Dominant, Second and Repressed: Sequence Is an Author's Claim
Where you are: Module 4 · Lesson 19 of 30 · about 29 minutes (reading 13, practice 10, checkpoint 6). Lesson 18 named the three instincts by author. This lesson looks at the claim that they come in an order, and keeps three questions apart: type, subtype and sequence.
What you'll be able to do
- Define dominant, second and repressed as an author's claim, attributed to the authors who make it.
- Keep type, subtype and sequence apart as three separate questions, each with its own sources.
- Say what your own record can and cannot support about a recurring pull.
What the sources say about order
Not every source describes an order among the three instincts.
| Source | What it says |
|---|---|
| Riso and Hudson, 1996 (PDF page 443) | A person has "some degree of all three", and one "will be somewhat more developed than the others". They give no order for the other two. In 1996 they also wrote: "It remains to be determined whether Instinctual types can change in the course of a life." |
| Chestnut and Paes, 2021 | One dominant instinct for each subtype (for example PDF page 39). As far as a search of the book's text shows, it gives no order. |
| CP Enneagram Academy article | Writes of an "instinct sequence", "which is first, second, and repressed". |
| The Enneagram Institute | Calls it an "Instinctual Stack": a dominant instinct, "a second Instinct that is used to support the dominant Instinct", and a third that is "the least developed" and "a real blind spot". |
| Fauvre, 2013 (PDF page 12) | Calls it "Instinctual Stacking", "a preferred order". |
Our reading of the table. Two books do not describe a full order. Three other sources describe one, under three names: sequence, stack and stacking. Each presents it as the author's own statement. So in this course, dominant, second and repressed are an author's claim, not a tested finding, and nobody's order can be found by this course or by any tool it uses. The Institute offers its own questionnaire for the stack; this course does not use or assess it.
Noticing afterwards, not as it happens
Chestnut and Paes discuss the instincts, including the repressed instinct, in episodes of their podcast, Enneagram 2.0. We could not check their words there against the audio or an authoritative transcript, so this course does not quote those episodes and does not rely on them for any position of theirs.
The rule in this section is this course's own design: this course never asks you to catch an instinct as it fires; it asks you to look back across entries. Any guess about a repressed instinct is late, optional and tentative.
Three questions, kept apart
| Question | What it asks | Where the ideas come from |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Which of the nine patterns of attention and motive describes my reactions best? | Chestnut and Paes: the types are based on "where we focus our attention as we move through the world" (PDF page 17). Modules 1 and 2. |
| Subtype | Which instinct draws most of my attention, combined with my type? | Chestnut and Paes: three subtypes for each type, 27 in all (PDF page 16). Riso and Hudson on the instincts (PDF pages 442 and 443). Lesson 18. |
| Sequence | In what order do I use the three instincts? | Only some authors: the Academy article, the Institute and Fauvre (PDF page 12). The authors' claim. |
The questions are independent. Riso and Hudson write that "one could divide a room full of people into three groups, Self-Preservation types, Social types, and Sexual types, simply by knowing the definitions of these categories, and without knowing the Enneagram types of the individuals". They add that "a type Five could be a Self-Preservation Five, a Social Five, or a Sexual Five" (PDF page 442). So a type does not tell you an instinct, an instinct does not tell you a type, and neither tells you an order.
The word "subtype" differs by author
- Chestnut and Paes use "subtype" for a type combined with its dominant instinct: 27 in all (PDF page 16). This lesson uses "subtype question" in their sense.
- Riso and Hudson write that the instincts "are not technically subtypes" and call them "Instinctual variants" when combined with the nine types (PDF page 442).
- The Institute says the instincts are "often erroneously called 'the subtypes'". The Academy article notes that the two words have been mixed, "leading to some confusion".
When you meet "subtype" in another author's book, check what it means there before you compare.
What your record can support
Pull tags (field 7 of your record). Lesson 6 left field 7 blank until this module. A pull is where your attention went first in an event, read through the instinct lens of Lesson 18. The four tags are this course's design, not an author's terms:
- basics and resources: time, money, rest, health, safety or comfort;
- belonging and standing: your place in a group, or how others see you;
- carried away: a conversation, idea or task captured you so fully that other priorities slipped (concentrating hard on a task, or liking a conversation, is not this);
- none, or "the lens is not useful here".
