Enneagram types as ‘rage faces’

Who is the person who thought of matching each Enneagram type with one of these so-called rage faces? They are all hilariously accurate. I sometimes use this image to introduce people to the Enneagram: it’s recognizable and funny and a gross oversimplification of the types, and therefore really useful.

This piece of brilliance dates back to the heyday of rage faces. I found a slightly different version to have been posted on the subreddit r/psychology on March 16, 2011. On the same day, the r/Enneagram subreddit was created, which now has more than 50 thousand members.

The newer version above, which also seems to have first appeared on Reddit, replaced the original mask-wearing type Three being with ‘challenged accepted.’ That’s a great swap, since the superficiality of memes lends itself better to making fun of Three’s aptitude for competition than the less obvious and deeper psychological layer that explains the Three’s tendency to shape-shift.

Because when introducing something new, you need some level of superficiality. Providing short type descriptions for people to check if they identify with that type is generally about relatively shallow characteristics. (You just won’t have anyone understand you if you describe a personality type that has cut itself off from its own heart by absorbing others’ preferences.)

Sadly, the glory days of rage faces are far behind us, and the day might come that no one will think they are funny anymore. But I keep my hopes up that at least among my generation these faces will continue to evoke a nostalgic chuckle for a long time to come.