Many people have discovered in the last twenty-five years the power and profundity of Inner Child Work (ICW).  In my own life, I have often found ICW to be the fastest, safest and most effective therapeutic modality. This essay will be an attempt to articulate a way of working with the Enneagram that incorporates the insights and methodologies of ICW and Jungian psychology.  
     There are many models of the human psyche that incorporate the what Jung called the Child Archetype.  The ancient and venerable Chinese system of divination called the I Ching saw the whole Cosmos as well as the individual psyche built around the three figures of "mother", "father" and "child".  Thousands of years later, Freud roughly correlated the id with the "child archetype", the ego with the "adult archetype", and the superego with the "parent archetype".  In the 1970s Eric Berne, in his popular therapeutic theory and system of Transactional Analysis, did away with the Freudian terms altogether, and referred to the three main parts of the psyche as simply "parent", "adult" and "child".   
     From about 1915 until his death in 1961, Jung devoted the better part of his time and prodigious energy to exploring the structure and dynamics of the human psyche from scientific, mythological and alchemical perspectives.  He penned numerous essays and books highly relevant to our current discussion, including: The Psychology of the Child Archetype, The Integration of the Personality, Modern Man in Search of a Soul, and Aion: Christ as a Symbol of the Self.  Below I will quote Jung and one of his more famous disciples---Edward Edinger.  The latter is a founding member of the C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology in New York, and the author of many books, including: The Eternal Drama, Anatomy of the Psyche: Alchemical Symbolism in Psychotherapy, and Ego and Archetype.


Self and Ego: A Jungian Approach

     To begin, I believe that we can safely say that in Jungian psychology the IC is, for the most part, assimilated to the Self (or as we might say in Enneagram Studies, Essence or Soul).  The adult archetype is assimilated to the ego, and the parent archetype assimilated to the principle or force that mediates between the two, what Freud termed the super-ego.  In this schema, a newborn baby is mostly Essence, and has little or no ego (cf. A.H. Almaas’ discussion of childhood and Essence in his various books, including The Point of Existence: Transformations of Narcissism in Self-Realization).  This latter structure and function must be developed or "grown" in the course of maturation and socialization, and this process is inherently problematic and cannot always be taken for granted, for the vicissitudes of life may traumatize the growing individual at any stage.  According to the Jungians, ideally the ego emerges out of, yet remains connected to, the Self of the child, adolescent and adult, and there slowly develops what Edinger and other Jungians call an “ego-Self axis.”  This is a necessary and vital connection between the two functions, one that integrates subjectivity and objectivity, and that allows a self-reflecting, discriminating ego access to the numinous and powerful energies of the personal, and collective unconscious.  
     It should be mentioned here that the ego-structure (or what we might think of as the Enneatype) in Jungian psychology is considered useful, even necessary, for life to function and evolve in a body-mind.  However, it should be never be fully identified with.  Much of Jungian psychology and ICW is about healing and building a strong and healthy ego-structure ("growing an adult"), and then learning to keep this function in constructive relationship to the true center of the psyche---the Self.   For those unfamiliar with the basics of Jungian psychology, perhaps a few quotes from Edinger would be edifying at this point in the discussion.  First, he offers us simple Jungian definitions of the Self and the ego:

"The Self is the ordering and unifying center of the total psyche (conscious and unconscious) just as the ego is the center of the conscious personality.  Or, put in other words, the ego is seat of subjective identity while the Self is the seat of objective identity.  The Self is thus the supreme psychic authority and subordinates the ego to it.  The Self is most simply described as the inner empirical deity and is identical with the imago dei." (Ego and Archetype, p. 3)

Then Edinger goes on to speak about the relationship between these two psychic realities:

"Since there are two autonomous centers of psychic being, the relation between the two centers becomes vitally important.  The ego's relation to the Self is a highly problematic one and corresponds very closely to man's relation to his Creator as depicted in religious myth.  Indeed the myth can be seen as a symbolic expression of the ego-Self relationship.  Many of the vicissitudes of psychological development can be understood in terms of the changing relation between ego and Self at various stages of psychic growth." (Ibid., p.4)

There seems to be a natural sequence to psycho-spiritual growth:

"It is generally accepted among analytical psychologists that the task of the first half of life involves ego development with progressive separation between ego and Self; whereas the second half of life requires a surrender or at least a relativization of the ego as it experiences and relates to the Self." (Ibid., p. 5)

He goes on to note that this process of ego-Self union, differentiation, and later "relativization" is not strictly linear:

