Enneagram Type 4 -
The Individualist -

Enneagram Type 4: The Individualist

If every type had its own song, Enneagram 4’s would be the song “Creep” from Radiohead, which includes the lyrics, “I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo. What the hell am I doing here? I don’t belong here.” This song somehow represents the way The Individualist feels without the excessive drama or the sadness of its melody. It’s amazing how big their personal museum is. They spend so much time there—exploring, taking notes, trying to decipher their true original self. Type 4s watch as everything they think comes to life and becomes part of their script. Enneagram type 4 have tons of potential and the energy of a volcano, but they are limited to using it only in their imagination. However, they believe that nobody would understand why and how they think, anyway. Hey, weirdo Type 4, do your thing! Show your skills to the world.

What Motivates Enneagram Type 4?

The Individualist is constantly in a trance of feelings, surfing their moods and emotions. Their emotions are always on display; it’s easy to perceive who they are upon evoking their feelings. Enneagram type 4s are very sensitive and humane, which can be intense. That’s a high quality of theirs and it teaches them a lot about life, which leads Type 4s to think there’s no need to go out and try for themselves. Withdrawing from the world feels safer for Type Fours. They can watch and gaze from their self-spaces and interpret reality with the filter of their own melancholy. Type Fours project stories, romances, and events like a Bat-signal. Suddenly, they can’t go out. They need to stay inside to keep learning and imagining, living the virtual life which they feel identified with. The Individualist’s feelings are their motivation.

How Does Enneagram Type Four Think?

Enneagram Type Fours feel they are only worth it if they are faithful to themselves. But, who are they? Type 4s are people that like to fantasize and imagine stories, who live in a place where things are well under control and reactions are well-managed. What happens if they go out and do something unexpected? How would they deal with it? Will they be consistent? Will they repeat themselves or be someone else? What happens if a Type Four discovers new reactions, new feelings, new ways that wash them away from the shore? Type 4s find this scary and an unnecessary risk, so they withdraw to their inner selves. The Individualist has an amazing and singular ability to connect to their feelings, and that power is hard to manage. Sometimes they identify strongly with their feelings, so they may end up getting too attached to them. Type 4s are so much more than what they feel. Taking their feelings and displaying them creatively could be a great chance to channel these feelings and to open the way to Type Fours’ core.

How's Enneagram Type 4 In Love?

Type 4s are hopeless romantics. They should definitely consider the option of selling their mental scripts to some soap opera channel; they are losing money if they don’t. This sounds funny, but it also demonstrates how Enneagram Type 4s treasure themselves very very deeply, where storms break out under the sun. When they finally get into their own love story, they’re intense. Type Fours deploy a wide arsenal of seductive and powerful energy. They want to take reality as the higher expression of a virtual fantasy. Carrying that romantic empowerment, they can step into possessiveness and jealousy. The fear of losing that someone who cares about them that they have finally found drives Type 4s to become a little euphoric and dependent. Sometimes they put onto their loving partner the ideal of love they’ve created for themselves. Deep inside, what they want is a savior, someone who offers them their shoulders, a safe place in which they can pour out all their vulnerability. Someone to be a refuge for hostility.

The Best & The Worst Of Enneagram 4. The Light And The Darkness

Going inward through the large mind halls full of memories and labyrinths can be fruitful, but addictive too. Although introspection is a proven way of self-knowledge, it is something that becomes comfortable and bittersweet at the same time. As long as Enneagram 4s know themselves better, they will learn good and maybe not-so-good things about themselves. Considering they are beauty seekers, this can be really tough. Perhaps they will start comparing themselves to others only to come to the conclusion that they are flawed, broken, different or special: a steppenwolf. Heaven and hell coexist inside everyone. While some of us run out of ourselves to avoid facing the truth, Type 4s run right into it. The only problem with this is that when they build a version of themselves as protection from their true selves, their belief that they are weak can drive themselves to dangerous fields. Trusting who they are, their natural selves, without getting lured by a singing mermaid is their great challenge.