A tag describes one moment in your own entry. It is not a reading of your instincts, and you never tag anyone else. Record Checkpoint 4 (private): tag three or more of your own entries (or write "none"), then write one sentence on whether a pull seems to recur.
The claims list is this course's design. What you can claim depends on how many entries you have, across how many days and settings, and whether some entries do not fit.
- You can say: what happened, and where your attention went in an entry.
- You can say tentatively: that a pull seems to recur, and which entry does not fit.
- You can write a labelled guess: "Guess: this pull may draw my attention more than the others. I hold it loosely."
- You cannot say: that a dominant instinct or an order has been established; which instinct is your second or repressed one; that you caught an instinct as it fired; or that the pattern will repeat.
With fewer than three entries, the honest claim is "not enough yet", plus what more you would need to see. A real constraint, such as a rota you cannot change or a staffing decision that is not yours, is a system fact, not a neglected instinct. And none of the three questions is ever answered about a colleague.
Worked example
Four statements, each blurring the questions, split apart.
| Statement | What is blurred | Split |
|---|---|---|
| "I am a Six, so my instinct must be self-preservation." | Type used to answer the subtype question. | Each needs its own entries. Riso and Hudson's Five could have any of the three instincts. |
| "In four of six entries my attention went to my place in the group, so I am a Two." | Instinct evidence used to answer the type question. | A recurring pull is a tentative answer to the subtype question only. |
| "My dominant instinct is the third, so my order is third, then social, then self-preservation." | A dominant instinct stretched into a full order. | The other two places are not shown by this. Any order is the authors' claim. |
| "My colleague talks to everyone, so he must be a Social Seven." | A colleague typed from one behaviour. | The course answers none of the three questions about a colleague. Say what he did. |
The habit to take away: for each statement, ask, "What would I have to observe to answer this?"
Your turn
Do this privately, in your own record. For each statement, write which question it belongs to (type, subtype or sequence) and where the course's ideas about that question come from.
- "In meetings, at home and alone, my reactions seem to come from wanting to avoid being wrong."
- "In most of my entries my first attention goes to money, rest and having enough."
- "After social, the instinct I use next is self-preservation, and the one I use least is the third."
- "Which of the three instincts takes most of my attention across a month of entries?"
- "Across settings, what I seem to protect most is being free to decide for myself."
- "Which instinct is my second, and which is the repressed one?"
- "Which of Chestnut and Paes's 27 combinations of type and instinct fits me?"
- "Which of the nine patterns describes my reactions best?"
- "Is my least developed instinct a blind spot, as the Institute's stack describes?"
- "Do the pulls in my entries keep coming back to my place in a group?"
Check your work
Type: 1, 5 and 8 (a motive or pattern of attention across settings; Chestnut and Paes, PDF page 17; Modules 1 and 2). Subtype: 2, 4, 7 and 10 (which instinct draws most attention, with the type; Chestnut and Paes, PDF page 16; Riso and Hudson, PDF pages 442 and 443). Sequence: 3, 6 and 9 (an order, or the place of the second or repressed instinct; the Academy article, the Institute and Fauvre, PDF page 12; the authors' claim).
Criteria: every statement goes to one question; the sequence sources are called the authors' claim; nothing says the learner's own type, subtype or order is established. Common mistakes: putting 6 or 9 under subtype (they ask about places in an order); putting 10 under type (a recurring pull is evidence about instinct, not motive). Also valid: naming one source where the key names two.
Extra practice (optional)
Rawan has five entries from one week. In three of them, her attention went first to how others saw her or her team. In one it went to rest and hours, while the staffing decision belonged to her manager. In one there was no pull. Write two things she can say, two she cannot say, and one labelled guess.
Key: Can say: "In three of five entries my attention went to how others saw me, in meetings"; "one entry does not fit, and one involves a staffing decision that is not mine." Cannot say: that her dominant instinct is Social, or what her second or repressed instinct is; that she caught an instinct as it fired. Guess: "Guess: standing in a group may draw my attention in meetings. I hold this loosely; more entries outside meetings would help."
Knowledge check
Across nine entries, one pull recurs in six. Which question does that tentatively address?
Why does this lesson check what 'subtype' means before comparing authors?
Answers explained
1, c: a recurring pull is evidence about which instinct draws most attention, held loosely. Option a confuses instinct with type. Option b stretches it into an order. Option d ignores that the questions are independent.
2, b: Chestnut and Paes use "subtype" for a type with its dominant instinct; Riso and Hudson say the instincts "are not technically subtypes". Option a is untrue for Riso and Hudson. Options c and d are not in the sources.
