Understanding the Enneagram Type 5 Personality - "The Investigator"

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Enneagram Type Five People are Intense and Cerebral

Basic Desire – To be capable.

Key Motivation – To be competent.

Virtue – Detachment (clarity)

Ego fixation – Stinginess

Color – Blue

Key Characteristics

Perceptive
Innovative
Secretive
Isolated

Focus of Attention

Fives believe knowledge is power, so they like to observe what’s happening around them without getting too involved, especially emotionally.
They focus on accumulating information about subjects that interest them and managing their time and energy, which they perceive as scarce, by avoiding entanglements with others.

Passion – Avarice

Avarice is a holding back and holding in—the hoarding of time, space, and resources out of fear of impending impoverishment.
It’s not so much greediness as retentiveness, a “drive to hold on to what [they] already have rather than [a] drive to acquire more.”

Core Wounds

You feel small, isolated, empty, alone, abandoned, and without support.
You believe that knowledge will give you recognition and safety.
You feel detached and compartmentalized.

Red Flags

Retreat into mind
Narrowing of focus
Impulsive activity
Restless and agitated
Neglect of body

Addictions

Poor eating and sleeping habits due to minimizing needs
Neglecting hygiene and nutrition
Lack of physical activity
Psychotropic drugs for mental stimulation and escape, narcotics for anxiety

Center of Intelligence

Fear – The Head / Thinking Triad

Externalizes or experiences their anxiety outwardly.
The world is a scary place.
Preparation is the key to dealing with it.
Fives are forever in strategy mode, knowing if they can hone their skills enough, they’ll be ready for the scary world ‘out there.’
They tend to be perceptive, innovative, secretive, and isolated.

Fear – of being helpless and inadequate.

Fives strive to become as knowledgeable and competent as possible in their undertakings.
Their pervasive, underlying fear is being helpless, overwhelmed, and incapable of dealing with the world around them.
Therefore, they must learn as much as possible and master as much as possible to reassure themselves that they are competent.
Fives constantly aim to move away from ignorance and ambiguity and toward knowledge and understanding.

Traits

Fives are alert, insightful, and curious. They can concentrate and focus on developing complex ideas and skills.

They can also become Independent, innovative, and inventive, preoccupied with their thoughts and imaginary constructs.

They can become detached yet high-strung and intense. They often have problems with eccentricity, nihilism, and isolation.

Fives want to find out why things are the way they are. They want to understand how the world works- the cosmos, the microscopic world, the animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdoms—or the inner world of their imagination.

Fives are always searching, asking questions, and deeply delving into things. They do not accept received opinions and doctrines, feeling a strong need to test the truth of most assumptions for themselves.

Behind your relentless pursuit of knowledge are deep insecurities about their ability to function successfully.

Rather than engage directly with activities that might bolster their confidence, they “take a step back” into their mind, where they feel more capable.

Fives believe that from the safety of their mind, they will eventually figure out how to do things—and one day rejoin the world.

They spend a lot of time observing and contemplating—listening to the sounds of wind or of a synthesizer or taking notes on the activities in an anthill in their backyard.

As they immerse themselves in their observations, they internalize their knowledge and gain self-confidence.

Fives can then go out and play a piece on the synthesizer or tell people what they know about ants.

They may also stumble across exciting new information or create creative combinations (playing music based on wind and water recordings).

When they get verification of your observations and hypotheses or see that others understand their work, it confirms their competency, fulfilling your Basic Desire.”

Fives know what you are talking about. “Knowledge, understanding, and insight are thus highly valued because their identity is built around “having ideas” and being someone who has something unusual and insightful to say.

For this reason, they are not interested in exploring what is already familiar and well-established; instead, their attention is drawn to the unusual, the overlooked, the secret, the occult, the bizarre, the fantastic, and the “unthinkable.”

Investigating “unknown territory”—knowing something that others do not know or creating something that no one has ever experienced—allows them to have a niche that no one else occupies.

Fives believes developing this niche is the best way to attain independence and confidence.