"The process of alternation between ego-Self union and ego-Self separation seems to occur repeatedly throughout the life of the individual both in childhood and in maturity.  Indeed, this cyclic (or better, spiral) formula seems to express the basic process of psychological development from birth to death". (Ibid., p. 5)  

Edinger later elaborates on this theme in the same chapter:

"As this cycle repeats itself again and again throughout psychic development it brings about a progressive differentiation of the ego and the Self.  In the early phases, representing approximately the first half of life, the cycle is experienced as an alternation between two states of being, namely, inflation and alienation.  Later a third state appears when the ego-Self axis reaches consciousness which is characterized by a conscious dialectic relationship between ego and Self".  (Ibid., p. 7)

     Part of the purpose of this essay is to help bring to consciousness, using the Jungian and Enneagram models of the human psyche, what Edinger terms the ego-Self axis.  In order for this to occur, the individual must learn to become simultaneously aware of: 1) The egoic function within his own psyche. 2) The reality of Self/Essence. 3) The necessary connection between the two.  Now, how does all of the above relate to Enneagram Studies?  


Inner Child Work and the Enneagram

To the degree to which you're over-defended within your Enneagram style,
you're usually protecting something more vulnerable within yourself.
The unconscious usually represents that vulnerability as a younger self.

---Tom Condon (EM, May 1999, p. 18)

     In my experience, the Enneagram model is extremely useful for discovering and working with not only the ego/Adult, but also the IC/Self, and even the super-ego/Parent--once the student has been able to type himself.  Using the Enneagram model, one can (at least potentially) help to restore the ego-Self axis, and thus integrate the personality to the next level, and advance the psycho-spiritual work to more "transpersonal" dimensions.
     In short, the Adult resides primarily at the Ennea-type in question, the IC resides primarily at the preceding Arrow Point (what is often called the Security Point, or Point of Integration), and the Parent lies primarily at the following Arrow Point (what is often called the Stress Point, or Point of Disintegration).  It is my thesis that most Enneagram teachers refer to the preceding type as the Point of Integration precisely because that is where the Inner Child can be found.  I referred obliquely to all of this in a previous article when I remarked that: "…at the highest level, the Enneagram is a map of how energy moves and constellates both within the Cosmos and the individual human psyche.  It has been my repeated observation that the natural, free-flowing circulation of energy gets blocked somewhere between what I term simply the "Pre-point" (preceding Arrow Point) and the "Personal-point" (Enneatype) in question.  Subsequently, the energies and qualities of the Pre-point get split-off into the unconscious, and unavailable for healthy psycho-spiritual functioning.  As a philosophical aside, let me say here that given what has just been mentioned, the Personal-point then is in actuality a rather transitional structure that has developed out of necessity.  It is poised somewhere between where we have come from and where we are going.  And as Tibetan Buddhism teaches, this ego-structure is, although relatively real and potentially useful, on a more fundamental level actually impermanent and insubstantial. . . an insight that in my estimation  correlates well with Enneagram Studies (EM, January 1999, p. 11).
     I believe that, at least in most Western countries, what tends to get split-off into the unconscious is the Inner Child, and that s/he can be found hiding, so to speak, at the preceding Arrow Point (NB: In her book The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram, Sandra Maitri refers to this younger self or IC as the “Soul Child”).  Once we realize this, then the pertinent question becomes: "Why should I seek out and reclaim this part of my psyche?"  Jungians speak to this point quite frequently.  First, they say that to be cut off from the Inner or Soul Child is to be cut off, ultimately, from the grounding, healing and creative energies of life itself.  Secondly, Jungians notice that given the fact that each of our egos emerged originally out of the Self or Essence, they generally become involved in a very painful cycle of psychological inflation, deflation, and then alienation.  It seems that it is human nature to first over-identify with the Source (primary narcissism), which results in a "fall", to be closely followed by further alienation from Self/Essence/God/Tao.  
     Again, let me quote Edinger: "From the standpoint of later years, the close connection of the child's ego with divinity is a state of inflation.  Many subsequent psychological difficulties are due to residues of that identification with deity." (Ego and Archetype, p. 10).  He then pointedly notes the close resemblance between children and primitives: "Children share with primitive man the identification of ego with the archetypal psyche and ego with the outer world.  With primitives, inner and outer are not at all distinguished.  For the civilized mind, primitives are most attractively related to nature and in tune with the life process; but they are also savages and fall into the same mistakes of inflation as do children" (Ibid., p. 11).  Finally, in a quotation most relevant to the topic of this essay, he says that: "When one looks back on his psychological origin, it has a two-fold connotation: first, it is seen as a condition of paradise, wholeness, a state of being at one with nature and the gods, and infinitely desirable; but secondly, by our conscious human standards, which are related to time and space reality, it is an inflated state, a condition of irresponsibility, unregenerate lust, arrogance and crude desirousness.  The basic problem for the adult is how to achieve the union with nature and the gods, with which the child starts, without bringing about the inflation of the identification (underlining mine). (Ibid., p. 11)
     Another one of my reasons for writing this essay is that I am convinced that the Enneagram is a supremely useful tool for resolving this "basic problem".  In terms of stages of Ennea-work, I believe that there is a logical, although not necessarily linear, progression of tasks:

