over the years, his rebelliousness led him to stand up against it. The idea of being a "sold" musician, protected by the high aristocracy, treated like a courtier and a monkey at the fair, annoyed him. Although he was aware that he couldn’t totally break the rules of the game and antagonize the authority that upheld them, he was angry with it.

There were times when his rebellion backfired. On one occasion, Liszt was testing a piano in the Erard showroom in the presence of the king and some of his family. At the end, Louis Philippe approached him and commented:

—Do you remember that you played at my house when I was still the Duke of Orleans?

The musician nodded. The monarch continued:

—Since then, many things have changed.

—Indeed, but nothing for the better, Franz affirmed, without losing composure.

The king was furious, to the point of removing the musician from the list of candidates to receive the Legion of Honor.

Due to her isolation in Switzerland, loneliness began to take its toll on Marie, who became bored. She missed the artistic and intellectual atmosphere of Paris. Franz suggested she write. She decided to write articles, which she published anonymously in some newspapers and outlined others that Liszt would later sign. Blandine, the daughter of Franz Liszt and Marie d'Agoult, was born in Geneva on December 18, 1835. The mother's name was falsified on the birth certificate to avoid legal problems, as she was still married. The little girl was entrusted to a nanny. Months later, when the couple left Geneva, they left her in the care of a shepherd and his family until she could accompany them on their travels. Franz never took much interest in his children.

During their Swiss retreat, Liszt cultivated his composer's side. Away from the hustle and bustle of the world, he sought his own music. During one of his trips, he wrote a long letter to Marie: "A life as childishly agitated as mine now would be profoundly unpleasant to me in the future. My true vocation is solitude; I have felt it in the depths of my heart for a long time." This was, without a doubt, another great contradiction of the musician, as he soon began a hectic period of long trips, offering concerts and evenings. To enhance his reputation as an artist, he allowed himself to be swept up in the whirlwind of the world; he needed to take first place among pianists. But on the other hand, it bothered him deeply to give up so much space to his vanity.

During these trips, the couple remained separated, which fueled Marie's jealousy. She feared that success would drive Franz away from her, pushing him back into the world she had left behind to be with him. After all, Liszt was still a complete seducer. The countess missed Paris, and although they feared they would not be well received, they decided to try settling back in the big city.

To their surprise, they were more welcome than they had expected; their reputation was not as damaged as they had feared. From then on, Franz's activity overflowed, as if he wanted to be in several places at once. He gave concerts, wrote, and maintained a frenetic social life. He seemed indefatigable (perhaps he was experiencing a new manic phase?). Liszt was trying to regain his place in Paris and fight for new music.

If he never failed himself or contradicted himself in anything, it was in his fidelity to his friends. Nor in his audacity: He was the first to appear alone, accompanied by his piano, in a huge room like the Paris Opera, before a mixed audience. No one had ever dared to do such a thing. It was as if the concept of "impossible" did not exist in Liszt's artistic career. He was willing to reform everything.

In July 1837, the couple set off for their new destination, Italy. It was a complicated journey, with many dangers. The continuous movements prevented Countess d'Agoult from caring for her daughter. They visited her when possible—little. On August 20, they arrived in Como, where they settled. For Liszt, a stage of much work began. Italy was an excellent source of inspiration. Marie, for her part, was pleased to discover that free relationships caused no scandal there. It was a libertine society where Liszt's relationship with the countess did not bother others. After a period of retreat, in which he composed tirelessly, Franz resumed his travels, giving concerts and recovering his intense social life. During their separation, the couple exchanged letters, in which he confessed how difficult it was for him not to be with her: "Just forty-eight hours ago we separated, and I can no longer bear it."

However, the countess was not calm. She could feel the change in him. That poorly groomed and poorly dressed young man had given way to a man of great elegance and aristocratic demeanor, who spent more than an hour grooming himself. He spent a lot of money on his clothes, something that Marie reprimanded him for.

On December 24, the couple's second daughter, Cosima, was born. His mother's name was once again falsified on the birth certificate.

To enhance his legend and continue surprising the public, in a concert at the Ridotto, Liszt played from memory, without sheet music, something that had never been done before. After Como, Liszt and the countess settled in Venice. He loved the city, while she found it overwhelmingly sad, to the point of depression. More than ever, the difference in character between the two was evident, leading to strong and repeated discussions.

The musician began to notice, with concern, how difficult it was to share life with someone depressed. Despite the love he felt for her and the need to have her close, when relationship difficulties arose, he felt overwhelmed, unable to support the couple.

On a professional level, things couldn't have gone better for him. He earned huge sums of money every month, and success followed him wherever he went. The separation hurt them, but when they met, the discussions became more frequent and heated. She reproached him for his Don Juan fame. They were miserable both together and apart. He couldn't stand the fights, the recriminations, the tense atmosphere that had developed between them.

The musician began to notice, with concern, how difficult it was to share his life with someone who was depressed. Despite the love he felt for her and his desire to be close to her, when relationship difficulties arose, the musician felt overwhelmed, unable to support the couple.

On a professional level, things could not have been better for him. He earned huge sums of money every month, and success was overwhelming wherever he went. The separation hurt them both, but when they met, the discussions became more frequent and heated. She reproached him for his Don Juan reputation. They were miserable both when together and when apart. He couldn’t stand the fights, the recriminations, the tense atmosphere that had built up between them.

Their trips became longer, and their meetings more spaced out. Liszt felt burdened by his wandering life, constantly moving from place to place. He saw his life as that of a poor mountebank. However, although he needed solitude to focus on composition, he understood that a virtuoso couldn’t isolate himself from his audience, so he resigned himself. This may reflect the ambivalence in his character: On one hand, the Sexual 7 desires security and a comfortable life; on the other, he does not maintain the boundaries of family life, fleeing from one trip to the next.

On May 9, 1839, Daniel, the couple's third child, was born. The mother's name on the birth certificate was once again false. Like his sisters, the boy was entrusted to a nanny. In November of that same year, Marie d'Agoult returned to Paris with her two daughters, planning to establish the family residence there. Liszt’s schedule became increasingly tight, so the couple could barely spend a couple of months together each year.

The strong musical and social activity disturbed Franz’s tranquility, so he often resorted to coffee and tobacco. While a virtuoso on the piano, he was also a virtuoso in sociability. Wherever he went, he was awaited with great anticipation, and he exerted enormous fascination on women. He missed Marie, but that didn’t stop him from falling in love with other ladies.

In one of the frequent letters he exchanged with Marie during their separations, he expressed: “A single passion, a single faith remains firm in my heart: it is faith and the passion for work.” In another, he was sincere: “Despite all the tributes and displays of affection I receive, I live very alone.” And in yet another: “I’m sorry; nothing, nothing will ever fill the abyss of my heart. But a ray of your eyes would warm me, revive me... rejuvenate me too.”

In 1841, he was accepted into a Masonic lodge, in recognition of his many benefit concerts and humanitarian efforts. He progressed through the ranks, reaching the master’s degree in 1842. Liszt was known for his generosity, which didn’t prevent him from thirsting for fame and money.

More than once, Marie had been on the verge of leaving him, of ending the relationship that caused her so much unease. Liszt did not resign himself to this, and through his power of seduction, managed to make her change her mind. He had the ability to always get his way. But the relationship became increasingly tense. She reproached him for his dalliances, and her words were filled with bitterness and mistrust. In November 1842, Liszt was appointed Master of the Weimar Grand Ducal Chapel in Extraordinary Service. These duties required him to spend three months a year in Weimar and direct certain court officials. For the musician, tired of endless travels and his itinerant life, this was an extraordinary opportunity to have a fixed base for a few months each year. There, he could compose and achieve some emotional stability.

His contradictory nature was more pronounced than ever. Liszt wanted one thing and the opposite. He was desperate in a vain attempt to have it all, and as he failed to achieve it, his dissatisfaction grew. While seduced by glory, especially sensitive to the flattery of the crowd that fed his vanity, he also longed for the simplicity and humility of an artist who lives only for his music. He loved Marie d'Agoult, but that didn’t stop him from seducing other women.

Liszt’s work became increasingly transgressive, mirroring his life, where his uncontrollable rebellion was evident. In one letter to Marie, he detailed: “Yesterday’s concert was good; I had a great success. The audience and the chicken coop didn’t understand anything; it doesn’t matter. On the other hand, artists and intelligent people (always in the minority) were excited.”

In April 1844, Marie, unable to sustain a relationship that had become so destabilizing for her, decided to end it permanently. Franz returned all her letters to the countess but did not claim his own. The girls were left in her care. Liszt felt the separation deeply, unable to find any consolation. Marie had been his support, a great reference for him. The break shook his inner world violently, but he never seriously realized that it was also a consequence of his own actions and the fantasy that he could continue cheating on her and being absent while maintaining the security of their marriage. Now, loneliness punished him mercilessly. He felt lost, unsure of what to do next.

He tried to find solace in music, friends, and travel. In his will as an artist, he sought the strength he needed, feeling dejected.

Marie d'Agoult, under the pseudonym Daniel Stern, published an autobiographical novel in 1846 entitled Nélida, in which she painted Liszt in a very unflattering light. She described him as a cruel and ruthless person, revealing that the cheerful and funny public persona he displayed was vastly different from the man he was at home — a duality characteristic of his nature. For Liszt, this was a harsh blow, further straining the already frail relationship between them, which was nearly limited to matters concerning the children.

Despite these ups and downs, Liszt continued to pursue his musical goals. He was very clear about the artist's mission to elevate humanity and unite it fraternally. He insisted on the spiritual and redemptive power of art and worked tirelessly on it. But behind these lofty ideals, was there perhaps a less admirable character trait? The fantasy of possessing redemptive power is often present in this ambitious and narcissistic character. Furthermore, Liszt's generosity seemed to align closely with the powerful seduction tactics typical of Sexual 7s, which often serve to gain fame and possibly mask the dissolute side of his life.

As Lord Byron or the violinist Paganini had done before him, Liszt prefigured the modern artist who seeks to make his life a work of art, an endeavor inherently steeped in narcissism. Not surprisingly, Liszt’s arrogance mirrored that of his great friend Richard Wagner, and together they epitomized a form of anti-democratic elitism that would later deeply influence political events in the twentieth century.

Liszt’s "divo" pose reached its zenith. He had come from nothing and, thanks to his natural gifts, achieved fortune and fame. He led an extravagant life and had a fanatical following. Like other stars who emerged later, he embodied "a human type characterized by arrogance, capriciousness, rudeness, outbursts of anger, transgression of customs, and the hysterical enthusiasm he instilled in his followers." The elites, who had once maintained their prestige through isolation, now needed the street and the masses, transforming some into popular idols.

Liszt was endowed with charismatic power. He was a tremendously attractive and brilliant man… but could we say this was a characteristic of his essence, or of his ego? Or both, inseparably intertwined? As we understand today, the creation of a charismatic myth involves not only spontaneity or innate gifts but also "a lot of artifice in their promotion: they use persuasion techniques, methods of psychological coercion, and propaganda similar to those used in marketing merchandise." All of these are highly fraudulent characteristics.

But what made Liszt such a divisive figure?

One reason his concerts were so exciting and memorable was because he performed alone on stage. Until then, it had been customary for several musicians to share the spotlight. Franz, however, preferred to be the only performer at his concerts.

From then on, piano concerts would never be the same. Franz, true to his garrulous and narcissistic style, referred to them as soliloquies.

He was also the first to position the piano sideways to the audience with the lid open, allowing the sound to project better throughout the room while also letting the audience view the performer in profile, in contrast to the traditional setup where the piano was placed vertically with a closed lid, nearly obscuring the performer.

Additionally, he was the first to perform his repertoire from memory, without sheet music, "which is why many expert musicologists consider him the greatest pianist who ever lived."

In his divisiveness, there was, of course, much posturing and a certain contempt for his fans, who became so obsessed that after receiving hundreds of letters requesting locks of his hair, Franz bought a dog and began sending locks of his hair to his admirers.

Liszt’s friendship with the anti-Semite Richard Wagner began at that time, with an epistolary exchange starting in 1841, though it wouldn’t be solidified until the middle of that decade. A few years later, in 1849, Wagner wrote to Liszt, confessing that he wished "to have as much money as [the Jewish composer] Meyerbeer, or I must do something terrible." At that time, Wagner not only declared himself a furious racist in his essay Judaism in Music, in which he attacked Jews in general and composers Giacomo Meyerbeer and Félix Mendelssohn in particular, but he also stated that he wished for the Jews to burn in a fire. Liszt also wrote about Jews and Gypsies in similarly disturbing ways.

Liszt's friendship with the anti-Semite Richard Wagner began around 1841, through an exchange of letters, though it was not fully solidified until the middle of the decade. In 1849, Wagner wrote to Liszt, confessing his wish to have as much money as the Jewish composer Meyerbeer, or else he would have to do something "terrible." At this time, Wagner had already made his views clear as a furious racist in his essay Judaism in Music (which he did not dare to sign with his real name), attacking Jews in general and composers Giacomo Meyerbeer and Félix Mendelssohn in particular. He even expressed a wish for the Jews to "burn up in a fire." Liszt, too, exhibited troubling views on Jews and Gypsies.

In Of the Bohemians and their Music in Hungary, Liszt wrote a sinister and anti-Semitic ninety-page introduction about Jews in art and music. He echoed Wagnerian arguments, claiming that Jews were deceitful, cosmopolitan, lacking creativity and genius, and merely imitated others, unlike geniuses like Bach and Beethoven. In contrast, he described the Gypsies as a "strange bohemian race," who possessed freedom as their first characteristic.

Liszt's mind, consumed by the concept of race and anti-Semitism, debated whether or not to "save" the Gypsies. He argued that, unlike the Jews, they did not hide their true nature; they had neither a Bible nor their own will, and were thieves because they did not obey any rules—like love in Carmen, which "never knew any law."

Wagner, angry with Liszt for a justified reason, had fallen in love with Liszt's daughter, Cosima, despite her being married to Hans von Bülow. Liszt supported her husband, even though Cosima's marriage was deeply unhappy and caused her so much pain that she considered suicide. Cosima eventually found happiness with Wagner, but Liszt was completely unaware of these events, showing no care for his daughter's well-being. The worst part was that Liszt, who had lived as a satyr and a reprobate, now played the role of a moralist and spiritual guide, lecturing Wagner about proper conduct. Wagner, for his part, eventually began to treat Liszt with contempt.

Though both men were famous and accustomed to being the center of attention, their personalities clashed. They were both ravenous figures, competing for dominance in their conversations. Liszt's imposing narcissism and Wagner's tendency to hate did not stop them from being great collaborators. By 1872, they reconciled. Despite his immense fame, Liszt felt tired from his work and disgusted by the difficulties in his personal life. His career as a virtuoso had overshadowed his role as a composer, and he longed to return to composing. Though he had earned a lot of money, his inability to manage it left him in constant financial trouble, and he had to rely on his friends to help him out.

In 1847, after finishing one of his charity concerts, Liszt met the wealthy Ukrainian princess Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein. She was a young brunette with an intense gaze and an unremarkable physique. At the time, she was married and Catholic, but her love for Liszt was stronger than her religious convictions. Convinced that fate had brought them together, she was prepared to annul her marriage to marry Liszt, and he was willing to leave everything behind to unite with her and pursue his dream as a composer.

Carolyne gave him unconditional support. Liszt saw this as his chance to leave behind his wandering life and start anew. On September 18, he gave his final concert, and with Carolyne, he planned to settle in Weimar and dedicate himself fully to composing. However, Carolyne's efforts to obtain a divorce were unsuccessful, causing social embarrassment in Weimar. This left Liszt deeply bitter. In 1859, his son Daniel died in Berlin from tuberculosis, deepening his sadness.

Finally, in 1861, all legal matters were settled, and their long-awaited wedding was scheduled for October 22, Liszt's birthday. But at the last moment, the Church intervened, preventing the marriage. This was a significant setback for Liszt. Shortly after, the princess renounced her marriage to him. The 1860s were disastrous for Franz personally. In 1862, after the death of his daughter Blandina, he moved to Rome to live a more secluded life, composing religious works. In 1865, he prepared to receive minor orders in a Roman monastery. He received the tonsure, and three months later, he was granted the next three orders, an essential step to becoming an abbot. From then on, he was known as Abbé Liszt, though he was never officially ordained as a priest.

The death of his children seemed to mark a turning point for Liszt, bringing him closer to religion and self-reflection. Despite this, his life was not entirely withdrawn. In the 1870s, Liszt led what he called a "triple life" between Rome, Weimar, and Budapest. He traveled over 6,500 kilometers a year, a considerable distance for his age and the state of transportation at the time. He continued to indulge his insatiable nature, exhausting himself with various activities.

In 1881, he suffered an accident when he fell down the stairs of a hotel. During his recovery, various ailments appeared, and his mood worsened. Depression and hopelessness took hold, and he felt close to death. "I carry a deep sadness in my heart, which from time to time must burst into sound," he had once said. Five years later, in 1886, he died in Bayreuth, the site of the famous Wagnerian festival.

Literary and Film Examples

A Cinematic Example
Lope
Director: Andrucha Waddington
Year: 2010

Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio (Madrid, 1562–1635) was one of the most important poets and playwrights of the Spanish Golden Age, as well as one of the most prolific authors in universal literature. His life was intense and passionate. He was not only a famous literary figure during his lifetime but also a soldier and a notorious womanizer.

In the film Lope, director Andrucha Waddington presents an ambitious and passionate young man who defies moral rules and is torn between two women (though in real life, there were many more). The film begins with Lope returning from the war, having participated in the Battle of Terceira Island. He is shown lying on the ground, battered, ragged, and with a bloody face. In contrast, a voice reads an optimistic letter to his mother, describing his success and victory in battle, as well as the great booty he has acquired.

Lope soon arrives in Madrid, where a man from the crowd calls out to him in a defiant and threatening tone, suspecting Lope of having been with his wife. This suspicion arises from a poem Lope wrote about her, commissioned by the cuckolded husband. At the time, it was customary to commission poems to seduce women, and Lope took full advantage of this. The film demonstrates Lope's ability to avoid uncomfortable situations. Faced with the husband's accusations, he not only escapes with puns but also manages to trick the man into laughing.

The film emphasizes Lope's seduction techniques, not only through words but also with his body, hand, and gaze. Lope, a master of dialectics, avoids revealing whether or not he has been with the woman. Instead, he turns the situation around, dazzling the mocked man with his charm.

In another scene, Lope, before visiting his beloved mother, asks a friend to lend him a suit belonging to the Marquis he works for, along with a horse, to appear successful. He also gives his mother a handkerchief and shakes a bag so it sounds full of coins. However, his brother discovers that the bag contains nails. When he comments, "I see that you were not exaggerating in your letters," Lope's trickery and his ability to suggest a different reality become evident.

Shortly after his mother's death, Lope, an arrogant man with noble pretensions and no money to afford a proper funeral, asks a moneylender for a loan, intending not to appear poor. He even invents a family coat of arms. His sister uncovers the deception, but Lope hires actors to attend the funeral, making it seem as though many people mourned her. Soon, he is forced to sell his mother's belongings to pay off the loan. Living beyond his means, Lope is already thinking of the next woman to seduce.

Lope decides not to return to the army, as life in Madrid excites him much more than military life. Although he is unsure which direction to take, he is fascinated by the flourishing theater scene. He decides to write a play and present it to Jerónimo Velázquez, the leading theater impresario of the time.

When Lope arrives at Velázquez's house, he meets other writers waiting to be received. After making them wait, Velázquez's secretary informs them that the works cannot be reviewed and asks everyone to leave their manuscripts. Everyone except Lope leaves, but he resists. Insolently, he confronts the secretary and, in an even more hurtful manner, Elena, Velázquez's daughter. However, at the last moment, Lope turns the situation around, dazzling Elena with his verses. This scene clearly highlights Lope's rebellious, persuasive, and narcissistic character, as well as his lack of boundaries. His opportunism is evident when he takes advantage of his interaction with Elena to further his goal, using both charm and manipulation.

Velázquez hires Lope, not as a writer, but as a copyist, assigning him to copy someone else's work. However, Lope not only completes the task but also makes significant changes to the works, even to those of Cervantes, achieving great success and gaining the favor of both the director and the audience, including Elena.

Despite his success, Lope still struggles with the debt from his mother's funeral. Velázquez, lending him money, saves him from the thugs sent to collect the debt and offers him a deal: Lope must write five quality works for him. By this time, Lope has already become famous in Madrid, and his verses are widely known, benefiting the businessman.

Some time later, Lope has already delivered the work he was assigned to copy. Velázquez and the actors are rehearsing the play, but Lope is upset because some unauthorized changes have been made to the text. He threatens to cancel the rehearsal, but when Velázquez confronts him, Lope persists, arguing that the changes have improved the work. Gradually, through persuasion and insistence, Lope convinces both the actors and Velázquez of the value of his work. Eventually, Velázquez admits, grudgingly, that Lope has significantly altered the work, and agrees to have it performed according to Lope's vision.

This scene highlights Lope's rebelliousness, audacity, and lack of respect for authority. His impudence and irreverence are evident in his interactions with Velázquez, as he interrupts and dominates the conversation. Lope's persuasive skills, combined with his optimism and physical charisma, help him achieve his goals with minimal scruples. He effectively usurps Velázquez's work, making it his own. Not long ago, he couldn't enter Velázquez's house, but now he has succeeded in having the master perform his work.

The blending of drama and humor in this scene is notable. One characteristic of the Sexual 7 personality is viewing life as a tragicomedy. Lope de Vega may have debts and conflicts, but he writes the best comedies, bringing smiles to a world full of pain. Revolutionary in his writing, Lope transformed the theater of his time by mixing the tragic and the comic.

Following the customs of the time, Lope writes verses for the Marquis de las Navas, who wishes to seduce Isabel de Urbina and marry her. Coincidentally, Isabel and Lope are childhood friends, and they meet again in a hospital where they both engage in Christian charity. Lope realizes that the verses he sells to the Marquis are meant for Isabel, though she remains unaware.

The Marquis de las Navas recites the verses to Isabel. As he does so, Lope, positioned in such a way that Isabel is aware of his presence, silently vocalizes the same verses, since he wrote them himself. After the Marquis finishes, Isabel asks Lope to recite a sonnet. Initially hesitant, Lope eventually improvises an ingenious one, so much so that Perrenot, a friend of the Marquis, accuses Lope of being a seductive charlatan. Defiantly, Lope draws his sword, but does so while composing another clever verse to mock Perrenot.

In this scene, Lope's ingenuity, mental agility, and insolence are clearly demonstrated. His ability to persuade through words (such as his creative and brilliant sonnets) and his engaging physical performance are evident. He initially shows respect for the Marquis but soon takes the opportunity to ignore him, interacting with the audience as he recites and making them smile. His anger, when accused of being a charlatan, is quickly transformed into a fascinating defense, highlighted by his surprising and threatening way of unsheathing his sword, and his final act of writing Perrenot's name with the sword as he recites the closing verses. Lope is a master of suggestion and enchantment!

Elena, Velázquez's daughter, with whom Lope is having an affair, learns that Lope has another lover in Isabel. Lope denies it, despite Elena's description of her own illusions. Eventually, Lope invites Elena to join him in his fantasy, and though she initially refuses, he admits that he wants it all.

Lope confronts Velázquez, Elena's father, defending his love for her. However, Velázquez refuses to let them go, and the two men have a bitter argument. Elena sides with her father, deciding to stay with him. Lope, disappointed, realizes that Elena rejects him to marry the aristocratic Perrenot for money. He becomes bitter and begins writing satirical verses about Elena. Velázquez, outraged, breaks off their relationship, though he continues with plans to perform Lope's work.

Although his work is banned, Lope secretly enjoys watching the success of his play from behind the scenes. His innovative stage direction and witty dialogue bring him great acclaim. Eventually, before the entire audience, Lope publicly humiliates Velázquez and his daughter, denouncing their manipulations with great audacity.

After being denounced by Velázquez and pursued by bailiffs, Lope prepares to flee with Isabel, his new love, to Portugal, hoping to escape justice. However, he is stopped before reaching the sea. Tried for tarnishing the honor of the Velázquez family, Lope faces a harsh sentence, but Elena intervenes in court, behind her father's back, securing a light sentence: exile from Castile and the court. Lope will also have the company of Isabel.

A Literary Example

Aureliano Segundo
(One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez)

Gabriel García Márquez gave humanity a wonderful story about the Buendía family and the hidden land of Macondo, creating a magical world that has fascinated readers worldwide. In the city of Macondo, far removed from the rest of the world, the patriarch of the Buendía family founded a unique dynasty with his wife, Úrsula. Gabo intertwines the family’s life with the history of 20th-century South America, a history marked by periods of peace and war, the agricultural exploitation of the United States, dictatorships, and the disappeared.

Among the wide array of characters, we encounter Aureliano Segundo halfway through the novel. He is the twin brother of José Arcadio, both sons of Arcadio Buendía and Santa Sofía de la Piedad, and great-grandchildren of the family patriarch. Aureliano Segundo is a severe and authoritarian father, a characteristic often found in individuals of a sexual nature. Even as a child, his head was filled with fantastic ideas that had no connection to reality, which he would quickly abandon. At the age of twelve, he discovers, with fascination, the room of Melquiades, a gypsy alchemist and friend of his great-grandfather, long dead. Aureliano Segundo sees him in visions and speaks with him. He immerses himself in Melquiades's books, desperately trying to decipher them, driven by curiosity, much like a sexually shy, slightly schizoid E7, with extravagant and esoteric interests.

As time passes, Aureliano Segundo becomes more boisterous and jovial, increasingly filled with fantasies. He attempts to dedicate himself to fishing for gold, just as his great-uncle, Colonel Aureliano Buendía, once did, but he quickly loses interest because it is too labor-intensive—a classic trait of the Sexual 7, who enthusiastically starts new activities only to be discouraged by the effort required.

As is often the case with men of his character, it is a woman who pulls him out of his imaginary world inside Melquiades’s room. By a fortunate coincidence, he becomes attracted to Petra Cotes, who mistakes him for his twin brother, José Arcadio. Aureliano Segundo pretends to be José Arcadio in order to have her as a lover, behaving dishonestly by not correcting her mistake. He continues the deception to maintain his affair until the truth is revealed. Afterward, he decides to stay with Petra until the end of his life, and she brings out his most vital, expansive side—the joy of living in constant search of pleasure, in a world where everything is exaggerated.

From that point onward, by Petra’s side, Aureliano Segundo begins to experience extraordinary luck. His rabbits multiply, his cows breed triplets, and his hens and sows reproduce faster than any in the county. Soon, he becomes wealthy. He organizes extravagant parties where excess is the norm, bringing in musicians and spending lavishly, much to the chagrin of his great-grandmother Úrsula. He indulges in fantasies, such as dressing as a tiger for a carnival he organizes himself, because for him, nothing is impossible. His greed for experiences, driven by suggestion and money, becomes insatiable. On one occasion, as an act of rebellion against Úrsula’s complaints, he covers the family mansion in bills.

At one of his famous parties, Aureliano Segundo meets Fernanda del Carpio, whom he carries in his arms after an accident. He falls madly in love with her, and she eventually gives in to his charms. However, when Fernanda learns that Aureliano continues to visit Petra Cotes, she flees back to her father’s house. Aureliano does not give up, and he searches the country for her. This determination is another typical trait of the Sexual 7: falling in love and being willing to do anything to win the object of their affection.

After marrying Fernanda, Aureliano Segundo leads a double life, supporting two women. With Fernanda, he lives an orderly and formal life, raising their children and engaging in a monotonous sexual relationship, providing care and security, like a child who seeks a generous mother in a partner. Meanwhile, he continues his affair with Petra Cotes, indulging in a life of excess—parties, meals, and sex—all with Fernanda’s full knowledge. On one occasion, Fernanda tries to embarrass him by sending his clothes in trunks down the main street, hoping all of Macondo will learn of his disrespect. But Aureliano Segundo’s self-indulgence allows him to live this situation with ease, without any sense of shame. The cost, however, is not insignificant. His double life and excesses take a toll on his physical health, and he gains considerable weight due to his overeating.