Thus, for their security and self-esteem, they need at least one area with a degree of expertise that will allow them to feel capable and connected with the world.

They think, “I am going to find something that I can do well, and then I will be able to meet life’s challenges. But I can’t have other things distracting or getting in the way.

“You, therefore, focus intensely on whatever you can master and feel secure about.

It may be the world of mathematics or the world of rock and roll, classical music, car mechanics, horror, and science fiction, or a world entirely created in their imagination.

Not all Fives are scholars or PhDs. But, depending on their intelligence and the resources available, they will focus intensely on mastering something that has captured their interest.

The areas they explore do not depend on social validation; if others agree with their ideas too readily, they fear their thoughts might be too conventional.

History is full of famous Fives who overturned accepted ways of understanding or doing things (Darwin, Einstein, Nietzsche).

Many more Fives, however, have become lost in the byzantine complexities of their thought processes, becoming merely eccentric and socially isolated.

Their intense focus can lead to remarkable discoveries and innovations, but becoming fixated can create self-defeating problems.

This is because their focus of attention unwittingly distracts them from their most pressing practical problems.

Whatever the sources of your anxieties—relationships, lack of physical strength, inability to gain employment, and so forth—the average Five tends not to deal with these issues.

Instead, they find something else to do to make them feel more competent.

The irony is that no matter what mastery they develop in their expertise, this cannot solve their basic insecurities about functioning.

Much of your time gets spent “collecting” and developing ideas and skills they believe will make them feel confident and prepared.

Fives want to retain everything they have learned and “carry it around in their head.”

The problem is that while engrossed in this process, they are not interacting with others or increasing many other practical and social skills.

They devote more and more time to collecting and attending to their collections, less to anything related to their actual needs.

Their biggest challenge is understanding that they can pursue whatever questions or problems that spark their imagination but still maintain relationships, take proper care of themselves, and do all the things that are the hallmarks of a healthy life.

When Healthy	When Unhealthy
Analytical Persevering Sensitive Wise Objective Perceptive Self-contained	Intellectually arrogant Stingy Stubborn Distant Critical of others Unassertive Negative

Patterns

Thinking and Feeling Patterns

Fives live in their heads and habitually detach from their emotions.
They are sensitive to emotional demands being placed on them.
They typically have a narrow range of feelings and rarely show their emotions publicly.

Behavior Patterns

Fives are reserved and introverted, need a lot of time alone, and avoid interactions with people who (they fear) might deplete them.
They are very analytical and objective. They tend to spend a lot of time pursuing their intellectual interests.

Arrows

When secure, they move towards the positive side of Type 8 – The Challenger.

They get in touch with their body rather than only living in their mind and move beyond thought toward action.
Trust their instincts more.
Become more outspoken and spontaneous.
More assertive.
They were energized and motivated by anger rather than withdrawal.
Defend themselves more effectively.

When stressed, they move towards the negative side of Type 7 – The Enthusiast.

Take on new projects impulsively.
Become scattered and distracted.

Wings

Wings add flavor to your personality. Every Enneagram personality type can have either of the two types next to them as their wing.

For Fives, this means that they can have a wing Four (Enneagram 5w4) or a wing Six (Enneagram 5w6).

Enneagram 5w4

If a Five has a Type 4 – The Individualist wing, they add emotional sensitivity and a passion for the unconventional to their analytical, detached minds.

These Fives are more independent than those with a Six wing.

They are sometimes more eccentric and more in tune with their imagination.

Fives and Fours are very similar.

They both choose to withdraw from the world: Five, to analyze it from the haven of their minds, and Four, to explore their emotional world.

Both seek something inside them that helps them cope with the real world.

But they come from different directions: Fives from their heads, Fours from their hearts.

They are often less concerned with cold, hard, data-driven science than with areas where they can use their intuition and imagination.

You also get an even more withdrawn type that can spend much of their time with impractical things that stimulate their minds and imagination without producing meaningful results – hours spent reading, specializing in trivia and hobbies, or playing intellectual games.

