Moving towards, against and away from people: the relationship between Karen Horney's interpersonal trends and the enneagram

Abstract

Different theoretical approaches and interpretations offer diverse delineations and clusters of Enneagram type in terms of Horney’s interpersonal trends of moving toward, moving against and moving away from people. The present study reports the results of an empirical investigation into the relationship between Enneagram type and Horney’s interpersonal trends. A sample of 2 3 participants completed the Test of Object Relations (TOR) and 125 of these participants completed the Horney-Coolidge Tridimensional Inventory (HCTI). Two one-way, between-groups multivariate analyses of variance revealed differences between Enneagram types for each of the HCTI interpersonal trends of compliance, aggression and detachment and the TOR dimensions of separation anxiety, symbiotic merging, narcissism, egocentricity, social isolation and fear of engulfment. For each trend, an Enneagram type could be identified as a unique marker or benchmark of the trend. However, the empirical result does not offer clear support for one theoretical approach or viewpoint rather than another.