Type 5: The Need to Perceive

Enneagram Type 5s are The Investigators. They are curious, always gathering information. They pay attention, explore things in details, and look at things from different perspectives. Because Type 5s have the ability to be very objective and listen well, they can make great counselors.

5s are typically independent, well-planned, and controlled with their words and actions. They love routine and take few risks. This makes 5s very predictable. They don’t show a lot of emotions, so it’s often hard to know how they are feeling. If they do express their feelings, it’s probably through very small gestures that most of us have a hard time even picking up on.

5s are usually introverted observers who live in a world within their own mind. They can be very aloof and detached. Always in their heads, 5s get so caught up in learning and understanding that they never get around to acting on what they know.

Other words that describe Type 5s include…

Basic Fear

Being useless, helpless, incapable, or empty, specifically that they do not have the ability to do things as well as others

Basic Desire

To be capable and competent. The more they learn the more capable and competent they believe they are.

A Few Key Motivations

• 5s want to possess knowledge, to understand everything, to have everything figured out because they believe that knowledge is competency.
• Self-doubt – They are insecure about their abilities
• Self-sufficiency – Because of their self-doubt, 5s strive for self-sufficiency in order to assure themselves that they are enough.
• “Me Time” – 5s want their alone time in order to learn and to order their thoughts and feelings.
• Scarcity – 5s are often very frugal, even stingy, especially with time and energy, but also resources.

Vice

Avarice/Greed. 5s want more and more knowledge. They are never satisfied with what they currently know. 5s can become hoarders and collectors of things that remind them of their experiences, ideas, relationships, etc., and they may even express more care about the thing than the actual person, event, or experience.

Virtue

Objectivity. 5s are able to listen and perceive without getting emotionally involved. This allows them to see from many angles and perspectives. These are great skills for counseling.

Defense Mechanism

5s basic defense mechanism is withdrawal. For example, when confronted with an emotional situation, 5s will often retreat from emotional engagement and/or relationships involved in the emotional setting. 5s typically Withdraw from an experience into their mind.

Other defense mechanisms include:

• Setting limits – 5s limit how much they do, how many people they are with, how often they go out and for how long they go out; they set times to arrive and leave.
• Compartmentalism – 5s will limit the spheres of their lives to avoid too many people or too many emotions at one time.
• Intellectual arguments – When stressed or uncomfortable, 5s may get into intellectual arguments in order to avoid talking about themselves or their emotions.

Pitfalls

• Stinginess – Can be emotional or material. If they save, then they will have for the future and the future is always a place of the mind because it is the unknown.
• Intellectual Superiority
• Stuck in their head – Always learning and contemplating but never doing or acting; Rarely do things to improve themselves beyond their minds

Childhood

As children, 5s typically have an experience (real or perceived) of not being wanted. For some, they grew up in cramped space (physically or emotionally), and felt that they were an intrusion. Their inner world was the only space they felt free to be, and so they threw themselves into it. For others, they received little tenderness or empathy as children. So their capacity to express their feelings did not develop.

5s often experience emptiness, lack of security, homelessness, or loneliness that pushes them to their inner world causing them to stay stuck in their own thoughts. Then, they tend to go out in the world looking for things they can take inside themselves to fill the emptiness – ideas, perceptions, knowledge and/or materials things that express or remind them of the ideas, perceptions, or knowledge.

Examples

Type 5’s are known as The Investigators because they are ones that yearn for the most knowledge and who simply want to know why everything is the way it is. Belle is probably the Disney princess that is most like a Type 5, but the song that best represents Type 5 is Ariel’s Part of Your World. Ariel’s curiosity about the world above the sea is very 5-ish. Her ongoing questions demonstrate 5s incessant need to know why.

Biblical Character

Nicodemus was a highly educated man who dedicated his life’s work to study and knowledge. Nicodemus heard about Jesus – perhaps even witnessed something Jesus did – and he wanted to learn more. So, he went to talk to Jesus at night (ie. Nicodemus set limits on the encounter).

During their encounter, Jesus invited Nicodemus to be birthed in and through the Holy Spirit. He did not tell him what the Holy Spirit was all about or how it worked. Instead, Jesus called Nicodemus to an experience of the Spirit. Jesus knew that what Nicodemus needed was not another piece of information about the faith. He already knew all the scriptures. What was missing for him is a deep personal experience of God.

Nicodemus – an incredibly educated man – lacked knowledge and understanding because he only listened to his mind. He came looking for illumination about what Jesus was teaching, but what Jesus shared seemed to only add to the confusion. Jesus did not give Nicodemus a straightforward explanation of the faith. Instead, Jesus gave him a mystery and invited him to enter it more fully. This is exactly what a 5 needs to do, that is, not simply try to understand, but to take a step towards something to experience it.

What 5s Need

• Wisdom – That is, reflected experience. 5 tend to think before they act and often never act, but wisdom involves reflection upon action. 5s need to act and then learn and reflect.
• Commitment – Especially to people, friends, partners. Falling in love or learning to love is good for a 5. It helps move them into their heart.
• Prayer and meditation – 5s need to allow prayer and meditation to move them to action.
• To cut lose every now and then – 5s need to let go and do something!
• Manual labor is good for 5s – It connects them to things outside themselves
• To experience secure love from others
• To stop being secretive and to express emotions directly
• To receive help from others – This challenges 5s independence and gives them time and energy (interdependence).
• To know that God is with you and you are more than capable with God’s help – The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? The Lord is with me; he is my helper. (Psalm 118:6-7)

Summary

Enneagram Type 5 – The Thinker from Crystal

Are You a 5?

If you think you may be a 5, check out the video below for some helpful connection points to God. Also, be sure to text, call or email Pastor Jason to sign up to take the 40 minute Enneagram Test online. (Paper test are available as well.) Use the contact form on our website or text/call the church office.

Stay tuned to our blog for tips on relationships with Type 5s!