Since they are still fundamentally Fives, their fantasies often revolve more around the fantastic and surreal than the Four, sometimes drifting into the macabre, dark, and horrific.

When Healthy	When Unhealthy
Union of intuition and knowledge. Highly creative and imaginative. Envision alternate realities in detail. A propensity for fantasizing about the surreal rather than the romantic.	They can become moody. They can become hypersensitive to criticism. They can become reclusive and cynical. They can become full of self-hatred and prone to despair.

Enneagram 5w6

To generalize a bit right off the start, Fives with a Type 6 – The Loyalist wing is often what people associate with the classic programmer-type: Very good at intellectual dissection, theoretical problem-solving, technical subjects, and practical matters; more social than others (the reclusive Fives with a Four wing for example) – but not very good at voicing their feelings (if they try at all); very observant of the world around them but not particularly introspective.

This is what the Six Wings add to the Five types: the ability to use their analytical mindset on practical things that ensure the world will be easier to navigate, more predictable, and maybe even slightly safer.

Another thing the Six Wings brings with it is the ability to be more persistent and diligent in their work.

The Six’s way of looking at the world through the lens of safety (which, on a deeper level, originates in anxiety) combines with the Five’s wish to withdraw from the world to protect their limited resources.

However, Sixes usually tries to find safety by connecting with others, which is somewhat at odds with Fives’ isolating instincts.

This shows that on the one hand, Fives with this wing struggle with personal relationships, while on the other hand, they are generally much more cooperative than if they had a Four wing.

The Six influence grants them more attractive, lovable qualities that make them endearing to others, but they still need to choose to emphasize people instead of objects.

Since they’re still fundamentally Fives, it isn’t always easy for them.

When Healthy	When Unhealthy
Interested in acquiring facts and details analysts and catalogers of their environment. The most intellectual of all the sub-types, able to draw meaningful conclusions from disparate facts and make predictions based on those conclusions. They are often drawn to technical subjects [science, engineering, philosophy]. Deep capacity for friendship and commitment can be socially clumsy.	They can become insensitive to the feelings and emotional needs of others. Excessively preoccupied, passive-aggressive. Feel persecuted and harbor feelings of inferiority. Antagonistic towards those who disagree with them. Rebellious and argumentative for no apparent reason.

Relationships

Among the life tasks of fives is learning commitment and action.

Fives have to fall in love passionately.

Love is a drama for a five because, in erotic attraction, the longing for nearness crashes up against the at least equally strong – for them – wish for distance.

A Five may fall head over heels in love, but they go numb during the encounter with the beloved person and don’t know how to behave.

Although you appear self-sufficient, you need the experience of secure love in the inner world and the outer world (love from fellow human beings).

When Healthy	When Unhealthy
They are kind Perceptive Open-minded Self-sufficient Trustworthy	They are on guard against being engulfed and can be contentious. Suspicious Withdrawn Negative

Styles

Interpersonal Coping Style

Withdrawn – Withdraw because they do not believe they have what it takes to deal with other people’s needs or life’s demands.

Conflict Style

Competency – Tries to find a rational solution; detach emotionally in search of objective assessment, try to figure out problems independently, and see issues solving as an intellectual exercise.

Sub-types

Self-Preservation Subtype – Castle

Very protective of personal space and privacy, this type sets clear limits and boundaries and is very comfortable living a relatively solitary life with just a few close friends.
They would much rather observe social life than participate.
Often truly introverted, they prefer not to reveal much of their inner self, finding it difficult to lower their guard for fear of losing their privacy or sense of safety.
They express avarice by focusing on boundaries—a need to be “castled” in a sanctuary where they feel protected from intrusion and have control over their borders.
They have a passion for being able to hide behind walls and know that they have everything they need to survive within those walls.
They are the least expressive of the three Fives. They try to limit their needs and wants to avoid being dependent on others.

