The Nine Levels, Band by Band
Where you are: Module 3 · Lesson 15 of 30 · about 26 minutes (reading 14, practice 12). Lesson 14 gave you the outline of the Levels. This lesson explains all nine, band by band, in plain words, and shows why none of them can be read from what happens at work.
What you'll be able to do
- Explain Levels 1 to 6 in plain words, as Riso and Hudson's model, with the authors' label for each.
- Describe the unhealthy band (Levels 7 to 9) briefly and without clinical detail.
- Say why no workplace incident can show anyone's Level, and what you can say instead.
Where these descriptions come from
Riso and Hudson give each Level a short general description in the appendix of their book, Personality Types (1996, PDF pages 477 to 479). In this lesson, "the authors" means them. The Levels are their model; Chestnut and Paes do not teach them. The Enneagram Institute's page uses the same labels, with small differences noted below.
Each type chapter in the book also gives every Level a title of its own. We do not teach those titles, because they describe one type at a time, and in this course nobody is given a type or a Level.
Keep three things in mind as you read:
- The labels and descriptions are the authors' model. The sources give no way to place a person on a Level, and they cite no study that tests the Levels.
- The plain wording and the examples at work are this course's own. They show the idea only. They are not pictures of a real person.
- A Level is not a performance rating. A review rates work. The authors describe the Levels in terms of inner freedom and defences, which no review measures.
The healthy band: Levels 1, 2 and 3
The authors place these three Levels in the healthy range (PDF page 437).
Level 1: the Level of Liberation
The authors (PDF page 477): by facing and getting past the Basic Fear of the type, the person becomes liberated. They call this an ideal state, with the person at their healthiest, balanced and free.
In plain words: the ideal end of the range. The person is no longer steered by the type's deepest fear.
An idea at work (ours): a manager is told in a meeting that her plan has a gap. She listens, checks the gap and decides what to change, without defending herself first. One meeting shows the idea of freedom. It does not show that anyone is at Level 1.
Level 2: the Level of Psychological Capacity
The authors (PDF page 477): still healthy. The ego (roughly, the sense of "I") and its defences start to develop in response to anxiety, and the person's characteristic way of thinking appears.
In plain words: still healthy. This is where protective habits begin, and where a person's usual way of seeing things becomes visible.
An idea at work (ours): a manager notices that she usually starts with the numbers before she talks to anyone, and that the habit often helps her. Noticing a habit and its use is the idea. It does not tell us her Level.
Level 3: the Level of Social Value
The authors (PDF pages 477 to 478): the person is "still healthy, although less so". The type's healthy qualities show in how the person deals with others.
In plain words: the person's strengths are visible and useful to other people.
An idea at work (ours): a manager's care with details becomes a short checklist that her whole team finds useful. It shows a strength becoming social. It does not show her Level.
The average band: Levels 4, 5 and 6
The authors place these three Levels in the average range (PDF page 437). They describe friction between people, not illness.
Level 4: the Level of Imbalance
The Institute's page adds "Social Role" to this label.
The authors (PDF page 478): the person gives in to a temptation that goes against their own development. Defences increase, and the person identifies strongly with a social role, which must then be defended.
In plain words: the person holds a role so tightly that it has to be defended.
An idea at work (ours): a supervisor has become "the one who always knows the answer". When someone raises a doubt, she feels she must defend that role before she looks at the doubt.
Level 5: the Level of Interpersonal Control
The authors (PDF page 478): the person tries to control the environment, especially other people, and needs others to confirm their self-image. It is what the authors call a "turning point": from here down, they say, the traits become more defensive and conflicted. They add that in some types this shows as pulling back from people, so "control" does not always look like bossing.
In plain words: the person works to manage how others respond, so that their self-image is confirmed.
An idea at work (ours): a manager keeps asking her team to confirm her plan and feels uneasy when someone does not. Or a manager pulls back and waits to be asked. Both show the idea. Neither shows a Level.
Level 6: the Level of Overcompensation
The authors (PDF pages 478 to 479): the person overdoes the pattern. Others usually find the behaviour highly objectionable, "although not pathological".
In plain words: the person overdoes the pattern, and other people find it very hard to deal with.
An idea at work (ours): a manager answers every question about her plan with a longer defence of it, and the team has stopped asking. One example does not show that anyone is at Level 6.
The unhealthy band, briefly: Levels 7, 8 and 9
The authors' labels are the Level of Violation (7) and the Level of Pathological Destructiveness (9). Level 8 has more than one wording: the appendix says "Delusional Thinking and Compulsive Behavior", and the Institute's page says "Obsession and Compulsion". No single wording is official.
In plain words, the authors describe a serious and growing loss of freedom, in which protective habits begin to harm the person, other people, or both. They write about this band in clinical terms. Riso and Hudson write that these Levels are typically a response to extreme environmental stressors or to a history of severe and chronic childhood abuse (PDF page 479).
That is all this course says about the band, on purpose. It gives no examples at work, because these Levels are not described as what a hard week, a conflict, a mistake or a sharp email looks like. Frustration with a colleague is not evidence of them. A manager is not the person to judge any of this, and this course never assigns a Level to anyone.
If you are worried about a colleague's wellbeing, or your own, that is not a question about Levels. Talk to an appropriate person or service, such as your workplace support or HR process, a doctor or a licensed counsellor. If anyone may be in danger, use your workplace emergency process or local emergency services. Lesson 17 looks at this in more detail.
Why no incident can show a Level
Every description above is about inner things: the Basic Fear, defences, the ego, the need for others to confirm a self-image. No meeting, email or deadline shows those directly. A calm afternoon is one calm afternoon. A tense meeting may be pressure, a mood, a staffing gap or something else. So no incident places anyone on any Level, upwards or downwards.
