Personality Type Five

Fives are also known as the

Encyclopedia, Expert, Guru, Hoarder, Idea Smith, Innovator, Investigator, Knower, Masterful Hermit, Observer, Philosopher, Radical, Sage, Specialist, Thinker, Watcher, Wise Person

Overview

Values

knowledge, intelligence, originality, perceptiveness, understanding, foresight, certitude, efficiency

Main Motivation

To be competent and capable

Fives like to see themselves as intelligent, observant, and perceptive people. They want to be capable and competent and do so by trying to figure out how things work. Fives believe that they don't have enough to cope with life and that they lack the inner guidance to know what to do. As a result, Fives retreat into the certainty and safety of their mind. There, they can observe, study, and read about life so they can prepare for it. Fives are focused on the world of their mind - they tend to reduce their physical and emotional needs.

Fives believe that if they can understand something, they can master it. If they can master something, they will have the confidence to act. Unfortunately, the more they study, the more questions they raise, leading to further study. They may find it hard to break out of their "analysis paralysis" until they are completely certain.

Fives spend a great deal of time concentrating their attention on the outside world. However, rather than participating in it, they observe from the sidelines. Fives interiorize their observations and try to add what they have learned to an overall mental construct. It is their interpretation of the world that Fives relate to (rather than the real thing). When the real world doesn't make sense, they use their mental interpretation.

Average Levels

Level 4: Studious Expert

Play the role of the Expert

Level 5: Intense Conceptualizer

Manipulate others by staying preoccupied and detached from others

Level 6: Provocative Cynic

Undermine others by "proving" others are stupid

Average Fives see themselves as experts. They enjoy learning and building up their knowledge. They read, study, and research in an attempt to make up the inner guidance which they feel they lack. Fives' minds are always active. There is a little voice in their heads that keeps an inner commentary on their observations. It is as if if is reminding them of what they already know.

Average Fives ability to act and express themselves is proportional to their certainty. Fives want to be competent and secretly want to be as comfortable and confident as others. But Fives are terrified of looking foolish or appearing like they don't know what they are doing. Consequently, Fives think everything through before acting. They prepare and practice, previewing future events in their minds so that they can anticipate what will happen. Such preparation makes closure difficult. Fives can appear extroverted and talkative when they are dealing inside a domain they have mastered (e.g., at their local chess club, a scientific conference, a public debate, a video game), but become uncomfortable when they are pulled outside their domain. They have difficulty with spontaneity and emotional expression.

Average Fives concentrate their time, energy, and resources into their highly specialized pet projects. They prefer to work for hours on end and are most annoyed with interruptions to their train of thought. Their focus on the mental world comes at the expense of other aspects of life - emotional, relationships, physical.. Combined with their withdrawal, this focus also removes them from what they are studying. They become more attached to their interpretation than to the real thing.

Average Fives enjoy tinkering around with the details of their mental constructs, and by doing so, they miss the big picture. Fives often start working on the details even before the larger problem has been defined. Fives work on the problems they can solve and may not stop to ask themselves, "what is it that we're trying to do." Fives are attracted to professions with strict rules and procedures (and preferably, little human contact). Scientific research, engineering, and computers are examples of careers where Fives thrive.

Average Fives are highly independent. They don't ask for help (it would make them look incompetent). They also reject their own physical and emotional needs. If left on their own, many average Fives would stay up late working on their projects, eating junk food, and wearing the same clothes for days. These "needs" interfere with their projects. Average Fives can also be highly secretive. Even their closest friends (they probably only have a few) don't know that the Five is writing a novel or learning a new language. When Fives do share personal information, they consider it a very important part of themselves and others should interpret it as a sign the Five really trusts them. Fives also believe that others won't understand the highly technical details of their projects. Fives often think that others aren't really smart enough to understand these projects anyways.

Fives fantasize about being invisible. They would love to observe the world, without it knowing. Average Fives almost achieve invisibility. They reduce their physical and emotional needs. They reduce their social contact with people. They try to get by on the little they have. They don't intrude on others and don't want others to intrude on them. Fives often feel they have very few resources and believe that it is all they have to get by. Fives, therefore, are stingy and avaricious. They want to make sure they have everything they need to cope with the world, so they hoard the little they have and don't share it.