They search for the essence or meaning of situations, focusing on the big questions as they pursue wisdom and knowledge.
They connect with groups or experts who share their brilliance and high ideals, often disconnected from everyday issues or emotions.
While sharing values and ideals with energy and enthusiasm, they may resist sharing space, time, or inner resources, disconnecting from those around them.
They expressed avarice through a need for “super-ideals,” relating to others with common interests through knowledge. They shared values (rather than emotional connection).
In these Five, avarice is connected to learning.
Needs for people and relationships’ sustenance get channeled into a thirst for information.
“Totem” refers to a passion for high ideals, the need to idealize experts and seek knowledge connected to whatever ultimate values this Five adheres to.
Social Fives search for the ultimate meaning to avoid experiencing life as meaningless.

One-to-One Subtype – Confidence (countertype)

The typically calm, analytical Five connects to passion in this subtype, focusing that passion on one or two people in an otherwise reserved life.
They experience strong ‘chemistry’ with another person, enjoying the connection, trust, and openness this permits.
They risk depending on this other person to make them feel vibrant and alive, leading them to ‘test’ their partner’s loyalty or resist sharing them with others.
They express avarice by searching for ideal exemplars of absolute love.
This is a Five with a romantic streak.
The name reflects their need to find a partner who fulfills an ideal of trust.
The most emotionally sensitive of the Fives, they suffer more, resemble Type Four more, and have more overt desires.
They have a vibrant inner life that may be expressed through artistic creation. However, they are still cut off from others in many ways.

Personal Growth

You have to guard against arrogance and conceit.

Learn to notice when your thinking and speculation take you out of the immediacy of your experience.

Your mental capacities can be an extraordinary gift but can only be a trap when you use them to retreat from contact with yourself and others.

Stay connected with your physicality.

You tend to be highly intense and so high-strung that you find it difficult to relax and unwind.

Try to learn to calm down healthily, without drugs or alcohol.

Exercising or using biofeedback techniques will help channel some of your tremendous nervous energy.

Meditation, jogging, yoga, and dancing are beneficial for your type.

You see many possibilities but often do not know how to choose among them or judge which is more or less critical.

When you are caught in your fixation, a sense of perspective can be missing, and with it, the ability to make accurate assessments.

At such times, it can be helpful to get the advice of someone whose judgment you trust while gaining perspective on your situation.

Doing this can also help you trust someone else, a difficulty for your type.

Notice when you are getting intensely involved in projects that do not necessarily support your self-esteem, confidence, or life situation.

It is possible to follow many fascinating subjects, games, and pastimes, but they can become huge distractions from what you know you need to do.

Decisive action will bring more confidence than learning facts or acquiring unrelated skills.

Fives tend to find it difficult to trust people, to open up to them emotionally, or to make themselves accessible in various ways.

Their awareness of potential relationship problems may create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It is important to remember that having conflicts with others is not unusual and that the healthy thing is to work them out rather than reject attachments with people by withdrawing into isolation.

Having one or two intimate friends you trust enough to have conflicts with will significantly enrich your life.

Type Comparisons

Type 5 and Type 1

Ones and Fives can look a lot alike.
Both Ones and Fives can be reserved, logical, and task-focused, and both styles can also appear serious and withdrawn at times.
Ones and Fives value independence, self-reliance, and self-sufficiency, but Fives require more privacy than Ones.
Both seek knowledge— Fives because they believe knowledge is power so that they can be more competent, informed, and correct in their actions.
Both appear intellectual and knowledgeable and excel at objective analysis.
One strives for objectivity because one wants to be responsible. They believe it is the correct thing to do, and it can prevent mistakes.
Fives are naturally objective because they think deeply about things and detach from feelings when analyzing situations.
Both understand boundaries and the need for them.
Both Ones and Fives are diligent and practical.
However, Ones are more rules-based, and Fives are more appreciative of simplicity and the conservation of resources than reliant on a specific set of rules.
Both types apply their internal standards when judging their or others’ work.
While Ones and Fives share some characteristics, the two styles fundamentally differ.
While Fives can be self-critical, Ones are much more self-critical than Fives.
One has an internal critic who comments on almost everything.
Ones also tend to be more judgmental of others than Fives; they can be openly angry or irritated when others do not follow the rules or do not do things the right way (according to the One’s sense of “the right way”).
Although neither style feels comfortable sharing emotions and Ones and Fives tend to hold back their emotions, Ones’ feelings tend to leak out more than Fives, who almost always maintain a calm, unruffled reserve, even in times of stress.
One tends to experience some version of anger reasonably regularly.
Though they try to restrain feelings, their anger sometimes leaks out in irritation, annoyance, or frustration, mainly when people do not perform as the One thinks they should.
Fives, conversely, are more likely to keep their thoughts, especially their feelings, to themselves.
Fives automatically detach from feelings, and sharing their emotions with others is scarce, especially in the work setting.

