Enneagram Type 7w6 Childhood (A complete guide)

In this article, we will discuss Enneagram Type 7w6 i.e. type seven-wing six ‘The Entertainer’ and the role of their childhood in their personality development. We will do that by initially giving an introduction to enneagrams, their structure, and wings. This will follow up by describing the dominant type seven personality and its triad. We will move on to giving an overview of its subtype i.e. type 7w6. Finally, we will discuss the detailed role of childhood in their development.  

Enneagram Type 7w6: Childhood

Enneagram type 7w6 has the primary characteristics of type 7 and secondary characteristics of type 6 personality. These people are responsible,  adventurous, and passionate. They are open to new experiences and enjoy them. They also make sure to stick to their commitments. Their core childhood conflict that makes them the way they are is ‘Nurturing Deficiency’.This means that they use distraction strategies to avoid facing their loneliness and anxiety.

Enneagrams

Enneagrams are a map or typology of human personalities. It has its roots in spirituality, philosophy, and psychology. Multiple people contributed to its development among which George Ivanovich Gurdjieff, Oscar Ichazo, and Claudio Naranjo are the most prominent. 

It is divided into nine personality types that are spread across 3 triads i.e. Feeling triad, Thinking Triad, or Instinctive Triad. It describes a person’s fundamental psychological orientation in the form of good or bad traits and sees which triad quality i.e. emotion, intellect or instincts is most characteristic of his or her personality. 

An enneagram gives a personality type that is fluid and explains its change across time i.e. personality integration (during health, self-actualization) or disintegration (during ill health, neurosis). In other words,  a personality can become more healthy or unhealthy as it moves in different directions from its basic type. Enneagram also links one personality type with other personality types.

Enneagram symbol is a circle that has 9 points (each point is a personality type) present on the circumference. Each type is related to another as represented by the connected lines. Points 3,6, 9 forms a triangle. They are primary personality types that are blocked in some way from feelings, thoughts, or instincts. Whereas 4,2,8,5,7,1 form an irregular hexagram and are secondary personality types since they are mixed and not blocked from feelings, thoughts, or instincts. Each type is the result of a dialectic. In every triad, one type over-expresses its characteristic quality, another under-expresses it, and the third is mostly out of touch with it. 

The Basic Personality Type is the most characteristic of a person. Whereas wings add elements to the overall personality i.e. it is the second side of it. 

Example: If you are a personality type 7, you can have wing 6 or wing 8. So, such a personality can be understood by knowing the traits of the basic or main type and the secondary types. Usually, each personality has two wings, and both influence a person. However, at times people have one dominant wing along with their basic personality type.

The Thinking Triad: Personality Types Five, Six, Seven

• The positive and negative traits of these personalities are dominated by thinking.

• When these types are healthy, their thoughts make them distinct and admirable for their introspective qualities, insights, and ideas that have scientific, creative, and practical applications.

• When they are unhealthy, they are out of balance with respect to their thoughts and are difficult to interact with.

• All three personality types have common problems linked with insecurity and anxiety.

Enneagram Type 7: The Enthusiast’

Key traits: Manic,  uninhibited,  passionate, and accomplished. These people under-express their thinking.  This means that they do not complete their thoughts and jump from one thought to the next.  The content of their thoughts is dependent on the activity they are performing or what they anticipate will happen next. It has two subtypes:

• The seven with wing 6 (Type 7w6)

• The seven with wing 8 (Type 7w8)

Type 7w6: ‘The Entertainer’

Type 7w6 has basic traits of type 7 and secondary traits of type 6 personality. Type 6 and type 7  are in conflict with each other i.e. orientation towards people (need the approval of others) vs orientation towards things/experiences ( do not need the approval of others). Thus,  such subtypes do a bit of both. i.e. find satisfaction within themselves and also approach others for extra happiness.  These people are outgoing,  adventurous, and relationship-oriented who are just looking for a genuine human connection.

Healthy versions of this subtype are productive and playful people who have an infectious child-like quality. They are creative entertainers with a positive outlook on life.  Their quick humor, clever minds, and sense of discipline help them to achieve a lot of things.  They are assertive yet have a need to be liked and accepted.  Similarly,  they are generous with their money and party-throwing nature.  With their optimism,  they easily form bonds with people especially since they have a very appealing soft side that is both adult and childlike.

Average versions of this subtype are also productive but can easily lose focus.  They are insecure and anxious people who appear to be nervous and fidgety most of the time.  They have trouble following through with commitment. Regarding money, they can be extravagant but also careful.

At times, they can be impulsive and fall in love as easily as they fall out of it.  They need the acceptance and approval of other people which explains their need to always be in a relationship. 

Often, they get preoccupied with what other people think of them and their decisions.   Although they have a good sense of humor but it has a pessimistic and fearful quality. Such people can unconsciously be insensitive and self-centered and easily turn to substance abuse to cope.

