This type idealises the universal innate quality of Strength (name given by A.H.Almaas). Therefore, the personality is constellated around manufacturing this quality of strength. How do you demonstrate strength to the world? You are big, bold, and confident, excessive and abundant with your energy, perhaps occasionally forceful. This characteristic excess is type 8’s Passion (the Enneagram term for a personality’s chief feature), ‘Lust’, and it is most in evidence in the domain of the individual’s dominant instinct.

Names given to Enneagram Type 8

The Protector (the Narrative Enneagram), the Challenger (the Enneagram Institute), the Powerful Person (Jerry Wagner), Striving to be Powerful (Mario Sikora), Compassionate Power (Khaled ElSherbini)

Core characteristics of Enneagram Type 8*

*According to Enneagram teacher and seminal author, Beatrice Chestnut from her book, the Complete Enneagram: 27 Paths to Greater Self-Knowledge

Denying weakness and vulnerability by taking refuge in fearlessness, power, and strength.
Expressing instinctual drives in an uninhibited way. Pushing back on whatever might restrict them (rigidly intolerant of constraints).
‘Getting big’ and taking the most direct route to getting what they need.
Being refreshingly direct and intolerant of bullshit. Fun, generous, intense.
Valuing truth and confronting others, engaging in constructive conflict when necessary.
Having an intense need for vindictive triumph, especially when they feel they have been wronged by others.
Habitually forgetting themselves, especially with regard to needs and vulnerabilities.
Often moving impulsively to express anger, before giving themselves time to think.

One of the Body Centre types

Along with types 9 and 1, Enneagram 8s belong to the Body Center (sometimes also referred to as the Belly Center, Gut Center and Instinctive Center). If you care about inner development and transformation, you want to ensure that you understand the significance of the Centers. If you intend to self-study, I recommend getting a copy of something like the Wisdom of the Enneagram or the Enneagram Triads.

Because each triad shares characteristics, this aspect of the Enneagram can also help you to know whether you are the type you think you are, or whether you have mistyped. Below are some general characteristics that have been associated with the Body types, types 8, 9 and 1.

Characteristics of Body triad*

*From Enneagram teacher Peter O’Hanrahan. See: https://theenneagramatwork.com/defense-systems

Priorities: Instinctual needs and rhythms in daily life, issues of fairness or rightness and getting practical results.
Strengths: Grounded, common-sense approach and aptitude at taking care of basic needs. Good at ‘just doing’ things and being active in the physical world, as well as being connected to nature. Not requiring much thought/energy for the simple tasks of life.
Neurotic style: Using repeating patterns of thinking and doing to capture and stabilize attention in daily life (‘obsessive’).
Defense: Concentration of energy in the belly enables repeating patterns to form layers of ‘insulation’ in the mind and body. This insulation is used to ‘screen out’ unwanted feelings or information from the inside or outside. Personal wants and needs are controlled by ‘shoulds.’ Variations of style: comfortable (9), righteous (1), or dominating (8).
Key phrase: Screening and buffering (principled inattention).
Primary emotional layer: Anger (being against the way things are).
Life challenge: ‘Waking up’ through self-awareness instead of falling asleep in habits, excessive materialism, or low-level comfort.

Enneagram Type 8 Subtypes

As discussed on the instincts page, ‘subtype’ is the name given to what happens when our Enneagram type intersects with the instinctual part of us. Some teachers prefer to simply name this situation as a ‘type/instinct’ combination, versus giving it a special name.

Remember that descriptions are approximations. The descriptions below are from Beatrice Chestnut, whose work built upon the teachings of Claudio Naranjo, and Russ Hudson, who has slightly different descriptions (which he shared over a series of Tweets once).

Self-preservation 8

‘Satisfaction’ or ‘Satisfactory survival’ (Ichazo, Naranjo and Chestnut)

Focus on getting what they need to survive in a direct, no-nonsense way.
Have a low tolerance for frustration and a strong desire for the timely satisfaction of their material needs.
Know how to do business and get things done and don’t need to talk about it very much.
Express a sort of ‘ruthlessness’.
Tend to be preoccupied with getting things (and getting away with things).
Possess quiet strength, survivors who communicate strength without feeling like they need to explain themselves.
May seek revenge without knowing why. Know how to survive in even the most difficult of situations.

‘The Survivor’ (Hudson)

Express love by taking care of practical needs, most likely to be triggered by perceived ‘weakness.’
Highly practical, highly business-oriented, and intense about creating and sustaining foundations for our life, as well as maintaining a safe home for themselves and loved ones.
Hard-working, focused, and direct.
Usually strong in resource management and domesticity but often lacking in self-care.
Like to build things. Most likely to be introverted, they need more alone time than other subtypes.
Very clear about what they like and do not like in food and other matters.
Know how to relax, but proud of no-nonsense approach to work.

Sexual 8

‘Possession’ (Ichazo, Naranjo and Chestnut)

With a strong anti-social tendency, rebellious and like to be the center of things.
More provocative and passionate than the other type 8s, they like to have power over people and situations.
Don’t seek material security so much (contrast with self-preservation 8).
Magnetic, outspoken, and great powers of seduction.
Look voraciously for love, sex, and excessive pleasure.
May be passionate and emotional, feel deeply and demand loyalty (although may not be loyal in return).
Tend to have possessive relationships not only with lovers but with friends, objects, places and situations.