Another significant aspect is Aureliano Segundo’s relationship with his eldest daughter, Meme, whom he protects from his wife’s harshness. He allows her to go out with American boys, covering for her late-night outings and laughing along with her. This represents the typical indulgence of a Sexual 7, who encourages rebellion in those around him to feel more at peace with his own actions, creating bonds of secrecy that protect his indulgence and fantasies. After the flood that devastates Macondo, Aureliano loses all his wealth, just as Úrsula had feared, and his lack of foresight leads to his ruin. Yet Aureliano does not embrace failure. Instead, he creates another narcissistic fantasy of wealth and success, never accepting the reality of his loss. He dedicates himself to searching for the treasure buried by his great-grandmother across the estate, though he never succeeds.

His new fantasy does not work for him, and reality becomes harsher and more overwhelming than his imaginary world. Eventually, he is forced to sell the few remaining animals to pay for his other daughter’s education. It is a sad ending, typical of a Sexual 7, for whom living without awareness of the risks often leads to desperate situations and, most importantly, harms others. They advance through life based on their imaginary plans, without considering the consequences they create.

Additionally, a key aspect of the story is that Aureliano Segundo and his brother José Arcadio were switched at birth. This represents the idea of a split, fraudulent existence, which ties into the mythical theme of the "double" (or doppelgänger: the ghostly double of a living person). This concept has fascinating implications. The philosopher Julian Baggini tells us:

"The idea that meeting your doppelgänger predicts something fatal is interesting because it means that you are your worst enemy... Seeing ourselves from the outside would allow us to really get to know each other, but to think that we could see ourselves as others see us is terrifying."

The double confronts us with our denied parts, or with the aspects of ourselves that complete us, or with our own egoic condition as captors and stewards of our most essential self. This is the case with a Sexual 7, where procrastination, denial of pain, fanciful distancing from reality, fraudulence, and other traits clearly indicate a replacement of essence by ego.

This duality haunts Aureliano Segundo throughout his life. His wife and lover meet and agree to share him, and he also leads a completely separate life with each of them. Which life is better for Aureliano? With Fernanda, he loses weight; with Petra, he gains it. With Fernanda, he experiences sobriety, even depression; with Petra, everything is a manic waste. Aureliano Segundo dies on the same day as his twin brother, José Arcadio. The undertakers confuse their bodies, and the entanglement from childhood is restored on the day of the burial. In the end, it is death that re-establishes the confusion in which Aureliano had been trapped during his life. We could say that the Goic deception makes it very difficult for a Sexual 7 to know who they are, and, of course, for those around them to know as well.

Jokes and Vignettes

Tent

Two friends are sleeping in a tent in the bush. In the middle of the night, one wakes up and tells the other that he is a Sexual 7:
—Manolo, wake up, look!
—What's going on? – Manolo stretches.
—Do you see? Tell me what you see, – asks the friend, his voice a little distressed.
—Well, a wide sky, with a beautiful full moon, and the stars shining brightly, – answers Manolo.
—What else? – asks the friend.
—I also see the constellation of Leo, which is aligned with Saturn to the north, and the Big Dipper, which is rotating due to the very warm spring we’re experiencing.
—What else? What else?
—A shooting star that crosses the sky from east to west, so we should make a wish for the well-being of our lives and the universe.
—But what else do you see? Something very important.
—Oh, I understand! That sky is like our immutable and infinite mind, untouched by anything, and...
—But Manolo, there’s something more important than that right now, something essential for us.
—I don’t know... – Manolo answers, a little stunned.
—Well... our tent got stolen.

The Monkey and the Tiger

An unemployed comic actor goes to a zoo to ask for a job. He talks to the manager, who tells him that yes, the monkey is dead, and the position is free. However, the actor will need to dress up and act like the monkey, saying “Uh, uh!” The actor agrees with delight and even gets emotional in the performance. He climbs a vine, shouting, “Uh, uh!” but, unfortunately, the vine breaks, and he falls into the tiger’s cage. Terrified, the actor forgets his role as the monkey and shouts:
—Help, the tiger is eating me!
To which the tiger replies:
—Shut up, they’re going to kick us out!

Transformation Process And Therapeutic Recommendations

The path of transformation for a Sexual 7 is characterized by numerous critical problems that manifest from the outset. The first obstacle is often the motivation for change. The entire character structure of the Sexual 7 is organized to maintain an altered relationship with reality and an identification of self as being in love with life. Every stimulus is manipulated in accordance with this neurotic requirement, even dramatic events.

Given these premises, it is very difficult for the Sexual 7 to start their journey from the recognition of some kind of suffering in their life or from an active search for help. It is easier for them to request support to resolve a specific problem without calling it into question from an attitude of individual responsibility.

“When the Sexual 7 begins therapy, they will likely go to ask the therapist to help them resolve issues such as the weakness of their will to put into practice their many invented plans, or perhaps their relationship with their partner is in trouble, since the Sexual 7 has been receiving more than they give, and therefore is required to make changes. The therapist must also be on the lookout for ‘distraction sophistry,’ a type of defense in which the Sexual 7 insists on taking the place of the therapist and thus becomes the ineffective therapist of themselves, inventing only intellectual solutions to their problems. Through this resource, they will generate seductive and brilliant insights, as well as evoke seemingly profound themes with which they will question and answer themselves. Left to their own devices, they would create developments with free associations coming from their inexhaustible source of imagination.”

The motivating spring of the transformation process is often the same neurotic passion—gluttony. The Sexual 7 begins their “hero's journey” as a new adventure in which they will participate with childish enthusiasm, intending to improve their life and make it even more pleasurable.

“You need to focus on only one therapy; my tendency for years has been to go into many different therapies (rebirthing, yoga, meditation, Osho, NLP), but doing them superficially, not going deep. There is a need for earthly therapies, not abstract ones.”

Change involves progressive grounding and gradual disillusionment, as well as cohabitation with a less aroused physical state. In short, it requires the reduction of the constant state of hypomania. Structural change requires long periods of time and a sufficiently varied, polyhedral container. For example, the path proposed in the SAT program responds to specific characteristics: it is flexible, stimulating, and requires long-term individual participation, but at the same time, it has short and intense operational time scales. In connection with a neurotic state, the Sexual 7 can begin their journey of transformation in absolute unconsciousness.

“The work with the Enneatypes began to predispose me to empathy and understanding of the reasons of others, awakening in me a real interest. And it worked, albeit unconsciously at first, in the confidence that my limits and my neurosis could, if I observed and transformed them, be useful to others in a conscientious mission to develop a plan for the rehabilitation of society. This, which at first was just an exciting idea, has turned into a warmer, empathic awareness and, later, a form of compassion and love towards myself, and also towards my colleagues on the SAT, a way of opening myself with more heart towards other human beings.”

Therefore, the early stages of the process are organized in collusion with the character structure. To use a metaphor, the task is not to pop the balloon in the child's hands, but to gradually interest and involve them in other activities that are just as enjoyable, if less dreamy.
A first step is the recognition of the character structure, of the emptiness on which that apparent happiness is based. It is a very difficult passage because the Sexual 7 experiences subjective well-being, is perpetually in a state of excitement, and cultivates happy thoughts about life: they feel and describe themselves as a happy person.
It is not easy to leave this state voluntarily and intentionally, except through a progressive unmasking and the intuition of a further potential state of well-being.

“They will also complain about themselves, probably for not achieving something, since the effort implies the pain that they avoid, and success results in having to assume responsibilities. That comes at a price: having to abdicate their comfort zone and make sacrifices. They will only strive to do certain things as long as it is what they like the most, and they will tend to do that always, more and more.”

Confrontation in groups of the same subtype can be very effective in this first phase. The group's glue generates heat and clings while activating a mirror component. Like children at a summer camp, everything is a wink of smiles, glances, and jokes, while prolonged verbal confrontation as an end in itself, regardless of external feedback and not supported empathetically, leads to physiological collapse. They all say "I," "I," and "I," focused only on their ability to get the listener's attention.

“I was very attentive, trying to check if the therapist was attentive to everything I said to him. I prepared some other verbal trap for him to see if he was really attending to my process. I was so aware of that that I neglected the most important thing.”

Like chirping chicks, they act from a need for attention, launching hyperbolic arguments. In this first mirroring process, where interpersonal strategies are amplified and recognition needs are necessarily frustrated, a space of authentic motivation can open up.

“The work with the Enneatypes, already in SAT I, almost immediately gave me the possibility of going beyond judgment. The people seemed to me the characters of a good play, in the best sense of the word, with their world now more understandable and motivations dictated by the neurotic lenses of their Enneatype. Among them, and on the same level, I too was about to make myself known.”

A fundamental issue is contact with deficiency, with emptiness, and with basic anguish.

“I have seen my seduction, the compulsion to sympathize with others, as a form of unacknowledged selfishness, and I understood that I do nothing for others that is not always for my benefit. I understood what my fraudulence consisted of, which I had not seen before, and I also recognized self-indulgence as a form of self-deception. How my tendency to think positive, instead of wisdom, was rather an inability to contact the pain and stay in it.”

“The exceptional, the extravagant, pretending to be unique, has been at some stages of my life a true reason for being. Without that, I was convinced that no one was going to love me: friends were going to abandon me, women were going to ignore me... This attitude led to many mistakes, especially in my sentimental life. I couldn’t take care of my feelings or those of others; I was only interested in fascinating things so that they wouldn’t leave me alone.”

At this stage, it is essential to create genuinely supportive links. The Sexual 7 must be equipped to pass through this stage, and it is desirable that they have begun to develop some existential competencies. In the first place, the possibility of coming into contact with one's own emotional world and differentiating it, through, for example, Gestalt therapy interventions or the exploration of oneself through theatre.

“It also helped me to be in contact with my fear, to listen to it, and to be able to live with it, to recognize it.”

“Theatrical physical training helped me to embody myself, since I was a mental and intellectual character.”

“What helped me to replace the support of the world with self-support was to explore the emotions, hold them, and feel a depth within me, when before I felt basically two-dimensional. Discovering a non-intellectual inner world aroused in me an incredible thirst for contact with myself.”

Another fundamental acquisition is greater confidence in the body and more articulate listening for subtle cues, as authentic movement practices encourage.

“The bodily sensations of the Sexual 7 always harbor chapters of their history, and when they immerse themselves in them, they can release emotions and feelings associated with the images of their rage denied and their pain avoided. The therapist will be attentive to go deeper into each emotion, amplifying them. They will also return to chest sensations, accessing images connected to them, should the client become distracted again, which is all too likely to happen when their quick mind interferes, interpreting themselves or acting as a commenter, fueled to seduce their therapist with insights.”

“With the therapeutic process, I have opened myself to theatre and body expression, working with biomechanics and the theatre of the flesh of Artaud. If before I knew how to use the body technically and intellectually (I am a musician and mountaineering instructor), then I had to learn from scratch to listen to my body, its needs, desires, and emotions.”

The practice of detachment through some forms of meditation favors progressive identification with a self that is broader than the character structure—an element that generates confidence in the possibility of experiencing containment, without being overwhelmed, in the face of depressive and distressing experiences that otherwise they would live as desperate.

“I have been able to explore meditation, which I already practiced regularly, in a new way and with more helpful prompts available, and integrate it more into the transformation process. By being able to practice Dzogchen every day, SAT V made me have a new experience about the nature of the mind, which I hope will help me to deepen this tool for me. Given the mental nature of my character, it seems fundamental, because it makes me enter the body and the present, in an inner calm that centers me.”

Only with this baggage can the Sexual 7 surrender to a necessary, and for them devastating, fall to earth.

Only with this baggage can the Sexual 7 surrender to a necessary—and, for him, devastating—fall to earth.

“The therapist's question must be addressed to the concrete level of the earth and not to the sky of the intellect.”

“Begin to see that the world is not just pink; that black, dark brown, and blood red also exist. Understand and experience that I am a very sensitive person. It helped me embrace my part as a girl and be able to accompany her now as the adult that I am.”

It is an authentic and propitious expulsion from paradise, and only a sensibly anchored longing for liberation can bring this character into more authentic contact with its essence. At this stage, peak experiences can be helpful, both through some bodywork and the use of psychedelics.

“Physical contact has helped me a lot. Working with dreams has also been important; there I defend myself less and give myself more. Bodywork has been very helpful, especially hyperventilating or trance-like rhythmic movements, Osho moving meditation, and work with sacred plants, of course.”

It is important that there is a balance between the Dionysian and Apollonian dimensions. The Dionysian must occur in such a way that the Sexual 7 can sustain an erotic potential firmly anchored to vital instances.

“What I learned from this daydream was something concrete. Again, life put me in one of those dread-provoking situations that a Sexual 7 would be happy not to confront. However, there was no room for avoidance. Right where I was, I closed my eyes, felt that knot in my stomach again, listened to these horrible beings, let them unfold, and, as in the dream, fixed my gaze on one of them and touched it for a few minutes. When I opened my eyes, I was already calmer, and I felt like I had drawn new strength from somewhere else. Of course, everything went better later. Not avoiding that world, but recognizing it and facing it.”

“Additionally, around that time, I met two American therapists who did experiential work with sexuality that I found very interesting. I also began this process of sexual therapy. I think this therapy was the one that helped me the most to contain desire and impulsiveness.”

The Apollonian dimension will be implemented as the possibility of structuring a broad, containing, stable, and directed vision. The work of transformation in this character acts directly, almost by imprinting, eroding the character structure while creating new ways of processing life experiences. Only through this meticulous work of restructuring are the foundations laid for a biographical revision, the recognition of painful facts, and the necessary reparative process. At this stage, the Sexual 7 may also intentionally access individual therapy.

“With a severely depressed mother who had suicidal and paranoid mania, and an authoritarian, unaffectionate, and absent father, I developed a character that has difficulty expressing its pain because no one was there to hear it. That difficulty partly turned into an inability to hear my own pain.”

“For a long time, I felt, at the end of the afternoon, a tickling sensation in my stomach that later turned into a knot and ended up overwhelming me. Every day. It was a feeling of great anguish, which depressed me, made me very melancholy, and made me think of all kinds of strategies and distractions to erase it. After years of therapy and detours on the matter, I decided to speak about it in one session.”

Going through individual pain is possible thanks to the development of compassion. It involves transporting this wounded core from forced self-arousal to a less intense and longer-lasting pleasure—a mesencephalic rather than reptilian pleasure. The interventions of this period are fundamentally corporeal and take place in a warm, constant, welcoming, and containing environment, akin to a maternal presence.

“It helped me a lot when my therapist acted as a father figure and gave me the recognition and physical affection that my father did not. That was very healing for me. It has helped me to trust my therapist the moment he expressed his difficulties and showed himself more as a person than as a therapist.”

“As a client, what has helped me is closeness, compassion, being confronted with love, having my pain recognized, and being shown my demands. The demand makes me difficult and rebellious. Accusation without a bond, when I notice judgment, when I feel accused without love—those things are unhelpful.”

“Discovering that I was envious of someone has been a relief: it meant not feeling alone because I was able to recognize that there was someone in the world better than me, someone I could admire.”

The final meeting takes place in the paternal passage—toward that broad and stable Apollonian vision that only a father figure can provide. This manifests at a specific level with characteristics such as greater congruence, consistency, and constancy.

“I believe that commitment and perseverance in the therapeutic process were the foundation of my progress. Until I committed to following it regularly, there was little point in starting. I like it and find it helpful when they confront me in a clear and forceful way.”

“It was very difficult for me to surrender upon seeing the failures of my therapist, seeing his ego because he reacted and put himself above me. It was very difficult for me to go through that stage. Of course, once I overcame it, a total dedication to him followed—listening, taking advantage of each phrase, and trusting his intuition and wisdom.”

The new balance supports a more virtuous global operation, oriented toward sobriety. It manifests with a greater rootedness in reality and a more empathetic relational life, aimed at realizing a more stable and coherent life plan. At this level of transformation, the Sexual 7 recognizes himself at a more complex existential level—losing excitement and enthusiasm but gaining meaning, including others, and integrating the "negative" aspects of reality.

“He did meditation retreats and worked with psychedelics and power plants. In the summer, I continued taking the SATs, which I found fantastic. I remember one of them when, seeking his recognition, I told Claudio about all the therapies I was doing. He told me that it was a good sign to have put gluttony at the service of self-knowledge but that, as in life itself, doing too much at the same time meant assimilating little.”

“It is my work that actually helps me be a Sexual 7: I work alone, each new book is a new challenge, repetition and boredom have no place, my task is done in silence, looking inward. I work with emotions and imagination...”

In summary, working with the Sexual 7 can be useful in the following ways:

Reducing the inflation of erotic love through sincere and constant communication, with a commitment to a partner or a vital commitment such as parenthood.
Engaging in generous, non-self-centered tasks, such as volunteering—provided it is not used to further inflate a grandiose self-image.
Maintaining consistency in a concrete transformation process, curbing the tendency to flit between disciplines out of enthusiasm or fleeting pseudo-infatuation.

“In this way, the less I seduced, the less I sought. One night, the person who is now my wife appeared. Thanks to her support, understanding, and mutual trust, we have a stable relationship—neither great passions nor disappointments. We understand that we are here, without being overwhelmed, seeing our inability to love, learning together, and committing to each other. We have decided to want to love each other. No one has taught us to love, and we feel like we are in kindergarten, putting all our enthusiasm into this exciting learning process of coexistence and loyalty. We have already gone through individual and shared crises.”

Only with this baggage can the Sexual 7 surrender to a necessary—and for him, devastating—fall to earth.

“The therapist's question must be addressed to the concrete level of the earth and not to the sky of the intellect.”

It is an authentic and propitious expulsion from paradise, and only a sensibly anchored longing for liberation can bring this character into more genuine contact with their essence. At this stage, peak experiences can be helpful, both through certain bodywork techniques and the use of psychedelics.

“Physical contact has helped me a lot. Working with dreams has also been important—there I defend myself less and give myself more. Bodywork has been very helpful, especially hyperventilating or trance-like rhythmic movements, Osho moving meditation, and work with sacred plants, of course.”

It is important to maintain a balance between the Dionysian and Apollonian dimensions. The Dionysian must be experienced in a way that allows the Sexual 7 to sustain an erotic potential firmly anchored in vital instances.

“What I learned from this daydream was something concrete. Again, life put me in one of those dread-provoking situations that a Sexual 7 would be happy not to confront. However, there was no way to avoid it. Right where I was, I closed my eyes, felt that knot in my stomach again, listened to these horrible beings, let them unfold, and, as in the dream, I fixed on one of them and touched it for a few minutes. When I opened my eyes, I was already calmer and felt like I had drawn new strength from somewhere else. Of course, everything went better afterward—not by avoiding that world, but by recognizing and facing it.”

“Around that time, I also met two American therapists who did experiential work with sexuality that I found very interesting, and I began this process of sexual therapy. I think this therapy was the one that helped me the most to contain desire and impulsiveness.”

The Apollonian dimension is implemented as the possibility of structuring a broad, stable, and directed vision of containment. The work of transformation in this character acts directly—almost like an imprint—eroding the character structure while simultaneously creating new ways of processing life experience. Only through this meticulous restructuring can the foundation be laid for biographical revision, the recognition of painful facts, and the necessary reparative process. At this stage, the Sexual 7 may also intentionally seek individual therapy.

“With a severely depressed mother suffering from suicidal and paranoid mania, and an authoritarian, unaffectionate, and absent father, I developed a character that has difficulty expressing its pain because no one was there to hear it. That, in part, turned into an inability to hear it myself.”

“For a long time, I felt, at the end of the afternoon, a tickle in my stomach that later turned into a knot and ended up overwhelming me. Every day. It was a feeling of great anguish that deeply depressed me, made me melancholic, and drove me to think of all kinds of strategies and distractions to erase it. After years of therapy and detours on the matter, I finally decided to talk about it in one session.”

Going through individual pain becomes possible through the development of compassion. This involves shifting the wounded core from forced self-arousal to a less intense, longer-lasting pleasure—a mesencephalic rather than reptilian pleasure. The interventions at this stage are fundamentally corporeal in nature, taking place in a warm, constant, welcoming, and containing environment—one that is maternal in quality.

“It helped me immensely when my therapist acted as a father figure and gave me the recognition and physical affection that my own father never did. That was incredibly healing for me. It has also helped me to trust my therapist when he has expressed his own difficulties and shown himself more as a person than merely as a therapist.”

“As a client, what has helped me most is closeness, compassion, being confronted with love, having my pain recognized, and being shown my demands. My demands make me difficult and rebellious. What doesn't help is accusation without connection—when I sense judgment, when I feel accused without love.”

“Discovering that I was envious of someone has been a relief—it meant I no longer felt alone. I was able to recognize that there was someone in the world better than me, someone I could admire.”

The final stage occurs in the paternal passage—toward that broad and stable Apollonian vision that only a father figure can provide. This manifests in characteristics such as greater congruence, consistency, and constancy.

“I believe that commitment and perseverance in the therapeutic process were the foundation of my progress. Until I committed to following it regularly, there was little point in starting. I like it when they confront me in a clear and forceful way—it helps me.”

“It was incredibly difficult for me to surrender when I saw my therapist’s failures, his ego, and the moments when he reacted and placed himself above me. That stage was hard to get through. But once I did, I found myself completely dedicated—listening, absorbing every phrase, and trusting his intuition and wisdom.”

The new balance supports a more virtuous, globally integrated way of being—one oriented toward sobriety. It manifests as greater grounding in reality and a more empathetic relational life, centered on building a stable and coherent life plan. At this level of transformation, the Sexual 7 can recognize themselves at a more complex existential level. What they have lost in excitement and enthusiasm, they have gained in the attribution of meaning—one that includes others and is based on a newfound ability to integrate the "negative" aspects of reality.

“I did meditation retreats and worked with psychedelics and power plants. During the summer, I continued attending the SATs, which I found fantastic. I remember one of them when, seeking recognition, I told Claudio about all the therapies I was doing. He told me that it was a good sign to have put gluttony at the service of self-knowledge but warned that, as in life itself, by doing too much at the same time, I was likely assimilating little.”

“It is actually my work that helps me to be a Sexual 7: I work alone, each new book is a new challenge, repetition and boredom have no place, my task is done in silence, looking inward—I work with emotions and imagination.”

Summary

In working with the Sexual 7, it can be useful to:

Reduce the inflation of erotic love through sincere and constant communication, with a commitment to a partner or a vital commitment such as parenthood.
Engage in generous, non-self-centered tasks, such as volunteering, as long as it is not used to further inflate a grandiose self-image.
Commit to a concrete transformation process, resisting the tendency to jump between disciplines out of enthusiasm or fleeting pseudo-infatuation.

“In this way, the less I seduced, the less I sought—and one night, the person who is now my wife appeared. Thanks to her support, understanding, and mutual trust, we have a stable relationship. Neither great passions nor disappointments. I have understood that we are here, not overwhelmed, acknowledging our inability to love, learning together, and committing to the relationship. We have chosen to want to love each other. No one has taught us how to love, and we feel like we are in kindergarten, with all the enthusiasm placed in this exciting learning process of coexistence and loyalty. We have already navigated through individual and shared crises.”

The Three Loves in Transformation

Regarding the three loves, transformation moves in the opposite direction of neurosis. The development of compassion and admiring love balances the presence of all three loves in the life of the Sexual 7, ultimately working toward dissolving their hierarchy.

For a character prone to getting lost in fantasy, contact with the earth—with the real scale of things—is crucial. When the three loves are leveled, they help guide the Sexual 7 toward a greater degree of vital coherence and a broader sense of authenticity.

Compassionate love is the first to be affected by transformation, brought about by the face-to-face encounter with pain. By feeling his own wound, he learns to also feel the pain of others without being overwhelmed. Allowing yourself to feel pain is a return to the earth, to the true dimension of reality. It is also an important awareness, as you realize that feeling pain—both your own and others'—does not kill you. This realization breaks the irrational belief that pain is unbearable.

Making your pain visible and tolerable enables you to acknowledge the pain of others in a realistic way, making it unnecessary to pretend not to see it. This pretense is merely one of the many strategies of this subtype, developed out of fear of having his own pain revealed to him.

The way to cultivate and strengthen compassionate love is by making commitments—caring for others through small but consistent acts that require daily presence. Many Sexual 7s find themselves immersed in this type of love when they take on the responsibility of caring for young children, the elderly, or those in need. Family ties are particularly therapeutic, as they are not related to a profession or sporadic acts of generosity; instead, they demand constant presence and directly confront you with your responsibilities. This provides a profound opportunity to experience benevolent love firsthand—loving someone without fear of being betrayed or used.

For many, becoming parents was perhaps the most significant event of their lives, helping them achieve balance, curb their neurosis, and temper their gluttony. Parenthood requires setting aside personal inconsistency and committing to responsibility in life. It serves as an important vehicle for developing a deeper understanding of compassion, as if parenting offers the opportunity to finally care for the inner child and begin healing past wounds.

One could say that the Sexual 7 has the potential to be a good parent—if there is such a thing as being "a good parent." More accurately, having children can lead one to become a good parent and, in turn, a better person.

As for the transformation of erotic love, acknowledging his own pain and getting in touch with his needs paradoxically helps him experience true pleasure—the very thing this subtype so desperately seeks. By removing the necessity to avoid pain, the compulsive pursuit of new challenges, both physical and intellectual, diminishes. As a result, his ability to enjoy the present moment increases, and he finally learns to appreciate the small pleasures of life.

For the Sexual 7, it is especially useful to understand that real pleasures are much smaller than imagined. However, this very quality makes them more accessible, frequent, and part of daily life. Life ceases to feel like a movie onto which hypothetical pleasures are projected and instead becomes a tangible reality—one that includes pain but also small joys, such as breathing, chatting with a friend, or putting a partner to bed.

In sexuality, as in life, the Sexual 7 learns to embrace the pleasure of the present moment, rather than confusing it with the continuous anticipation of what comes next. He stops constantly imagining an even greater enjoyment just beyond his reach. This shift is a profound breakthrough—a significant gift for this subtype.

In relationships, the balance of erotic love teaches him to coexist with his partner, to recognize and respect both their boundaries and those of others. He learns to remain present without overwhelming, overtaking, or melting into the other, all while reducing his constant and neurotic need to be the center of attention.

The transformation of admiring love follows a similar process. Accepting pain as it comes, along with the pleasure of resting in the reality of life—daily routines, shared meals, the needs of a partner and children—helps him recalibrate his enormous expectations of himself and others. Genuine admiration arises when these grandiose expectations diminish. As he feels more normal and human, he also perceives his mentors as more human and approachable. In learning to become small, he reduces the size of his idols, who, in turn, become genuine teachers. Only then is he truly ready to receive their wisdom and undergo transformation.

If at any moment he believes he is worthy of the greatest teachers, pain will remind him that he has more to learn than anyone—especially from children, the ignorant, the poor, and the naïve, even from animals and the cycles of nature. His inner chaos, once settled, allows him to perceive an order in the world from which he had previously escaped.

Once again, the shrinking of the ego—brought about by his encounter with pain—reveals to him how he has mistaken true love for admiration rooted in expectation. The first person he must learn to genuinely admire, without expectation, is himself. This realization comes through the journey of the other two forms of love, particularly through compassion.

When, for the first time, he feels compassion for himself, he ceases to demand so much from both himself and others. It is in this moment that he can begin to trust in his own authority, abilities, and maturity, assuming the responsibilities he had historically delegated to others through childish mechanisms.

Only when he stops seeking a father figure and expecting—or demanding—care, encouragement, and support from others can he develop true, selfless admiration. This admiration stems from recognizing his real dimension, which is infinitely smaller than he once believed. The more he discovers the small, the more he realizes that the world is full of guides, teachers, and role models.

Social E7

Social 7

Passion In The Sphere Of Instinct: How Gluttony Works In The Social Subtype

It is characteristic of the glutton's gluttony that he does not pay attention to the common but instead addresses himself to the most remarkable, to the extraordinary.
Claudio Naranjo, Character and Neurosis

A Social 7 is recognized because a part of his body is always in motion: a tapping foot, a drumming hand, an almost imperceptible movement of the jaw. Although the body appears to be fully present and engaged in one activity, one part, one detail, will carry the movement in another direction.