Module 4 checkpoint
Six questions on new fictional cases. With fewer than 5 correct, re-read the lesson named in the answer and try again.
Rimas reads that the third instinct is 'Sexual (aka Attraction)', with 'an intense drive for stimulation'. Which source is she reading?
Layan reads a source that names the instincts self-preservation, social and sexual, and also calls the third one-to-one. Which source fits this wording?
Faten says: 'I love one-to-one talks with my team, so my third instinct must be my strongest.' Which reply fits the sources?
Ibrahim writes: 'My second instinct is social and my repressed one is self-preservation.' Which question is he answering?
Osama writes: 'Across settings, what I protect most is never looking unprepared.' Which question does this belong to?
Lubna wants to know her order of instincts by the end of the week. What can this course offer her?
Answers explained
1, d: "Attraction" and "an intense drive for stimulation" are the Institute's wording. Riso and Hudson write "Sexual"; Chestnut and Paes say sexual, also one-to-one; Fauvre uses sx. Revisit Lesson 18.
2, b: this is Chestnut and Paes's wording (PDF page 16). Revisit Lesson 18.
3, a: Riso and Hudson and the Institute say one-to-one preference does not distinguish the third instinct. Options b and c misreport the sources; option d asks others to read an instinct, which the course never does. Revisit Lesson 18.
4, c: second and repressed are places in an order, which is the sequence question and an author's claim. Revisit this lesson.
5, b: a motive across settings belongs to the type question. It names no instinct and no order. Revisit this lesson.
6, d: the course looks back across entries and treats any order as a labelled guess. No tool here finds an order (option a), the course never asks you to catch an instinct as it fires (option b), and it never reads colleagues (option c). Revisit this lesson.
Key takeaways
- Dominant, second and repressed are an author's claim: "sequence" (the Academy article), "stack" (the Institute), "stacking" (Fauvre). Riso and Hudson and Chestnut and Paes give no full order.
- Type, subtype and sequence are three separate questions. Answering one does not answer the others.
- "Subtype" means different things to different authors; check before you compare.
- Look back across entries; never try to catch an instinct as it fires. Claim only what your entries support, and answer none of the three questions about a colleague.
Sources
- Riso, D. R. with Hudson, R. (1996) Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery (revised edition). Houghton Mifflin. PDF pages 442 (the room of people; a type Five with any of the three instincts; "not technically subtypes"; "Instinctual variants") and 443 ("some degree of all three"; "somewhat more developed than the others"; "It remains to be determined whether Instinctual types can change in the course of a life", a 1996 statement). PDF page numbers are used because the printed pagination was not checked.
- Chestnut, B. and Paes, U. (2021) The Enneagram Guide to Waking Up. Hampton Roads Publishing. PDF pages 16 (three subtypes for each type, defined by the instincts), 17 ("where we focus our attention as we move through the world") and 39 (one dominant instinct). The printed page number is the PDF page minus 13. The finding of no instinct order comes from a keyword search of the book's text, not a reading of every page.
- CP Enneagram Academy, "The Instinctual Subtype Dimension of the Enneagram", byline Amanda Braga. Used for "instinct sequence", "which is first, second, and repressed", and the note on "subtypes" and "instinctual variants". Attributed to the Academy publication, because the page does not say how its author is related to Chestnut and Paes.
- The Enneagram Institute, "How the Enneagram System Works", section on the three instincts, enneagraminstitute.com/how-the-enneagram-system-works. The Institute's own description, not independent evidence. Used for "Instinctual Stack" and "often erroneously called 'the subtypes'".
- Fauvre, K. C. with Fauvre, D. W. (2013) The 27 Tritypes Revealed, 7th edition (booklet). PDF page 12 ("Instinctual Stacking", "a preferred order").
- Podcast of Chestnut and Paes, Enneagram 2.0: season 1 episode 11, "The Enneagram Instincts: You Are an Animal", and season 2 episode 14, "What does a Social Repressed Instinct Look Like?". Cited for their topics only. Their wording has not been checked against the audio or an authoritative transcript, so nothing from them is quoted or attributed.
- This course's own design, not the authors': the three-question table, the four pull tags, the claims list, the rule of looking back across entries, and the statements and cases (Rawan, Rimas, Layan, Faten, Ibrahim, Osama, Lubna), which are fictional.