DailySkew

The One, also called The Reformer, is principled, orderly, perfectionistic, and self-righteous.

Key motivations: Want to be correct; to have balance and integrity. To improve others. To be beyond criticism.

Healthy Ones: Strong personal convictions, an intense sense of what is right and wrong, possessing personal and moral values. Highly principled, with a strive to be fair, objective, and ethical. This sense of responsibility and personal integrity, and having a higher purpose often make them teachers and witnesses to the Truth. Well known “Healthy Ones” – Jesus and Buddha.

Average Ones: Dissatisfied with reality, they are high-minded idealists, feeling it is up to them to reform or improve everything. Very critical. Afraid of making mistakes; everything must be consistent with their ideals. Organized and orderly, yet impersonal, rigid, emotionally constricted, and keep their feelings and impulses in check. “Anal compulsive”, punctual, and workaholic traits displayed. Picky, judgmental, critical of self and others, opinionated about everything. Correcting people and badgering them to “do the right thing” as they see it, of course. Impatient. Not satisfied with anything unless it is done according to their methods. Angry and scolding.

Unhealthy Ones: Intolerant, inflexible. They alone “know the Truth”. Everyone else is wrong. Severe judgments against others, while rationalizing their actions. Obsessive about imperfections and wrongdoing of others. Act in contradictory ways; hypercritical, taking actions that go against what they preach. Become cruel in order to rid themselves of whatever they believe is disturbing them. Severe depression, nervous breakdowns, and suicide attempts likely.

Damian Hospital’s personal experience with Ones:

Ones teach. It doesn’t mater what occupation they happen to be in, they will lecture, strive for perfection, preach idealism, need to be right, and will be relatively strict to underlings, while obedient to authority. Think Mr. Spock. Ones bring a lot to the table when it comes to planning and procedures, although they tend to underestimate the emotional aspect of things. Healthy ones truly understand (not just by using words, but truly realize it) that feelings and the human element are part of every equation, and place value on them.

Ones are pretty easy to spot in real life: they are the strict school teacher, the old neighbor who still thinks it’s the Depression and saves pennies even though she has hundreds of thousands in the bank, cops, and the no-nonsense production manager.

My experiences show that although Ones seem to be big time authority figures, they need to have authority in their life to show the way, let it be a Big Boss, Bible, law book, or philosophy. For example, I knew a female One that was not only a die-hard vegan but was also extremely principled with other philosophies to the point of being anti-social (did not believe in toothpaste, deodorant or flushing the toilet more than twice a day). Ones secretly are afraid to be evil and wrong and fear punishment- from God, police, government, school principal, president, commissioner, spouse, karma, or parents.

A typical One culture would be the Spanish: when they were conquering the world they used strict, brutal, and punishing measures to enforce Catholicism.

Unlike some personality types that like to procrastinate and surf the web when they get home from work or have the weekends, Ones are productive all the time, let it be fixing up their house, traveling, doing religious work, or focusing on family activity activities. It is rare to catch a One doing nothing in his or her free time.

Ones can have quirky senses of humor; it is mostly black humor. They laugh at the morbid, and don’t show their sensitive side when it comes to tragedy.

Ones like to reform systems and people, including themselves. Mosts One I know claim to be in better shape now than 10+ years ago. Younger Ones, especially if lonely or without a support system, tend to fall to temptation, and carry the guilt with them until they internally reform.

A One feels that keep his or her emotions in check is the key to clarity. If you can antagonize a One to actually get into a shouting match, you must have really hit a hot button. You see, a One may trick you into thinking he or she doesn’t feel, but they do, just like Mr. Spock secretly did.

With all the talk about following rules and having discipline, you may think I’m blowing spoke, since they don’t sound human. And the truth is that Ones may still have secret vices or show laziness when no one’s looking. They lie and cheat just like everyone else.

Since I was born a Type 4 [my environment caused me to shift to a 4w5], my spiritual growth progresses to that of a healthy One. Since Fours tend to be prone to look at things creatively and subjectively, they can learn a lot from the lack of personalization from Ones. However, I notice that many many Fours don’t want to listen to criticism of any kind, especially from a seemingly ruthless One. Ones are the masters of preaching, “Don’t take it personally.”

I’ve learned a lot about Ones since Tony Vahl and I found out about the Enneagram in 1999. Ones’ opinions have value because they are theoretical, and know the proper way of doing things, i.e. the difference between right and wrong. The problem occurs when they become fixated on a small imperfection, and lose sight.

If you had the honor of meeting a healthy One, you would see how truly and genuinely righteous and principled the person is, and what an objective reality they see. Their clarity could help you solve many of your problems.

However, if you had the misfortune of getting saddled with an average or unhealthy One as an authority figure, it’s more than likely your life would become a living hell. Those types of Ones don’t make EXCEPTIONS, like a typical law enforcement officer or the personification of The Law. If you have such a One as a middle manager at work or parent, don’t ever expect a pat on the back.

If you want pointers, a One has to trust you to respect you, and to give you some slack. Ones generally have preconceived notions of you because they believe they have a “right” world view. So you really have to prove yourself to them with all of their tests and comments. You have to accept a lot and be patient. However, if you ever want to advance the relationship, you also have to show some fire and spirit to prove your opinion, otherwise they will abuse you. Just don’t go too overboard because they’ll probably fire you, or if a family member, not speak to you anymore.

Female Ones are very picky and are always looking for the Perfect Man (HIGH standards). They tend to devour dozens of imperfect men, and get bogged down in bad relationships, in hopes of “reforming”. It seems to be that female Ones are harder on their children than male Ones. The female Ones I knew are more prone to depression than male Ones.

In terms of “heroes” and “villains” or “allies” and “enemies”, Ones have a tendency to be on the bad side of the line since THEY DON’T GIVE YOU A BREAK IN SOCIETY, but the truly good ones stand out, and stand the test of time and history!