New! - Misidentifying 4s vs. 6s

6s and 4s are very similar in certain ways. A good explanation of the connection, and the difference, is found in the explanation of the Centers, as found in Riso & Hudson's Understanding the Enneagram.

6 Centers: [T] F⇒M

The 6's Thinking Center (or "T") is detached from the others. The Thinking Center represents the "direct inner knowing" in the form of one's cognitive functions. Because of this detachment 6s have two modes, the T-mode in the form of analyzing structures, and the F-mode in the form of a sense of responsibility to authorities which they either submit to, work with, or rebel against. The Feeling Center represents one's absorbing of emotional patterns from others, as well as one's own reactions to those patterns, to construct a personal sense of identity, or in the 6's case, duty--personal responsibility.

Average 6s are inable to connect the T and F modes. They have an inability to feel their own sense of objective guidance and support (T) in their hearts, their experience of the emotions of themselves and others (F). For the 6 F-processes manifest in the form of duty, causing loyalty and dependability, or obligation, guilt, and fear. Without internal guidance when it comes to the 6's duty or fear responses, they can only submit to or react against these outer authorities. Their reaction is irrational and fear-based or emotion-based, lacking objective guidance and inner direction. It has a lot to do with their extreme awareness of their own dependency, causing both phobic and counter-phobic reactions to their external sources of support.

Without access to inner guidance, they often seek some external-initiated sense of guidance as substitute for one of their own, from some authoritative source in the world. This often causes conservatism or even rebellion against conservatism, but it is all a submissive/reactive relationship focused on the source of power itself. This can make for a very passive or reactive individual, but most often one who is passive and reactive by turns, as their subjective Feeling Center shifts between assessing other's emotions as trustworthy or suspicious and betraying.

They act on their sense of duty, as it directly motivates their Instinctual-Motivation Center (M), and they feel guilty (F) if they don't. The Instinctual-Motivation Center represents direct engagement with reality. This means that average 6's F-processes are directly translated into their actions, loyalties, engagements, etc. with the external world.

4 Centers: T⇒F M

The 4 can look quite similar because they primarily identify with their Feeling Center, much like the 6's F-mode. But rather than being extremely outer-aware like the 6, 4s are primarily concerned with their inner workings. They, opposed to 6s, have a direct link to their Thinking Center: their sense of inner guidance and imagination is a supreme focus and fuel for their Feeling Center. Their sense of self is derived not only F-processes, as it is with the 6, but also greatly by T-processes.

This is where 6s and 4s differ. 6s have the inability to use their inner sense of guidance (T) to effectively affect their sense of self (F), so much so that they have to substitute external guidance or systems of thought for their own. With 4s, on the other hand, their sense of self (F) is constantly being bolstered by thinking imaginatively about (T) their sense of self (F). They may use outer sources, not as a subsitute for their imaginative self-speculation (T⇒F), but as a stimulant to further enliven what they are already doing.

Fours tend to act passively or reactively to their sense of self garnered through the absorbing of emotions from themselves and from others (F), and from the imaginative dramatization of those emotions (T). This has alot to do with their extreme awareness of a blockage in knowing their sense of self (F), and can create quite a bipolar-looking person: one minute happy with their self-image, the next self-despairing and self-hating. At their most unhealthy, they can even use the Instinctual-Motivation Center to impulsively act on their engorged emotions, in a self-destructive or even aggressive way.

Secondary Fixations
Even more confusion can arise when a 4's secondary fixation is 6, or vice versa, such as in their trifix. But the issues of the dominant fixation will be most extreme. Consider the extremeness of the 6 vs. that of the 4, when all other psychological fixations are subservient to security (6) or to identity (4).

The Main Question
The main question is, why is this person's F (sense of self, emotion) so strong? Is it over-stimulated by T (imagination, cognitive), or is it disconnected from T (sense of guidance, cognitive).

Is there a imaginative sense of guidance for the understanding of who the self is, an idealized, shame-based and emotion-based dramatic sense of who their personality, talents, abilities, etc. are? Shame-based manifests in extreme self-love in comparing to others, and extreme self-hatred in comparing to others, and these others are idealized as both more wonderful and normal and as more boring and normal than they themselves could ever be; can also react as normal or untalented, disparing of their weaknesses, to protect the self.

Or, is there a cognitive, analytical process which manifests separately from their sense of self, a sense of self which is thoughtlessly emotion-based and fear-based dedicated or rebellious towards a person/cause/group viewed as an authoritative power in the world? Fear-based manifests in paranoia, delusion, irrational fears, and sometimes violence; can also react as pathetic or weak to protect the self.

6s are more:	4s are more:
conservative	creative
nervously guilty	shameful
nervously reactive	sorrowfully reactive
self-disempowering	self-pitying
anxious of punishment	anxious of self-revelation
guiltily melancholy	selfishly melancholy
pathetic martyr	romantic martyr
hysteric	basket case
dependent morally	dependent emotionally
rebellious	seeking to be different
reactive	comparing
other-conscious	self-conscious
vulnerable	defective
feisty	fiery
defines loyalty	defines difference
loyalty exhibitionist	personality exhibitionist
stubborn loyalty	stubborn individuality
copies idea systems	copies romantic styles
discovers sense of guidance	discovers sense of self
nervous tension	self-consciousness tension
fear-reaction aggressive	shame-reaction aggressive
submissive/reactive to control	submissive/reactive to judgment