Type 5 and Type 2

While Twos and Fives are opposites in some ways, they share some traits in common.
Twos and Fives can withdraw when feeling vulnerable, though Fives rely on this strategy more often and in more situations than Twos.
People of both styles can need time alone, though, for Fives, this is a more everyday experience than Twos.
Twos usually need to develop an ability to be alone more as part of their self-work. In contrast, Fives typically need to create a capacity to be with others more.
Twos most often feel the need for alone time after having been around people a lot or after they have done some development work and realize they neglect their own experience instead of focusing a great deal of attention on others.
Twos and Fives also place a high value on independence, though this is more of a way of life for Fives.
For Twos, independence may be a value they hold as an unconscious defense against feeling too dependent on others (as they depend on others’ approval to support their self-esteem).
In many ways, Twos and Fives are pretty different.
Twos feel their emotions reasonably frequently, and Fives habitually detach from emotion.
Because of this, Fives can seem very reserved, unemotional, and analytical, while Twos tend to appear much more emotional and react to things with more feeling.
In line with this, Fives has a more objective, intellectual way of approaching tasks and discussions in contrast to Twos’ intuitive, feelings-based approach.
Twos like to be around people and actively seek close relationships with others.
At the same time, Fives value their privacy, personal space, and alone time and are generally less relationship-oriented.
Related to this, Twos focus their attention on other people’s feelings and needs to a large extent. At the same time, Fives often purposely avoids becoming too involved with other people—especially with the emotions and emotional needs of others.
Fives believe they can quickly be drained of energy and resources if they interact significantly with others.
At the same time, Twos can feel energized and affirmed by contact with other people, especially close friends who are essential to them.
Twos tend to give very generously to others and can even give too much. In contrast, Fives are usually more withholding, having a common concern that people will take too much of the resources they need for themselves, like time and energy.
Additionally, Twos can have difficulty establishing appropriate boundaries between themselves and others, while Fives tend to be very mindful of setting firm boundaries.
For example, Twos can have difficulty saying “no” to people, even when they want to, while Fives can relatively quickly say “no” if they don’t want to meet another person’s needs.
Similarly, Twos usually consider themselves high-energy people who can readily devote much of their time and energy to others.
Yet, at the same time, Fives have the sense they have limited energy and so pay attention to conserving their power for their own needs.

Type 5 and Type 3

Threes and Fives have some similar characteristics.
Both types value emotional control and avoid paying attention to their emotions.
Threes numb their feelings to prevent emotions from interfering with accomplishing tasks, achieving goals, and maintaining their image.
Fives habitually detach from their feelings and focus more on thinking and analyzing.
Fives find comfort and safety in the mental realm, and Threes find comfort in doing and performing.
From the point of view of others who might want to forge a close relationship with them, both Threes and Fives can sometimes seem unavailable and hard to connect with.
Threes can seem inaccessible because they overidentify with their image and may not be able to connect to and live from their authentic self.
Fives because they tend to withdraw from others to reduce discomfort and potentially taxing emotional entanglements.
Related to this, both Threes and Fives value independence and self-sufficiency.
Significant differences also exist between Threes and Fives.
Threes tend to depend on others for approval and admiration. In contrast, Fives pride themselves on their independence and objectivity and don’t evaluate themselves based on others’ perceptions.
Threes pay excellent attention to creating an image of success that others will admire to feel valued and worthwhile, while Fives do not focus on their vision this way.
In work situations, Threes are primarily oriented toward doing tasks and working toward goals, while Fives prioritize observing, thinking, analyzing, and developing knowledge.
Threes expend a lot of energy on work—they spend whatever time it takes to achieve their chosen goals, even if it means working overtime—while Fives focus on conserving energy and avoiding tasks and relationships that will drain them of their power.
Fives have the sense that they have a limited amount of energy to expend and engage in continual efforts to be economical regarding resources like time, energy, and action.
On the other hand, Threes can be workaholics, often working without limit and even bringing work on vacations.
Threes can also be highly competitive in different areas of their lives and can put great energy toward winning at all costs.
Fives, who sometimes seem aloof or above it all, can quickly disengage from an effort if they conclude it is not worth their energy and other resources.