‘Taking Charge’ (Hudson)

Refers both to the dominance and the love of energy/charge.
Strong urge for self-expression.
Many are in the creative arts (especially performing arts), which provides the immediacy, energy and opportunity to broadcast or ‘transmit’.
Often joke and tease to test the durability of potential partners and friends.
Like to get a rise out of people they like.
Tend to trust powerful attraction more than intimacy, yet crave it.
Often highly charismatic, making bold lifestyle choices, often get feedback of being “too much” and are looking for those who can meet their big energy.
Can be practical, but less focused on material matters
While they can be quite intense, they are also more openly vulnerable than the other two subtypes.
Seek powerful fusion with others, they desire to merge, but it challenges their need for boundaries and self-protection, thus this becomes a real growth edge for them.
When troubled, they get into tempestuous relationships where struggle and dominance substitute for intimacy. They can have bad tempers and lack impulse control, engaging in substance abuse.

Social 8

‘Solidarity’ or ‘Friendship’ – the ‘countertype’ (Ichazo, Naranjo and Chestnut)

When a male, can look like a 9, females may look like like a 2.
Oriented towards protection and loyalty, express lust and aggression in service of life and other people.
Focus on protecting and mentoring others they are connected to or anyone they view as needing their support.
While they can be rebellious and assertive, they are more mellow and outgoing, and less quick to anger than other 8s.
The most intellectual of the 8s.

‘Gusto and Comraderie’ (Hudson)

Love sharing rich times with trusted others, love conversations and engage them with great energy.
Want to create intensely real bonds of trust and to provide meaningful service in the world.
Fiercely protective of loved ones, but when hurt or disappointed may have huge reactions, banishing former friends.
Hard for them to say sorry.
Generally warm and enjoy getting to know others.
Love creative partnerships of all kinds, but when less present can become bossy and demanding.
Think and feel “I need to be in control of the social sphere.”
Vivacious, outgoing, and engaging, most likely to “wear their hearts on their sleeves.”
Big drive for connection and want to have a significant impact on others.
At their best, powerful movers and shakers, making things happen.

Types connected to Enneagram Type 8 (and how connected)

Type 5 – the ‘Stress’ (Hudson) or ‘Resolution’ (Uranio Paes/Chestnut) point

The inner lines are important when it comes to a growth path. As a general rule, the more dynamic movement between the arrow points and core point, the less fixated we are in our types. The more conscious the movement, the greater our depth of presence (and freedom from the patterns).

The lines can also help us to know for sure that we have typed correctly.

Following Russ Hudson’s teaching on the lines, the direction of stress for 8s is at Type 5. Type 8s may observe this movement in them when they’ve been overdoing their core coping strategy. The movement is a good thing, a compensation of something that 8s actually need to do.

When this movement happens unconsciously, 8s may find that they get quiet and withdraw into a kind of ‘bunker’ mentality to feel safer in face of challenge. Or they may hide out in a cave to avoid dealing with people or being seen as weak. They may also think and strategize more about how to dominate opponents.

When the movement is more conscious, being at Type 5 helps an 8 to “relax and balance their energy, think more before taking action, channel energy from outside in to support thoughtfulness, and allow more independence to others” (from Paes/Chestnut).

Type 2 – ‘the Security’ (Hudson) or ‘Energising’ (Chestnut) point

Many of us struggle to own the behaviours we see at the security point for our number, in particular the ‘low’ behaviours. However, the integration of the security point becomes a way of knowing if we’re making progress in our inner work.

When this movement for an 8 is unconscious, they “worry more about others; experience tension from conflict between attending to others’ feelings and taking action; get more in touch with fear of others’ approval/opinion; may over-give to those they want to protect or connect with and may manipulate situations more covertly”.

When the movement is conscious, Type 8s “become gentler, softer and more approachable; supports others, becoming more generous with those they protect; learn to listen more; are more emotional and kinder; express more feminine power and are powerful without imposing, offending or threatening” (Paes and Chestnut).

The ‘Wings’ or types on either side – Types 7 and 9

The presence of the attributes of the types on either side of our core type is another way of knowing whether we have typed correctly. When it comes to inner development and transformation, they aren’t as significant.

An interesting bit of theory for you: Enneagram teacher and direct student of Naranjo, Micheal Goldberg, teaches that each Enneagram type is formed out of a reconciliation of the forces of the Wings. So type 8 is reconciling the 7’s planning and need to be alright/excited with the 9’s inner deadness. They are stretched between utopian vision and inertia, responding with revenge; bringing prejudice to what they encounter; seeing what they want to see, and becoming entrenched.

In terms of practical interventions, accessing type 7 maybe helps an 8 to “balance their urgency to act with planning/perspective; connect with others rather than going it alone; and access greater happiness to move through life lightly” (ideas from Integrative Enneagram Solutions).

Accessing type 9 qualities helps an 8 to “balance impulsiveness with more laid-back approach; channel 9’s calmness and receptivity; and develop the ability/willingness to let things happen/unfold naturally” (Integrative Enneagram Solutions).