The Six with a Five-Wing

The traits of the Six and those of a Five-wing are in some degree of conflict with each other. The general orientation of Sixes is toward dependency on others, while the orientation of Fives is toward a detachment from people so that they can avoid being influenced by anyone. Noteworthy examples of this subtype include Richard Nixon, Robert F. Kennedy, Robert Redford, Peter Ueberroth, Rock Hudson, Paul Newman, Billy Graham, Walter Mondale, Alexander Haig, G. Gordon Liddy, Joseph McCarthy, J. Edgar Hoover, Jerry Falwell, Lyndon La Rouche, Meir Kahane, and John Hinckley, Jr.
Healthy people of this subtype are not only endearing, they can be very interesting invidivduals. They may have a strong intellectual streak, depending on how much Five-wing is in their overall personality. They frequently have keen insights based either on academic learning or practical knowledge. They are usually shrewd observers of the environment, particularly people, and put a premium on foresight and predicting how others will react. Their perceptions are more original than those of Sixes with a Sevin-wing, but because Six is the basic type, they come across not as intellectuals but as extremely competent, knowledgeable individuals.
The anxiety we see in average Sixes also causes people of this subtype to be more intense than Sixes with a Seven-wing. Persons of this subtype tend to be constricted in the expression of their emotions, and are usually more cynical, negativistic, and contentious. The legal and business worlds are typical arenas for their energies. They also see the environment as a threatening place; suspiciousness, secrecy, fanaticism, and membership in organizations for mutual protection are common. They also tend to be the more physically attractive of the two major subypes of the Six; this group includes some of th emost physically attractive individuals of all the personality types, by contemporary American standards. Yet, narcissism (arrogance, brashness) may be an overcompensation for insecurity and inferiorty feelings. Sexual conflicts may be a problem, since there is increased suspiciousness of others.
Unhealthy persons of this subtype are extremely suspicious, tending toward either mild or severe paranoia. They may abuse alcohol or drugs as a way of dealing with anxiety and paranoid delusions, as well as of blostering their inferiorty feelings. There may be sadomasochistic tendencies in sexual expressions. The extent and nature of their self-destructiveness will be hidden from others because of their reclusive nature. This is also a very violent subtype. Intense stress will likely lead to outbreaks of rage and extremely destructive behavior accompanied by breaks with reality. Murder is more likely than suicide.

The Six with a Seven Wing

The traits of the Six and the traits of a Seven-wing reinforce each other. This subtype is more clerly extroverted, more interested in having a good time, more sociable, and, for better or worse, is less intensely focused upon either the environment or itself than Sixes with a Five-wing. Noteworthy examples of this subtype include Ted Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Johnny Carson, Phil Donahue, Ted Turner, Bruce Springsteen, Sally Field, Diane Keaton, Teri Garr, Elton Joh, Rob Reiner, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Reggie Jackson, Tom Selleck, Billy Carter, Andy Rooney, Fred Mertz, Archie Bunker, and the Cowardly Lion.
Healthy persons of this subtype desire not only to feel accepted and secure with others, but also happy, particularly with regard to material well-being. People in this subtype are extremely likable and sociable, taking neither themselves nor life that seriously, or at least, not solomnly. If they are intelligent and talented, they may be accomplished in a number of areas, particularly sports, entertainment, politics or the arts - whatever field brings them into contact with people or the public eye. People of this subtype are usually extremely playful and funny, since a sense of humor is one of their most salient means of coping with life and it's tensions.
Average persons of this subtype do not handle anxiety, tension, or pressures well. They react by becoming ambivalent and indecisive, as well as impulsive, grumpy, and peevish. Their sense of humor is used to deflect others, and their passive-aggressivenes to get them out of unpleasant situations. They have a curmudgeonly quality, easily souring on those people and things that have brought them displeasure and aroused their aggressions or anxiety. However, they do more blustering than real damage. When they overcompensate, they are less prone to be destructive of others and more apt to do those things which may eventually become self-destructive.
Unhealthy persons of this subtype are more disposed to becoming dependent on others, and they do not attempt to disguise the depth of their emotional needs. Inferiorty feelings combine with the desire to escape from themselves. Unhealthy Sixes with a Seven-wing have few means of dealing with anxiety, and as anxiety gets worse, they become increasingly emotionally erratic. People of this subtype are in a flight from anxiety, tending to become manic rather than paranoid. They act out their unconscious fears, flying into hysterical overreactions more readily than the other subtype. This subtype is also subject to debilitating panic attacks, since anxiety, rather than aggression, has the upper hand. Suicide attempts, as a way of eliciting help, are likely.


(From Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery by Don Richard Riso)