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Beatrice Chestnut

The Complete Enneagram: 27 Paths to Greater Self-Knowledge

Fours and Nines have some characteristics in common. They can look alike in that they both place a great deal of importance on the cultivation of relationships and the achievement of connections with other people. In addition to this, both types can lose themselves by merging with loved ones, though Nines do this more regularly than Fours, who can more easily sense their independent needs and desires. Both Fours and Nines can relatively easily understand other people in a deep way, Fours because they are emotionally intuitive and sensitive to the moods and feelings of others, and Nines because they can often see others’ perspectives more clearly than their own and they align with other people to create harmony. On the downside, Fours and Nines can both feel overlooked and unimportant to others, and they may both regularly have the feeling they are misunderstood by others. For Fours, however, they most often experience emotions related to being misunderstood or “not good enough.” For Nines, their experience is more one of being overlooked and not heard, usually because Nines themselves have a hard time taking a strong position or expressing a clear opinion. Another key similarity is that both types have fears about not belonging. Fours tend to feel like misfits, while Nines often have a deep underlying concern about whether or not they belong to the group.

Fours and Nines also differ in significant ways. Fundamentally, Nines are other-referencing and Fours are self-referencing, meaning that Nines primarily pay attention to other people’s opinions, agendas, and moods, while Fours prioritize their own internal experience, focusing more on their own needs, feelings, and desires. Fours also feel a wider range of emotions more deeply than Nines do; Nines tend to be more steady and even emotionally. Nines can easily have their attention drawn away from their own priorities and toward less essential substitutes and others’ agendas, whereas Fours are more aware of and focused on satisfying their own needs and wants. Nines are oriented to creating harmony among people, while this is much less of a priority for the Four, who may even create or contribute to discord if necessary as a way to push for authentic communication of feelings. Nines avoid conflict much of the time, while Fours can engage in conflict if necessary or may even create conflict.

Nines usually do not state their preferences, often because they don’t know what they want, but sometimes because they believe that others’ opinions are more important than their own or they don’t want to create a conflict. In contrast, Fours tend to believe that their opinions are of value and that it is important to say what they think. And Fours do not always adapt to others, regularly feeling moved to express their own disagreement or unique perspective, whereas Nines have the tendency to overadjust to others, often thinking that if they do not adapt to others, the connection between them will be broken. Because of this tendency to adapt to others’ Nines also have a difficult time saying “no,” making boundaries, and asserting themselves. Fours, on the other hand, can more often and more easily make boundaries with others and assert their own agendas.

The Enneagram Institute

Misidentifications

Some average Nines think that they are Fours because they have artistic talents and creative inclinations of one kind or another. As in the case of love not being the sole domain of Twos, artistic capacity is not the sole province of Fours. Other types can be, and often are, artists.

Even so, the artistry of Fours is much more personal and self-revealing than that of Nines. The art of Nines often expresses idealized, mythological, and archetypal worlds–usually the real world glossed into something fantastic and wondrous. Nines are often gifted storytellers in which "...and they all lived happily ever after" is assured. (There are no unhappy endings in the Nine's world of make-believe.) By contrast, the art of Fours is generally more personal and realistic, the expression of the Four's (and of everyone's) deep longing for love, wholeness, and meaning. Fours often deal in the tragic, finding redemption in self-transcendence; Nines deal in the commonplace, finding comfort in ordinary lives and simple situations.

The principal reason these types may be confused is that they are both withdrawn types. (PT, 433-36). Fours withdraw from others so that they can protect themselves and give themselves time to deal with their emotions. Nines, on the other hand, are withdrawn in the sense that they remove their attention from people or situations that threaten them, disengaging themselves emotionally so that they will not be anxious or upset. They cut off their identification with others (or never identify with them in the first place), identifying instead with a private idealized version of reality. Average to unhealthy Nines tune out any unpleasantness by dissociating from whatever upsets them, whereas Fours do just the opposite, brooding over their anxieties in an attempt to come to terms with them. Fours are certainly not detached from their emotions–just the reverse, they are keenly aware of them, perhaps too much so.

Both types can therefore be shy, absent-minded, confused, and detached from the real world. The difference is that Nines are detached both from the external world and from their emotions, whereas Fours withdraw from whatever has caused them pain. (In the end, that may add up to quite a lot.) Nines see the world through rose-colored glasses, and their view of it is comforting, whereas Fours see the world from a garret window as outsiders and are not comforted: everyone else seems to be living a happier, more normal life. Contrast the personalities of Mahler (a Four) and Aaron Copland (a Nine), Saul Steinberg (a Four) and Norman Rockwell (a Nine).