 Unhealthy versions of this subtype have an erratic and needy quality.  They are always in search of people who can keep them distracted from their internal fears.  They want the approval of others and turn to them for solving their life’s problems.  Being alone scares them which is why they continue to look for anyone to hang out or party with.  Without, this, they can become helpless, hysterical, and violent.  Such types are highly vulnerable to be dramatic and self-destructive who can even turn to suicide attempts.  Addiction and emotional breakdowns are also possible in their case. 

Examples of Type 7w6: Steven Spielberg,  Elton John,  Jim Carrey, Robin Williams

Strengths of Type 7w6

• Productive
• Optimistic
• Quick and thorough thinkers
• Sensitive to feelings of others

Weaknesses of Type 7w6

• Anxious
• Engage in self-doubt
• Disorganized when stressed
• Trouble remaining focused in stress
• Easily get bored

If you’re facing this, it may be a good idea to seek the help of a therapist or other mental health professional. You can find a therapist at BetterHelp who can help you learn how to cope and address it.

Workplace and job 

Type 7w6 are Productive,  inquisitive,  loyal, and seek new experiences.  They prefer to work in jobs that are fast-paced and encourage their creativity and adventurous qualities e.g. Publicist, pilot, journalist, media planner, travel writer etc.

Source of Stress for type 7w6

• The negativity of other people
•  Isolation
•  Schedules and excessive rules
•  Boring routine/ lack of excitement
•  No freedom of choice

Basic fear 

Type 7w6 fears missing out on opportunities and fun.  They are conflicted between wanting to be being reliable and following commitments but also needing room for free choice.

Basic desire 

Type 7w6 desire to be happy and fulfilled which is exhibited by their joy in small things of everyday life.  These people defend themselves by giving a logical meaning to their negative feelings i.e. they convince themselves they are happy when they are not.

Childhood in Enneagram types

We become any personality depending on how we have learned to respond to the world growing up. Our early childhood particularly our relationship with our parents governs how we unconsciously adapt to our family and the world. Genetics and temperament have their role as well. A person remains one personality type throughout life but may change and grow to develop healthy or unhealthy traits.  

Childhood of Type 7w6

During their childhood, type sevens were disconnected from the parent having the nurturing role, who was responsible for giving them affection and care ( usually it is the mother but not always).  As children, they did not feel a bond with this person and did not get nurturance consistently.  They felt that they could not depend on this person for fulfilling their needs.  As a result,  they started to turn to other things to compensate for the missing love/affection.

It is possible that the deprivation from the nurturing figure was not deliberate.  rather situations like poverty,  war,  illness, and being orphaned could have made such deprivation possible.  Another possibility could be that an accident or an incident took place that did not support the child’s needs.  In the same way,  another reason could be that 7 hard greater need for stimulation or contact which the nurturing figure could not provide.

 Thus,  the fear of not having nurturance became ingrained in such personalities.  As a result,  they started to turn to other people to fulfill their needs and demands that were symbolic of nurturance.

Childhood of Type 7w6 affecting adulthood

Based on their childhood, type sevens developed a belief that they can only be fulfilled if they have many fun experiences. Thus, they are always on the lookout for stimulations and exciting things to happen. This is because they believe that this excitement can fulfill their inner void and distract them from their loneliness and anxiety. They think that to be loved, they have to always be positive and exciting. This explains their tendency to be thrill-seeking and adventurous.

Childhood coping patterns of Type 7w6 in adulthood

Type sevens learn to cope by:

• Looking at the positive in negative experiences
• Jumping back from painful incidents i.e. they are resilient.
• Using imagination to keep things interesting.
• Justifying personal behavior and feelings i.e. rationalizing.
• Moving from one thing to another when in pain

Type 7w6 core characteristics developed from childhood

These personalities develop certain characteristics after learning from their childhood experiences.  These include the following:

•  They fear being alone.
• They can easily get hurt.
• They hate being told what to do which explains their defiance of authority.
• They act in a self-destructive manner.

FAQs: Type 7w6-Childhood

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed enneagram type 7w6 in detail and the role of childhood in their development. We found that enneagram type 7w6 has the primary characteristics of type 7 and secondary characteristics of type 6 personality. These people are responsible,  adventurous, passionate, honor their commitments, and enjoy planning & having new experiences. Their core childhood conflict that makes them the way they are is ‘Nurturing Deficiency’.This means that they use distraction strategies to avoid facing their loneliness and anxiety.

 I hope you found this article interesting. If you have any queries or comments, please state them in the comment section 😊

Citations

https://www.crystalknows.com/enneagram/type-7-wing-6

https://www.psychologyjunkie.com/2020/03/10/the-childhood-wounds-of-every-enneagram-type/#

http://www.russellrowe.com/enneagram-types/enneagram-type-7-description.pdf

Personality Types – Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery by Don Richard Riso with Russ Hudson

The Wisdom of the Enneagram by Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson