Type 5's

Jump to Daily Reminders

My Results - FIVE (The Investigator)

Fives

Enneagram Type 5: The Investigator | Truity

Summary

Type 5: The Investigator

Type Fives relentlessly partake in the pursuit of knowledge and seek out stability through understanding their surroundings. Fives are concerned with nuance when discussing issues in the world but tend to negatively react to being told they are wrong. They possess a general fear of incompetence and often fall into critical and cynical behaviors. This stems from their childhood experiences of separating themselves from authority figures and forcing themselves to figure out the world independently, believing they must earn their right to survival.

“Fives greatly value autonomy and self-sufficiency. They fear being incompetent and having emotional demands placed on them, causing them to detach from their feelings and over identify with what they’re thinking.”

Healthy Fives embrace the possibility of failure as they recognize it is necessary to reach truth and knowledge. Examples from popular media and culture include Milo Thatch (Atlantis: The Lost Empire), Matilda Wormwood (Matilda), Daria Morgendorffer (Daria), Raven (Teen Titans), Velma Dinkley (Scooby-Doo), Hiro Hamada (Big Hero 6), and Peter Parker “Spider-Man” (The Amazing Spider-Man).

Unhealthy Fives refuse to acknowledge any biases or inconsistencies in their logic and reject social attachments as they descend into madness. Examples from popular media and culture include Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock), Beth Harmon (The Queen’s Gambit), GLaDOS (Portal), Lewis “Cornellius” Robinson (The Robinsons), and Evelyn Deavor “Screenslaver” (The Incredibles 2).

A visual depiction of how Fives fit on the enneagram chart, including wings, stress movements, and growth movements.

There are two wing varieties per type and for Fives, there are 5w4 and 5w6, pronounced “five wing four” and “five wing six.”

5w4s, also referred to as The Philosopher, share the secondary type of Four, which culminates in preferring discovery to occur when alone and in a setting where recharging is readily available.

5w6s, also referred to as The Troubleshooter, share the secondary type of Six, which culminates in preferring discovery to occur as a collaborative effort with like-minded individuals that share the same level of passion and interest.

In times of stress, Fives move towards Seven as they lose their characteristic concentration and become extremely scatter-brained, abandoning their core pursuit of knowledge. In times of growth, Fives move towards Eight as they adopt a decisive and definitive approach to discovering and enforcing the truth of the universe.

Subtypes of Five derive from the need to understand something specific around them to the best of their abilities:

Self-preservation Fives seek to understand every nuance of themselves in a mission to operate in the best circumstances for themselves, like telekinetic wonder kid, Matilda Wormwood or the chess expert, Beth Harmon.

Social Fives seek to understand the world around them and how each part links to the next, like the inquisitive Atlantis-expert, Milo Thatch or the detail-oriented detective, Sherlock Holmes.

One-to-one Fives seek to understand individuals they find enticing and often mysterious, like the monotonous teenager, Daria Morgendorffer or the torturous supercomputer, GLaDOS.

Putting all of these ideas together, observe Hiro Hamada’s character development in Disney’s Big Hero 6. Hiro is a self-preservation 5w4 who is trying to emotionally handle his brother’s death while uncovering the dark secrets behind a masked villain using his technology for evil. Though he does work well in a team, he can only fully collect his thoughts and plan accordingly when he is alone — though his friends are like-minded and intelligent, they act more as emotional support (which he desperately needs as he has grown too emotionally distant from himself to ever fully be successful on his mission of self-preservation) rather than big-decision planners. Hiro grows scatterbrained when distracted by revenge and anger, but, through the aid of his companions, he transitions to Eight and learns how to command a team effectively.

If you are interested in learning more about Fives, listen to Sleeping At Last’s song “Five” and his podcast episode on how he developed it alongside other Fives.

Bill Gates, Einstein, Mark Zuckerberg.

People with a FIVE style value wisdom, knowledge, and learning more than anything else. You want to understand the world. You have the inner wisdom and ability to be objective and to put things in perspective. You can enjoy and make good use of solitude.

Your scores indicate that you identify more with the Less-Resourceful than the Resourceful aspects of Style FIVE. You probably are most comfortable when you are alone. You are probably very protective of your solitude. You may actually avoid being with others for fear that they will criticize you or that you will look foolish to them. When people extend friendship toward you, it may seem that they become so demanding of your time and energy that they will deplete your resources. Thus, although you have a great capacity for insight and understanding, you may be reluctant to share your thoughts and feelings with others.