First, one makes efforts to identify his personal Ennea-type, and then brings into awareness through self-observation and self-remembering the nature and dynamics of his ego-structure.  This includes studying and working with the Subtype, Passion and Fixation.  In Sufi terms, this would correspond to the phase of "purification".  This work is vitally important in the growth process, for otherwise the numinous energies released when the Self is re-contacted will either flood the ego, or be significantly distorted in their expression.  Either way, the person will likely be subject to negative inflations, and then painful deflation and alienation experiences.  At this stage, one must build and sustain a strong and well-rounded container and vehicle for the expression of Essence.
Secondly, one makes efforts to consciously rediscover and reclaim the lost Inner Child or Self at the Heart or Security Point.  This usually involves working through the deepest mother complexes issues, and learning to mother or love oneself unconditionally.  Often the need for this sort of work appears spontaneously during the mid-life transition, and sometimes occurs much earlier for individuals who have been seriously traumatized in childhood.  In Sufi terms, this would correspond to the phase of "illumination".  The light of the Self begins to illumine the body-mind.  Here we focus more on our Virtue and missing Essence Quality, and the balancing of the Three Centers of Intelligence--Intellectual, Emotional and Somatic.  In the Jungian scheme of things, here is where we identify our missing Fourth Function---Thinking, Feeling, Intuition or Sensation. We learn to play with this missing function inside of a Temenos, a safe and sacred enclosure where we can explore and learn new things just like a child in a sandbox or playroom.
Thirdly, one makes efforts to consciously integrate the Adult and the Inner Child at the Stress Point.  This usually involves working through father complexes and issues, and learning to father or mentor oneself.  This kind of psycho-spiritual work often takes place during and after the mid-life crisis--in the second half of life.  In Sufi terms, this would correspond to the phase of "union", and has to do with the full integration of the ego with the Self, or the  Adult with the Inner Child.
The fourth and final phase correlates with the work of Unus Mundus (“One World” in alchemy terms).  This has to do with the union of the integrated personality with the Universe, Tao or God.  This final phase could be equated with the taking of Bodhisattva Vows in Mahayana Buddhism, and the vows of Tikkun Olam (reparation of the world) in the Kabbalistic tradition.  One is now ready to consciously and organically carry his realization out into the world, because there is now no perceived separation between the practitioner and his environment.  One is still committed to engaging in spiritual practices, but this time for the benefit of others as well as oneself.


Nine Ennea-children

     Now let us look briefly at the nine Ennea-types from an IC perspective, bearing in mind that these are merely thumbnail sketches and will need to be more fully expanded upon in a future publication.  This way of using the Enneagram entails learning the art and science of what I call "seeing for the Child" inside of each person that one encounters in daily life.    

Ennea-type Nine

Every Nine has a little girl or boy inside who can be quite vain and yet afraid of rejection (ET3).  The IC of a Nine has a secret longing for success and recognition, to be seen by others for something other than performing.  That little girl or boy has a tendency to lie about the adult's addictive and lazy behaviors and the need for appropriate action in the outer world.  


Ennea-type Six

Every Six has a little girl or boy inside who can be quite slothful and afraid of separation from the love-object (ET9).  The IC of a Six has a secret longing to be reunited with the primary love-object in order to lessen existential anxiety.  That little girl or boy has a tendency to get lazy and procrastinate when decisions have to be made.

Ennea-type Three

Every Three has a little girl or boy inside who can be quite fearful and afraid of being abandoned by the mother-figure (ET6).  The IC of a Three has a secret longing to be loved for something other than successful, external accomplishments.  That little girl or boy has a tendency to fall into a place of fear whenever doing is replaced by Being and Essence begins to emerge.

