Since we cannot be universal and know all that is to be known of everything, we ought to know a little about everything.
Pascal
Often referred to as the Thinker, the Type Five individualthirst for information and knowledge and use emotional detachment as a way of keeping involvement with others to a minimum.
Their primary need is the “Need to be Perceive (or Understand).”
The five is the personality type that exemplifies the extremes of being a genius or a madman. In five we see the genius and the madman, the innovator and intellectual, the mildly eccentric crackpot and the deeply disturbed delusional schizoid. The problem they face is that they emphasize thinking over doing, becoming intensely involved with their thoughts. The only thing they know with certainty is their own thoughts. Their focus of attention is outward, on the environment, while identifying with their thoughts about their environment.
The passion of the five is avarice or greed. The greed has to do with withholding of their energy and especially for social interactions. This is their way of protecting their mental space from intrusions which often feel like invasions.
The traditional fixation of the Five is stinginess. This stinginess is their ability to keep from giving more externally than they feel they can give themselves internally.
The Main Theme of One
- The world is unpredictable, chaotic, threatening and intrusive
- The chief defense is observation from a distance/obtaining knowledge
- Withdraws to own private world
- Takes on a detached and unaffected view
- Has difficulty engaging with other people and/or the task
Core Wound
Type 5 feels small, isolated, empty, alone, abandoned, without support, and believe that knowledge will give them recognition and safety. They detach and compartmentalize.
Center of Intelligence: Head
Interpersonal Coping Style
Withdrawn. They withdraw because they do not believe they have what it takes to deal with other people’s needs or life demands.
The path of Integration for a Five
The Type five moves to type Eight in integration. Here they are finally showing up and asserting what they know to be true by dispelling the fuzziness of exaggerations or inaccuracies based on opinions or force of personality.
The path of Disintegration for a Five
The type five moves to type seven in disintegration. They take on the manipulation techniques associated with gluttony and excess. Fives who cannot find a solution simply give up and let themselves go. They turn to coping techniques such as overconsumption of alcohol, drug abuse, over eating, overactivity or other unhealthy patters to help them numb their pain and dull their minds.
The Awakened Five
The awakened five is detached, and lets go of the drive to find answers and solutions. Letting go of the compulsion to solve problems and understand everything, the five rests in the glory of mystery allowing all that is to simply be.
Wings
The 5 with a 4 wing is an Iconoclast. They can possess a union of intuition and knowledge, sensitivity and insight and seek to find beauty within the truth. They are curious, perceptive, and innovators. They are introverted and can be emotionally self-absorbed. They can be highly creative and imagination with an ability to envision alternate realities in detail. In an unhealthy state, they can be moody, hypersensitive to criticism, full of self-hatred, prone to despair and cynical.
The 5 with a 6 wing is a Problem Solver. They are interested in acquiring facts and details, analysts and catalogers of their environment. They are the most intellectual of the sub-types and are able to draw meaningful conclusions from disparate facts and make predictions based on those conclusions. They may feel deeply but extremely restrained in their emotional expression. They possess intellectual playfulness, a good sense of humor, a deep capacity for friendship and commitment, and can be socially clumsy. In an unhealthy state, they can become insensitive to their own feelings and emotional needs. They can become extremely preoccupied, passive-aggressive, rebellious and argumentative for no apparent reason.