Welcome to my Enneagram Overview Page
The Enneagram in the Arica Tradition

I have no affiliation with the Arica Institute, nor have I attended any of their workshops. This page is intended to highlight some key points of the Enneagram in the Arica tradition as it relates to the Enneagram of Personality Types. It is by no means complete.

It was in 1970 that a group of Americans, some of them from Esalen, went to Arica (Chile) to spend nine months learning what Oscar Ichazo had to share with them. Included in this learning were the nine ego types of the Enneagram. Soon after this experience, came a move to North America where the Arica Institute was formed.

What I call "The Enneagram in the Arica Tradition," has to do with how Oscar Ichazo and the Arica Institute have applied the Enneagram symbol in their teachings. The use of the nine points of the symbol to represent "types" can be traced back to Oscar Ichazo. It was from his nine ego types that the Enneagram of Personality Types developed. Those original ego types were connected to western psychology through the effort of Claudio Naranjo. It was Claudio Naranjo, in the early 1970's, who began teaching the Enneagram types as a system unto itself.

While the work of the Arica Institute continued on a separate path, the Enneagram of Personality Types was being taught by Claudio Naranjo and his students. It was with the publication of Helen Palmer's Enneagram book in 1988 that the two paths met. The Arica Institute brought a law suit against Helen Palmer and her publishers for copyright infringement on the use of the Enneagram and its related ideas. The Arica Institute lost the case.

Today the Arica Institute teaches the Enneagram through various workshops. The Enneagram that they teach is a part of a larger teaching, which is how it has always been, as far as I know. In addition to nine-pointed or nine-sided symbols like the Enneagram and enneagon, they  use symbols with different numbers of points and sides. Theses symbols can also be used to understand processes and systems, much like the Enneagram has been used.

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This page was last modified September 15, 1998.
Comments or suggestions? Email me at: dwl@fccj.cc.fl.us