The Levels of Development

We know that we do not always behave in the same way. Sometimes we feel confident or at ease but at others we can feel really pushed or stressed and less able to cope. Our behaviour reflects what is going on with us, our states of being.

The Enneagram explains this with the Levels of Development which were first discovered by Don Riso (co-author of The Wisdom of the Enneagram and Personality Types) after much observation and experiential work with all the Types. These Levels of Development represent a kind of sliding scale of attitudes and behaviours within each Type from the most integrated (healthy) - at Level 1 - to the least integrated (so most unhealthy) - at Level 9 - with most of us operating within the average range of behaviours - Levels 4, 5 and 6. Whilst we do not change personality Type, we do move up and down the Levels of Development. I find this encouraging. It says that whatever our background or personal circumstances we are all born with the potential to develop and make the best of ourselves. Whether we choose to, or not, is up to us but our nature is not static - we are always evolving or devolving. integrating or disintegrating. The Levels of Development reveal, therefore, a kind of road map to our best, most evolved self, and, in the opposite direction, to our most unhealthy and neurotic self. Paradoxically, as we move up towards the higher levels and become more developed or integrated, we are more able to access all the Types in us (all of us being made up of all the Types) so that we have a greater spectrum of behaviours. We become more well-balanced and flexible, and able, therefore, to respond better to what life throws at us. We become, in a very real sense, more free. Because we become more free of ourselves.