The general posture is relaxed and peaceful; his step is light yet dynamic. It could be said that he is a relaxed person, capable of responding fluently to different demands. Often lean (ectomorph, in Sheldon's terminology), with a muscular, tonic, and harmonious but inconspicuous physique, he moves quite agilely, with light movements and childlike gestures on the spur of the moment.

His face often expresses an inner conflict: bright, childish, and lively eyes illuminate a face that, although smiling, is marked by wrinkles of expression, suffering, and the tenacity with which he elaborates each event through thought, without truly living it. All of this can only be perceived through careful observation because the facial mimicry of the Social 7 is highly varied. Absorbed and detached, or malicious and intriguing, he has a wide range of expressions that confuse and seduce the interlocutor.

The image and aesthetics of the Social 7 express a comfortable and informal style, apparently of secondary importance to him. His appearance gives the impression of relative carelessness, where the disheveled look is the result of a precise choice. His haircut, beard, and scant makeup reflect a stylistic decision that prioritizes a controlled naturalness without falling into neglect. The idea is that the external image represents the internal self and, therefore, must be clean, essential, pleasant, without frills, functional but not flashy. Deliberately avoiding the clichés of sexual seduction, the aesthetic choice of the Social 7 also expresses his narcissistic desire to be liked without admitting it, thus taking care of his apparent carelessness. The details make the difference: a shoe, a color, an embroidery, or a combination of colors that reveals a search for originality.

The Social subtype of E7 transforms the passion of gluttony into an apparently virtuous form of counter-gluttony by being good, disinterested, and moderate with others, making the neurotic core less evident and more hidden than in the other subtypes.

The Social 7, with his sympathetic, kind, and seductive behavior, facilitates interpersonal relationships until they transform into intimacy—which he fears the most. He differs primarily from the sexual and self-preservation subtypes by his greater ambivalence regarding the passion of gluttony.

He acknowledges his attraction to gluttony and judges it. Hence, desire tends to be frustrated and more aligned with social norms. His adherence to the norm preserves personal autonomy, the result of a compromise between rebelling against authority and pleasing the group.

The social instinct revolves around the image perceived by others and oneself. Therefore, self-image becomes the neurotic battlefield. In general, he tends to create horizontal relationships, identifying with his ideal of a good person and seeking to please others through humor and verbal expression.

Verbal seduction is also typical of the Sexual 7, from whom the Social 7 differs by using verbal intelligence in a more empathetic way. The objective is not so much to create joy and good humor but rather comfort and pleasure, with a stronger intention of achieving depth in communication. Additionally, while the loquacity of the Sexual 7 is primarily directed toward an erotic object, in the case of the Social 7, the recipient of his seduction is the group.

His secret object of desire is not obvious, as it is camouflaged by a strategic intelligence that emphasizes his sacrifice and service. The egotistic movement remains in a more private dimension, where greater greed and an objectification of the other become evident.

In his relationship with authority, the Social 7 stands out for his lack of faith in it. He generally does not recognize authority, which he identifies with an incompetent parental figure, confronting it in a passive-aggressive way by avoiding it or transforming it into a peer. One of his greatest desires is to find a father figure he can trust.

Among the subtypes, the Social 7 is the one that most seeks authority, the Self-Preservation 7 is the one that most confronts it, and the Sexual 7 is the one that questions it the most. Without authority and order, the E7 becomes an easy victim of jouissance, as what could protect him is not authorized to act internally. However, unlike the other subtypes, the Social 7 has a stronger presence of the superego, a tacit and unconscious loyalty to the paternal, with a desire to discipline himself, assume responsibility, and carry out projects.

The adaptive movement of the Social 7 is the superego's control over the pleasure principle. Adherence to reality results from a tiresome internal mediation between duty and pleasure. The sacrifice of personal pleasure is compensated by a deferred ideal pleasure, bearing a strong neurotic and narcissistic stamp. In this way, the Social 7 denies himself the possibility of moving in the world to fulfill his desires and needs, distancing himself from them by judging pleasure as gluttony in a generalized way. Thus, he creates the conditions to prevent self-realization and sustain dependence on the recognition of others.

In these terms, the Social 7 exhibits traits of masochism in two ways: having difficulties in connecting with pleasure and maintaining a persecutory superego that applies internal pressure.

Compared to the other subtypes, the Social 7 controls their public image more. They are more in touch with shame and highly sensitive to social criticism, which leads them to invest more in their skills. Similar to the Enneagram Three, the Social 7 tends to pursue multiple secure paths of development.

The different combinations between the Social subtype and the other subtypes reveal distinct balances. The social-preservation subtype is more active and pragmatic, reacts to rejection with emotional isolation and distance from others, and is in touch with a sense of guilt and shame. The social-Sexual subtype possesses higher verbal and bodily intelligence, which it uses to keep attention on itself, to be seen and accepted.

Claudio Naranjo defines the gluttony that motivates E7 as the passion for pleasure or the passion for more and better. We are therefore dealing with a character whose main motivation is to accumulate hours of increasing and enhanced pleasure. This accumulation, as we shall see, is driven both by the presence of pleasure and the absence of pain. It is not only the avoidance of suffering but also the avoidance of psychological pain that makes this character ill.

This escape from life takes different forms depending on the subtype. In the case of the Social 7, the effort is directed toward creating a self-image of an extraordinary person, one that places them beyond the ordinary human experience. This image is created from within, requiring external validation from others, and serves as a shield against the threat of psychological pain.

The concept of “more pleasure” in the Social 7 is nuanced by their search for relational enjoyment. Furthermore, this pleasure is narcissistic in nature—linked to the reflection they receive from others. The world becomes their mirror, in which they seek to see the image dictated by their ideal self. Although all E7 subtypes exhibit strong narcissism, none are as dependent on group validation as the Social 7. While they are not immune to physical and emotional pleasures, their priority is securing narcissistic gratification in social settings.

The need for recognition, appreciation, and admiration from others is vital for the Social 7. At more neurotic levels, even acts of generosity contain an underlying desire to receive something in return—an image. "I give to you, and in return, you give me an image, a feeling." They enjoy making others feel pleasure, well-being, and fluidity, as this, in turn, sparks admiration. A subtle yet powerful admiration—a gaze that conveys everything, affirming that they are exceptional.

Gluttony manifests in the continuous search for stimulating and gratifying social situations in a neurotic pursuit of admiration, hoping to reinforce the idealized self-image they project in social interactions. This ideal ego is largely built from the remnants of maternal desire, a topic we will explore further.

Another method of increasing neurotic satisfaction is avoiding pain. While the tendency to avoid pain is a natural human impulse, for the Social 7, it becomes compulsive. It is important to distinguish between different types of pain. Physical pain, for instance, can be tolerated if there is a narcissistic goal attached to it, such as running a marathon. Emotional pain, however, is much harder for them to handle. They perceive it as proof of their existential incompetence: “If something hurts, it must mean I am doing something wrong.”

The worst kind of pain for the Social 7 is narcissistic pain—the suffering they experience when the gap between their real self and their ideal self becomes evident. While this is a common struggle among all humans, for the Social 7, it is particularly terrifying, as it threatens the very foundation of their identity. Unlike the social Three, who fully identifies with their image, the Social 7 is more aware of their own fraudulence—the disparity between their inner self and how they present themselves to others. This awareness leads to an underlying sense of guilt.

The avoidance of narcissistic pain and the pursuit of narcissistic pleasure can take on countless forms. In the Social 7, gluttony assumes a specific expression: the need to appear extraordinary. There are two fundamental mirrors—the external world and the ideal self, the reflection from others and the internal self-image. Given the mental nature of this character, sight becomes the primary means through which they relate to the world.

Additionally, seeing oneself recalls the mirror stage in early childhood, when a child looks into their mother's eyes and receives a reflection made up of emotions and words—an image they later confuse with their identity. In the case of the Social 7, the reflection in the mirror is distorted, emphasizing only positive traits while excluding the negative ones. When the mirror reflects an extraordinary, capable, enthusiastic, intelligent, good, funny, and self-sacrificing self, the child experiences a surge of energy—a substitute for love. This neurotic functioning then becomes sealed: as long as they see themselves close to that ideal self, they feel at peace; if they drift away from it, they experience anguish.

“I don't stop until I get that sparkle in their eyes—that shine that tells me I have sparked admiration and desire in them. Once I have conquered the person, I have already received my dose.” (TESTIMONIAL, ARACAJU SYMPOSIUM, 2016)

The sacrifice they make for their gluttony functions like a Trojan horse, concealing their deep need to appear extraordinary. This adjective perfectly encapsulates the spectral image they receive from the mirror. "Extraordinary" means being outside the natural or common order. Therefore, anything that enhances their extraordinary image is sought after voraciously—extraordinary trips, extraordinary knowledge, extraordinary experiences, extraordinary people. All experiences that reinforce their sense of being "extraordinary" become their primary objective.

In essence, the Social 7, driven by gluttony in the social sphere, is addicted to experiences that reflect an extraordinary self-image. This allows them to sustain the belief that they are beyond the ordinary. Among these experiences, the tendency to self-sacrifice stands out, as it becomes a shortcut to achieving extraordinariness in the eyes of others and themselves. Through such experiences, they extract the feeling that life has meaning and is on the right track.

The story of the Social 7 is that of someone who refuses to settle for an ordinary fate. Their gluttony is always directed toward an extraordinary mission.

The Characteristic Neurotic Need

A need is something impossible to avoid, miss, or resist. Human needs include eating, breathing, and forming relationships. These needs generate satisfaction when fulfilled. The term neurotic indicates that these are not our authentic needs but rather an alternative way of functioning—one we mistakenly identify with ourselves. This alternative functioning arises from the ontic process of obscuration.

How can we differentiate real needs from neurotic ones? One way is by observing how they satisfy us. When a neurotic need is fulfilled, it produces a calming effect, but this effect lasts for a shorter time than the satisfaction of a real need. Moreover, neurotic needs create craving or an overwhelming urge. Each time, a higher dose is required to achieve the same sense of satiety. In general, they follow patterns similar to addiction, particularly drug addiction. In short, satisfying a neurotic need is like drinking a liquid that seems to quench our thirst, only for us to feel even thirstier soon after.

Many neurotic needs affect the functioning of the Social 7. Here, we seek to identify the most characteristic one—the need that distinguishes it from other forms of neurosis. When the passion of gluttony parasitizes the social instinct (which drives us to form relationships), it takes on the nuance of sacrifice, a concept described by Claudio Naranjo as the neurotic motor of the Social 7.

"If I don’t sacrifice myself, I cannot exist because I cannot receive love and recognition from others. I must establish relationships where I give more than I receive so that others are always in my debt. I am a good person who sacrifices myself for others—if I present myself this way, others accept me; if I show my real interests, they will reject me. I feel weak in the face of confrontation, so I create manipulative conditions to rebalance the situation. If I am always available, others accept me, and if this requires effort, it doesn’t matter—I sacrifice myself." (Xavier)

Sacrifice is the specific modality through which the Social 7 expresses its contragula (counter-gluttony). This compulsive pursuit is not directly oriented toward pleasure and, therefore, may not initially seem connected to gluttony. Instead of indulging in the pursuit of pleasure, the Social 7 seeks its negation—the exhibition of the fable of the "happy renunciation" (contragula). In this way, the Social 7 practices what Naranjo calls the "gluttony of recognition" for their sacrifice. They long for others to see them as extraordinarily good, self-sacrificing, and even superior. This creates a spiral of jouissance (excessive pleasure) in which they become trapped: they renounce more to feel better.

At this point, it is useful to recall the image of the Franciscans—a model of life that institutionalizes the worldview of a Social 7, exemplified by Saint Francis of Assisi. In this order, renunciation becomes sacred. From the perspective of contragula, it may seem that sacrifice arises from the pursuit of counter-pleasure. But could it be that in this act of renouncing, this subtype finds its ultimate pleasure—confirmation of its superior, quasi-holy status? It appears that the narcissistic pleasure of renunciation opens the gates of Heaven for them.

Is sacrifice, then, the passion that drives the Social 7? Not entirely. There are even more self-sacrificing behaviors and attitudes in other Enneatypes, such as certain subtypes of E9 or E4. Thus, the first caution is not to interpret the term sacrifice in its literal sense when understanding the motivational bias of the Social 7.

How can someone experience sacrifice in relationships as a means of obtaining more and better pleasure? We must remember that personality develops on the basis of ontic obscuration—that is, disconnecting from one’s true self in favor of an alternative way of functioning that helped ensure survival in childhood.

All personality functioning, therefore, implies a sacrifice of real contact with one’s own being. Personality emerges within the infantile economy of love and lack of love. The person who develops a E7 personality type places pleasure as their highest existential goal. The Social 7, at some point, internalized the belief that the greatest pleasure came from being perceived as the highest good in the eyes of a parental figure. The disguise that earns them love is that of the renouncer—the content, kind, and generous one. The self-sacrificing one.

This is a sacrifice that is encouraged and applauded by the adult's interest—a sanctified, visible, and praised sacrifice.

The infant discovers the intense pleasure of being placed in this role by a significant other. This role, which we characterize as the highest good, reflects back an image of being extraordinary—of being the one who completes the adult and makes them feel guilt-free. Adults, out of their own needs and ignorance, elevate the child to a throne that does not belong to them. The Social 7 then seeks more and better of this enthronement, throwing themselves into life in pursuit of repeating and multiplying this experience in the mirror of the world.

"My mother would lie on the bed and invite us to kiss her. My little brother, always in need, would immediately throw himself on top of her and kiss her neck. I, however, remained motionless, watching the scene. I felt my own impulse to slow down. I felt superior for being able to control myself, for not needing that, for being older. I noticed the pleasure—the enjoyment—of renouncing natural spontaneity. The mind dominates the body. I saw in my mother's eyes the confirmation that I was extraordinary because of my ability to renounce." (Luis)

Sacrifice has been used in various cultures as a way of relating to the mysterious. It involves an offering and a request—an exchange. According to the economy of Judeo-Christian thought, sacrifice on Earth opens the gates of Heaven. The renunciation of a present and tangible good secures a future and ethereal one. The Social 7 is deeply invested in such relationships, driven by neurotic and defensive idealism. They renounce, postpone, or repress their own needs in order to secure a place in the pantheon of their interlocutors. In extreme cases, they may completely sacrifice themselves, losing all contact with their Being and Needs, trapped in the game of conquering the gaze that confirms they have completed the other.

What must they do to receive this reflection? They are not entirely sure, but they know it involves resembling whatever fascinates their interlocutor. It requires sacrificing what feels truly their own in order to obtain that fleeting sparkle in the other’s eyes—proof of their extraordinary nature.

"In my daily life, at every moment, capturing the other person’s state is an automatic and constant activity. The next step is to tune into the right wavelength with whoever is in front of me. Then I adjust everything—my gestures, my words, my goals (both short- and long-term), my bodily, emotional, and intellectual resources. I always achieve what I set out to do, which is extremely effective, but in the process, I lose my spontaneous response. Thanks to this ability, I avoid confrontations, I prevent resistance, and I present the exact image I want others to have of me at all times." (Anonymous)

"It is very difficult for me to resist the needs of others. I feel as if it is a calling—like the sirens in The Odyssey. The suffering of another triggers my instinct to serve them. I cannot let them remain in pain, especially if they are a woman. I want to be the one who heals them, who completes them. I want them to look at me with those eyes—eyes filled with admiration and desire." (Luis)

We will now attempt to elucidate which meanings of the noun "sacrifice" can be useful in describing the social swamp of E7. The definition of sacrifice from the Royal Spanish Academy that best suits our case is: "an act of self-sacrifice inspired by the vehemence of love."

First and foremost, it speaks of an act—a way of behaving in relationships where one's own interests are set aside in favor of serving others, driven by the impulsiveness of love. This act distinguishes the most developed beings in a society and, in cultures with Christian roots, is exemplified by Jesus Christ in the Gospels.

But is this really how the Social 7 operates? The idea that one may refrain from personal gratification out of love to benefit another is not considered pathological; rather, it is seen as a sign of personal evolution worthy of admiration, as all avenues of knowledge suggest. The problem with this particular character, however, lies in its unique interpretation of sacrifice, which amounts to: "an act or simulation of self-sacrifice inspired by my thirst to see myself as extraordinary." This is their version of the gesture—the one that makes them a neurotic mover.

Social 7s want to be perceived as sacrificial to enjoy the relational benefits we reserve for those who undertake one of the most difficult tasks for human beings: refraining from satisfying their own needs for the sake of others. By postponing or denying their own desires, the Social 7 enjoys the intimate sense of superiority that comes from giving. Their sacrifice certifies their moral elevation, their closeness to the ideal, and their ability to avoid emotional pain. By emulating the stoicism of Jesus Christ, they hope to achieve the same reverent gaze. That is the core of their madness.

"If someone shows me love without my having done anything to earn it, it is difficult for me to understand why I am receiving that love. I would even say that I don't believe it at all. I have to earn love, and this is based on sculpting an ideal image of myself and presenting it to others. However, it is ultimately recognition and admiration in their gaze. To feel true love, I would first have to dare to show my need, my fear of rejection, the pain that few have glimpsed in me… and then feel that the other person wants to be there with me. Deep down, love never comes because I never let that dark side be seen, and I live intimately convinced that anyone who sees it would run away." (Victor)

In its more mundane version, we find a man disguised as a good and accommodating boy. He sells an image of being non-aggressive and trustworthy, using it to slip into the gaze of others and win their approval—only to later reveal his other cards, seeking even greater admiration. Many times, he becomes fixated on that "good boy" image that was so beloved by his mother and teachers.

A small man with masochistic undertones, yet seasoned with a brilliant charm that makes him stand out, he can sometimes attack authority in a passive-aggressive manner.

Sacrifice, in short, is a passion for greater and better pleasure—one that distorts the relational instinct and results in a neurotic need to appear extraordinary. In everyday life, this sacrifice manifests in behaviors that make him appear selfless, understanding, and benevolent—a benefactor of humanity. Giving space to others, emphasizing their positive aspects, anticipating their needs, or creating an atmosphere of happiness and good humor become automatic behaviors designed to feed off an admiring gaze. The palliative effect of this approving look compensates for the frustration of personal desires, a price paid in this kind of exchange. And all of this is done discreetly, almost as if by chance, since he knows that idolatry is a social sin.

"Throughout my personal growth, I have become aware of how I choose my relationships and what my motivations are in doing so. I have realized that I am drawn to those who, in turn, can give me an extraordinary image of myself. It is true that, once I have chosen whom I want to impress, I am available to alleviate any emotional discomfort they might have. All my life, I have told myself that there are people who matter and people who don’t (although I had never admitted this before), but what I didn't see was that, in reality, there are people whom I believe can admire me—and people who cannot. The gaze of some is like a drug; the gaze of others is a danger to avoid, as it would force me to confront everything that does not align with my ideal self." (Victor)

There are many ways to be perceived as extraordinary in social relationships. The path chosen by the Social 7 is doubly marked by their ideal self and by the limitations of their character. Their gluttonous ideal self places its goals beyond Earth, close to the heavenly Olympus. This gives them an impossible image to achieve, plunging them into a cycle of anxiety that becomes even harder to escape due to their own character flaws: the relentless pursuit of pleasure, the tendency toward self-indulgence and comfort, the difficulty in using aggression when necessary, a reliance on fantasy and planning, commitment issues, fraudulence… All of these traits make achieving anything truly extraordinary difficult, and they must be hidden in relationships, as they would compromise the perception of existential superiority.

So how does one appear extraordinary? How does one look like a fully realized being? By making an internal movement of denial of their true character, the Social 7 "sacrifices" their neurotic tendencies, concealing them and presenting themselves to the world as an anti-E7. Thus, in intimate aspects, their behavior aligns with E7 tendencies, while their social functioning takes on an anti-E7 facade.

The pursuit of more and better pleasure for oneself is transformed into a pursuit of more and better pleasure for others—or rationalized with lofty social goals. Self-indulgence is rebranded as commitment; difficulty in using aggression becomes pacifism; struggles with emotional contact and management morph into an image of joy and effortlessness; fraudulence is reframed as honesty. This dual negation further disorients those who seek to find their way back to authenticity.

In this way, the Social 7 reproduces the same double strategy that originally allowed them to survive the early wound of exclusion from the intimate sphere. They sublimate their need for love into a hunger for recognition, or they confuse it with the pursuit of narcissistic pleasure.

The Social 7 ventures into the world in search of redemption because, in private, they know they are tainted—far from their ideal self. Wracked with guilt, they sacrifice themselves to feel, for a fleeting moment, something that resembles love. Deeply affected by a lack of interpersonal trust, it is precisely in the relational sphere that they move in search of repair.

Unable to access this potentially disruptive primary pain, the Social 7 unconsciously activates rigid defenses, isolating the pain from their own awareness. Their demand of themselves is to suffer voluntarily for the good of others, unknowingly repeating the pattern established in childhood, clinging to the mad hope that one day they will be rewarded with sublime, unconditional love.

Their gluttony, therefore, is an expression of a compulsive and lacerating desire for inclusive affective recognition—a longing to be reintegrated into a kind of loving symbiosis. They too seek their place in the human circle.

But such a symbiosis is, in many ways, unattainable. In this framework, the circuit that emerges is a monster—one that, due to its neurotic nature, feeds on itself, laying the foundation for inevitable frustration. The ontological blindness, a necessary consequence of the primary wound, ensures that the sacrifice brings not salvation but condemnation.

"What do I gain by sacrificing myself? I calm down—it’s not exactly peace, but something close. I gain self-concept: I choose a strategy, execute it, observe its results, see that they align with my goal, and consider myself a good judge of the human soul. I gain a strategic position: my enemies are few, very few, and a general consensus protects me from them. I win in the eyes of God because I am good, generous, peaceful, fatherly. I win because, by not defending any position, I often stumble upon unexpected insights, novel responses—and I am generally open to feeding on them." (Xavier)

Interpersonal Strategy and Associated Irrational Ideas

Fixation is the distorted cognitive nucleus that emerges as a result of passion and ultimately serves to sustain it. From this core arise the fundamental mental constructs of a character, forming the pillar that supports their cognitive framework.

The fixation of E7 is defined by the term "self-indulgence." Indulgence refers to the tendency to forgive or overlook responsibility and absolve oneself, while self-indulgence applies this leniency to one's own motives and actions. It acts as the dam that holds back the flood. In the case of the Social 7, self-indulgence serves two primary functions: first, to prevent limitations on their greedy behavior, and second, to avoid the narcissistic tension created by the gap between their everyday self and their ideal self.

The social Enneatype E7 subordinates ethical values to instrumental self-interest, meaning that when the profit or pleasure aspect fades, behavior can undergo sudden reversals. During difficult times, indulgence provides a justification for abandoning goals. "It's all good, nothing's wrong" becomes the magical mental mantra that legitimizes behavior and sustains character. The Social 7 possesses the cognitive tools to justify every action and relativize every behavior when perspectives shift or obstacles arise. Thus, from their point of view, their actions are never openly transgressive, manipulative, or cowardly, but rather genuinely ethical.

"I have discovered that when I have a disagreement or altercation with someone close to me, my urge to restore balance in the relationship takes over like a wolf hunting prey. Every possible solution that comes to mind is analyzed for its chances of success. If the situation slips out of my control and I cannot reestablish the connection, I become angry. However, my avoidance mechanism activates, and I seek out some other consuming activity that temporarily soothes and entertains that inner wolf, who refuses to be the villain of the story." (Xavier)

Self-indulgence allows the Social 7 to relax, agree, put things into perspective, avoid questioning their behavior, and interpret reality in their favor. It serves as both a stress reliever and a cognitive tool to sustain their neurotic identity, making it their primary cognitive obstacle to achieving their full human potential.

Leniency is not expressed through direct defiance of rules but rather through their circumvention. Forgetting, disregarding schedules, taking unshared actions, or making uncommunicated changes in plans—all with seemingly plausible justifications—are manifestations of this mechanism. These are subtle forms of self-deception that the Social 7 does not recognize as indulgence. Self-indulgence acts as a defense mechanism against what does not align, what causes pain, what requires effort. It filters out existential suffering, sadness, disappointment, and grief. It originally served to shield them from early emotional pain that they could not process, from an abandonment too premature to assimilate, or from a lack of emotional support necessary for integration. This cognitive strategy minimizes the pain of living while maximizing the pleasure of existence.

Self-indulgence manifests differently in public and private spheres. In public, it appears as a skill or superior ability—a capacity for mercy and flexibility regarding the mistakes of others. However, in truth, the Social 7 cares little about what others do when they are not personally affected. This stance is filled with seemingly compassionate yet deeply arrogant undertones. Naturally, they strive not to be seen as indulgent but as understanding, mature rather than detached, amoral, or lazy.

While the Social 7 may exercise more restraint in public than other E7s, when alone, their gluttony emerges with full force, and they struggle to establish limits. Deep down, they are aware of their self-deception; sometimes, alarm bells ring when they apply the magical balm of self-indulgence to solve their problems. Although they attempt to rationalize their actions, they recognize their lack of commitment to maintaining certain boundaries in their private life. As long as their social image remains intact, they easily succumb to excess. This internal conflict leads to feelings of guilt and a sense of being a fraud.

When external scrutiny or internal narcissistic games disappear, or when anxiety levels are too high, both gluttony and self-indulgence spiral out of control until they manage to quell their underlying anguish and dissatisfaction.

Through logical and rational redefinition, the Social 7 calms turbulent emotional waters, returning to an apparent state of peace. Self-indulgence thus becomes a solipsistic consolation: part of their energy goes toward admitting guilt, while another part seeks an explanation that diminishes its significance.

"Not bad, I did my best, my intentions were good, in the future I will be able to fix things, next time I will act differently, deep down nothing really irreparable happened, etc." (Vincenzo D'Ambrosio)

This self-soothing mechanism is a learned mental strategy for self-management in a context where inadequate maternal support deprived them of essential tools for emotional relief through empathic contact and physical reassurance.

Rooted in self-indulgence, like branches from a tree trunk, emerge the associated irrational ideas. These irrational beliefs shape both passion and fixation, manifesting in everyday life to sustain character. Related to their passion for sacrifice, the following irrational ideas commonly dominate their thoughts:

Giving up my desires makes me superior.
If the group is fine, I am fine.
I don't need anything.
Life is about accumulating good deeds; in the end, I will be rewarded.

In these ideas, we see how idealization and rationalization serve to justify neurotic behaviors. The most significant irrational beliefs protect them from their original wound: the unresolved emotional pain of abandonment. Thus, the Social 7 believes:

If I feel emotional pain, I am doing something wrong.
Emotional pain can drive me crazy.
It hurts? Think of a solution.
If you feel hurt, you are weak and vulnerable.
Grieving is pointless.

Emotional pain is their greatest enemy because they perceive it as dangerous, even life-threatening, as they likely once experienced. Additionally, they see it as a sign of existential failure. Their intense aversion to pain prevents them from undergoing necessary transformative processes that require suffering as a prerequisite for growth. Every initiation demands both death and rebirth. Their deep fear of experiencing loss keeps them trapped in repetition and superficiality, postponing the essential human task of maturing. Like Prometheus, they believe they can outsmart the gods—Life itself—by evading pain, when in reality, they are merely frightened children running from an imaginary monster. True growth will only come when they face and embrace their suffering.

"At some point, I realized that I could be special because of my thoughts, because of my unique and kind perspective on life, and that I could help others become better. I took pride in this self-image and became a great dispenser of advice, believing I had the formula for making others happier and the world a more benevolent place." (Victor)

Finally, we find a series of irrational beliefs that reinforce their inflated yet fragile self-perception, helping to restore their internal equilibrium. As seen, idealism is one of their preferred defense mechanisms:

First, I find solutions; then, I can cry.
God helps those who think.
Others are mistaken; I am fine.
I can find the solution.
Intelligence is the only thing to trust.
Tomorrow will be better.
I can achieve great things.
My mission is to harmonize the group.
I am the solution to the group's problems.
Conflict is unacceptable.
Everything can be fixed.
I can manage any situation.
If I am kind to others, everything will be fine.