On the other hand, the Resourceful aspects of Style FIVE are also available to you. You can be involved with others in a detached manner that allows you to express yourself freely and succinctly based on a clear perception of the situation at hand.

Your Preferred Wing Style

The preferred wing style influences the way you express your core style. Your preferred wing style is 4.

You identify most strongly with the Less-Resourceful characteristics of this wing style. Your strong ability to remain detached may sometimes be colored by your FOUR wing style so that you begin to feel alienated and misunderstood. You may feel more intensely the need to seek solitude, only to feel moody or depressed when you do so. You may find that you feel safest if you maintain some distance from others by expressing yourself through artistic symbolism, esoteric pursuits, or in other cryptic ways.

What You Find Easy To Do

Each Enneagram style has adaptive characteristics that make it relatively easy to do certain things. FIVEs find it easy to stand back from a situation and observe. This allows you to think about things objectively. Thus, you can get to the heart of the matter or to the essence of a situation by moving observations, ideas, and images around in your head.

What May be Difficult to Do / May be Avoided

Each Enneagram style struggles with things that are relatively difficult to do. FIVEs often find it difficult to be generous in sharing their time, energy, thoughts, and emotions with others. It can also be difficult for you to take actions based on your feelings or intuition when you feel yourself without an intellectual grasp of what you are supposed to do.

Because your Less-Resourceful characteristics score for Style FIVE is higher than your Resourceful characteristics score, you may find it especially difficult to share because you fear that doing so could expose you to criticism or deplete your resources. It can be especially hard for you to express your feelings to others because you are often not aware yourself of what they are or because you are afraid of looking foolish. The world of nonintellectual relationships is likely to appear confusing and mysterious to you, and you may even actively avoid personal involvements outside of those that support your rich, intellectual inner life.

Defensive Maneuvers

FIVEs ward off uncomfortable feelings and situations through isolation and compartmentalization. To avoid feeling depleted by others, FIVEs isolate themselves in the sanctuary of their thoughts, away from the intrusions of their feelings and other people. They separate or compartmentalize their thoughts from their feelings. That's why when you ask FIVEs what they're feeling, they tell you what they're thinking. They also separate one time or period of their life from another. With FIVEs, out of sight tends to be out of mind as opposed to absence making their hearts grow fonder.

How You May Have Learned This Style

During your early development, you were very aware of the give-and-take involved in forming understanding relationships with others. This awareness became blocked because important people in your life did not pay attention to your actual needs when they interacted with you. They may have interrupted you unusually often when you were playing contentedly, and then not been available when you needed them. Thus you learned that it was safer to do everything alone. You may have felt that your own intellectual world was more controllable and secure than the unpredictably intrusive or neglectful interpersonal world.

Stressful Conditions

Sometimes stress brings out the best in people, and sometimes the worst. As a FIVE, your identification with the Less-Resourceful side of Style SEVEN indicates that when you are stressed you may use your wit and humor to disengage so that you do not have to deal with the problems at hand. You may find yourself employing your powerful intellectual ability to construct elaborate plans and schemes that permit you to avoid acknowledging uncomfortable feelings, taking action to express them, and confronting the issues. Try allowing yourself to reach out and connect with others in a sincere manner. In communicating your honest appraisal of a difficult situation and its possible solutions, acknowledge your feelings about it and express them.

Relaxed Conditions

When people feel safe, secure, and relaxed, they can often express their positive side more readily than usual. Sometimes, though, in times of security they are more willing to show their flaws. As a FIVE, your identification with the Less-Resourceful side of Style EIGHT indicates that when you are feeling secure you may become more aggressive in protecting your privacy and resources. You are likely to be less detached and more impatient when negotiating for things that are important to you and in asserting your independence. You may find yourself feeling vengeful and vindictive toward those who intrude upon your time and resources. Try to be aware of the powerful influence you can have on others, and to respond positively and generously to their approaches.

How to be More in Balance

You can be more in balance by cultivating your sense of personal power and energy, and by reaching out generously to others. Ask for what you want, and let go of what you don’t need. When you feel compelled to withdraw, use this as a cue to get in touch with your feelings and discover creative ways to assertively express your ideas and feelings, especially so that you can remain involved without feeling depleted. Resist the temptation to lose yourself in elaborate planning, which serves mostly to distract and isolate you, and keeps you from taking assertive action. Try not to let your effort to maintain comfortable boundaries take on an aggressive or vindictive tone.

Heart Head Gut (Percentile)

If your highest total score stands out above all the rest, it is likely to be the style you most identify with.