What you can say instead has three parts (this course's design):
- Decline, with a reason. "I can't say. The sources give no way to read a Level from an incident."
- Say what happened. The observable behaviour, with the day and time.
- Add your own reaction, and a question. How you felt, and one neutral question you could ask.
Worked example
A friend asks: "Fouad sent a sharp email to the whole team at 4.10 p.m. on Thursday, after a delivery was missed on Wednesday. What Level is he at?"
- Decline: "I can't say. An email gives no way to read a Level, and being annoyed with someone is not evidence of any Level."
- What happened: "The email was sharp, it went to the whole team at 4.10 p.m. on Thursday, and it followed a delivery missed on Wednesday."
- My reaction and a question: "I felt irritated when I read it. I could ask Fouad what he was dealing with on Thursday."
The reply rates no one, invents no motive and still says something useful.
Your turn
Do this privately, in your own record.
Part 1. Match to the band. For each item, write the band (healthy, average or unhealthy) and the Level number. Give one reason for each.
- Interpersonal Control
- The person's strengths are visible and useful to other people; still healthy.
- Violation
- The person holds a social role so tightly that it has to be defended.
- Liberation
- The person overdoes the pattern; others find it very hard to deal with, though the authors say it is not pathological.
- Protective habits and the first sense of "I" begin to develop; still healthy.
- "Obsession and Compulsion" (the Institute's page)
Part 2. A question about a colleague. Abeer missed deadlines on Sunday and Monday and spoke sharply to a customer on Wednesday. A colleague asks: "What Level is Abeer at after a week like that?" Write the three-part reply: decline with a reason, what happened, your own reaction and one question.
Check your work
Part 1: 1 average, Level 5. 2 healthy, Level 3. 3 unhealthy, Level 7. 4 average, Level 4. 5 healthy, Level 1. 6 average, Level 6. 7 healthy, Level 2. 8 unhealthy, Level 8 (the Institute's wording; the appendix wording differs).
Part 2, a good answer: "I can't say. The sources give no way to read a Level from a week of incidents, and being frustrated with Abeer is not evidence of any Level. What happened: she missed deadlines on Sunday and Monday and spoke sharply to a customer on Wednesday. I felt worried about the customer. I could ask her what was getting in the way of the two deadlines."
Criteria: each match uses the feature of the Level, not a guess from the word; the reply declines to infer a Level and gives a reason; the facts keep their days; the question does not assume a cause. Not acceptable: "Level 5 or 6 at most, since it was only a week" (still reads a Level), or "Why did you not care about the deadlines?" (assumes a cause).
Extra practice (optional)
On Monday a customer shouted at Tamim at the front desk. Tamim stayed calm, listened to the end and found a solution. A colleague says: "That proves Tamim is at Level 1." Reply in two or three sentences.
Key: "No. Staying calm once is one observed reaction. Level 1, as the authors describe it, is about being freed from the type's deepest fear, which no single incident shows. What I can say is that Tamim stayed calm, listened to the end and found a solution." Also wrong: "No, he is probably at Level 3." That swaps one Level for another.
Knowledge check
In Riso and Hudson's model, which band holds Level 5, which the authors call a 'turning point'?
A manager says: 'Rasha stayed calm in a hard meeting, so she is in the healthy band.' What is the best reply?
Why does this lesson give no workplace examples for Levels 7 to 9?
Answers explained
1, b: the authors place Levels 4, 5 and 6 in the average band (PDF page 437) and call Level 5 a "turning point" towards more defensive traits. Option a confuses "turning point" with health. Option c puts it two steps too low. Option d is not in the model.
2, c: one meeting is one observed reaction, and the sources give no way to read a Level from it. Option a reads a Level from an incident. Option b swaps one Level for another. Option d suggests someone could decide a Level, which the course never does.
3, d: the authors link this band to severe circumstances, not to ordinary work trouble, so workplace examples would mislead. Option a is not something the authors say. Option b is not the reason. Option c is the opposite of the course's rule.
Key takeaways
- Healthy band (1 to 3): Liberation, Psychological Capacity, Social Value. Average band (4 to 6): Imbalance, Interpersonal Control, Overcompensation.
- The unhealthy band (7 to 9) is described by the authors in clinical terms and linked to severe circumstances, not to an ordinary hard week. Level 8 has no single official wording.
- Every Level is about inner freedom and defences, which no incident at work shows. No Level is given to anyone, including you.
- Instead of a Level, say what happened, your own reaction and one neutral question.
Sources
- Riso, D. R. with Hudson, R. (1996) Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery (revised edition). Houghton Mifflin. PDF pages 437 (three Levels in each band), 477 to 478 (Levels 1 to 3, including "still healthy, although less so"), 478 (Levels 4 and 5, including the "turning point" and the withdrawn types), 478 to 479 (Level 6, including "although not pathological"), 479 (Levels 7 to 9, and the statement that the unhealthy Levels are typically a response to extreme environmental stressors or to a history of severe and chronic childhood abuse; this is the authors' statement, reported here and not used as guidance). The type chapters' own Level titles are not taught. PDF page numbers are used because the printed pagination was not checked.
- The Enneagram Institute, "The Levels of Development", enneagraminstitute.com/levels-of-development. Riso and Hudson's own organisation, so it states their framework and is not independent evidence. Used for the labels, including "Social Role" for Level 4 and "Obsession and Compulsion" for Level 8.
- This course's own design, not the authors': the plain one-line wording of each Level, the examples at work, the rule that a Level is not a performance rating, the decision to give no examples for Levels 7 to 9, and the three-part reply. All cases (Fouad, Abeer, Tamim, Rasha) are fictional.