These beliefs function as makeshift remedies against the powerlessness and disorientation felt by someone who lacks the resources to navigate their emotional and relational life.

"Whenever I have abandoned projects, jobs, or activities, I justified my actions with grandiose motivations, believing they would impress others. Yet, in private, my true selfish reasons were clear to me. This created a tension between my genuine motivations and my rationalized, idealistic self-image. Almost always, I resolved this tension by maintaining the illusion of being special, detached from worldly concerns. Expressing my true motives would shatter the admiring gaze of others, exposing me to loneliness and rejection." (Victor)

Other Characteristic Traits And Psychodynamic Considerations

There is also a feeling of having rights because of how talented he is, and the belief that personal charm is the best way to succeed. There is a deep conviction about this, as stated by Claudio Naranjo in Character and Neurosis.

Narcissistic

Narcissism is a central trait of the Social 7. Here, we are not focusing on its clinical aspects, which will be explored later in the chapter dedicated to academic equivalences. Instead, we consider it from a common-sense perspective, as an expression of egocentrism.

Narcissism, in this context, refers to a self-referential tendency in the Social 7’s relationship with reality. It is as if events, experiences, and people are implicitly subordinated to his existential project.

"I am always at the center of everything I do. Almost everything I do in the end, I do for myself." (CARLO)

It is reasonable to assume that the maternal function has been insufficient in installing a bodily feedback system and has not facilitated contact with one's emotions. Additionally, this has been accompanied by a positive expectation—a fantasy in which the mother imagines that the child could become an important and prestigious person. This represents a narcissistic projection from the mother, which is more mental than emotional. Through a dynamic of identification with the child, it lays the foundation for the process of self-idealization.

Over time, this dynamic crystallizes into an automatism, where only the positive aspects are perceived, leading to a self-identification rooted in the superiority of someone who seemingly enjoys life and needs nothing or no one.

As described, the narcissism of the Social 7 is hidden within a social dimension where the motivation for sacrifice stands out more. Good manners, helping others, or repressing anger allow him to maintain a sense of superiority. The idealization of himself and others enables him to distance himself from his inner world, avoiding his pain, which he perceives at times of difficulty.

"In relationships, I see a real component of dedication, a true bond, but also a subtle mechanism of manipulation veiled by smiles, kindness, parties, and optimism. I find satisfaction in being available for people to unload their sorrows and pains, where my narcissism is sustained when, after leaving a consultation or meeting, the person is smiling instead of crying." (Xavier)

The pain of rejection, the feeling of being unacceptable or abandoned, or the belief that we should do nothing, forms the basis of the structure that organizes the Social 7. These feelings are constantly avoided through brilliant and captivating behavior, infused with omnipotent fantasies and the fullness of a false self that hides its weakness. It’s like a beautiful house built on unstable ground, which over time begins to cause problems throughout the structure. Just as Narcissus is consumed by his own beauty, the Social 7 gets lost in displaying his seductive and manipulative traits, living in an idealized dimension for every circumstance that could determine his destiny and that of humanity (grandiosity, omnipotence).

In short, the narcissism of the Social 7 manifests in two fundamental dimensions: self-referentiality and grandiosity, both stemming from identification with their ideal self.

Egotism

The difficulty in connecting with others is expressed through behaviors of loneliness. There is a coexisting sense of fundamental inadequacy and an inaccessibility that resembles social phobia, a lack of contact with others, and a certainty of rejection.

Helping through sacrifice is, in fact, a narcissistic mode imbued with selfishness and exploitation of others, often unconsciously and with apparent disinterest. In the private sphere, this is revealed in the most obvious ways, where passivity expresses an expectation of care.

"There is ambivalence in friendships and romantic relationships. On one hand, I try to make them correspond to my ideal (where I am good, a savior, and there is no frustration). And yet, not being able to open up about painful or problematic aspects (which don’t fit into the ideal), I firmly believe they are not true... when, in reality, it’s me who is falsified to avoid rejection." (Victor)

Envy/Intolerance to Frustration

Envy, the central passion of E4, also appears in this structure. It is tied to the idea that others have an easier and more pleasant life and can afford more things to satisfy their desires without doing anything—much like a child who gets everything he wants without lifting a finger, in absolute passivity.

The underlying insufficiency, the narcissism inherent in the belief of being a special person deserving of particular treatment, combined with envy toward idealized people with greater social prestige, and an oppositional attitude toward authority, makes any frustration destabilizing, resulting in a precarious balance and self-destructive tendencies.

It is as if, deep down, there is an inability to accept the present moment, structured by a compulsive desire to relive the excitement of fleeting indulgence. It is the feeling of power experienced when social sacrifice is realized: a sudden energetic charge gives the individual a deep sense of identity that, as if by magic, cleanses the weak and fragile parts and the sensation of pain.

"There are moments of euphoria that fade when I remind myself of how fake I am—when I don't accept pain, when I avoid confrontation and run away, when loneliness is overwhelming, and I surrender to inactivity and depression. Every time I realize, through inner work, that I am running away and avoiding life by smiling, I am confronted by a truth that makes me uncomfortable, forcing me to assume more of my not-so-colorful and festive authenticity." (Xavier)

He lives in fantasy, as if the ideal of life has already been realized. When faced with reality, frustration inevitably arises. Unlike the E4, which tends to self-frustrate to maintain a constant state of pain and sadness, the Social 7 avoids frustration through a constant pursuit of pleasure, which leads to a destructive spiral where life is ultimately challenged.

"Before hurt caused by others, we possess the ability of a cat. Even if we are thrown backward into the void, we always land on our feet. With arrogance, we walk away from the situation that put us in an uncomfortable position. We don’t cry over the experience of being pushed; we translate it into the magnificence of an incredible flight, which confirms that we are capable of anything, and acrobatics becomes positive learning, mocking gravity. This way, we annul the pain and those who caused it. Some call it passive aggression; we call it simple reframing of reality." (Xavier)

Excessive

As we will see later, this character uses his body excessively—first through sexuality, which is sought after due to the tension-relaxation dynamic it creates. Then, through dependencies such as alcohol, smoking, television, work... anything that helps him, through hypomanic emotionality, modify what he finds unacceptable or frustrating. He must silence the inner cries of fierce narcissism that remind him he is not who he should have become. From there, excess becomes a form of narconization. It’s as if, in a state of mania, he could, for a brief moment, disguise reality to make it resemble what he wishes it to be.

This can create an uncontrollable compulsion that only stops when it's too late, when the body sends strong signals of distress. His challenge to life takes the form of an angry protest and a demand for fair compensation for his failure, after the suffering endured while becoming a benefactor of humanity, a great guru, or a powerful shaman. This is the only way, the only way at high levels, to settle the accounts with life.

Good and Helpful: Holy

The good nature of the Social 7 must be understood as a strategy to gain a look of desire and completeness from the other. As often happens, they repeat the game they learned with their mother. That look represents a love with a lowercase "l," a love conditioned on you behaving as I wish, on playing the role that completes me. In the Social 7, the excessive reliance on pleasure and the exaggerated avoidance of pain and frustration are sustained by an automatic scheme of seductive indulgence toward the other to capture and receive attention. In a social context, this strategy becomes explicit in being good and helpful, seemingly sacrificed to the needs of others.

If the trap of the Social 7 is complacency, it does not manifest in a general sense but only with those they feel an interest in and for a limited time.

There are several characters in the Enneagram who are good and helpful, but the only one who makes a career out of being a saint is the Social 7. For this purpose, kindness and service to others come with an aggressive internal narcissism, seeking extraordinariness. Who is more good than a saint? Who is more extraordinary than a saint? The saint is one who has been recognized by the community. The Social 7 is not only interested in being one privately, but also in being recognized publicly. The image of holiness also suits this character, as saints are often allergic to physical violence and genital pleasures.

Guiltiness

We begin with an episode from the life of Saint Francis of Assisi.

Something similar happened to him before, during the winter of 1220-1221, when, forced by one of his illness's frequent relapses, he allowed himself to eat cooked meat. As soon as he felt somewhat recovered, he ordered his vicar, Pedro Cattani, to drag him half-naked, pulling him by the neck through the streets of Assisi, after his preaching at the cate, by a rope. Arriving at the main square, the site of criminal executions, he confessed aloud, in front of a large crowd, the sin of gluttony he had committed.

We have already seen that being perceived as extraordinary is a vital neurotic need for him, and the path to achieving this is drawn from the information he has gathered from the world. The ultimate goal of his existence is determined by his ideal self. Freud defined the superego as one of the three instances that form the psyche, the one responsible for supervising the ego. The superego is especially relevant in this subtype because the concept of sacrifice captures a particular submission of the psyche to this inner ideal. In the psychic life of the Social 7, a fierce fight is waged between his ideal self and his real self.

The Social 7 is the one most in touch with his superego of the three subtypes, as he has relied on it to guide him toward the Holy Grail. This split inner reality will be a source of anxiety in relationships with himself and with others, as he knows himself to be double.

The internal movement is persecutory, with a high degree of guilt. It is the effect of renewed frustration, of being unable to fully realize oneself in life. This trait resembles the Six's characteristics, with the difference that the E7 has the ability to avoid and escape the fear that the E6 constantly coexists with. In the related scene, Saint Francis transgresses (because he has real needs) and then makes a spectacle of his penance. Living with guilt seems to absolve him in the eyes of God and makes him feel superior. We find an aspect of jouissance: in the terrible guilt he feels, he finds fulfillment.

Hidden Rebel, Who Devalues Authority

The Social 7 will appear anything but rebellious—at least not in a dangerous way. But we must not forget that their relationship with parental figures is marked by manipulation, fraudulence, and a secret feeling of being above them.

Thus, the general rebellion of the Social 7 occurs against anything that limits them, frustrates them, forces them to be grounded, or contains them. It is a rebellion that rarely manifests directly, as they are terrified of conflict. For it to appear, it needs a strong maternal authorization and a type of conflict where the rebellious position aligns with their ideals.

Paco Peñarrubia speaks of rebellion as a counterdependent reaction. From here, we can specify two types: rebellion against the father and against the mother. It is an underground movement against the mother or father who have failed them, a way of returning the aggression suffered due to the confusion of roles.

The rebellious attitude, which has its roots in early childhood, fully expresses itself against authority in adolescence in a silent, unspoken manner. As with idealization, it has already taken root elsewhere to avoid what is frustrating and potentially painful in the present.

The Social 7 harbors a sense of rebellion against authority, a lack of discipline, and an automatism of escaping responsibility, with the superficiality that this entails. They become strong to avoid having to be agreeable, and they scatter through fantasies and new projects full of unlimited possibilities.

Formal obedience (instrumental and aimed at avoiding conflict) and internal rebellion coexist in this character. Overt rebellion, understood as disobedience, is not typical behavior, as the Social 7 lacks the assumption of obedience in terms of recognizing authority. Additionally, they lack the aggressive drive necessary for direct confrontation with authority. If they enter into conflict, they will never abandon the word or the correct channels to show rebellion.

The rebellion is internal and linked to the concepts of aporia and chaos. It is a chaotic plunge into a realm without limits or boundaries, in a personal limbic interregnum where there are interpretable rules. The Social 7 can accept a rule even though they do not share its meaning, devaluing the person who embodies authority. It is a veiled, angry rebellion, one that does not reach a mature, equal confrontation.

In this very mental character, one of their favorite forms of rebellion is intellectual. Here, the rejection of intellectual authorities, combined with a difficulty in delving into concepts, generates a certain wandering and multi-knowledge, all in service of wanting to appear extraordinary. They seem more interested in impressing their interlocutor than in letting themselves be touched by the knowledge they acquire. The concepts they acquire on the fly are turned into weapons of seduction and rebellion. The Social 7 enthusiastically embraces new perspectives, new models, and before even fully understanding them, they make them their own and, without digesting the content, use them to activate the rebellion mechanism through criticism, identifying the system's weaknesses and imagining reasons to immediately discard it.

From this perspective, all ideas are good, but none are convincing. All systems are fascinating, but none are exhaustive. Each model, like each person, is superficially characterized, like a post-it. A devotional gluttony for knowledge drives them forward, pushing them in search of perfect revelation.

They lack the intellectual sobriety to stop and build knowledge in small steps, deepening and synthesizing. By becoming permeable to various types of knowledge, they limit their intellectual development. Everything that emerges from the knowledge process leads them back to what they already know, sometimes with extreme superficiality, and they quickly re-discuss it in a critical manner. This activates in the interlocutor the perception that the mind of the Social 7 can contemplate anything and its opposite, in a kind of cognitive polymorphism.

"I am a teacher, and in fact, I have never stopped studying, but I have never delved into a single subject. When I start to master it, I feel like learning something new. This led me to be a know-it-all. So in fact, I teach and I have many options to impress the people who listen to me." (Vincenzo D'Ambrosio)

The deepening into different models is done, in any case, with an attitude of rebellion towards the teachers—always with clever wit, but never in an explicitly destructive way toward the person.

Intolerant of Discipline / Afraid of Commitment

The Social 7 has no choice but to become aware of their self-indulgence when they observe their lack of discipline. The only form of discipline they know is one expressed in the passivity of renunciation. In terms of action, they fail to plan and work toward predetermined objectives. They follow the spur of the moment and instrumental goals that serve their visibility in relationships. They manage to keep only the narcissistic motivation stable, but they cannot project themselves into a dimension authentically oriented toward fulfillment, where commitment and maintaining agreements are necessary. They are satisfied with their intellectual planning. This makes the Social 7 inherently unreliable.

Regarding trust, they do not believe in their own personal worth and, therefore, cannot become involved in an existential project. This basic position is confirmed by their inability to respect promises and keep agreements, which, although supported by excellent justifications, does not alleviate the feeling of defeat and indignity. This neurotic functioning perpetuates a model of failure at the social level of this character.

Planner / Idealist

The social Enneagram E7 lives on projects and fantasies about how they can realize their dreams, confusing imagination with the concrete act of realization and often remaining in the ideal illusion. It is common for them to start new projects with enthusiasm and then abandon them in the realization phase. This trend arises from two concomitant factors. On one hand, there is the difficulty of overcoming conflicts that would require the use of aggressive aspects, and on the other, every realization implies frustration, since more was expected from the project in their imagination.

They often harbor a desire to always have plenty of options available and find it hard to make a real choice. Just as in relationships, the Social 7 feels caged. Rarely, in life choices, do they feel that a decision could be wrong, with all the suffering that this could bring. They return again and again to the place of potentiality, where everything is possible, and they do not have to deal with castration, their own limits, and their humanity.

The multiplicity of options makes decision-making difficult, not so much because of the doubt that arises, but because the individual knows that, in every choice, a certain degree of frustration will follow. The lack of discipline and difficulty in assuming responsibilities lay the foundation for remaining an eternal adolescent. As a result, long-term commitments become unbearable obstacles.

Satisfying the neurotic need for novelty—whether it's traveling, changing jobs, exploring new topics, or even entertaining the possibility of moving to another city—are all tricks to keep a mental "Plan B" in motion. This allows the individual to fantasize about the possibility of escaping a model that creates difficulties as they age. The game is enjoyable when it doesn't last long.

The mental escape found in fanciful planning protects the individual from frustration and often prevents them from committing to a concrete direction. The resulting mental excitement is sometimes enough to serve a compensatory function for their ability to actually engage. This is closely tied to the double objective of maximizing pleasure while minimizing the pain (frustration) that arises from confronting reality.

Fantasy also serves as a realm where omnipotence and the grandiose identification of the Social 7 can express themselves without fear of denial, serving the gods, not men.

"In conflict, revealing the inside can be paralyzing. That’s why being positive, bold, risky, and with a sense of humor can become enviable; it’s almost as if having the qualities needed to be great among the great in this world. But it is such a vile trap, one that plunges us into unimaginable depressions. Just as we can lift anyone’s spirits, we self-destruct with that ingenious racial skill of limitless imagination. We can be the life of the party, giving the feeling of absolute joy, but inside, we are that sad clown devoid of love." (Xavier)

Skeptical of Authority

We've already discussed the Social 7's compulsion to appear extraordinary. What is more extraordinary, in terms of power, than renouncing it?

Social 7s express their antisocial side toward power through their lack of trust in authority and hierarchical structures, as well as their reluctance to tolerate long-term commitments and assume responsibility. They struggle to hold positions of power, especially within explicitly patriarchal structures.

On a social level, however, they can create areas of influence through their work, leveraging their capacities linked to feminine values such as care and the transmission of knowledge. They do well as family doctors, therapists, priests, or teachers. They enjoy roles as educators, guides, or gurus.

Masked Competitiveness

By placing themselves in the role of the anti-leader, they maintain an internal sense of superiority and make explicit an apparent detachment from competitive logic, allowing them to avoid aggression and conflict. Even so, they must feed the narcissistic drive that fuels their neurosis, making their competitiveness voracious, though never explicitly expressed. They must win, and if not, they quietly consume themselves until they can activate the rationalizing and idealistic defenses that rewire their self-image.

If they can't win, they’ll create a subtle narrative where the important thing wasn’t being first, but being second. Failure dismantles their delusion that they can do anything, leaving them vulnerable to the emotional pain they desperately try to avoid. Losing casts doubt on their character; therefore, competing and winning is essential.

Afraid of Conflict

The Social 7 reacts anxiously to conflicting movements of individuation in groups, compulsively activating behaviors to smooth out differences and deny conflicts. Their idealism supports an idea of shared power, typical of communities of life—a social structure that disregards the political-economic-social status of individuals. In this structure, all masks fall, and only a direct encounter between people remains, without the structural aspects typically present in social relations.

The ideal of shared power, with its potential for organismic self-regulation, suppresses their need to avoid conflict and allows them to bypass the pain of conflicting interests. Exotic trips, retreats in monasteries, endless education… always seeking to be in a ritual of passage, without engaging with the structure of the world or confronting the pain and repetition of everyday life. It’s about being on top of the mountain, feeling good, alive, and united as brothers.

We can see this in the Rule of Saint Francis, where, in creating the Franciscan rules, he sought to avoid contact with the social structure. One way to achieve this was by avoiding money and property.

Ultimately, the Social 7 is more concerned with organizing hope than with generating a practical, reproducible structure.

Theatrical

With great theatricality and an innate comedic vision, the Social 7 draws attention to themselves using linguistic abilities to amplify and distort normal behavior, making it paradoxical and grotesque by creating authentic characters. The Social 7 has a natural comic timing that allows them to enter any conversation, turning it into something funny, naturally aligning their actions with a congruent gesture.

Years of pursuing pleasure have shaped their mind to the point where they can find comic aspects in any situation, as if they can spontaneously reconstruct it humorously. This diversion first takes root in their inner world and later becomes the means by which they connect with others. It provides an energy boost that peaks in seductive situations. This ability is evident in their talent for storytelling through quick, spirited associations and is often the source of excitability that, in some, can become manic.

Hedonistic

The Social 7 equates love with the permissiveness of their desires. This reveals the schizophrenia of the Social 7, where one thing exists internally and another externally. Externally, their hedonistic permissiveness is masked as a display of hedonistic capacity. They show their ability to enjoy, using it to seek, acquire, and consume pleasure within their narcissistic performance. They brag about their indulgence and their ability to not get trapped by it.

Internally, however, hedonistic excess leads them, depending on their mood, to require huge amounts of pleasure to maintain a minimal existential presence. This inner reality is more aligned with addiction than mere enjoyment of pleasure. They believe that pleasure is the best remedy for their narcissistic pain—or at least the most effective in the short term, allowing them to cope with the painful symptoms their reality produces.

“We love to try everything, like a dish with an exotic and explosive combination of flavors that excites the palate with its mix of ingredients. Being able to blend a good wine with a conversation that carries the thrilling intrigue of merging the pleasures of eating, drinking, talking, and, why not, the intimate interaction of bodies in action. We can never experience the best in this life; novelties appear at lightning speed. What a curse, not having the time in this life to indulge in the creations of this multicultural world. And understanding that this fantasy is impossible tears the adventurous soul. It’s seeing freedom cut short, joy enslaved, and being unable to give full rein to that passion. That’s why we allow ourselves other pleasures that, although not as magnificent as those denied to us, we don’t get stuck; we continue creating. We allow ourselves to rejoice in what the moment and life give us. We take from it what it offers, though sometimes we’re torn apart for having opened ourselves to the experience.” (Xavier)

Seductive

The interpersonal strategy of the Social 7 is both subtle and hidden. Their way of relating can be defined as an expression of basic ambivalence, a mechanism of seduction and withdrawal.

When in the presence of others, the seductive game of the Social 7 intensifies. They use their best qualities: youthful energy, cheerfulness, and playfulness. It is as if they are at the service of the other, aiming to change their mood and make them feel good, creating an unforgettable moment filled with humor and well-being. Their goal is to surprise, fascinate, and entertain, doing anything that allows them to reach the other in an indirect way. It is even better if, in this apparent disinterest, the other is drawn closer. It is never a direct process; they choose the other without seeming to choose them. And since they have the etro in their mind, they can strategically exploit any minimal opportunity to show interest, progressively approaching the other without revealing their own.

On one hand, the emotional discharge of another has been delegitimized, because in the Social 7's internal world, the experience of abandonment threatens any potential connection. The desire and the physical sensation of being rejected become intertwined, making the expression of desire unacceptable due to the pain it could bring. The fear of reliving past pain is at the core of their avoidant thoughts and behaviors. Over time, the belief in being able to handle everything alone, without needing anyone, solidifies into a self-referential dimension focused on their internal world.

“I often use seduction to get what I want. Kindness, attention focused on the other, and courtesy open all doors and create a good environment for communication.” (Carlo)

This bears a strong resemblance to the false abundance of E2. Both types may express a magnificent idea of themselves through similar behaviors. However, the E2 connects with others emotionally, intuitively sensing their needs and fulfilling them. This is how they become the great seducers. The Social 7's seduction, on the other hand, is more verbal and mental. They capture attention more with their words than with their energy.

"We have a natural attitude in seduction, and when we are in a relationship, we can be indulgent if a possible gray hair escapes us. But as my love for myself matures, the need to experiment fades. That relentless search from bed to bed ends when I find rest in my own bed." (Xavier)

Withdrawal

Withdrawal or abandonment is crucial for this character because social contact, even if superficial, is seen as dangerous. It can shake their extraordinary self-image. So, contact becomes a short-term game, seeking a glance that validates their self-image. Anything beyond that is too risky. It’s better to retreat, as solitude allows them to continue sculpting their self-image without the interruptions of reality.

This defense mechanism, shared with schizoids, makes them retreat to their “cave” to relax, free from the need to act or serve others. The world exhausts them because they engage with it in a neurotic way. On one side, they use seduction to confirm their ideal image. On the other hand, they compulsively suppress their own needs to serve others. After being drained and disappointed, they leave.

While social interactions demand sympathy and friendliness, their private space becomes a refuge to recharge the energy spent in public. In these moments, an infantile regression prevails, masking their inability to manage their own feelings. There is a deep desire to be cared for, to indulge in laziness, and to enjoy uncompromising fun. Their private space serves as a sanctuary, where the energy invested in relationships can be replenished, a place of isolation and physiological restoration—a refuge from the anesthesia of society.

"When I am in group situations, my energy is at its peak. My goal is for others to confirm my image as fun, friendly, jovial—'someone who knows how to live life.' Seduction, in my case, is mostly aimed at women. It’s not highly sexual, but it seeks confirmation of being good and special. However, in contrast to this compulsive seduction, there’s a strong need to withdraw from others. It’s hard for me to be around people if I’m not at my best. Withdrawal allows me to be tired, absorbed, or bored without the pressure of others' gaze. Yet, within this retreat, there’s also anxiety that I’m missing out on something, and the fear of retaliation from others for setting boundaries and taking time for myself." (Victor)

Abandoned

Sometimes, withdrawal occurs after the Social 7 has achieved some form of narcissistic gratification. At other times, it happens when they are exhausted from their inability to be authentic in a relationship. Finally, it may be used as a way to inflict emotional pain.

Given that the core scene of infantile pain involves abandonment by the parents—either real or perceived—the Social 7 may punish others by abandoning them when they seek revenge for some perceived harm. This is perhaps their most aggressive form of attack: abandonment. Everything that has been silent, swallowed, or undigested in the relationship bursts forth in this action—often unexpected—where all their rage is released in a passive-aggressive manner.

Charlatan

The concept of charlatanism refers to the Social 7’s tendency to manifest their seductive ability on an intellectual level through the skillful use of verbal intelligence. They may present themselves as a storyteller, almost a juggler of worlds, moving nimbly between irony, metaphor, and intellectual concepts.

"In my first year on the job, I found myself having to create a report from scratch in front of an audience of three hundred people for an hour. I had been sent by my boss to a company with the idea of developing a questionnaire for research. Upon arrival, to my surprise, they were waiting for a teacher in a training context. When I began to understand the nature of my intervention, I thought about sending them all to hell, especially my boss, who had put me in this difficult situation without explaining the context. But then, I decided to accept the challenge with myself—to prove my superiority, my value, and, above all, to earn the recognition of others. So, I decided to improvise the speech in front of everyone. I imagined myself as a university professor, stating ideas as though they were the result of years of research—not to explain, but to expound deeply, using my tone of voice and pauses only to appear convincing and believable. Looking back, I now understand what fraud is. I was so convincing that after speaking for an hour about nothing, they asked me many questions and inquired about my availability for future opportunities. I thanked them for their compliments and told them I would have to check my schedule due to multiple commitments." (Vincenzo D'Ambrosio)

Emotionality and Fantasy

“What you need is to humanize yourself, to see the other as such and not as an expression of your unattainable models; all of these are dreams, fantasies created to avoid loving surrender, without guarantees or reservations. Feel (emotionally and sensorially) instead of thinking and imagining the transcendent love, the one that makes you touch the skies. That love, as a transforming force, exists. It is a real and known experience. The mistake is not accepting its gratuitousness and impermanence.” (Francisco Peñarrubia)

The use of fantasy is central to this character. Although it affects him less than his sexual counterpart, E7, it is an essential element for maintaining his inner peace and healing the narcissistic wounds that life inflicts upon him. In these fantasies, he can live his ideal self, his ideal family, and his ideal world, while also expressing what he does not dare to reveal in the real world: his rawest sexual impulses and aggression. Let us not forget that he is a mental character with a strong energy charge, one who does not dare to express many of his impulses in the real world. One way he processes that energy is through fantasy. Good examples of this are Jules Verne, Anton Chekhov, and José Martí. All of them tapped into their rich, energized fantasies in their stories. Most Social 7s do not fully grasp this, settling instead for using fantasy to tell, sustain, and survive in reality.

I will now allow myself a few lines in the first person. Apparently, emotionality and fantasy began weaving their first self-help networks from my earliest age, working together and aligned in pursuit of a single common goal: survival. What I most remember from my childhood are the states of desired solitude, achieving moments of transcendent plenitude. Since my father worked in the fields, we spent the three months of summer vacation with him and the rest of my family. I recall sitting on some giant rocks (though they certainly weren't that big) in a eucalyptus forest, which seemed giant to me at the time. From there, I simply tried to focus on the leaves of the branches, attempting to analyze the sound the wind made as it passed through them. It was a routine I followed almost daily, trying to fill the void in my emotional body. That was how I found a way to survive my childhood, doing it in an adult way. With little space for play or fun around me, I settled into solitude to avoid being disturbed, knowing deep down that I wouldn’t be in danger.

Meanwhile, I fantasized about my own movies. I chose the actors, the music, the script; I designed sets and costumes and rehearsed the scenes as many times as necessary. I always did it alone. I don’t recall ever inviting anyone to watch my “works” because I sensed no one would understand them, and perhaps I was also afraid of being criticized. We know what that means for a Social 7, who almost always experiences criticism as an expression of heartbreak.