Type 5 and Type 4

There are some apparent similarities between Fours and Fives.
Both types can be introverted and tend to withdraw from others.
Fives regularly make boundaries and move away from interpersonal contact out of a need to conserve energy and internal resources and fear that interacting with others will drain them or invade their private space.
Fours also tend to need distance from others periodically to engage more deeply with their internal experience.
Although Fours have much more regular contact with their emotions than Fives do, both Fours and Fives can intellectualize, meaning they can focus on thinking as a way of disconnecting from feelings.
Both styles are self-referencing, meaning they focus more on their own internal experience than other people’s experiences.
Related to this, Fours and Fives can be introspective, paying much attention to what is happening inside themselves.
Significant differences also exist between Fours and Fives.
Fours represent one of the most emotional types; they often have contact with their feelings on a deep level.
On the other hand, fives are among the least emotional, habitually detaching from their feelings.
Fives avoid deep connections when relating to others, as they feel more comfortable limiting their emotional entanglements. In contrast, Fours typically seek out deep relationships and connections with others.
Fives usually keep their feelings to themselves and value self-sufficiency, and Fours tend to share their feelings with others and value emotionally authentic relationships.
When evaluating a situation or task, Fives communicates a detached, objective point of view.
In contrast, Fours’ particular strength is their emotional intuition; they tend to see things more dynamically or emotionally creatively.
Fives enjoy being alone and having a lot of private time.
While Fours can also appreciate time alone, they are sensitive to abandonment and loss and value maintaining solid emotional connections.
Fives tend to be reserved and withholding and can be sensitive to intrusion in a relationship.
Fours are more dramatic, romantic, and passionate in their relationships.
In addition, Fives can quickly feel drained by the needs of others, while Fours are usually very sensitive and empathic in the face of others’ demands.
Finally, Fives tend to minimize their needs and desires, while Fours often dwell in an experience of desiring and longing for their demands to be met.
Thus, when Fours lack what they need, they feel the pain acutely, while Fives detach from pain and focus on hoarding, economizing, and conserving to cope with not having enough of what they need.

Type 5 and Type 6

Fives and Sixes are alike in many ways.
Both Fives and Sixes can be reserved and withdrawn.
More phobic Sixes, in particular, resemble Fives, as both types tend to be introverted and seek security by moving away from other people.
Fives maintain a distance between themselves and others to guard against being depleted.
In contrast, Six is wary of others and withdraws out of fear that other people might represent some danger or threat.
Both types are slow to trust others when forming relationships.
This is because Fives and Sixes have safety and security concerns, though phobic Sixes tend to feel more actively fearful and anxious about outside threats.
At the same time, Fives excels at frightening situations well before they occur.
Fives and Sixes can be vigilant when interacting with others and protecting their boundaries, and both can become angry when their borders are challenged.
Fives need clear boundaries to prevent intrusions and potentially energy-draining interactions with others, while Sixes have a common fear of being attacked or shamed somehow.
Both Fives and Sixes are analytical thinking types who intellectualize regularly, meaning they rely on their thinking function a great deal to avoid feelings —they may believe about feelings but have a hard time feeling them.
Fives and Sixes also differ in some of their traits.
Counterphobic (Sexual) Sixes can look very different from Fives, much more extraverted than the introverted Five.
Sixes have more apparent issues with authorities than Fives do.
Sixes can be suspicious of and openly rebellious toward authority figures.
But, at the same time, Fives can follow authorities if they choose to (and if they don’t, they may go against the established leader in a more quiet, less noticeable way).
Sixes focuses on questioning and doubting in the quest for certainty. At the same time, Fives pays more attention to the accumulation of knowledge, the reduction of needs, and the economical use of resources like time and energy.
Fives value emotional control, while Sixes do not prioritize the power of emotions similarly.
Fives can be very objective when analyzing a situation, as they habitually detach from emotions.
On the other hand, Sixes can have difficulty distinguishing their intuitions from their projections—they may confuse the reality of what they perceive with what they fear is valid.
Interpersonally, Fives withdraw from others to avoid feeling pressed to meet their emotional needs.
In contrast, Sixes do not fear meeting others’ needs and can be very generous with their time and energy with people they trust.