Ennea-type One

Every One has a little girl or boy inside who can be quite gluttonous and afraid of being deprived of mother-love (ET7).  The IC of a One has a secret longing to let go of arbitrary rules, abstract principles and adult responsibilities and to be playful, frivolous, and childlike.  That little girl or boy has a tendency to become extremely narcissistic and demanding when things don't go the "right" way.  

Ennea-type Four

Every Four has a little girl or boy inside who can be quite angry and afraid of being criticized and condemned (ET1).  The IC of a Four has a secret longing to pop out of his mood swings and over-sensitivity, and live life from a more disciplined, rational and principled place, one that feels safe and contained.  That little girl or boy has a tendency to become upset and demanding when his "royal standards" are not being met, and when he does not feel appreciated for his uniqueness.  

Ennea-type Two

Every Two has a little girl or boy inside who can be quite  envious and afraid of being defective (ET4).  The IC of a Two has a secret longing to be emotionally deep and truly creative.  That little girl or boy has a tendency to suffer from "love-hunger" and thus is sad and lonely much of the time, in spite of all the extraverted behaviors.  

Ennea-type Eight

Every Eight has a little girl or boy inside who can be quite proud and afraid of being unloved (ET2).  The IC of an Eight has a secret longing to be vulnerable, open and innocent, but is afraid of being taken advantage of and losing all sense of personal will and freedom.  That little girl or boy has a tendency to suffer from loss of will, and feels weak much of the time, in spite of all the aggressive attitudes and actions taken against others and the world.  

Ennea-type Five

Every Five has a little girl or boy inside who can be quite lustful and afraid of being weak and vulnerable (ET8).  The IC of a Five has a secret longing to be lusty and strong, even heroic.  That little girl or boy has a tendency to suffer from "aggression attacks" and the need to dominate others in order to control personal space, territory and possessions.

Ennea-type Seven

Every Seven has a little girl or boy inside who can be quite avaricious and afraid of being overwhelmed by others, feelings and life (ET5).  The IC of a Seven has a secret longing to be detached and objective.  That little girl or boy has a tendency to lack an "observing ego".  Underneath their more obvious fear of being deprived there is a fear of having their nascent ego-structure smothered or engulfed by the mother-figure.    


The Mother and Father Archetypes

The mother symbol is archetypal and refers to a place of origin, to nature, that which passively creates, hence to substance and matter, to material nature, the lower body (womb), and the vegetative functions.  It connotes also the unconscious, natural and instinctive life, the physiological realm, the body in which we dwell or are contained, for the 'mother' is also a vessel, the hollow form (uterus) that carries and nourishes, and it thus stands for the foundations of consciousness.

---C.G. Jung

     At this point the question becomes: how can one reconnect with his Inner Child?  It seems to be a psychological truism, one noted by Jung and others, that whenever one constellates the Child Archetype, one also always constellates the Mother Archetype, because the two are structurally coupled.  Many scientific studies have shown that up until the age of about three, the child can survive fairly well without a father-figure in his life, but if the mother-figure (whether that be a man or woman) is permanently absent, the child will literally die, first psychologically and then perhaps even physically.  
     After the conscious personality has been sufficiently transformed, the practitioner must begin to see, contain, nurture and unconditionally love his own Inner Child, as if he were now in the subject position of the mother, or even Great or Archetypal Mother.  Because the Inner Child is of the nature of love, and alchemically speaking like attracts and cure likes, only love can awaken and heal this part of the psyche.  Only love can integrate the ego and the Self.  A conscious and loving dialogue between the IC and Adult must be initiated.  If due to abandonment or trauma we have been seriously out of touch with our IC, we may first have to just imagine this part of our psyche.  As Jung said: "The concept of the imaginatio is perhaps the most important key to the understanding of the alchemistic opus."  If we don't give up, our IC will someday become a living, tangible reality, and we will never again reject, abandon or separate from this vital part of our being.
     At some point in our journey, the Father Archetype will also have to be activated and utilized, for that is the function that knows how to mentor the integrating psyche, and is willing to provide the disciplined, focused, morally-based hard work to perfect the individual.  Much later it will be this internalized father-figure who will encourage the practitioner to offer his psycho-spiritual fruits back to the world at large.  And the Enneagram provides the key to this third process, by hiding the Parent Archetype in the Stress Point.  For example, an Ennea-type One needs a father-figure for his integrating psyche that looks like the High Side of Point Four.  An Ennea-type Seven needs a rather strict yet loving father-figure at the High Side of Point One, and so on around the diagram.  
     Before finishing this section, I should note that if one tries to reclaim the Inner Child at the Heart or Security Point before one is truly ready, or in the wrong way, he will only tend to end up moving to the Low Side of that point, which surely does not lead to healthy integration.  For example, a Seven will move to the Low Side of Five, and then his Sevenish ego will try to appropriate the numinosity of the IC/Self in typical gluttonous fashion for itself.  It will then neurotically detach from others in narcissistic Self-identification and inflation.  An Ennea-type Four will slide to the Low Side of One, and neurotically try to perfect his personality in what amounts to excessive Self-absorption, springing from a place of envy.  Likewise, if one tries to move toward the Stress Point from a place of ego, one will definitely slide to the Low Side of that point, and the ego will reassert its primacy and centrality , although without the intense numinosity that results from contact with the Inner Child.  Efforting in either direction from a place of ego is a dead-end path.