Those outdoor recreational activities were true meditative spaces that convinced me I could exist, even with a chance of belonging and surviving in such a painful world. It was about coming home, and that is why I now relate them to meditation, where we try to do the same thing in a way. I guess, as a child, I would miss my brave new world. By then, I felt that my peace and tranquility had been taken from me without my consent. It seems I had traded my mother's womb for Earth's womb to feel safer again.

I experienced my childhood as an intermediate stage between sleep and awakening, between the unconscious and the conscious, and perhaps even between life and death. Sometimes I imagined that life was a joke in poor taste, and I hoped to be awakened at any moment. Later, in my teens, I maintained the need for seclusion and solitude, but now, with the company of books and selective gatherings. Hesse, Fromm, Goethe, Nietzsche, Master Eckhart, and so many others. I also tried to read Chopin titles on my grandmother's piano, which she had forgotten before she died. Back then, I sensed that at some point I would have to enter the outside world, and I wanted to prepare myself as much as possible. One good strategy would be to follow Leonardo's polymath model of Homo universalis, which is why I kept studying (something I’ve done all my life).

I was a devourer of books on almost all subjects. I read everything that was put in my hands, and through my reading, I traveled, fantasized, and visited all places at all times. I conversed with the protagonists, and many times they surprised me by changing the endings of stories. I also knew I wanted to be a doctor, though I always had the profound sense of being a twentieth-century medieval abbot who, in addition to studying medicine and theology, would have explored all the sciences, both East and West. It seemed the monastery seclusion of the abbey, far from bothering me, would be pleasant, as it ensured I could maintain relational asepsis with the outside world while also having all the time in the world to satisfy my narcissistic literary gluttony.

I finally decided to specialize in psychiatry, even though my romantic idealism later led me to not want (or not be able) to finish graduate school. While I enjoyed reading the classic texts, I didn’t feel the same way when I attended practices and seminars. I naively believed we would try to “cure souls” (the etymological origin of the word “psychiatry”), and in reality, these were not even recognized.

This autobiographical exhibition shows how the Social 7 lives life with a cinematographic attitude. Through imagination and fantasy, he reconstructs reality and diminishes the impact of emotional pain and frustration. The creation of an ideal universe represents the best escape route from reality, allowing him to imagine a world suited to his preferences, where he remains in control and harmony is guaranteed.

“As a child, when I went to sleep in a negative state, I imagined that I had a beautiful dream. Thus, I would see again in my fantasy some scenes of an adventure movie I had been passionate about in the previous days. My imagination was so vivid that I became the protagonist of the film. Reliving the most exciting moments changed my mood, and when I woke up the next morning, I had the feeling that I had continued the fantasy during my dream.” (Testimonial collected by Vincenzo D'Ambrosio)

Fantasy allows us to deflect the emotional stimuli that the Social 7 is not capable of sustaining in the here and now. Just as fantasy is his great neurotic ally, emotionality is his staunch enemy. The emotional brain is almost completely disabled in the Social 7. Rationalization absorbs the energy produced in the emotional center. The result of this process is a complete loss of the habit of perceiving and discriminating the sensations that make up various emotions—an ataraxia that plays a leading role in the functioning of the Social 7, especially when it marks relationships with oneself and others from a fair distance.

In all situations, the energy tends to rise toward the head. Thus, the Social 7 gives the mental processes the main energy charge. Also, the habit of avoiding situations and not wanting to live in the present frustrating moment prevents him from receiving the information that comes from the emotional center to use it in a congruent way. Instead, it creates energy blockages that inevitably cause discomfort. He is afraid to feel, to truly feel, as this pulls him away from his ideal self-image. And he is terrified of emotional pain. Therefore, he disconnects the emotional center. He doesn't trust his emotions. He doesn't trust his body. He prefers his dead fantasies to real, excited contact.

Therefore, at least two types of emotional problems are evident. On one hand, there is the accumulation of anger that, as we have seen, cannot be expressed, except when it reaches saturation, with all the internal tension that implies. Secondly, there is the excessive investment in thought, which activates a fantasy that creates a satisfying virtual reality, putting him in a good mood and driving away frustration. In this way, imagination plays an important role in maintaining balance, even if it is unstable and unsatisfying.

“My fantasies with girls [...] as a way to not feel the pain and loneliness.” (Testimonial collected by Vincenzo D'Ambrosio)

Fantasy is designed to change the negative experience of the moment and create a positive emotional state that distances him from it, giving rise to a kind of self-consolation—a momentary emotional substitute that helps calm the inner world.

“I was driving up to the room of my father, who had passed away a few hours earlier, with great sadness and shock. During the journey, my mind automatically began to show me slides of mental images of the happiest moments I had with my father. So when I got to the head of his bed, I was in a state of well-being, almost paradoxical. It was so good that I wasn’t moved at all.” (Testimonial collected by Vincenzo D'Ambrosio)

As with the E5, who, moved by the passion of greed, tends to put distance between himself and the world and retreat into his inner universe, often rich in knowledge acquired through years of study, the Social 7 also withdraws into his fantasy world due to interpersonal difficulties.

“In my last years of university, at times when I was frustrated not having money to go on a trip or to make plans with friends, my mind would imagine projects, in the near future, that would bring me the prosperity I wanted at that moment. Effortless prosperity, without the frustrating burden of having to work hard to obtain it. I trusted my ability to make a mental puzzle in which money converged, little effort, and this was important—the possibility of generating prosperity in an ethical way (I could not be one of those selfish exploiters who care little about the welfare of others). So I could spend minutes, hours, until I was convinced that at some point, I would carry out my fantasy project and prosperity would come to my life. But this desire for money was not important because of accumulating it, but because of the ability it gave me not to have to deprive myself of anything I wanted. Of course, these fantasies never came to fruition, because they went against the image I was trying to project: that of an ethical person, humane and little interested in the material aspects of life.” (Victor)

The fantasy of the Social 7 is often very quick in imagining the realization of a future project, even if it lacks foundation. Let us not forget that Ichazo posited planning as the fixation or cognitive distortion of E7. In the case of the Social subtype, this planning, as an existential anxiolytic, appears automatically, just like an alcoholic who, faced with the slightest problem, needs a drink. His dose of fantasy, often in the form of planning, will appear. From a painful present to a harmonious future in a few seconds, as if it were a shot of heroin.

His fantasies also reconnect with the past. If the effect originates from a distant mother who praises the child by focusing on its positive aspects, this same structure reappears in fantasy. Here too, the protagonist revives that vain consent, becoming the center of his imaginary scene.

In this way, fantasy becomes an essential component of the Social 7. It serves as a way to feed oneself, often at the expense of truly perceiving the richness of life and carrying out concrete projects.

Childhood

Frequently, the man with a sweet tooth is a worshiper of his mother, and his life is oriented around an idealized image of a woman who represents the beginning and the end of all pleasures and good things in life.
— Claudio Naranjo, The Enneagram of Society

The Myth of a Happy Childhood

The Social 7 has the notion that childhood is a carefree stage, as if all painful experiences were relegated to a dark corner in the recesses of the mind.

In contrast to the E4, which identifies with a devalued self and perceives something is missing, creating an inner emptiness that is fed by self-frustration, the Social 7 identifies with an idealized self and the fantasy of what it will be like when it achieves glory, nourishing itself on the vanity that this presumed success gives in the eyes of others.

By projecting into the future, displacing frustration, and denying pain, the myth of a happy childhood is constructed. What sustains the memory is the imagined experience, while traumatic biographical events are either censored or minimized in their emotional impact.

“I remember my childhood as a stage that was not necessarily very happy, and in fact, there are very few memories I manage to retain from it. Over time, I have thought that the cause of this lack of memory could be related to a process of selective childhood amnesia, to which my unconscious would have resorted as a Darwinian mechanism of adaptation and survival. A kind of neural pruning whose sole objective would be to remember only those scenes experienced as gratifying, or at least not too painful.”
— Diego

The early dissociation of the E7 from their emotional experiences feeds a biographical account that isn’t necessarily misleading in itself, but rather because of the meanings attributed to it. Running away from home is seen as an adventure, loneliness becomes a place for contact with nature and the world, and failures and abandonment are simply changes in direction.

The tendency to distort facts in light of the denial of pain and frustration also applies retrospectively. Therefore, the past is simply the prelude to the wonderful future that awaits, covered not so much by the traumas suffered but by resilience.

The Good Boy

One of the dominant characteristics of the Social 7 relates to the role they play in their family, which we could summarize as the “good boy.”

“Today, I see that I tend to be good and lie to safeguard my image or my position as a misinformed person. I unconsciously used tools that were there as life preservers. With a tendency to manipulate actions to look good with others, let them walk all over me, and evade conflict.”
— Anonymous

The rule that the Social 7 follows during their development is to play the role of measuring family imbalances. Very attentive to both the manifest and implicit needs of all members, and oppressed by the impossibility of solving the family's problems, they try to activate two types of behavior: distracting from the problems and, when that’s not possible, not creating others.

These two behaviors offset each other, so being a good child means responding to environmental demands in a functional way and at the same time remaining unnoticed. The Social 7 is a child whose concern is not to create problems for the people who care for them, who are often overwhelmed by their own existential troubles. The standard behavior that guides their action is one that satisfies environmental demands and requires no energy investment, not even in terms of expectations.

Thus, the E7 grows up alone, imposing rules and roles. They try to help, anticipate the needs of others, be available, collaborate, and, when possible, enliven the family environment by creating a happy, serene, and light atmosphere.

The demand they place on themselves is to exert the least possible impact on their parents, not to be another burden. They progressively adopt an active transparency: neutral in the face of explicit demands and needs, and active when offering help and presence in the family in an apparently spontaneous and natural way.

Achieving this status in the family requires a great capacity for self-containment and self-gratification, which the Social 7 child develops through the imagined idealization of the effects their actions will cause. The neurotic balance of this behavior is the belief that they can alleviate their mother’s sadness or their father’s distress, thereby taking responsibility for some degree of adult happiness.

Some consequences of this behavior, more refined and sustained by a more structured relational strategy, are also found in the adult Social 7’s relationship with groups. They are present and reserved, attentive to the demands of others, available when necessary, and detached from group dynamics. Agreeable, able to tune in and relate to all group members, they are only superficially involved. They are not leaders, and their absence is not noticed. When present, their presence is an added value; they are capable of mimicry both when present and when absent. While not popular in the strict sense of the term, they communicate with many members of the group and leave a pleasant impression with their presence.

The Mother, When Love Is a Trap: A Poem About the Mother-Son Relationship
By Rabindranath Tagore

Mother, say, why are you crying and so sad, sitting there on the floor? Can’t you see that the rain is coming through the window and that you’re getting wet?

Hey, the gong is striking four, and my sister has to get back from school. What’s wrong with you, say, mother? Why are you so strange? Haven’t you had a letter from Dad today?

Today, the postman brought a letter to the whole town, I’ve seen it. Only Dad’s letters are kept in a sack for him to read. Mother, I’m sure the postman is very bad!

But don’t be sad about that, mother. Look, tomorrow there’s a town fair over there. Let the maid go and buy pens and paper. I’ll write all of Dad’s letters to you. And you’ll see how you won’t find any shortcomings.

I’ll write straight from A to K... Why are you laughing, mother? Do you think I can’t write as well as Dad? You’ll see, I’ll make a line on the paper with a ruler and I’ll be very careful, and I’ll make the letters really big.

And when it’s done, do you think I’ll be as foolish as Dad, who puts the letter in that ugly postman’s sack? I’ll bring it to you myself, right away, and help you spell it! I know the postman doesn’t like to give you the best cards!

Despite the story the Social 7 tells about themselves—describing an upbringing in a serene environment and a happy personal history—it’s about a child who went through a difficult situation. A mother who was present but not good enough, in the Winnicottian sense, due to physical or psychological difficulties, unable to empathically meet the needs of the child, especially during the oral phase of development.

A key element in the intrapsychic dynamics of the Social 7 is the partial failure of maternal restraint during the oral phase. The early stimulation of the child’s autonomy creates a vulnerable psychic zone. The unfulfilled oral need (hunger for love) brings about frustration, and that frustration becomes the path the child must follow to return home.

It is as though, in a very early phase of life, at the culmination of the oral phase, the child is invited to be autonomous in relation to maternal care. The mother abruptly interrupts the phase of maternal reflex, in which she adapts to the child’s demands, and gives, more or less consciously, a turn through which the child must adapt to the mother’s rhythms.

“Fifteen days after my birth, my mother gets sick; she has a postpartum infection and is hospitalized, interrupting her lactation period. My grandmother took care of me for a month. I feel, in a way, regressed, the deception for not having received what was due me, and a latent lack of trust in others was born in me.”
— Testimonial Collected by Vincenzo D'Ambrosio

“The displacement of symbiosis to a level that is no longer physical (satisfaction of needs) but relational is typical of the Social 7. The pain that comes from the distance from the mother will be compensated by her loving gaze, full of gratitude. If you complete me, I will give you that look, which is my love.”
— Testimonial, Aracaju Symposium, 2016

Here, the drive for conservation, founded on necessity, finds a diversion toward dependence on the narcissistic satisfaction of the social instinct. (In other words, the sweet tooth becomes a sweet tooth and diverts greed into relationships.)

The emptiness generated by frustration will become the engine for activating good behavior and finding momentary satisfaction in the idea of being the promoter of other people’s happiness. The unexpressed and unfulfilled need during the oral phase becomes the engine of a restless search. There will be no paradises in which to stop because there was no expulsion from paradise.

Like Peter Pan, the Social 7 has, as an alternative to the island that does not exist and where they are condemned to eternal childhood, the position of looking from a window at a mother nursing her child. Their story unfolds between an artificial paradise and an Eden they can only see from the window—where pleasure is seen but not tasted.

From a certain point on, intimacy means looking at each other from a distance, full of love, maintaining complicity from afar, knowing that they understand each other, and being the privileged confidant (even with respect to the father).

Like Peter Pan, the Social 7 has, as an alternative to the non-existent island where he is condemned to an eternal childhood, the position of looking through a window at a mother nursing her child. His story unfolds between an artificial paradise and an Eden seen through the window, where pleasure is observed but not tasted.

At a certain point, intimacy becomes a matter of looking at each other from a distance, filled with love, maintaining complicity from afar, knowing that they understand each other and being the privileged confidant (even in relation to the father).

In this respect, it can be understood as working with an anxious-avoidant attachment. In this type of attachment, the infant, after a period of separation from the mother, may show signs of anger or appear indifferent when reunited with her. Parents often behave with rejection or neglect towards the infant, tending to be emotionally distant, with a reduced capacity for emotional attunement and limited use of nonverbal communication channels.

Emotions tend to be pushed to the background in relation to the rational interpretation of events and internal states. For the regulation of internal states, the verbal cognitive level is used almost exclusively. This sometimes compromises social skills and makes it difficult to interact with peers. Several common aspects are evident in the biographies of the Social 7. These are critical experiences that cause emotional stress, creating in the child a sense of abandonment and a lack of confidence in the possibility of having needs adequately satisfied.

“Surgical intervention at three years due to a facial angioma. I remember very well a kind of green suction cup that came close to my face and the terror at the moment of anesthesia. When I woke up, I saw my cousin with her husband, unknown to me. I also remember that we played with some pegs. I didn't look up because in the bed next to me there was a little girl, bandaged and burned. I was shocked and scared by her accident. I felt alone and disoriented. I thought I was lucky because I hadn't been burned. I remember very well the plastic base in which I put the pegs.” (Christine)

The lack of maternal care is internalized, as if feeling a need were something to which one has no right, something illegitimate. The lack of trust nurtures a deep alienation from oneself and one's own wants and needs. This renunciation of oneself manifests in a dramatic way, with a deep pain and a surface-level rage that, over time, transforms into the decision not to need anything from anyone.

“I'm not interested in anything offered to me. Thus, I become a lonely child; I often leave home without warning and force everyone to look for me.” (Testimonial collected by Vincenzo D'Ambrosio)

It is possible that there are no clear episodes of abandonment. Rather than great traumas, it is in the lack of quality and the distance in the relationship with the mother where the neurotic nucleus of the Social 7 tends to germinate. The son or daughter takes on the task of healing the mother's pain. The mother figure is consumed by her own burden of pain, often linked to a sense of significant loss, which can lead her into a depressive abyss.

The child is linked to the mother through a privileged relationship, as if they were the only one capable of understanding the burden of maternal pain. In fact, the child has the sensitivity to grasp its weight and uses all their resources to save the mother. These are not fabricated stories. In the biography of the Social 7, the child is often involved in the mother's ideas and suicide attempts, establishing the role of the savior in an increasingly coercive way.

The child progressively renounces expressing themselves and their existential project. They refuse to end a separation that would be healthy for them on an evolutionary level and remain trapped in a pathological relationship with their mother.

This role is manifested, psychologically or emotionally, through behaviors imagined to be functional for the mother's well-being and, therefore, through the mask of the child. Within this rational dynamic, the child crystallizes an evolutionary phase while the father, who functions as the active agent in the separation of the mother-child dyad, is subtly invalidated.

The father is often seen as a function of the family and not as an effective point of reference.

“Often, the violence occurred within the home, generally with explicitly violent fathers and psychologically violent mothers. The father's violence generates fear and misunderstanding, and at the same time, his admiration is sought. The emotional absence of the father is also experienced as violence.” (Testimonial, Aracaju Symposium, 2016)

The paternal function is meant to help the child overcome symbiosis with the mother, bring them into the world, and help them learn the rules, particularly those of life. How can such a thing be realized with an absent father, whether due to work or an inability to assume that role? Seen through the child's eyes, the father is a powerless and distant figure, incapable of offering an affective presence or understanding the child's rhythms and needs.

Another relevant aspect is the confusion between force and violence, as the force within the childhood home often manifested itself alongside violence. In reaction to this paternal violence, the child develops impotence toward the father, as if the message "I can't handle him" were conveyed. In the conflict between the parents, the mother is perceived as the weak and fragile part, the victim who must be defended from the father.

“Violent verbal argument between dad and mom, like a child, feeling the fear, the pain, a lump in the throat, tension in all the muscles of the body, clenched fists, my heart wanting to come out of my chest, wanting to yell at them: shut up, don't argue in front of me. I'm a child; I didn't have the strength to tell them, it got stuck in my throat. Only when I managed to look at them angrily, wanting this disharmony in my environment to end soon, I looked for distractions for me and my parents, wanting to have a magic wand to dissolve that conflict immediately.” (Testimonial collected by Vincenzo D'Ambrosio)

The Social 7 child actually assumes a parental role with respect to at least one of the parents, abdicating the role of child in relation to both. Sacrifice is a behavior explained by the family of origin. It is a search for the highest position in the family at the expense of oneself. They all mutilate themselves, but the Social 7 will want to appear as the most mutilated of all. It is a way of adaptation that gives them a good place in the family.

This suggests a dynamic organization between obedience and rebellion, reflecting ambivalence toward the father figure.

“I remember that for several years I was afraid of my father. He was choleric and assumed an authoritarian educational style. I think my main concern was keeping him from getting angry. For no reason. And if possible, anticipate the demands so that everything remained calm. When he was available to talk, my father was really intelligent and stimulating.” (Christine)

Now we will explore the subtly anti-authoritarian behavior of the Social 7. Their solution is to hide from authority and act clandestinely. In doing so, guilt emerges. Additionally, an internal, non-explicit, and strong rebellion develops against the father, as compensation for the lack of courage to confront him directly.

The internal situation of the absent father is not anti-authoritarian; it is authoritarian. This results from the Social 7's relationship with the rules, of which they are unaware of their function in regulating behavior.

“My parents, as a teenager, called me insolent, cheeky, shameless, cynical, vicious, and playful on many occasions. I did not understand what was behind their perception, I wasn't like that. I just kept my engine running so I wouldn't get bored in life; I just wanted to get closer to whatever kept me excited and moving. I did not hide my great need for novelty, nor did I hide my great satisfaction with what was pleasant. But it wasn't out of shame. It’s not that I didn’t know the limits of modesty; I knew them, but I wasn’t interested in following them—they weren’t limiting my way of living. Although that also put me in a dilemma. If I showed myself as I wanted, they repressed me, so I sharpened my way of tricking from a tone of benevolence and, instead of appearing disrespectful, I dressed as altruistic.” (Xavier)

The internal choice of the Social 7, which develops indulgence, is to adapt to the context, to camouflage as long as this behavior is functional to their own well-being. For the rule, understood as a social law, to be respected, the fundamental assumption is missing: the recognition of the other, an adult, whose authority is considered.

As we have said, the Social 7 child grows up alone, and therefore it is they themselves who establish what is fair and what is not, the rules and norms, based on an instrumental good rather than a sense of justice: “I’m a good boy because that way you'll be happy.” Their adaptation is to anticipate and deactivate a demand; the ruler is simply a commodity. There is no real hetero-regulation and, therefore, no self-regulation, which is why, deep down, the Social 7 has a sweet tooth.

“Obedient to the force; there is no other possibility to get what I want.” (Carlo)

In other words, the function of authority is meaningless, and the inner father is, in fact, dichotomized in a love-hate ambivalence.

“Going against the father becomes the metaphor for going against the rules and authority. The omnipotent idea of being able to do whatever you want, of feeling free from limitations, has nothing to do with a genuine and deep connection with oneself, which results from the integration of the father figure.” (Testimonial, Aracaju Symposium, 2016)

In order to defend the bond with an idealized mother, it becomes natural to establish an implicit alliance, which in some cases can reach a deep identification, as if the child had to support her and deal with the mother's pain as if it were their own. We believe that this decision is one of the possible matrices of the sacrificial passion. It is to become a hero, a hypothetical good father, or the savior of their mother, especially when she is objectively in difficulty.

All this ends up creating a strong opposition toward the father, who is often absent and who becomes the ogre of the fable. Especially when the dynamic between the parents is conflictual and the mother, in the eyes of the child, is seen as the victim. In this way, the father becomes the outcast, the evil to counteract, especially within himself.

As a secondary effect, the devaluation of the real father makes identification with paternal characteristics conflictual, perceived only through the distorting lens of his devaluation by the mother. The child seeks, desires, and at the same time rejects the father, who, with his affective distance, is perceived as the mother's executioner. The result is a conflict between an unacceptable part of themselves, which needs to be hidden, and the idealization of themselves as a good and positive hero.

Not having differentiated from the mother, the Social 7 does not reach the educational stage and fails to establish a confrontation with the father. The relationship with him is one of the first needs denied.

The conflict between the father and the mother is internalized as repeated traits in the psychic organization of the Social 7: the idealized mother in her role as a victim, and the father, a degraded figure, the expression of patriarchal forms, as if he were the sole promoter of such. The inner world is divided into good and bad, and the origin of all misdeeds shifts, in a Manichean way, to the father's function.

The son's foundation assumes the value of redemption and loses its potential for psychic integration, conferring powers on this psychological component that are perceived as extraordinary at the narcissistic level. The son will save himself, the mother, and the world. These are the premises of an undisguised and deviating identification with the divine son. In his alliance with the mother, the child imagines he will surpass the father, defeat him, and make up for his mistakes. The mechanism through which the social hero cannot fight against a father whom he devalues and does not recognize takes root. The only way to transcend him is by yearning for holiness, into another world and dimension.

With this abominable pact, the Social 7 denies himself the possibility of an authentic confrontation with the admiring paternal love, which will never be enough and which conditions the perception of himself as a kind person. He will be able to use only maternal love, compassionate love. But it is the love for the poor and for victims that he can subtly and instrumentally dedicate to others, not to himself.

The preceding paragraphs highlight the existential check of the Social 7, divided into a double set of identifications between the paternal and maternal figures. This division leads him to reproduce within himself an edition of the dramatic triangle: savior-victim-executioner.

The process of the formation of the personality of the Social 7 is based on the identification with the person who exercises the maternal function and the assumption of feminine relational modalities, while the desire to identify with the father figure remains unmanifested.

On the other hand, the identification with the unconscious savior is due to the assumption of the characteristics of the executioner and generates a dynamic conflict that is evident in the difficulties of the Social 7 in intimate relationships.

The evolution in terms of introjection could be reconstructed in this way: The patriarchal mind of the Social 7 is based on the image of the victim of patriarchal power, that is, the mother. In the inner family of the Social 7, the feminine-maternal-compassionate is manipulative and unfaithful, while the admiring masculine-paternal is a denied desire. The natural and balanced evolution of the inner family resides in integrating the father, redefining the mother function, and accepting the son function.

In phenomenological terms, the patriarchal mind of the Social 7 is dominated by an impoverished son function in terms of attachment to organismic energy. It is not a true child function; it is the caricatured aspect of a father function, imploded and made impotent by an exclusionary and falsely compassionate maternal function.

The only authorized masculine resource is intelligence, which, deprived of its instinctive base, is functional only to power games and is bent on self- and hetero-seductive functions (and not, as in the case of an E5, inclined to the creation of theories). The process of identification-counter-identification is also very clear with respect to gender identification. Neither men nor women Social 7s adhere to aesthetic and behavioral gender clichés and tend toward androgynous flattening, resulting from amplifying masculine characteristics in the female Social 7, and feminine characteristics in the male Social 7.

Not all Social 7s were the object of more or less explicit violence in the family. For some, the encounter with a violent reality occurs in normal schooling, military schools, or religious communities—places marked by dogmatism, which censor action and thought to a certain degree.

Persona and Shadow: What is Destructive For Themselves And For Others

In previous entries, we have described the functioning of character, more with its shadows than with the opportunities it offers to the person who lives from it. The Social 7 comes into contact with that shadow in his intimacy as he progresses in his work of disidentification with character functioning. It becomes clear to him that his passion to look extraordinary, his self-sacrifice, or his fixation on self-indulgence has an aspect that is destructive to himself and to the world. Next, we will complement these forms that harm life.

To understand how his self-destructiveness works, it is worth remembering that his basic core is mistrust—in himself and in others. He connects the difficulty in nurturing others with a sense of ontological unworthiness to be loved. This sense of deep unworthiness is associated with a basic pain that supports his reaction to avoid contact. We could define the Social 7 as an emotional anorexic, a constantly hungry being who denies his hunger and bases his supposed superiority on denial and manipulation of their emotional needs. It is in this anti-preservation strategy that self-destructiveness is based. A first form of destructiveness is towards one's own body. For the Social 7, the body is a machine at the service of the mind and considers it in terms of efficiency. There is no loving care, just efficient maintenance. Primarily, the need to feed and maintain the body in a functional physical form. All the primary necessities are postponed in an unconscious delirium of omnipotence.

From the perspective of destructiveness, we can also see its relationship with money, understood as a basic resource. He lives it with detachment and superiority, as a means to achieve other goals. He has no love for money; he does not accumulate it or care about its management in the medium or long term. Money is a vulgar subject. It interests him as an instrumental good through which he can achieve a supreme good, for which he uses it to exhibit an attitude of generosity; it is a tool to promote the social image (of kindness) and seduction. In no way can it be an end because he considers it a worldly good and, therefore, far from the aspects that decorate his idealized, holy image. The Social 7 does not feel comfortable owning goods and money. He shows no attachment to objects or material resources, boasting of his generosity. This difficulty in dealing with money in reality puts him in trouble since it does not allow him to build financial security. Again, from his ideal of not needing, he does not attend to his real needs and puts himself at Self-Preservation risk.

Another way in which this character expresses his self-destructiveness is in relation to his emotional needs. The Social 7, like all people, needs love, contact, intimacy, and surrender to the other. The mistrust that there can be love for him leads him to deny these needs, and once again, transforms her reactively into emotional independence. His defensive idealism is catastrophic in affective terms since, by not contacting the difficult emotions, his interpersonal relationships cannot be actualized and deepened to ultimately nurture him.

The E7 associates itself in a sea of unidirectional relationships. He believes that he can be in the world as a giver and establishes his network by placing himself as superior, without dealing with the actual exchange in the relationship. The maintenance of this exchange is based on the realization of the narcissistic idea of oneself, emptying the contact with the other of real content. More than destruction, this ensures the non-construction of real reactions. On the surface, you seem to live in an ocean of relationships, and in reality, you feel like you are in a desert.