Type 5 and Type 7

Fives and Sevens have several characteristics in common.
Fives and Sevens are mental types, “living” most of the time in their heads (or their thinking function), though they do it differently.
Believing knowledge is power, Fives think about gathering and categorizing information, and Sevens think about planning, interrelating, and interconnecting ideas.
Sevens have a nonlinear way of thinking that allows them to find connections and parallels between different things.
At the same time, Fives prioritize collecting and classifying information, especially about topics they are intensely interested in.
Furthermore, both Sevens and Fives have active imaginations and sincerely enjoy learning new things and pursuing intellectual interests.
Fives and Sevens both guard against becoming too committed in social interactions, Fives because they fear being drained by others’ needs, and Sevens because they like to have many options and dislike feeling limited.
In addition, people of both styles intellectualize; they avoid feelings by going into thinking and analysis and detaching from emotions.
There are also apparent differences between Fives and Sevens.
Sevens live in the future much of the time, in fantasies and plans about pleasurable activities yet to happen, while Fives don’t live in the future or think in terms of planning and play in this same way.
Sevens are relentlessly positive, habitually and automatically reframing negatives into positives, while Fives tend to be more removed and objective in their analysis of situations and events.
Sevens focus attention on having multiple options and limitless opportunities. In contrast, Fives focuses on how to conserve energy and do what they have to do most economically, given their perception that their resources are limited.
They feel at risk of being depleted.
Sevens have difficulty making commitments because having others depend on them makes them feel constrained, limited, and uncomfortable.
Fives are more able to make commitments precisely because they are so good at protecting their private space and pushing boundaries.
While Sevens are often very socially active and gregarious, Fives tend to make social promises much more carefully and to a minimal number of people.
When it comes to feelings, Sevens actively seek out excitement and stimulation as a way of avoiding emotions like frustration, discomfort, and sadness.
In contrast, Fives merely detach from emotions, automatically letting them go and focusing instead on thoughts and ideas.
Sevens unconsciously deal with their fear and anxiety by charming and disarming others.
Fives detach and withdraw from others to avoid interactions that might feel intrusive or inspire complicated feelings.

Type 5 and Type 8

Some apparent similarities exist between Fives and Eights.
Fives and Eights can feel and express anger if someone challenges their boundaries.
Still, while this is one of the only situations in which Fives will openly express anger, Eights tend to become angry more frequently over a broader range of issues.
Both Fives and Eights have difficulty experiencing (and, especially, expressing) vulnerable emotions.
Fives detach from emotions and withdraw from situations that might inspire vulnerable feelings.
At the same time, Eights deny their vulnerability and overcompensate by focusing on and finding ways to communicate their strength and power.
Fives differ from Eights in many respects.
Socially, Eights tend to be extraverted and have a great deal of “big” energy.
At the same time, Fives are usually more introverted and withdrawn, with a much more reserved and low-key energetic presence.
While both Eights and Fives like to be in control, Eights will take command more overtly, actively, and aggressively, while Fives tend to control things more quietly and less obviously, with less energy expenditure.
Eights tend to be excessive in their actions, while Fives are minimalistic, conservationist, and economical.
When analyzing a situation, Eights can have trouble distinguishing between the objective truth and their version of the truth, and Fives have the particular talent of being objective analysts.
Eights are impulsive; Fives are more thoughtful.
For example, Eights tend to move into action before they think things through, while Fives think a great deal about a particular move before going into action.
Fives suffer more from the possibility that they will think too much and not take action.
In relationships, Eights usually make it clear where they stand, while Fives can be challenging to read and may withhold information about what they are thinking and feeling, even with close others.
Lastly, Eights rebel against any inhibition of their enormous capacity for pleasure or power.
Fives tend to minimize and inhibit their needs and desires and can feel depleted by life and relationships.
Fives may even forgo the possible pleasure that a relationship may bring because the cost seems too high in terms of time, space, or emotional energy.
In contrast, most Eights feel energized by relationships, especially physical intimacy (or the promise of it).

