Enneagram 5 – The Investigator or Thinker

Enneagram type 5 are also known as the thinker or  investigator. This personality type tends to be very analytical in nature, private, detached and often are introverted. Fours basic fears are being useless, helpless or incapable.

Enneagram Type 5

The Enneagram 5 types are analytical, detached and private. Let’s dive into type 5s.

Let’s look at this type, who they are, their characteristics, wings, stresses and more. 

Need

Type 5 Enneagrams basic desires include being capable and competent.

Characteristics

Type 5s are typically alert, curious and insightful people. A typical Enneagram 5 possesses knowledge, understand the environment and have everything figured out. 

Character of God

Here is the character of God for an Enneagram 5: The omniscience of God.

• Learn about Character of God

How We Distort That Characteristic

Enneagram Type 5s distort this characteristic by excessively detached.

Head Triad

Type 5 fall into the head triad, motivated and fueled by fear.

• Learn more about Triads

Harmonic Approach – Competency

Enneagram 5  fall into the Competency Approach in regards to Harmonic Approach. Fives try solving problems in an objective, unemotional manner. 

Fives can get into conflicts by being too detached, isolated, and provocative.

Fives naturally detach themselves emotionally from the world to be objective.

They believe that they have the mental resources to deal with problems.

In conflict, Fives will want to withdraw and will think for a while before coming back with a solution, often to the irritation of others.

Fives feel that they can solve things by themselves, without relying on others.

They may come back with highly original ideas (thinking outside the box). On the other hand, they may waste their time reinventing the wheel.

source: fitzel.ca

• Learn more about Harmonic Approach

Wings of Enneagram 5

Enneagram 5 wings are 5w4 or 5w6 . No one is a pure personality type: everyone is a unique mixture of his or her basic type and usually one of the two types adjacent to it on the circumference of the Enneagram. One of the two types adjacent to your basic type is called your wing.

5w4 – More creative, sensitive, empathetic and self-absorbed than 5w6. Healthy 5w4 are able to communicate their own feelings to the people they love.

5w6 – Anxious, cautious and skeptical – but they’re also more social and loyal than 5w4.

• Learn about Wings

Stress and Security

Here are what stress and security types that Enneagram type 5s go to when in stress or (security) success. 

STRESS – SEVEN – Hoard and cling tightly to things, which only makes their world feel smaller and smaller.

SECURITY – EIGHT – Become infinitely spontaneous, outspoken and physically present.

Learn about Stress and Security

Sin and Counter Virtue

The deadly sin and counter virtue that Enneagram 5 need to watch for are:  

DEADLY SIN: AVARICE

Afraid they lack the inner resources to meet the demands of life and to preserve independence and energy, Fives hoard knowledge, privacy, time, space and affection.

COUNTER VIRTUE TO CULTIVATE: GENEROSITY

Fives become generous when they relax their mindset of scarcity and embrace the reality of abundance.

• Learn about Sin and Counter Virtue

Best Careers for Enneagram 5

Alert, insightful and curious – here are careers that a typical Enneagram 5 would be successful in: 

• Police Officer
• Detective
• Research Analyst
• Industrial Engineers
• Judges
• Political Scientists