This way of functioning is tied to their tendency to distance themselves and withdraw from relationships. In solitude, you get the energy recharge, which is really just a reduction in the fatigue of relating. In the medium term, isolation brings a “problem”: it brings him into contact with the inner world, where he finds himself once again with the pain that he wants to avoid at all costs. The experience of boredom, of isolation, of being nothing reappears in relational withdrawal, so contact with oneself must be broken.

What is destructive for others is not what they receive from this character, but the place from which it gives. It is a selfish and narcissistic internal place in which the other is nothing more than a mirror where you can see your extraordinary image reflected. Those who want to rob people of this character have it easy and can take advantage of them as long as they make them believe that they are being impressed by the privileges of the Social 7. On the other hand, for those who believe that in the giving of this subtype there is something more, those who wait for their presence, those who feel that there is an exchange in that giving, will feel disappointed and used.

What is destructive in the relationship is especially evident in the couple and intimate friendships. In the same way that at first, he used a seduction made of understanding, politeness, good humor, happiness, and optimism, later on, the desire for the other person to play the same role takes shape. This condition, not made explicit, will serve as an excuse to start the game of devaluation of the other.

The mask of seductive complacency will break, and the child who has swallowed all the anger will appear. In this way, an explosive rage begins to manifest, and the aggressive attitude is strengthened, creating a greater distance and a process of aggression towards the person who has frustrated him. This becomes someone with a thousand faults and weaknesses, an enemy with whom it is not worth continuing to associate. The Social 7 begins to think about how to break the relationship, how to punish the partner or the close friend. Conflict and emotional distance are expressed more and more frequently. At this point in the game, the relationship is seen as a source of exhaustion, and the Social 7 flees into restful isolation. This defensive modality creates a cushioned bubble, a subjective and virtual reality that distances you from contact with the other.

The trials of life related to separations, bereavement, and events involving inevitable pain undermine the self-referential system of the Social 7, destroying character defenses and bringing out the core of the basic wound. A painful feeling of unworthiness and rejection arises that seems to lead to disruption, to a blind, violent, and murderous rage towards the alleged aggressor, in a context in which he is not equipped to manage the emotional dimensions avoided for so many years.

In the most extreme cases, derealization can occur, understood as the experience of estrangement from life itself that, as a result of ataraxia, does not transmit any emotion. Like seeing life through a distancing filter. The partner or close friends thus suffer a surprise attack. They don't understand why so much of what was going on in the relationship has been kept from them. Basically, everything painful and frustrating has not been confronted in due time and only appears through explosion or abandonment. This unconsciously shallow relationship makes it very difficult for him to anchor people in life to deep levels and live the relationship in all its dimensions. Those who accompany this functioning in intimacy will feel attacked, disoriented, and angry with their way of handling conflicts.

In the representation of pain, there is an equivalence with death. This idea is the basis for his avoidance, a strategy that over time has not allowed him to develop the psychophysiological devices designed to allow him to feel pain and manage it. This fear of death ends up making him allergic to the cycles of life that are plagued by small deaths. Here we see how he lacks the courage to face the truth in his relationships; he feels that he will not be able to bear the pain that comes with transparency. And without truth, nothing grows. Neurotic contact with the other makes it possible to avoid intimacy with oneself and with others, and functions as a distraction and a palliative filling of the existential void.

Thus, the tendency in relationships is towards discontinuity, based on repeated enthusiastic withdrawals and returns, ruptures, and opening of new relational fronts. There are maintenance mechanisms that, mitigating the effects of these continuous oscillations, are complemented by the destructive dynamics of this subtype: distance or impossible relationships, where excited contact-withdrawal cycles are the usual dynamic. This subtype is one of the more neurotically mystical characters in the Enneagram, attempting to identify with the divine ideal to such an extent that self-dissociation is based on this basic principle. It creates the conditions for the denial of what it claims to believe, denying the experiential dignity of life.

Narcissistically infatuated with the idea of son of God, he bases his spiritual experience on a jumble of temporary ideas and experiences, none of which can be turned into real involvement. Spiritual experiences, as well as relational ones, lose appeal as soon as they require a real and transformative commitment. Even his spiritual path meanders in search of the extraordinary: guides, thoughts, schools, experiences; in other words, the gluttony of plurality, the idealization of the spiritual path. This is self-defeating because it mortgages one of its development paths by tricking it. The mystical is sought from neurosis, not found from the human thirst for development.

“I remember working in Brazil with a leader of an evangelical church who confessed in the group that he did not believe in God and that every Sunday he felt like a fraud sitting in front of the faithful and proclaiming the bonds of his church. Nobody knew his inner truth, and he knew how to make a perfect countenance to be able to embody his role. He said that he did not believe in his sermons, but he knew how to make them useful to his parishioners.”

Even political and social causes are experienced with the same degree of superficiality. The passive-aggressive attitude of counterdependency typical of the Social 7 helps to keep active a social criticism that is an end in itself, that is not functional in reality. Social criticism is more of an intellectual exercise where moral relativism and cynicism implicitly authorize any corruption. This E7 is always on the side of the revolution before and after its implementation, never while it is happening. In this sense, he is complicit in maintaining the status quo, since he cannot really channel his criticism into action for change. His way of poisoning the possibility of social transformation is by using the public arena for his narcissistic ordeal, rather than for real change in the world.

With its lack of courage, it makes difficult the necessary actions that are required for change, with its idealism and with its difficulty with direct aggression, which is needed to uphold the difficult truth until the last consequences. In addition, he is able to work because he rents a good place, so we can find him selling his intelligence to the patriarchy in exchange for making him feel seemingly extraordinary. In its neurotic form, it adds cowardice, disconnection, lack of reality, and perversion to the thousands of the world.

In relation to this cowardice, it should be noted that one of the most hidden aspects of the Social 7 is fear. This is the emotion that turns off their social promotion, drives them away from relationships, and inhibits them from taking responsibility. Each scenario becomes a source of fear because, in each one, being discovered is at stake. Thus, this trap that they create for themselves is also projected onto the world. It is one of those who prefers a good social lie to a bad social reality. They will contribute to social idealizations in the world that prevent us from seeing the deep and structural conflicts that are difficult to face.

The condemnation of the Social 7 is that of the fugitive. They are boastful, ashamed of themselves, afraid of being discovered in their superficial improvisation, of losing control, of not being able to manage their own strategies, and of not being intellectually adequate. A fear they deny with their apparent antisocial nonchalance. But this leads them to suffer internal self-persecution for not feeling capable of facing reality.

Fear increases with the intensity of the relationship. It is the fear of not being understood, of being left, of becoming dependent on a relationship and not being able to survive its lack, of being truly seen and not accepted, of giving up and being lost. There is the fear of symbiosis as a hellish paradise from which they will be kicked out again. Fear of affective dependence forces them to neurotically maintain a false autonomy. This encourages another aspect: their difficulty in deep engagement with their truth and relationships.

They end up constantly running away from themselves, out of fear of their own feelings and deep emotions. Fear of being truly discovered, of seeing their unacceptable aspects and what surrounds them. Fear of having no way out.

“This fine isolation is re-inhabited without consciousness. It is the innate reaction of rejection and the hope that tomorrow will be better, creating in the mind an ideal world in which to enjoy and be better. But when confronting the pain, which, in my own experience, deep down is that of early rejection, we become aware of the mask. Seeing it face to face can cause the ego to go into crisis. When there is a lack of structure, when it breaks itself and takes a different step, it is how the Being can incorporate what is new into its existence. But keep in mind that these crisis steps are not always the same. They can lead us to a path of growth and evolution or to a process of annihilation and self-destruction.” (Xavier)

It is not uncommon to understand these aspects in relation to the anger with which this subtype handles certain situations. We have already mentioned how it hides deeply destructive nuclei of oral rage within itself: an omnipotent desire to incorporate the other, to destroy them, to tear them to shreds. When there is a psychological fall, rage assumes the desire to wipe out everything and everyone. Ideas of possible physical aggression, often imagined and experienced in fantasy, may appear, along with a desire for revenge. When the defensive apparatus of rationalization gives way, a strong fear of a projective nature emerges, often directly proportional to the repressed rage. The difficulty in experiencing and channeling it is a very destructive aspect, both for oneself and for others.

In this case, the self-reference becomes personalization, meaning they tell themselves events that have no possible realistic relevance, such as feeling persecuted by others or by life itself. Sometimes, the result is a form of paranoid thinking, ranging from simple social conspiracy to demonic persecution.

All these aspects, unless they enter into a pathological expression, are generally kept hidden. Only the accumulation of prolonged stress, related to the onset of anxiety, can lead this structure to collapse and force the Social 7 to lean toward the logic of expressing themselves or asking for help. Thus, their repressed anger and fear at their inability to break free from the role of the good and harmonizing person eat away at them. This way of handling both emotions also contributes to the tension in the world, since they don't let them come out and express themselves in the group, instead trying to bury them under a lot of good rationalizations. Thus, they contribute to the cancer of society.

On the flip side, in terms of hypomania, it is not uncommon for a Social 7 to display traits of delusional thinking related to their spiritual path. Identification with Christ supports false miracles. The visionary capacity, combined with the desire to realize their identification with the role of the chosen one, leads to pseudo-delusional interpretations of their feelings. They show great sensitivity to all extraordinary events and, of course, with self-referential delusions. In other words, the Social 7 tends to cultivate imagination and tell fables with the idea of having healing, messianic, or visionary powers. Once again, we see how their character leads them to delirium, and from here, they also join those in the world who, with the desire to access the transcendent, end up inventing it.

Love

"I wish to tell you the deepest words, but I dare not, for I fear your mockery. That's why I laugh at myself and turn my secret into jokes. I make fun of my pain, so you don't make fun of yourself. I wish to tell you the most sincere words, but I do not dare, for I am afraid that you will not believe me. That's why I disguise them as lies and say them contrary to what I think. I strive to make my pain seem absurd so that it doesn't seem absurd to you. I want to tell you the most valuable words, but I don't dare, because I fear not being reciprocated. That is why I name you harshly and take pride in my callousness. I want to sit silently by your side, but I dare not, for I fear that my lips will betray my heart. That is why I speak foolishly, hiding my heart behind my words. I treat my grief harshly, lest you do. I want to get away from you, but I don't dare, because I fear you will discover my cowardice. That is why I raise my head and approach you with an indifferent air. The constant provocation of our glances removes my pain without mercy."

Rabindranath Tagore, The Gardener

In the character structure of the Social 7, a kind of double level of reading the internal dynamism of the three loves—eros, agape, and filia, as described by Claudio Naranjo—can be identified. This subtype presents an intrapsychic and relational structure that is counter-characteristic: It is distinguished by a vocation for altruism and a devotional thirst that leads to deception regarding the development of the three loves.

On the surface, the Social 7 moves through the world with spontaneity and compassion, in constant tension toward spiritual elevation. He is a clean, good person, with a certain tendency towards holiness, but this is only in his fervent imagination. His structure presents a lack of foundation, the integration of self-love.

A sense of unworthiness, the result of a lack of compassionate care, brings him frustration so deep that it transforms into a denied need. The intimate relationship becomes an inaccessible territory due to its dangerousness, linked to a destructive potential. It is as if, for fear of suffering the pangs of hunger for love again, the Social 7 prescribes a forced fast for himself, condemning him to an existential hunger that has the advantage of being controlled and self-sufficient. In mystical ideational madness, he believes that one day it will be satiated at the banquet of the gods. This is how the simple human hunger for maternal (oral) love becomes the passion of gluttony, later sublimated through sacrifice.

Compassionate Love

Phenomenologically, the Social 7 appears as a good person, attentive and lavish in attention. He is a keen observer of human relations, at the service of which he puts his strategic intelligence.

He is reserved, interested in people's emotional experiences, and appropriate in providing support, more through storytelling than affective acts.

A superficial examination would take him for being mature in the sphere of compassion, capable of empathy and genuinely open to loving exchange, gratuitously at the disposal of the common good. The empathic capacity is there, unlike the E5. The problem is that it is not a type of empathy that serves benevolence, seeking the best for the other unconditionally. Instead, it serves narcissism.

“As a theater director, I had a serious problem in getting artistic projects off the ground. When I started the rehearsal period with the actors, I had a hard time insulating myself from their problems as people. As we worked through the scenes, I saw their pain and need as people, putting aside the needs of the artistic production to focus on helping and comforting them with their wounds. I have the feeling that I see the other's wound, as I saw Mom's wound, and I feel an uncontrollable impulse to be that which heals it. It is a program that lights me up. I have rationalized it in various ways and actually believe that I have a detector that does not allow me to miss any opportunity to sanctify myself.” (Luis)

This interpersonal modality, which is the calling card of the Social 7 when it comes into relationship, is the main mode with which this subtype hides the typical seductivity of the E7. It is the way he enters into the parasitic form of love in order to gain admiration and nourishment for his narcissism.

The narcissistic nucleus of the Social 7 is nourished by the denial of a desire for admiration, which is played through false humility and reserve. This simplified scheme helps to read the adult Social 7 and see with different eyes his automatic exercise of self-interested compassion. This character is hardly mistaken in the mode of approximation. He has first observed at length, in great detail, the person by whom he wants to be chosen through subtle manipulation.

He simply makes himself available at the right moment, when the other is in a state of need, and in an instant, through his skill with words and gestures, gives him the opportune support. Being helpful satisfies his need for visibility. He doesn't need to be thanked; simply receiving a small sample of care will suffice. Thus, he connects with his crazy idealization of Christian identification: “I am the true savior,” which will allow him to be directly blessed by a higher entity within.

“Reviewing my relationships, I was surprised to see that they all had an absent, dead, or missing father. It's as if a part of me sensed that place to be filled in by the woman and was drawn to fill it. The other sad realization was that I had had many partners and I had abandoned all of them. In that act I see my revenge against the woman for needing her and my inability to navigate the deep conflicts that the relationship implies.” (Luis)

The relations of the Social 7 are interesting, based on the self-referential presumption of an accumulation of credit with humanity. Seemingly gratuitous and redolent of sanctity, the Social 7's sacrificial passion is a long-term investment, one that will pay off directly with God. This is the trap of the child who, deciding to be good, always postpones the satisfaction of his needs to the future and believes that he can feed himself with the rotten fruit of a false compassion, which in reality is a skillful use of sympathy, confused with empathy. Thus, the Social 7 adult seduces through a mimetic capacity, a pleasure with the emotional depth of the other that comes disguised as compassion, and with the intention of arousing admiration. In this sense, the other, although in a layer of reality it seems that he is being helped, is not really seen but used as an instrument to get a reflection of his ideal (holy) self.

The lack of authenticity in the exchange feeds the neurosis. The feeling of gratitude on the part of the needy other feeds the ideal of oneself, which is only a thought and does not deeply nourish the true self, isolated and unavailable for a genuine relationship. The profound difficulty in being in an authentic and intimate relational parity, where both feel present and worthy of love, condemns the Social 7 to repeatedly experience a moment of crisis that manifests itself in two ways. A first modality is that, if one does not feel useful enough, or if the other leaves the relationship of need, the alternative is to find oneself entangled in parasitic relationships where the other is experienced as too demanding.

The crisis of the relationship is a healthy alarm signal, which offers the possibility of evidencing the non-contractuality of the relationship built by the Social 7. The agreement, in fact, is unilateral and is based on the implicit demand for return and recognition, within entirely self-referential terms and linked to the need to preserve a dominant position in the relationship.

The accumulation of initial credit towards the other, through the seduction of compassionate kindness, is handled in intimate relationships as valid for life and is played as a bonus when disinvestment occurs. But how? After everything I've done for you, do you still ask me?

The disinvestment is, in fact, physiological, because the motivation is of a parasitic type and not based on the need here and now. The Social 7 condemns himself to torture in the relationship by exercising the defense mechanism of proflexion (doing to others what he would like them to do to him), which supports the ideal of himself and does not affectively nurture the true self.

The Social 7 feeds, through the grandiose ideation of himself, the denial of his own love fulfillment. He confuses being seen cognitively with being emotionally cared for. In this way, the basic need for genuinely compassionate maternal care is censored.

“When my therapist proposed that I curl up like a child in my partner's arms and surrender myself to care, it seemed like an impossible task. It's my denied scene: being lost, hurt, demanding in mom's arms. I am the one who hugs, never the one who is hugged. I am the one who gives, never the one who needs. Surrendering myself in that embrace continues to be a challenge because it symbolizes my existential failure.” (Luis)

The feeling of need of the other is transformed into the idea that the other needs him. Healthy affective dependence is denied and is transformed into a relationship of power and control through dependence on the other.

The Social 7 love market thus develops a trend compulsively plotting unfinished gestalts that will repeat themselves and create love relationships that will not be truly intimate, although yes deep and ambivalent.

We also know that anyone who falls into his trap of compassionate seduction will not be worthy of admiration because, in reality, he is positioning himself as the loser in the relationship. The search for admiration is then projected upwards (towards the father), and the path of the mystical Social 7 is paved with dejected teachers.

The introject of the paternal relationship involves an ambivalent identification with the father. He is a dominant figure, also the antagonist in the story; in short, an antihero. Therefore, the search turns to bad parents to avoid and good parents to overcome, all while maintaining good manners.

The Social 7 tends to idealize the characters it encounters, emphasizing their stimulating aspects, creativity, preparation, and cultural level. This perspective stimulates a sense of deep unworthiness and leads to an initial withdrawal, representing the phase of studying the other. The Social 7 behaves like a pseudosocial personality; they are not openly competitive and show an apparent respect for the rules. They intuit the rules of the context and adapt to them strategically.

In a short amount of time, the Social 7 is capable of becoming the model disciple of a teacher whom they only recognize as such in the idealizing distance. The critical acuity of this character cognitively expresses a defensive form aimed primarily at immunizing themselves from the power of the other. When the teacher is seen up close (then known and observed in their inevitable incongruities), they are progressively and inexorably disqualified, devalued, trapped in their weaknesses, and ultimately drained of interest. The teacher is no longer an object of admiration and, therefore, not even a potential source of admiring love.

Once again, the Social 7 returns to the starting point, in search of a new stimulus, a new goal to achieve. In this path of implicit dissatisfaction, the Social 7 seeks parental recognition and then devalues it when it is obtained, much like a child who throws away the long-awaited food. In this way, the Social 7 feeds their orality in relation to admiring love.

The meaning of their life story develops neurotically, seeking a symbiotically admiring gaze from an authority that ceases to be once they grant recognition. Unable to overcome their ambivalence, this subtype can neither acknowledge nor openly oppose authority, thus creating, for the umpteenth time, the premises for a frustrating relationship. The way out of this frustration is, once again, to create a fantastic internal world where the relationship is directly with the source—where authority is embodied in a narcissistic and self-referential way.

“My relationship with Claudio Naranjo moves in terms of a strong ambivalence. On one hand, I feel a strong inspiration from him, like I have a privileged relationship with him, and I desire to dedicate myself more, to live it intimately as a Master. On the other hand, I feel a lot of fear of the pain that may come with that delivery, which ends up translating into a constant judgment of his person, where I search for reasons to behead him. And I find them. And then I am left alone, disoriented. And the sensations of gratitude return, of admiring love towards Claudio, the experience of being his disciple, the internal invitation: to explore surrender, admiration, guru yoga. Just thinking about it gives me honey. What if he hurts me? What if he really is a false teacher? Pray to doubt it as protection. And there I am stuck, blocked. Without being able to get closer or farther away. Without being able to express all this that happens to me. Without being able to transition between the delivery and the abandonment.” (Luis)

On the concrete plane, the spiritual search of the Social 7 manifests itself in a mystical-type form. Since their emotional need is to reconstruct a symbiotic form of love that they shun, the relationship with the divine is also panicked, totalizing, and ecstatic. The divinity, whether spiritual or secular, is conceived directly, without being mediated by figures of reference such as a teacher, whose admiration is shunned. Similar tensions easily bring them closer to pseudo-religious and para-spiritual forms.

Mutual recognition implies, in fact, an assumption of responsibility that, due to grandiose projections, becomes a burden. It assumes a change in the position of control that the Social 7, in its unconscious counterdependence, cannot tolerate because it marks the passage toward relational adulthood, which frightens and oppresses. Therefore, in every relationship, the admiring period is followed by a devaluing phase.

It is a paradoxical position. The main driving force is the search for admiring love, but the goal is impossible to achieve because ambivalence forecasts two variants: either the encounter with the bad teacher, who is not recognized, and therefore results in a useless relationship; or the good teacher, who grants admiring and compassionate recognition that the Social 7 cannot accept.

In this way, the spiritual search reveals its triple reality: the rationalization of seductive gluttony, the pleasure of pleasing humanity as a recognition of one's own divine nature, and the compensation for a profound feeling of unworthiness.

Historical Character: José Martí

By serving others, I am saved.
—José Martí

Among the historical figures often cited as examples of the Social 7, Saint Francis of Assisi stands out. He has been a symbol of realization through this characteristic. He made his character his flag and managed to recover fundamental values within Christianity in the Catholic Church. The way he did this has always sparked controversy among those of us who have studied his life in search of inspiration, as at times he seems driven more by his passion than by his virtue. Additionally, Claudio Naranjo recently introduced the hypothesis that he might function closer to the Sexual 7. He also invited us to consider the figures of Rabindranath Tagore and José Martí, the latter being the subject of this chapter.

José Martí is the shining hero of Cuban emancipation. The titles "Apostle of Independence" and "Teacher" are often used to describe him. It is not surprising, as he was a person of extraordinary dedication, as will be seen shortly. José Julián Martí Pérez was born in Havana, Cuba, then a Spanish colony, on January 28, 1853, to Spanish parents. He was the eldest and only boy, followed by seven sisters. Throughout their childhood and adolescence, the family had limited resources. As a child, he witnessed the mistreatment of Creoles, which sparked his indignation. He selflessly helped his father with agricultural work and, as a teenager, excelled as a student while also writing poetry and even a play at an early age.

In 1868, the Ten Years' War began, the first struggle for Cuba's independence, which ultimately ended in failure. In 1869, when he was barely sixteen years old, Martí became involved in an incident in which the military confiscated a letter he and some classmates had written, criticizing a third party for enlisting as a volunteer in the Spanish army to fight the independence fighters. During the trial, he declared, protecting his companions, that he was the only author of the letter. He was sentenced to six years in prison.

After a year, his father managed to get the authorities to change his sentence, and Martí was deported to Spain. Not only did he endure personal hardships, but the suffering he witnessed in other prisoners would never be forgotten. With one of the shackles that bound him, he molded a ring inscribed with "CUBA," which he would wear until his death.

In Spain, he studied and graduated in Civil Law and Philosophy and Letters. He courted several women and grew his love for theater. He wrote and kept in contact with Cubans and Spaniards sympathetic to the cause of Cuban independence. He lived austerely, earning little, and spent five years in Spain. Before returning to America at the age of twenty-two, he spent a few weeks in Paris, where he visited museums and even had an interview with Victor Hugo, the glory of French literature.

He soon settled in Mexico, where he was reunited with his family. He worked as a journalist and met Carmen Zayas, a Cuban from a wealthy family, whom he married in December 1877.

When Porfirio Díaz, a military leader, assumed the presidency of Mexico in 1877, Martí moved to Guatemala, where he worked as a professor of Literature and the History of Philosophy.

Wherever he resided, he won the favor of those he interacted with: charismatic, affable, simple, and intelligent without being pretentious, with a strong sense of ethics. He was always on the move, reading and writing extensively, engaging with the Spanish Golden Age, Greek classics, Shakespeare, Emerson, Balzac, and Baudelaire.

After the Ten Years' War, Martí returned to Havana in 1878, where his son, José Francisco, was born in November. He immediately focused on political action and soon assumed leadership responsibilities. In August 1879, a second uprising, the so-called Little War, broke out but ended in defeat within a year. Martí was arrested and again deported to Spain.

Within months, he moved to New York, staying at the guest house of Manuel Mantilla, a disabled man, and his wife, the Venezuelan Carmen Miyares (Carmita). In March 1880, Martí brought his wife and young son to New York. Although he loved them dearly, his commitment to the cause of Cuban independence conflicted with the attention and financial support Carmen required. After seven months, she realized that Martí chose Cuba over her and their son, so she returned to the island, where she received financial support from her father.

A week after Carmen's departure, Martí was elected to the Cuban Revolutionary Committee, where he quickly ascended to the presidency. In November of that year, María Mantilla Miyares was born, a daughter he held great affection for and referred to as his goddaughter. It is now certain that María was their daughter, and Martí and Carmita Miyares were emotional companions for each other.

In 1881, Martí moved to Venezuela, hoping to further the cause of Cuban emancipation. However, a text he wrote aroused suspicion from the president, the caudillo Antonio Guzmán Blanco. Martí, newly arrived, decided to return to New York, where he faced no such authorities.

In the 1880s, Martí gained widespread recognition across the continent through numerous journalistic chronicles sent from New York to important newspapers, totaling twenty across Latin America. His eloquence, diverse knowledge, and high ethical values captivated readers. He also published works of poetry, which critics widely praised, alongside a novel and translations.

In 1891, his wife permanently separated from him, and the following year, Martí, though hurt, left his positions as consul for Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay in New York and the presidency of the Literary Society to focus solely on his liberating mission. He founded, with other leaders in exile, the Cuban Revolutionary Party.

Between 1893 and 1894, using his reputation, Martí toured the United States and several countries in the Americas, establishing connections with former military leaders from both failed independence attempts, obtaining financial resources and weapons, and preparing for a new uprising. He believed this one should be swift, with minimal cost and, importantly, respect for the enemy.

However, the plan was discovered, and the ships intended for the landing of troops were seized. Despite this major setback, Martí convinced the Party leadership to continue. He sent instructions to Cuba, and the uprising took place in February 1895. Martí arrived in April and immediately contacted key rebel leaders. He was recognized as the brain, heart, and soul of the independence struggle. The military leaders decided to award him, a non-military figure, the rank of Major General—the highest rank—for his merits and contributions.

On May 19, in Dos Ríos, Martí was shot three times in a minor skirmish. Three years later, the uprising culminated in Cuba's independence from Spain.

Traits of Enneagram 7 and the Social Subtype

Although in the previous review you can clearly see, it seems to me, a set of traits of Enneagram type E7 and the Social subtype, this section will further highlight these traits and add information that will more clearly delineate that profile.

In just forty-two years of life, José Martí wrote hundreds of articles and journalistic chronicles, along with works of an educational nature. He was in charge of several literary or cultural publications, including one aimed at children. He translated novels from English and French, published conferences and political essays, two poetry books of great artistic repercussion (Ismaelillo and Versos Sencillos), a novel, and two plays. A book of poetry and a play were published posthumously, along with his diaries, letters, and other materials. The edition of his complete works exceeds 12,000 pages arranged in 27 volumes—a production that is, by the way, surprising.

He wrote with brilliance and propriety on topics ranging from criticism of American caudillos to the moral superiority of democracy (for and by the people), from new ways of raising cattle to floriculture, from New York Christmas celebrations to a day of boxing, from praise of Walt Whitman's poetry to that of French Impressionist painting (artistic projects resisted in those years).

Using the words of the Mexican essayist Enrique Krauze, it is clear that Martí was carried away by a voracious ambition to know. Curiosity, intellectual restlessness, and the diversity of his interests are characteristics reflected in his written production and numerous readings.

Generativity is a sign of health in this character. In his sickest phases, the person functioning as a Social 7 remains anchored to fantasies, castrated by their lack of strength to carry out projects and frustrated by their inability to express themselves in the world, unable to sustain the earthquake that challenges their narcissism by showing themselves. It is clear that José Martí was able to overcome this obstacle and put himself in the world. In his fruitfulness, we can see the classic multiplicity of talents and the synthetic, panoramic vision that leans toward variety rather than depth. This way of functioning is more akin to that of a journalist than a novelist. An interesting note is that both Martí and Chekhov, as well as Tagore, stand out in literature for their short stories—an art form that demands synthesis and doesn't require great internal journeys of characters but rather shock effects and the ability to photograph reality.