Type 5 and Type 9

Fives and Nines share some traits in common, especially from the point of view of an outside observer.
Energetically, Fives and Nines can appear reserved and withdrawn, though Nines do not so much start from others as they forget themselves and neglect their agendas and preferences to create harmony and alignment.
Both can be good mediators, as Nines can easily see all points of view, and Fives are objective analysts.
Both Fives and Nines dislike conflict and can be passive-aggressive, though Nines may do this out of an inability to feel their anger directly. Fives may engage in this behavior because they do not want to express their emotions openly or get involved in an emotional situation that could be costly energetically.
People of both styles have a way of distancing themselves from their own internal experience—Fives by detaching from emotion, and Nines from forgetting about their preferences and opinions.
When it comes to working with others, both Fives and Nines like structure and regularity; both want to be consulted about what they think and may need time to reflect on that, and both have a sensitivity to and a dislike of being controlled by others.
There are also some significant differences between Fives and Nines.
In relating to others, at the most basic level, Nines tend to merge with others, as they find comfort in harmony with people, while Fives tend to withdraw from others, as they fear being depleted by the needs and demands of other people.
Nines are other-referencing, tending to pay attention primarily to other people, while Fives are self-referencing, focusing more on their own internal experience and boundaries.
Related to this, Nines are overly adaptive to others, while Fives are under-adaptive to others.
Frequently not knowing what they want, Nines tend to avoid stating their preferences and may later feel resentful that they went along with others and their wishes were not heard.
Fives, on the other hand, almost always know what they want and are adept at preventing others from interfering with their actions.
Nines are often perceived as friendly, courteous, and easygoing, while Fives are perceived as more aloof and reserved.
Wanting to be close to others harmoniously, Nines often don’t perceive their need for boundaries, so they don’t make boundaries with others.
At the same time, Fives prioritizes setting and maintaining their limits.
Similarly, Nines have difficulty saying no and expressing their preferences despite other people’s wishes, while Fives can much more easily say no.
Sometimes, Nines will say yes and mean no, while Fives will say no when they want to say no.
Nines may have difficulty separating from others because of their boundary issues.
On the other hand, fives separate from others very quickly, sometimes to a fault, as withdrawal constitutes one of their primary forms of self-protection.
For Nines, paying attention to others’ agendas gets in the way of knowing their own; for Fives, paying attention to their agenda makes it hard to let in and make room for the plans (and feelings) of others.

Enneagram Type 5 Careers

They are often in scientific, technical, or other intellectually demanding fields.
They can be excellent Professors, Researchers, Doctors, Engineers, Programmers, Scientists, and Mathematicians.
They excel in occupations that demand mental agility, expert knowledge, and objective observations.
They have strong analytical skills and are good at problem-solving.
Those with a well-developed Four-wing are likelier to be counselors, musicians, artists, or writers.
They usually like to work alone and are independent thinkers.

Enneagram Type 5 Personality Type Cross-reference

Though almost any type could be an Enneagram Type 5, they are typically Introverted Thinkers, with 59% to 75% falling into one of four types: INTP, ISTJ, INTJ, and ISTP.