Conclusion

     By way of conclusion, I want to engage in a brief moment of philosophical musing and historical reflection.  The over-emphasis on egoic rationality that was ushered in by the European Enlightenment, the so-called Age of Reason, peaked in the 1940s and 50s with the development of the atomic bomb by the Manhattan Project, the building of the first computers, and later the initiation of space exploration by NASA and the Russian cosmonauts.  Although many of the scientists and engineers involved in these enterprises were Fives and Sixes, with a few Sevens like Richard Feynman thrown into the mix, the overall cultural ambience of the American Forties and Fifties was highly Threeish (see the movie Pleasantville for an excellent satire of 1950s American life).  If Khruschev and Russia as a whole were rather Eightish, we competed with them from as Threes, and the whole world stood on the sidelines (as do children in a parental fight), observing with ever-increasing anxiety the mutual brinksmanship of the two "superpowers," Mother Russia (the Bear) and Father America (the Eagle). Obviously something new needed to emerge in the world psyche by way of rectification and balance for, as Jung quipped, “Reason has never ruled life, and presumably it never will.  The questions of life and fate are too often---and perhaps for the largest part---decided by the powers of the unconscious.”
     That something new which emerged out of the collective unconscious and was heralded by the burgeoning youth culture of the 1950s and 1960s (the Beats, Hippies, and later Rainbows), was, I believe, the "Inner Child."  The human race was absolutely terrified by the previous two world wars, and of the potential consequences of nuclear holocaust and environmental catastrophe, including destruction of species and the rain forests (and now Global Warming).  This part of the individual and collective psyche could be called the Inner Child.  Upon historical reflection, what we see is that out of the "counter-culture" of the Sixties emerged the psychological and spiritual narcissism of the Seventies and Eighties, which was, in truth, nothing more than one of the side effects of the re-emergence into collective consciousness of what Jung called the Child Archetype.  Due to the rise in consciousness, large numbers of people could no longer habitually project their own Inner Child onto children, women, weaker or less fortunate members of society, racial minorities, animals and the natural world--or for the more religiously inclined the Christ-child, Buddha-child or Krishna-child.  Instead they would, like it or not, have to begin to re-own this important archetype.  And is so doing, more and more people would rediscover their spiritual roots without needing to rely on the three great external mediating institutions of church, state and family.  Seen objectively, we have all been living through (and suffering) a unique and revolutionary planetary shift.  It is both interesting and instructional to note that, as spiritual bookends to the Platonic month of Pisces, we first have Christ uttering the words: “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. . . (Matthew. 18:3-5).  And later Jung preaching: “The source cannot be found unless consciousness resigns itself to a return to the land of childhood in order to receive there, as before, the guidance from the unconscious. . . No one can free himself from his childhood without first generously occupying himself with it.”
     To sum up, I believe that the Seeker of Truth must first choose to look for and find his dominant Ennea-type.  After the structure and dynamics of the ego have been discovered the ego must then relax backward and encounter and come into dialogue with the IC/Self at the Heart or Security Point, thus beginning the process of shifting the center of gravity of the psyche from the ego to the Self.  Later, the ego and Inner Child must be consciously integrated.  Finally, the Soul or Essential Self, the result of the integration of the Inner Child and Adult, must choose to move out into the world again, this time from a place of constant Self-remembering and Self-knowledge.  As I mentioned above, the medieval alchemists called this phase of the opus, unus mundus--One World.  The individual is then integrated within himself, and with the world in which he lives, moves and has his being.  God has become Man and Man has become God, and in the words of T.S. Eliot at the end of “Little Gidding”:

. . . all shall be well and
All manner of things shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.