On the other hand, testimonies abound from those who had the opportunity to hear him give lectures. They describe his oratory as persuasive, bewitching, and electric, in which his gift of words, charm, desire for admiration, and frequent seduction are appreciated. As a good social, his object of desire is the group. Lacking the strength of a wolf, he uses his fox abilities. The strange thing in a Social 7 would be to find one without social skills, since, as we’ve seen, that is the arena of their neurotic salvation.

Regarding seduction in its direct meaning, there is a growing consensus among researchers that it was less contained than was previously believed. It has long been known that Martí was sensitive to female beauty, that he had an extramarital relationship with Carmita Miyares (which both hid as much as possible), and that he exerted a certain attraction—perhaps involuntarily—on the Guatemalan María Granados, who was chaste and met a tragic end. This occurred during his courtship with his future wife.

However, it is only in recent years that many doubts have been cleared up regarding his paternity of María Miyares. In 2016, Cuban researcher Yamil Díaz pointed out that Martí had romantic relationships with several women during that time. In short, there are reasons to recognize him as a seductive and enchanting man who, however, repressed himself to a certain extent. This is another central point in determining the health of the Social 7: their intimate relationships. Little can be deduced from Martí's entire body of work about his intimate life, unlike, for example, Kafka's. Martí speaks of the world and for the world, and it is difficult for us to dive into waters about which he says little. Being able to live their sexuality freely would be a sign of maturation, while living it in secret and through infidelity would signal stagnation in their development. This character dissects intimate relationships to direct all their energy toward the world. Little do we know what Martí did with it.

Martí was a sociable individual who, perhaps stimulated by the mission he imposed on himself, easily captured sympathies and friendships. But at the same time, there are records of periods when he avoided contact with others and was markedly withdrawn, exhibiting the withdrawal often strongly present in the subtype.

Statements from close friends and the sheer magnitude and variety of his activities show that he was a formidable worker. For example, at thirty, he simultaneously held the position of consul, wrote newspaper articles, composed poetry, and maintained intense political activity. It is said that he worked eighteen-hour days. For Martí, the mission came before pleasure or rest, as always happens in the Social subtype. Strategist, politician, lawyer, lecturer, journalist, teacher, poet, novelist, and playwright—he embodied the joy and sacrifice that came with dedication. It is a character deeply attached to the social realm, where he finds his reason for being. Disguised as sacrifice and dedication, there is his narcissistic compensation and idealism.

At the same time, he was generous, helpful, and particularly affectionate with children. For example, in a letter to his mother from prison at age sixteen, he wrote:

“I need nothing, except from time to time two or three reales to drink coffee. However, when you go without seeing your family or anyone you love, you might as well spend a day without drinking coffee. Dad gave me five or six reais on Monday. I gave two or three alms, I lent two.”

Generosity, cancellation of one's own needs, and austerity.

He was certainly very austere. He dressed modestly, and although he loved good food, he usually ate little. He wasn’t tall, was thin, and is believed to have weighed no more than sixty kilos. In his continuous transfers, he tolerated discomfort well. Frugal and ascetic, he was used to living with little or the bare minimum. It seems that the burden of responsibility, which was given to him as the firstborn, operated throughout his life. He could not refrain from the needs of the group and would always put them ahead of his own. This was a bargain for the community he served but a disaster for himself and his family.

Especially on the political level, he was not only industrious but also permanently collaborative. He sought to unite wills and cooperate in any task that could be useful. Initially, he didn’t seek leadership, but his intelligence, magnetism, organizational skills, and iron commitment made him stand out immediately and inevitably led him to leadership positions. In the mid-1880s, he had clear reservations about what he considered the personal excesses of Máximo Gómez and Antonio Maceo, military leaders of the two failed libertarian attempts. However, Martí persevered, so that in the final war of 1895, Gómez was appointed chief general of the independence army and Maceo his lieutenant.

Martí did not have the highest ranking position, but he was the one who exercised the main leadership. In other words, he was the sneaky leader directing the leader, typical of the subtype.

It never ceases to amaze, on the other hand, that the man who could not secure a decent income to support his family was such an efficient collector and provider of the considerable financial, logistical, and weapons resources necessary for the final uprising. His idealism came before the needs of his loved ones. His unique planning ability was deployed for almost a decade, during which he convinced dozens of patriots, soldiers, and wealthy individuals to participate, traveling to different countries to do so, even obtaining a large sum from General Porfirio Díaz, president of Mexico, who had previously been reluctant. His wife and son, as deeply as he loved them, did not come first in his life. However, he was certainly a magnificent and disciplined organizer, a lucid foresight, and an ingenious provider in what he considered his life mission. To his great friend Fermín Valdés, he confided: “The truth is [...] that I only live for my land.”

He lived for his land to achieve freedom—freedom that, in the intimate and personal sphere, is one of the marked desires of the Enneatype and also explains its characteristic anti-authoritarian inclination. Lastly, if one pays attention to what is central and constant in Martí's behavior, it should be noted that he said of himself: “My job is to sing all that is beautiful, ignite enthusiasm for all that is noble, admire and admire all that is great.” He added, “Above man, only the sky.” Carlos Márquez, one of his main biographers, maintained that Martí, already in his adolescence, wanted to be good, wanted to be educated, wanted to be free.

Ezequiel Martínez Estrada, another prominent biographer, emphasized:

“He was animated by the Sermon on the Mount and by a temperament of metallic consistency and transparency of rock crystal [...] Conduct incorruptible and incorruptible, honesty, haughtiness, loyalty and frankness, decorum and probity; frugality bordering on asceticism.”

That is to say, an idealist, hungry for nobility and virtue, almost a saint or, as custom has consecrated him, an apostle. In the words of essayist Enrique Krauze, Martí embodied the sacrificial myth: He sacrificed his individual interests, his artistic talent, his economic well-being, and even his wife and son at the altar of the country. In his play Abdala, a creation from his adolescence, he had written: "Do you think there is something more sublime than the homeland?" He sacrificed his life for the greater good he considered superior: the freedom of Cuba. And to his misfortune, he succeeded. The Cubans are very grateful to him. He died in a skirmish at the age of forty-two.

Cinematographic and Literary Examples

Literary Example

By Lluís Fusté

Timon of Athens
Author: William Shakespeare, 1606-1608

The search has not been easy. The main difficulty lies in the lack of exterior drama in the trait. The Social 7 has a rather intense inner life, but their external life tends to be conventional, despite this. The great adventures are lived in their mind more than in reality, as shown by writers of the stature of Jules Verne or Anton Chekhov—possibly individuals who functioned from the traits of a Social 7. This type is situated between being helpful or kind on the outside, but too cowardly or far-sighted to take on positions of tension in relationships with others or with the world. Novelists and playwrights often use this character as a secondary one. In its most neurotic version, this character just doesn't have the qualities of a leading figure.

This sets it apart from the traits of a sexual or Self-Preservation 7, which exhibit more dramatic excess in their relations with the world and whose actions tend to be less conventional. The Self-Preservation subtype has that strategic selfishness and mafia-like behavior, though without reaching the excesses of an E8, which makes it more appealing to artists. The Sexual 7 transgresses both sexual and mystical conventions, possesses an artistic flair, and has the ability to captivate others with their charm. Both types express a greater drama and, therefore, are more likely to appear in novels, movies, and series.

Below, we present some examples that illustrate the transformation work of people who have developed a Social 7 character.

The first example is the play Timon of Athens by Shakespeare. This work has a simple plot, far removed from his great tragedies, and seems to convey a very clear message. It tells the story of Timon, a wealthy Athenian known for his extraordinary generosity to his friends.

The story begins when Timon receives several people in need of help at his house. He pays the debts of one person, provides a dowry for another, and buys a jewel at an inflated price from a third. Only Apemantus, a companion of his, points out the neurotic nature of the scene, to which Timon responds with humor and benevolence.

This opening scene is followed by a lavish banquet, during which Timon’s guests sing his praises. He always responds humbly, with phrases like, “I have often wanted to see myself poor, to get closer to you! We are born to do good. And what good is more ours than the riches of our friends?” or, “I would like to distribute kingdoms among my friends without ever getting tired.” He gives gifts and money to all who ask him. Meanwhile, Apemantus continues to criticize the grotesqueness of the situation, where kindness toward friends has no limits. At the end of the first act, his servant Flavio reveals that Timon is broke.

In the second act, Timon realizes his lack of money. Rather than worrying, he sees this as an excellent opportunity to receive affection and generosity from the friends he has always helped. As the scenes unfold, we see how different friends come up with excuses to refuse to return the help they once received, and Timon's servants return empty-handed.

Meanwhile, the creditors’ servants urgently visit Timon's house. Seeing himself abandoned by his friends, Timon becomes furious and decides to call one last banquet, inviting all of them. Once they are seated, he serves them a meal consisting of boiling water and stones. To the guests’ surprise, Timon begins insulting and denigrating them for not helping him. The dinner ends abruptly, with the guests fleeing in panic as Timon is branded as crazy, “One day he sends us diamonds, another, stones!” The host then insults Athens and its inhabitants, retreating to the woods to avoid contact with humanity.

In the forest, Timon discovers a treasure, part of which he decides to rebury, saying, “Damned metal, whore of humanity, who brings disorder to the nations, return to the land where Nature put you!” He encounters General Alcibiades and his troops, who are on their way to conquer Athens. Timon decides to give him part of the treasure to aid in the destruction of the city. Apemantus arrives to confront his newfound misanthropy, and they engage in a bitter dialogue about Timon's response to humanity’s shadow.

He is also visited by thieves, artists, and former servants, all of whom receive the same treatment: insults and curses. Even the senators of Athens come to his cave, offering him the command of the city to help them defend against Alcibiades’ attack. Timon mocks them by offering them a tree to hang themselves from.

Timon dies alone. Alcibiades, who has entered Athens as a victor, promises to honor Timon's tomb by the seashore and to recite the epitaph Timon left: “Here lies Timon who, alive, hated all men.”

Shakespeare presents us with a polar, transparent, and allegorical character, questioning boundless self-sacrifice and generosity, while denouncing the perverse games of society.

The work defines the singular madness of the Social 7, which we have described as the compulsion to be extraordinarily generous, helpful, and self-sacrificing, driven by an unconscious narcissistic motivation. Timon of Athens illustrates gluttony aimed at creating an image of extraordinary goodness. His passion for self-sacrifice, to the point of cannibalism, is expressed in an act that elevates his perceived superiority over the rest of humanity. Apemantus describes this in the second scene: “I suffer seeing so many people watering their delicacies with the blood of a single man. And it’s so crazy that it stimulates them more!” Generosity is seen as a sign of true aristocracy, as the original meaning of the word “generous” was “of high birth.” Timon loses his material possessions by investing in his image of kindness. He harbors the delusion that by giving everything, he will receive everything in return.

In the first scenes, we see him intoxicated by generosity, giving what he doesn’t have and even what is not requested. As a true narcissist, he confuses flattery with friendship and absorbs the smoke rising from the eyes and mouths of his flatterers. He feeds them material possessions. His overflowing passion is encapsulated in this phrase: “I would like to distribute kingdoms among my friends without ever getting tired.” The world, as voiced by Flavio, responds: “Never was there a spirit so crazy by dint of being good.”

Shakespeare here denounces the passion for unchecked generosity, which disregards the instinct for self-preservation and hides a utopian fantasy of human relations. The problem is not goodness itself, but the place from which it stems: naive, narcissistic, weak, and impassioned. As in Greek tragedies, this morality tale warns us against excess—hubris—that demands the material sacrifice of oneself.

In the scene where Timon is pleased to have lost his possessions so he can test the strength of friendship, we observe another trait of the Social 7: naivete. Though cunning is one of the character’s traits, it has a weak spot. Due to a combination of idealism, sensitivity, narcissism, and difficulty expressing his aggressive side, Timon has convinced himself that people are mostly honest and direct, and will respect the rules of the game. This idealized fantasy of honesty makes him vulnerable to cynics and impostors who exploit his weak point: his social image.

This makes him a vulnerable political animal, as he struggles to negotiate directly and selfishly with others (unlike the Self-Preservation 7). In his desire to be seen as a saint, he gives everything to others, not out of kindness, but because he is unable to handle situations where he must defend his own interests. It gives him more narcissistic pleasure to give than to receive. Others take advantage of his generosity. He is a good leader when he must distribute goods, mediate conflicts, or offer advice, but he loses himself in his need to please everyone and in his aversion to friction, so common in human affairs. This is evident in Timon’s shift from abundance to lack.

The work also provides insight into the emotional pain management of the Social 7 when frustrated. We see that Timon lacks the resources to deal with his pain, as the methods he uses leave him stuck in it. Several of these methods appear in the work, which we list below:

Abandonment

Timon decides to leave Athens, feeling hurt and frustrated. His solution is to leave the frustrating situation because he lacks the aggressive resources to reverse it and the maturity to face reality. This makes him a professional dropout. It’s difficult for him to learn when he has a narcissistic wound: he is pushed to change the scene. Additionally, this is one of his favorite tactics to hurt others, as it is one of the most painful actions when performed by others. We might think that what hurts Timon most is that his friends abandoned him, and all his generosity was meant as a shield against future abandonment.

Escapism

Timon flees into nature and, above all, into solitude. In the forest, he pronounces a sentence that marks a direction of transformation for the Social 7: "Earth, give me roots." Leaving the city, from the social fabric in which he desperately seeks a reflection of extraordinariness and welcome, allows him to land on his narcissistic journey. Freed from the gaze of his own, he can look at himself. This is what has been called the schizoid defense of E7.

But the forest can also be a metaphor for the flight towards the ideal reality, because it is lost in the game between men. Therefore, it is a place of stagnation for a character that hurts so much socially. In the case of Timon, it will be a one-way ticket since he will not perform the necessary wisdom on his trip to the forest to be able to return to the city. Flight and misanthropy are the solutions when you have not been able to assimilate the experience and grow.

Hatred

This is the answer that floods the second part of the work. From the madness of generosity to the madness of hate, it could be Timon's polar journey. And it shows a very denied aspect in this Enneatype, which is sold as a transcended of low passions. Hate, in this case, instead of being a stage of the cross, becomes the final station. Hate in the Social 7 appears as a response to the other for not knowing what to do with the hurt felt. Having difficulty circulating anger, it quickly rots and becomes anger and then hate. We see how Timon goes from philanthropy to misanthropy, both as neurotic responses. The Social 7 also has little resilience to face negative emotions, so, as seen in the work, he runs the risk of getting stuck in them.

Self-pity

In the last pages, we can see another defense mechanism of this character, which is self-pity and self-indulgence. He can remain in the phase of self-pity as a form of self-pity, instead of recognizing his own responsibility and thus being able to grow, as happens with the protagonist of King Lear. He does not become a tragic hero because he lacks the inner resolution that allows human beings to see themselves as they are.

Cinematographic Example

By Lluís Fusté

Living is Beautiful

Director: Frank Capra
Year: 1946

The protagonist of the film How Beautiful It Is to Live, by Frank Capra, seems to us to be a good example of the functioning of a Social 7. George Bailey, as the character is called, is a good guy who time and time again decides to postpone his desire to travel and eat the world when confronted by situations that are triggered every time he is about to leave. Whenever he has to choose between his plans and what he considers to be his duties in favor of others, he chooses the latter, ferociously postponing his intimate desires. Isn't that one of the capital traits of those whom the psychology of the Enneatypes designates with the term sacrifice?

The film, which lasts 130 minutes, takes place on December 24 between the sky and a small town called Bedford Falls. Several inhabitants pray to God that night for George Bailey ("I owe everything to George, help him sir" is the first sentence heard in the film). Accessing these prayers, God instructs Saint Joseph to send an angel to help him, because in a few minutes he will try to commit suicide.

Saint Joseph assigns the mission to Clarence, an angel of little intelligence but with a great virtue: the pure faith of a child. Clarence is pleased to be called since, if he fulfills his mission well, he will be able to receive the wings that he has been waiting for two hundred years. As he prepares to descend to Earth, Saint Joseph teaches Clarence about George's life from his childhood. We then attend a flashback that covers most of the film.

George Bailey from a young age was noble and helpful, and early conceived the dream of leaving the miserable town in which he lived since birth and achieving university studies, travelling the world and dedicating himself to the construction of great works, such as airports or extraordinary skyscrapers. But fate and his invariable disposition to postpone himself in pursuit of others, prevent him from carrying out his projects.

At the age of twelve, he saves his little brother Harry from drowning in a frozen river and shortly after prevents the pharmacist he works for from accidentally filling a poison prescription to a patient. As an adult, having finished his secondary studies, he prepares a trip to Europe before going to the University in New York.

But suddenly his father dies and the Credit and Construction Company that he directed with altruistic criteria, for the benefit of the low-income sectors of the city, is adrift. To prevent unscrupulous county tycoon Henry Potter from taking over the Company, George decides to postpone his plans and temporarily take over management of the company. Meanwhile, his brother Harry completes his university studies in New York with George's money.

When Harry returns, he does so married and with an excellent job offer from his father-in-law in another city. Although he is willing to replace George, this ultimately does not happen.

Despite clumsy personal reluctance, George finally gives in to his love for Mary, a charming girl who has been in love with him since childhood. As newlyweds head to the airport for their honeymoon in a taxi, a strange turmoil in the city startles them. The banks have suffered a financial bankruptcy that can drag down your company, as the small shareholders are demanding the return of their money. To avoid bankruptcy, George decides to use the money earmarked for his honeymoon and lend it to shareholders, contravening to his own detriment what is established in the contracts.

Over the years, the company has achieved significant milestones in its construction sector, benefiting the humbler areas of Bedford Falls. George himself, however, lives with his four sons on just enough to get by. When Potter, the petty and insatiable tycoon, realizes that George's company is becoming competition for him in the construction market, he offers to manage all his businesses, with a salary ten times what George currently makes. George hesitates before the offer, but ultimately decides that accepting would be selling out, and he refuses.

On December 24, things take a turn. Uncle Billy, a company associate, goes to deposit the company’s money in the bank, but during an argument with Potter, he accidentally hands him the envelope containing the money. When Potter discovers this, he maliciously decides to keep quiet about it, knowing it will lead to the company’s bankruptcy and jail time for the Baileys.

When George finds out that Uncle Billy has lost the money, he falls into despair. He asks Potter for help, but Potter, of course, denies him. In his anguish, George contemplates suicide, reasoning that at least his life insurance could help his family. At that moment, Clarence, the angel, appears... but let’s leave the outcome for later.

George Bailey's functioning as a Social 7 is evident in a variety of scenes. It begins with his idealism and naivety, as seen when he goes to buy a suitcase and excitedly declares, "I don’t want a suitcase for one night, but for a thousand and one nights!" He adds that it must be large enough to fit many labels: Rome, Baghdad, Samarkand... Later, he asks his uncle Billy, "Do you know what the three most exciting sounds are?" When Billy suggests something prosaic, George responds, "Anchor chains, an airplane engine, and the sound of a locomotive." These early scenes show him as an enthusiastic, dreamy, kind, empathic, and naive person—a good boy.

As a child, he notices that Mr. Gower, the pharmacist he works for, has received a telegram about the death of his son. Distraught, Mr. Gower turns to alcohol, and, in his drunken state, he accidentally includes poison in a prescription. George notices the mistake and, confused, delays the delivery. When the pharmacist receives a call about the medication, he becomes furious with George and strikes him. The boy defends himself with the following words:

"Mr. Gower, you don’t know what you messed up with the capsules. I know you’re not really mad at me. You’re sad about the telegram. You put something wrong in the capsules. It’s not your fault, Mr. Gower. Look, and you’ll see what you did. I saw the bottle where you got the powder. I told you it’s poison. I know you feel bad."

Mr. Gower realizes his mistake and, overcome with emotion, hugs George, who reassures him, "Mr. Gower, I won’t tell anyone. I know how you feel. I won’t tell. Let me die if I do!" The next scene shows an adult George buying the suitcase he wants for his travels. To his surprise, Mr. Gower has already paid for the largest one as a gift. Clearly, his former employer feels deeply grateful to George.

The protagonist can act in such a noble way, as he does with Mr. Gower, that it seems impossible not to inspire gratitude in others. This reflects a characteristic of this subtype: altruism as a means of eliciting recognition. Additionally, in his interaction with Mr. Gower, George shows his ability to inhibit his own aggressiveness, defending himself with words and displaying remarkable empathy, understanding, and commitment for a twelve-year-old boy. He also exhibits the ability to push aside, at least temporarily, his own needs, emotions, and desires—traits commonly found in the Social 7.

Although the film generally portrays an extroverted and enthusiastic George, there are moments where his more socially competent character comes through, marked by seriousness, restraint, and austerity. For instance, during a family dinner, his father tells him, "You were born old, George." He is also depicted as not being a good dancer and, in his own words, lacking the physique of an athlete. His interests, rather, lie in different directions.

In two or three instances, it is suggested that George is a good reader. In an important scene, after sorrowfully leaving his younger brother’s wedding celebration (as it forces him to postpone his own plans of leaving the city), George is seen walking alone to the public library.

In the same section of the film, we can appreciate his great capacity for self-restraint. The young Mary has returned from studying in New York, and although she had been courted by Sam, a friend of both, George's mother knows that Mary is in love with her son and could be a wonderful wife for him. She encourages George to visit her, but George resists, not wanting to interfere between Mary and Sam. Without realizing how, he ends up walking outside Mary’s house. When she sees him, she invites him inside. George behaves awkwardly and even rudely. Although it is clear to the viewer that George is as attracted to Mary as she is to him, his confusion stems from an inner struggle to suppress the impulse to get closer to her, since his dear friend has an interest in the same woman. How noble George is, and how capable of repressing his own desires, if it’s for the benefit of others!

But fate lends a hand. Just as George is about to leave upset from Mary’s house, she receives a call from Sam in New York. The shot shows Sam with another woman; he is calling to propose a business deal to Mary. When he learns that George is there, Sam decides to inform them both at the same time, forcing them to place their faces next to each other to hear the earpiece. The scene is delightful: we witness George’s final moments of struggle. When Sam says, "It’s the chance of a lifetime," George, with heartbreak, fury, and grief, succumbs and passionately kisses Mary, declaring, "I don’t even want to start any business... I just want to do what I want."

George is a modest and unassuming man. When preparing for his trip to Europe, a friend is surprised to learn that George will be traveling on a ship that transports cattle. George casually mentions that he likes cattle. Later, when he marries, he genuinely enjoys the simple, magical wax Mary prepares on their wedding night, and then settles down to live in an old, renovated house.

With the arrival of four children, George manages to live on little money and even resists Potter’s offer to increase his income several times over. However, as is characteristic of the Social subtype, this is not entirely genuine. When the film narrates the events during the Second World War, we see that, unlike many others, George is tasked with minor, unheroic duties, such as collecting rubber and scrap metal. He does these tasks without any joy. His not-so-secret yearning for greatness makes him uncomfortable.

Similarly, near the end, as George falls into crisis, he expresses a series of judgments that seem not only to stem from the difficult moment he is going through but also hint at deeper, unspoken frustrations. When one of his sons mentions a neighbor’s new car, George irritably responds, "Isn’t the one we have good enough?"

A few moments later, during an argument with the husband of one of his children’s teachers, he reveals a deep wound for no direct reason, anticipating an imaginary reproach: "Perhaps my children aren’t the best dressed or don’t have decent clothes, but..." And when he learns that his youngest daughter, Zuzu, has caught a cold, he bitterly complains to Mary: "It’s this house, I don’t know how we don’t all have pneumonia; it’s like living in a fridge." And he adds a key phrase: "Why do we have to live here in this miserable city?"

Indeed, George has never felt at home in Bedford Falls. Since he was a child, he imagined himself far from this small, provincial town, in pursuit of broader horizons and greatness. At dinner with his father, George had said, "I couldn’t spend the rest of my life locked up in a miserable office [referring to the company]. I feel like if I don’t get out of here, I’m wasting myself."

Here we see his nuclear narcissism again. George has never been able to accept his circumstances as they are and, deep down, he feels confined, which is very difficult for this subtype. He has always dreamed of an attractive future, one worthy of admiration from others. Time and again, fate put him at a crossroads that made his long-awaited departure difficult. Again and again, without anyone forcing him, obeying only his nature, he chose to postpone his plans and stay. His sense of responsibility and service to others always prevailed above his most intimate desires.

At this point, we can dig deeper, for the film clearly shows in three or four important scenes that his altruism is combined with a stubborn opposition to the unscrupulous Potter. There is a power struggle between them. The tycoon has a special interest in the Credit and Construction Company because it is the only important business in the county that he does not own. George zealously defends it for the same reason: it is a bastion of decency and community service. He is unwilling, under any circumstances, to submit to Potter's money or power.

What’s more, George is repulsed by Potter's use of his money and power. In this regard, the scene in which George first decides not to leave the city is revealing. The death of his father has recently prevented him from embarking on his planned trip to Europe, but he is about to finally leave to study in New York. It is then that the company’s board of directors asks him to take his father's place as executive secretary. George refuses, until the moment when he realizes that if he does not accept, Potter will take control, and the social function of the company will be lost. At that moment, a very close-up of George’s face shows how his expression changes completely: he is unable to tolerate such a thing happening. He accepts the charge.

The denouement not only exhibits George's personality traits but also some of the dynamism that can lead a Social 7 to hell, first, and to his return to life later in a more virtuous condition, in the precise sense in which the psychology of the Enneagram type postulates.

When Uncle Billy misplaces the company’s money, the company loses its financial solvency. "This means ruin, scandal, and jail," are the exact words George exclaims when he finds out. For anyone, it would be a difficult pill to swallow, but even more so for someone who has put all his efforts into helping others, sacrificing so much for the benefit of others. And it is clear that the checkmate to his public image—the “scandals”—matters a lot to George.

As if that were not enough, he goes to a bar where he, who is not a man to pray, raises a prayer to God, asking for help. At that moment, a parishioner recognizes him as the one with whom he had a telephone discussion a while before. Without saying a word, the parishioner’s husband knocks George down. George cries for help, and receives a blow in response. It is the coup de grace: he feels like a failure in front of his community, family, and friends. He can only expect the rejection of others. It is then that, without losing his inclination to sacrifice (since he has life insurance in mind), he directs his steps to the river to jump into the waters on a dark, snowy night.

Here we see how withdrawal as a solution and abandonment as a form of aggression against others take shape. When he is about to jump off a bridge, he sees that another person has fallen into the water, and the reader can guess what George ultimately did. While the clothes are drying in a lookout post, the other individual, Clarence, now in human form, confesses who he is and his mission. George naturally doesn’t believe him. At one point, he says to the angel: "I wish I had never been born." Clarence sees that this may be the way to help him. Using his supernatural power, he makes George visit the city as if he had never really been born.

Our protagonist discovers that Bedford Falls has changed its name and is now called Pottersville. He finds the grave of his brother Harry, who drowned as a child because he didn’t have his older brother to save him. In a dramatic sequence, George realizes that the city is full of clubs and brawlers. None of his friends or family recognize him, and it becomes clear that his life circumstances have either become much more difficult or his character has worsened, because George never existed.

When he finally meets Mary, who in this past life has become a gray, old maid, George can no longer resist and, in utter desperation, asks Clarence to give him back his troubled life, which he had renounced. Seeing that the city had morally degraded, and that many friends and relatives were worse off, and particularly feeling that he had lost his wife and children, was unbearable for him. He no longer wanted to lose his life. Now, he longed to get it back.

In the last few minutes, we witness a good example, in my opinion, of the manifestation of sobriety as a liberating virtue from the compulsive mechanics of Social 7. Clarence, of course, grants George's wish to get his life back, and we see him arrive at the entrance to the city. Reading the name of Bedford Falls again, he bursts with joy. He runs through the streets wishing everyone and everything a Merry Christmas, including Henry Potter. He arrives home and doesn’t care that the police are waiting to arrest him. He’ll go to jail, but he doesn’t shy away from it anymore; this is his village and his friends, the only thing that matters. In life, he does what he does. He is happy to get everything back to normal, including the problems.

However, while George was out overnight, word spread about the serious problem he was in, and the community en masse came to give him a cash grant that will get him out of jail. He thus receives fair compensation for his efforts, but first, he has had to go through an experience of death and rebirth that has allowed him to feel happy with the circumstances of his existence—something he had never really experienced in his entire life. What he lived through has allowed him to discover that he does not need to go to another place, nor fulfill dreams of greatness; meaning and happiness are in what you have, with its real limitations. With his family, with his low income, with his old house, in the same small, provincial town he has never left.

Cinematographic Example

Living is Easy with Closed Eyes
Directed by: David Trueba
Year: 2013

Finally, the most complex character we have found, who embodies the traits of a Social 7, is the protagonist of Living is Easy with Closed Eyes. The fact that he is the protagonist of this realistically made film allows us to see how this character handles himself in different situations and in private. Additionally, we hypothesize that the actor portraying him could function as a Social 7, due to his physical and energetic constitution.

An English teacher from a school for priests in 1960s Francoist Spain decides to go on a trip to meet John Lennon and ask him to include the lyrics of The Beatles' songs on the sleeve of their records.

In several scenes, we observe this neurotic motivation. This road movie starts by showing the protagonist in class with his students. He is the English teacher, bringing his students glimpses of another world—the Anglo-Saxon world—which, at that moment in the history of Spain, represents freedom and democracy. In that classroom of repressed, Francoist Spain, he is the light. As previously mentioned, the neurotic motivation of the Social 7 is to see oneself as extraordinary through an act of sacrifice or service. The job of a teacher, therefore, works well for him, as it allows him to enjoy solving many problems. In the class, he has a captive audience, whom he can impress with his charm and kindness. In the classroom, he is the guide, with an important mission and a silent, easily impressionable audience that can return the image of being extraordinary that soothes him. It’s a closed world, easy to manage, where he does not have to face reality or destabilizing conflicts, and where he enjoys a positive and kind social image. A good place for narcissists with wet gunpowder.

In another scene, he explains to the girl he’s sharing the trip with (to meet John Lennon) about his job as a teacher. He presents himself as a hero. His conscious motivation for the journey to meet Lennon is his passion to serve children and get The Beatles to publish their lyrics so they can learn English better. But constantly throughout the film, we see how his unconscious motivation—and his enjoyment—is to do something extraordinary and rub elbows with one of the cultural heroes of the time. He seeks in this experience of meeting Lennon the meaning and salvation of his mediocre life, trying to cover his reality with the sheet of fantasy and extraordinariness.

In the film, we see that the action of service/sacrifice is real. He endangers his way of life as a teacher to carry out his mission, in which the great beneficiaries will be others. It’s a mission without great dangers, but he lives as if it were in the Vietnam War, showing the quixotic aspect of this character. Within the Enneagram, we find many subtypes that display sacrificial or serving behaviors. What characterizes the Social 7 is compulsiveness in that behavior and the unconscious, neurotic motivation to appear extraordinary. Furthermore, this action of sacrifice does not annul him as a person, and the sacrifice is not total either.

Relationship with Authority

Several scenes in the film depict his relationship with authority. On the one hand, when it comes to the authority he considers evil—such as the priests and the police—he adopts an attitude of apparent self-assertion. He prefers apologizing to asking for permission, as seen when they become jealous at the cinema trying to get closer to Lennon, only to be caught by the competent authority.

With authority, it seems he lacks the strength to rebel directly, as shown when a priest strikes one of his students. Although he dislikes it, he doesn't dare to denounce the incident out of cowardice. It's not surprising that he works in an institution he doesn't believe in (a college for priests) while maintaining a proper attitude and enjoying the perks of being close to those in charge. He dreams of transforming the institution from within, but in reality, he is sheltered by it. The Social 7 often lacks the strength to transform and can end up succumbing to mediocrity, becoming a mere survivor. These traits make him a necessary collaborator for power, offering his cunning to earn a place.

To maintain this internal tension, he uses fantasy as a way to uphold an idealized self-image of goodness, well-being, and meaning. This is evident in scenes where, at night in his room, he tunes into English radio and transcribes Beatles songs. On the other hand, with the authority he considers good—John Lennon, in this case—he adopts a more horizontal dynamic. When they meet, he treats Lennon like another friend.

He has rehearsed this encounter with Lennon repeatedly, which allows him to manage his fear and use his seductive skills to approach Lennon non-aggressively and win his favor. He places the longed-for authority on the level of a peer, in a narcissistic movement, trying to relate to him. However, his narcissism plays tricks on him, as he doesn't respect the real distance that separates him from that authority.

Sense of Humor

Throughout the film, we see how the protagonist uses humor, which is central to his character. The Social 7 often leaves their interlocutor smiling, not laughing, but with a smile of well-being. Humor is the lubricant for their relationships with life and the world—a way to drain away anguish and tension and present themselves as harmless in interactions.

The protagonist makes frequent use of light humor. Although, at times, he allows himself to show aggression, as he does with the female protagonist when she isn't kind to him. His humor keeps him in relationships with a half-smile and a sense of well-being. One way he uses humor in relationships is by appearing ridiculous or outlandish. This is a way to avoid intimacy and, once again, try to prevent aggression from others by appearing harmless.

Good humor is linked to a compulsive optimism that portrays him as an enthusiast for life. When other characters reveal their wounds of pain, he showers them with his enthusiasm. In his brighter moments, this opens him up to the possibility of a daily spirituality, where even waking up in the morning can be an act full of beauty, as shown in the scene where he wakes his traveling companion with the phrase: "My mother taught me to turn on the sun. There you have it, turned on for you."

Relationship with Erotic Desire

On his journey to find Lennon, he meets a girl who is running away from home. She is pregnant by a stranger, and her family wants her to give up the child for adoption, but she wants to keep it. The protagonist is attracted to the girl from the start, but he doesn't act on his desire until he gets drunk one night. Then, he dares to ask for a kiss and even tells her he would marry her. This proposal sends her to sleep. Here, we see that his presentation to women reveals his masculinity, his aggression. He doesn't express his desire clearly or directly. Instead, he appears harmless, castrated, devious. He uses soft humor and presents himself as a romantic gentleman with his sexuality, castrated, too respectful, and intellectual. His behavior hides no animal instinct. So much control, coldness, and disconnection make him unattractive. The girl prefers the company of the young boy they are traveling with.

Relationship with Physical Violence

Another interesting subplot for the characterization of this character is his relationship with a farmer who violates his friend. After arriving at a hotel, the boy he is traveling with is attacked by a peasant, who cuts his long hair. Upon learning about this, the teacher confronts the farmer, asking for an explanation, and the farmer slaps him. This reveals his compulsive pacifism. He thinks of himself as a pacifist by choice, but in reality, he is one by obligation, as he has no means to defend himself against someone who does not accept dialogue.

The transformation in this area is that the Social 7 will eventually raise their voice and fists to confront those who don't understand any other language but physical aggression. In the film, the professor returns to the farmhouse and destroys the farmer's tomato crop right under his nose.

Idealism

The film also accurately portrays this central aspect of the Social 7. The very motivation for his trip seems fueled by an unattainable ideal. What's interesting is how we see this idealism, which he uses to mask certain aspects of life, sometimes serves as a driving force that allows him to achieve things others may not even see as possible.

The professor manages to speak with Lennon, and the lyrics of the songs are published on the next Beatles album, just as he had dreamed. This shows that within the ideal self, there are two parts: the tyrannical ideal, which punishes us with an unattainable goal, and the driving ideal, which presents us with a possible goal that forces us to grow. The professor's trip to meet Lennon belongs to the first type of ideal. His idealism also extends to Lennon. And like all neurotics, by understanding his altar, we can understand what he yearns for: Lennon is the artist—free, bohemian, brave—the extraordinary being that every Social 7 aspires to become.

Jokes and Vignettes

A Joke

A very pious Hebrew, devout and observant of all the commandments, goes to the Temple one Sabbath morning, walking the path that separates his house from the place of prayer. After several hours of prayer, while returning to his modest room, seeking to concentrate on the reflection of the sacred texts and the teachings received in the temple, as well as on the questions of the soul and not on all the daily problems that forge the prison of his spirit, destiny surprises him. Suddenly, while walking down the street, he trips over a wallet full of money. There, his delicate financial situation appears: the bills to pay, the hardships he's been through, and his eternal struggle to make ends meet. But it's the Sabbath — the holy day when money cannot be focused on. What should he do then?
He decides to ask God for an answer, a guide on how to act in such a terrible situation. He thinks, thinks, thinks... And then, miracle! It's Sabbath all over the world, except in that square meter where he and the wallet are... Thursday!

Transformation Process and Therapeutic Recommendations

"If we lived madness and followed it, it would become wisdom."
— Claudio Naranjo

The first step to initiate transformation is awareness. It may seem trivial to say it; however, it is an act that demands authentic humility. The difficulty does not lie so much in identifying the character traits typical of the Social 7 and attributing them to oneself, but in giving up manipulating them and accepting the shadow of the character.

The deep identification with his idealized image will lead the Social 7 to easily accept aspects of his character such as the search for holiness, kindness, compassion, and altruism. Thus, he may easily locate himself on the enneagram map proposed by Claudio Naranjo. The real difficulty lies in going beyond those traits, which are intimately perceived as better and advantageous within a path of psycho-spiritual growth, and overcoming that image constructed with so much pride, searching for the narcissistic core that sustains that attitude.

In this first phase, the experience of working in a group of the same subtype is fundamental because it activates the character's first demon: frustration. The group promotes a process of reflecting on others that normalizes, evidences the impossibility of differentiating oneself within a group of peers, and exposes the competitive need to stand out as extraordinary within the group.

Starting from the frustration, it is possible to observe the different behaviors with which the Social 7 avoids the emotional contact they activate to avoid the pain that derives from it: devaluation of the group, the task, and the rules; isolation; compensation; deviation toward gambling and cynicism. The repetition of analogous behaviors, apparently light and fatuous, gradually reveals the passive-aggressive and destructive charge, circumscribing the basic neurotic need: the search for visibility as an extraordinary being.

“I realized how tedious it was for people to be with someone who thought he always had an answer for everything and who seemed to fear nothing. He seemed to want to use all my sarcasm for the sole purpose of alienating anyone and thus finally ensure a 'prosperous solitude.' I also realized that my disbelief was not at all passive; quite the opposite. Behind my 'good boy' face hides a leviathan who tried to add people to fatten his dark and hopeless world. And one day I also saw that in my own children and in the avoided depression that I had wanted to instill in their little hearts, luckily without being very successful. They and my wife have always been my real saviors, the only ones who managed to remove the clouds from that sunless sky that lived in me for so many years.” (Diego)

Once this first layer of neurotic behavior has been cleared, it is essential to look for what lies behind it: the attempt to avoid pain. One must intentionally renounce self-description as neurotic and open to an authentic biographical narrative. The first thing is to demystify childhood itself. Telling others about one's biographical sufferings, describing the violations and deprivations of one's own being, and beginning to open a compassionate door toward one's own childhood vulnerability is a different step from simply manifesting the endured suffering of a neurotic type — the painful melancholy on which the Social 7 feeds so much.

Coming into contact with one's past pain is the first act of "conscious suffering" that the Social 7 needs for its evolution. Revealing one's being allows one to go through the first doors: arrogance hidden as false humility, shame, fear of rejection, and the admission of needs.

“I told myself that I started the therapeutic process out of intellectual curiosity and a need to change jobs. When asked about my childhood in the first sessions, my answer was that I had had a very happy childhood. That was stated in the manual with which I presented myself to the world. It had never let me tell the truth of what I had experienced. Neither myself nor others. It took me two years to put a 'but' into my childhood. And for several more years, I had to understand that I started the psychotherapeutic process because the life I had invented for myself had been broken, and I was depressed and disoriented.” (Luis)

Self-Observation

The change of character requires patience, trust, and a certain amount of discipline — resources with which the Social 7 is not endowed. It is useful to train in making contact with one's own character structure and intentionally attempting to act out alternative behaviors. It is not about changing, but rather simulating, a "as if" that allows the mechanisms of one's own character to be revealed little by little.

Only the gradual knowledge and testing of the character in the face of its repeated traps can motivate the Social 7 for a real change, which involves a profound process of restructuring the internal intrapsychic balances.

Perceiving loneliness, isolation, basic distrust, and the intrinsic devaluation of emotional and relational self- or hetero-manipulation mechanisms, fully understanding the level of unnecessary (neurotic) suffering that this character self-inflicts, are required steps to authentically found motivations for change.

One of the first therapists who attended me asked me, after reading my autobiography: “The pain. Where do you have the pain?” (Luis)

The Social 7 has a neurotic drive for improvement, a longing for holiness, and a neurotic aversion to painful frustration. These three elements, coupled with the tendency to filter experience in the light of identification with its idealized representation, create character armor that hinders the possibility of real change. Indulgence, quackery, and the yearning for holiness work together to maintain the status quo.

Any potentially transforming element is neutralized in harmony with the belief system, through a work of intellectual assimilation and ethical and moral relativization. Very quickly, the Social 7s know what they have to do and how they have to be to manifest the change. Their strategic mind leads them to sabotage themselves, unconsciously disguising their internal reality. Keep in mind that the defense mechanisms are sophisticated and not at all obvious for this character. Breaking the compulsion to bend and rationalize, and opening up to feeling, are sometimes insurmountable obstacles in the short term.

In order to avoid this intrinsic tendency of the character structure, it is necessary, in the first phase, simply to put oneself to the test: constantly exercise doubt about what one says and thinks. Act and consciously observe the functioning of the character and seek, as a support base to get out of the character structure, coherence between the two worlds: the sensitive-emotional and the intellectual, the intimate and the public.

Meditation and the Body

We have extensively described how the use of the mind is the Achilles' heel for this character structure, which is so airy and prone to mystification. It is almost intuitive to root the transformation work in the body. Feel the hunger. Feel the emptiness. A valid help comes from meditation: panoramic attention to all somatic and mental events allows the Social 7 to observe the breadth of distracting strategies available to their body.

"My first step on the path of transformation was a ten-day vipassana meditation course in the Goenka tradition. The proposal is to lead a monastic life: get up at four, meditate ten hours a day, not speak, not write, not socialize... What attracted me was the extraordinary nature of the proposal and the possibility of earning the medal for completing it. I didn't even know what the course was about. It was the first time in my life that I stopped and began to observe what happened to me every day. I left the course with the medal for my ego and also with a fracture in my armor that forced me to continue working on myself." (Luis)

The discipline of holding on to the breath can gradually reduce attachment to transient phenomena. In meditation, the Social 7 tends to produce visions and follow its imaginative mind in mystical prospects, losing connection with the here and now. In daily practice, reeducation is useful to help one listen to their own body in terms of physiological needs: sleep, hunger, tiredness, sexual desire, and physical pain. Introducing a discipline of monitoring these somatic sensations and basic physiological needs is essential.

Begin to nurture yourself by cultivating, through the exercise of sobriety, a taste for things and the enjoyment of what is present. Cultivate sensuality and a connection with the body, which can become a guide for the satisfaction of needs anchored in the here and now. Meditation allows you to begin to distinguish between neurotic and real needs.

Punctual and panoramic attention to the body activates a balancing mechanism against the mind’s superpower in the Social 7, progressively developing an antidote to flight and evasion. First, listen to the body, feel it, and later discover its needs and potentialities.

"I cannot say if this is of a certain Enneatype, but being able to enjoy the body immediately connects us with the basic instincts that we have. To think that I can integrate myself from the consciousness of my body, awakening the pleasure and pain of my body, realizing what I like, being able to be attentive and discover the bodily sensations when I don't like them. Being more attentive to my corporeality has given me a sense of hope; it is like having found a meaning in life." (Xavier)

Casual activities that tend to reduce the body's overall arousal level and help develop specific attention to changes, even subtle ones, in vital parameters, such as yoga or tai chi, are useful. The connection with one’s body helps retake the compass of life in search of real satisfaction, giving greater possibilities of connecting with one’s childlike dimension.

"Today I discovered that movement, anger, or strength is a good thing that my life needs. Trusting my instinct gives me a sense of authenticity because I don't hold back and swallow things. It's like meditation: to abandon oneself in the breath and then let it go, solarize and realize, live and expand." (Xavier)

The Mind

A difficult task for the Social 7 is learning to observe how their mind moves, recognizing the strategies, traps, and illusions, and, above all, not getting trapped in the labyrinths and mirages they build with it.

The invitation for all Social 7s is to realize that, in reality, they are a special being to the extent that we all are, and not to feel the need to do something to deserve it. In the emptiness of being, in doing without an objective or planning, and in giving without strategy, the Social 7 will be able to honor life as true human beings. They will get the vivid feeling of being normal, of being one more grain of sand in this vast desert: that cures them.

Ideation (strategic or fanciful) is a powerful activator that also sustains a certain psychophysical excitement. The difficulty, therefore, is like Ulysses’ encounter with the sirens: to observe without getting caught up in the workings of the mind. Again, cling to an internal witness who observes— a practice achieved through meditation, working with lucid dreams, and the guided use of some psychotropic substances.

A useful exercise is to watch ideas germinate in your head and observe the planning that follows. Let's not forget that Ichazo pointed out planning as the cognitive fixation of the greedy character. Being able to get out of that exciting mental spiral and ground those ideas into reality, making a calm choice, and carrying out the ones you want, is important. The sicker a Social 7 is, the fewer actions they will take, and the more they will stumble through life. The most accomplished examples of people with this character have managed, in part, to lead their dreams into action and make them real. Jules Verne, Anton Chekhov, José Martí, or Francisco de Assis managed to channel that synthetic, jumping, and creative mind to produce for the world: novels, stories, social transformations…

In mental operations, it is important to combine the capacity for realization with the visionary capacity, creativity with sustainability. This way, they can connect the pleasure of planning with the pleasure of carrying out the plans. In everyday life, this means assuming global responsibility for an action, carrying it out, starting with the most common behaviors: assuming a commitment, fulfilling it within the established deadlines, doing one thing at a time, working in depth rather than just transversally, and leaving space to savor what you are doing.

The observation of the mind leads to a progressive disidentification from mental phenomena, of which the Social 7 feels intimately proud, and gradually deactivates the effects of some ideations. The recognition, not only of the content of one's own irrational convictions but also of the way in which they operate, involving the entire organism, leads to recognizing the connection between ideation and manic emotional activity. This helps to reestablish a global balance more linked to the here and now. It is a discipline of detoxification from the pleasure of mental activity.

Exercising a considered use of verbal intelligence, not for fantasy but for communication and the definition of one's position, gradually leads to an experientially conscious use of the mind, which becomes a virtuous antidote against quackery: words as bridges and not as sleight of hand. Manifested ideas serve as possibilities to define boundaries and accept limits.

"Specifying thoughts is also a factor that plays into the interpersonal. Being able to communicate feelings is suffocating; it seems to put us on pause, and stoically, we escape from feeling what they're telling me, traveling to a calmer, more peaceful, happier place. Saying what we feel may seem like harakiri because it’s going to hurt, but after expressing anger or disagreements, I realize that nothing is wrong, and it heals me." (Xavier)

Making thoughts present and visible through words and actions is a strategy that exposes the tendency toward quackery, which has become a mental drug, and gradually weakens its effect on the person. There is a verbal-visual axis that makes the word a way to control, manage, and defend cognitive fixation, so that any element of self-knowledge can be used to close the narcissistic nucleus on itself. More than studying, this character needs to be experienced, to express themselves from their truth, and to sweat to get in touch with their intimate reality and their neurotic way of functioning.

"I remember a regressive type of work: I noticed pain in all parts of the body, as if something was pressing from the inside, wanting to come out. Like a beast that wanted to free itself and, in doing so, scratch its skin. I invoked the help of therapists in every possible way: lying to me, squirming, crying, throwing glances. I never verbally asked for help. So, I was able to figure out how it works." (Christine)

Self-transformation: Changing the Intrapsychic World

The intrapsychic world of the Social 7, as we discussed in the chapter on love, requires a re-founding of new balances in the dynamics of the inner father-mother-son family. For this to happen, it is important that certain transitions in the realm of reality be promoted, if necessary through a therapeutic path. This can involve a reparative process for incomplete stages in intrapsychic development.

A fundamental aspect of emancipating the patriarchal mind is the redefinition of the internal representations linked to the father and mother. Generally, this involves completing the process of separation from the mother and fostering a connection with the father. This need not occur on the plane of reality, but it is essential that the psychic dimensions of the paternal and maternal figures be cleansed of the historical-biographical emotional narratives that fix them. A full reintegration, independent of childhood traumas, can then be achieved. The first step, as mentioned earlier, is to acknowledge the pain associated with these transitions, live through it, and integrate it into one’s own experience.

Recognizing the unfulfilled need for a mother who was not sufficiently attuned to the child, and the denied need for a father, whether feared, absent, or introjected as "bad," allows one to work through the pain generated by these biographical wounds and emancipate oneself from them. This enables the continuation of existential fulfillment on a plane of genuine emotional autonomy.

The transformation manifests as autonomy—a capacity to care for oneself and others, deep emotional empathy, and a connection to all the erotic vitality of the son function, as described in Claudio Naranjo’s map of the three loves. Going through the experience of primary pain allows for the reintegration of parts of oneself, making the child function available for the full expression of spontaneity. The evolutionary passage consists of reaching the possibility of experiencing and expressing one's emotions, particularly everything related to emotional pain.

"When we were eleven years old, a group of seven children got lost in the woods. It started to hail. They all cried desperately. I took command. And I led them to the camp. I just felt excited. I felt extraordinary. I felt useful and superior, like when I consoled my mother. Fear and pain do not belong to me; they are of the world." (Luis)

Openness to anger is also important, as aggressiveness is often expressed passively. It is a sign of integration to be able to express anger functionally and directly in interpersonal conflicts. Developing an internal army without becoming militarized, being able to be direct without becoming violent, is key.

This also means being able to embody the inner character of the "bad boy." Being unpleasant, disrupting the group, and "disinfecting" oneself by remembering that one is not as good or wise as they appear.

"I experienced a burning rage, which in the days that followed led me to hate to the point of imagining and wanting to kill the people who at that time were directing the work and had not helped me. I remember the embarrassment and anger at telling him days later. And my relief to see them openly laughing at my threats." (Christine)

The direct expression of rage differs from the petulant and demanding groans with which the Social 7 expresses himself when, in full manifestation of sacrifice, he enters a crisis due to social saturation.

The path to real self-acceptance includes confronting one's ugly parts, acknowledging limits, and truly giving up the idea of saving the world and becoming a saint. This leads to a sense of the loss of meaning in one’s own life, whose deep meaning must be found in the simple unraveling of self. A frustrating, yet necessary resizing.

The transformation of the E7 begins when they lay down the cross they unconsciously acquired and became a passionate bearer of. It continues when, touched by revealing grace, they realize their absurd mission and can finally laugh at it, finding their place in the world, just one among many.

Healing often requires a healthy, real therapeutic relationship, capable of withstanding the attacks of distrust the Social 7 carries, always seeking guides, men, and more extraordinary experiences. The relational experience of being in a restorative relationship will allow the E7 to go through the necessary crises of derealization. The ability to be only human, not divine, enables the Social 7 to surrender to an adult, full, corrective love, and then transfer this to real affections. Surrendering to a love that fully embraces them allows the Social 7 to progressively align with their own vital movements, cultivating greater emotional and relational spontaneity.

Recognizing needs as such, including care from others, and practicing asking and receiving is essential. The work of opening up to love involves accepting the affection that comes from others, becoming small, vulnerable, and worthy of receiving, integrating what comes from the environment without overcompensating or feeling guilty for receiving. Begin to view your inner child, who has been deprived of love, with genuine compassion, and recognize its divine nature.

The key concepts in the restorative therapeutic process are sweetness, limits, firmness, and equanimity. The rhythm must be gradual, and the setting should be able to contain its discontinuity. The persistent sweetness of the maternal; the firmness of the paternal; equanimity as the ability not to intervene or manipulate, allowing the child's spontaneity to manifest once again. Laughing spontaneously, I believe, shows better than any other expression the change in the Social 7. Irony and the capacity for detachment become gifts, accompanied by that smile of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, which Claudio Naranjo often quotes.

Living becomes less serious, less intense, and sometimes even less exciting. At times, the lack of passion is felt. The intensity is recovered on a horizontal plane, less adrenergic, more encompassing, and linked to the capacity for prolonged emotional contact with others. It becomes a more authentically horizontal exchange, and if service appears, it is no longer contaminated by sacrifice. Thus, the Social 7 can contemplate what is good both for others and for themselves.

Eros appears occasionally, making the sight poignant. Relationships become physically encompassing; contact is no longer merely symbiotic, but also transformative and exciting. These and other things relate to what Naranjo defines as sobriety—the virtue that the Social 7 must cultivate in their psycho-spiritual growth journey.

One of the definitions Claudio Naranjo gives for sobriety is doing what must be done at the right time. It means following what is instinctively linked to the sacred naturalness of the child, which emerges urgently in its vital needs and, in an adult and wise relationship, aligns with reality.

False sobriety is one of the traps encountered on the path of transformation through the enneagram, according to Claudio Naranjo’s perspective. The ability to pervert virtue and neuroticize it is common in this character, so we will share some testimonies about the misuse of sobriety as an obstacle in the process.

*"When looking at myself, it’s been easy for me to take myself as a moderately sober person. Compared to my E7 acquaintances, I haven’t seen too many signs of gluttony. I settle for food, comforts, whims, easily. Barely centered, in moments of intimacy and isolation, a little attached to food, reading, smoking depending on what... and nothing else. It’s relatively easy for me to let go of habits. I don’t fight for money, nor—for recognition... Not even for immediate spiritual achievements, nor for power... I have almost infinite patience, and a capacity for renunciation and conformity superior to those around me.

Looking at myself recently, in the light of whether I’m allowing my real tendencies to surface, leaning on my true intrinsic spontaneity, I see these capacities for renunciation and control as excessive. I eat very little sober. Is it that my sobriety is to be exerted on my automatic tendency to take the sober paths?

It seems to me that in my case it has more to do with restricting my care for others and turning attention to my truth."* (Francis)

In the development of virtue, we see that the Social 7 tends to have only an intellectual understanding of it. Therefore, their behavior is subjected to self-manipulation strategically consistent with this presumed understanding. In simple terms, just as in childhood the Social 7 was a "good child," in their spiritual path they adapt their behavior to what they suppose is the image that certifies their development.

"I have used the knowledge I had of the process, in this case virtue, in a totally instrumental way to maintain the neurosis. I have enjoyed my adaptation to frustration, cultivating in a very narcissistic way the idea of being in the full exercise of virtue, while fully sinking into my neurosis. Virtue, the cognitive knowledge of virtue, has been a revolving door for me. I have been bad for years, in which I was so lost that I didn’t even have the strength to differentiate between neurotic and necessary pain. Until I said enough. I think this had to be done: stop adapting to the impositions, stop giving up, stop breathing with half a lung. Stop waiting for death to be happy. I don’t think that’s sober at all; I believe that sobriety is a step, the umpteenth step, towards vitality." (Christine)

In the first phase, more behavioral, the E7 will need to become sober in their actions with the world. They must stop the narcissistic multiplication machine of social situations where they appear good or extraordinary. In general, they feel superior to other E7s because they can restrain themselves, while others cannot. But their addiction is different. The other E7s are more clearly selfish, sexual, or exploitative. For the Social 7, it is important to contain themselves in their behavioral games of appearing extraordinary in front of others and the group. Above all, they must place limits on their idealized fantasies of themselves and their mission in the world.

In the second phase of deepening, the E7 will have to bring sobriety to the intimate, deeper sphere, exploring the motivations behind their small actions. They must stop doing relationships with themselves and others simply to be seen as extraordinary. They must start doing what needs to be done, beyond the image they wish to project in the group or their inner heart.

In the third phase, they will be able to let go of sobriety as a guide and surrender to life’s flow. They will no longer work for their little ego but will be just another drop in the sea. The Social 7 is one who must clip their wings in order to take root and grow.