The outside world is becoming increasingly threatening and uncertain. It no longer completely conforms to the Five's interpretation of it. Therefore, they would rather retreat from the real world and spend more time in their mental world. This strategy just makes things worse because it removes the Five from observing the world as it really is. Fives can become very antagonistic towards things that are inconsistent with their inner world. They may be provocative, speaking with confidence in their own (somewhat distorted) opinions.

Unhealthy Levels

Level 7: Isolated Nihilist

Level 8: Terrified "Alien"

Level 9: Imploding Schizoid

As Fives become increasingly isolated from the real world and more immersed in their ideas, they get scared by their ever disturbing ideas. They become paranoid, afraid of the "real" world full of its conspiracies and dangers.

What leads Fives down the wrong path is the false believe that they must be an outside observer. Fives watch from the sidelines and don't feel a part of what is going on.

Healthy Levels

Level 1: Pioneering Visionary

Level 2: Perceptive Observer

Become attached to values of knowledge, learning, perception

Level 3: Focused Innovator

Feel good about themselves when they are curious and study

Healthy Fives let go of their forced thinking and analysis and a need to be completely prepared for Life. Healthy Fives remain focused and independent, but they are open minded and spontaneous. They are extremely curious and have a deep love of learning and gaining new expertise.

Healthy Fives are extremely perceptive and observant. They scan the world and quickly find patterns and trends. They see the big picture and the details simultaneously, understanding how it all fits together. Their perspective is no longer from the sidelines, but from within. Healthy Fives are also in touch with their emotional and physical needs and understand how they balance and nurture the mind.

At their best, Fives let go of the belief that they are separate from their environment. They believe that full knowing comes from direct experience and full participation. They realize that they will never know everything and that they will never be prepared for all of Life's challenges. Yet, they have faith that they know enough to cope with Life. They feel a strong connection with the world and no longer need an interpretation to understand it

Similarities to other Types

Common Traits with other Types
Fives seek Security (like Sixes and Sevens)
Fives handle problems with a Competency approach (like Ones and Threes)
Fives prefer to Withdraw into their imagination (like Fours and Nines)
Fives tend to Reject their own needs (like Twos and Eights)

Conflict Scenarios
Competency vs. Competency Fives in conflict with Ones, Threes, Fives
Competency vs. Reactive Fives in conflict with Fours, Sixes, Eights
Competency vs. Positive Outlook Fives in conflict with Twos, Sevens, Nines

Multimedia

Watch a Five talk about his type
Dr. David Daniels describes Fives
Don Riso on Fives

Theme Songs

These "Theme Songs" express some of the most important issues of Type Fives.

aloneness but independence
uncertainty
rich inner world of the mind

I am a Rock

by Simon and Garfunkel song info

This song really touches on the Rejection Object Relation. Some of the lines also apply to Eights.

Lyrics
A winter's day
In a deep and dark December
I am alone
Gazing from my window
To the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow

I am a rock
I am an island

I've built walls
A fortress deep and mighty
That none may penetrate
I have no need for friendship
Friendship causes pain
It's laughter and it's loving I disdain.

I am a rock
I am an island

Don't talk of love
Well, I've heard the word before
It's sleeping in my memory
I won't disturb the slumber
Of feelings that have died
If I'd never loved,
I never would have cried

I am a rock
I am an island

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me
I am shielded in my armor
Hiding in my room
Safe within my womb
I touch no-one and no-one touches me

I am a rock
I am an island
And the rock feels no pain
And an island never cries

How

by John Lennon

Lyrics

how can i go forward when i don't know which way i'm facing?
how can i go forward when i don't know which way to turn?
how can i go forward into something i'm not sure of?
oh no, oh no.

how can i have feeling when i don't know if it's a feeling?
how can i feel something if i just don't know how to feel?
how can i have feelings when my feelings have always been denied?
oh no, oh no.

how can i give love when i don't know what it is i'm giving?
how can i give love when i just don't know how to give?
how can i give love when love is something i ain't never had?
oh no, oh no.

you know life can be long
and you got to be strong
and the world is so tough
sometimes i feel i've had enough.
oh no, oh no.

how can we go forward when i don't know which way we're facing?
how can we go forward when we don't know which way to turn?
how can we go forward into something we're not sure of?
oh no, oh no.

My Mind To Me a Kingdom Is

by Sir Edward Dyer

This Poem expresses the simple satisfaction and minimalism that the mind brings.

My mind to me a kingdom is;
Such present joys therein I find,
That it excels all other bliss
That earth affords or grows by kind:
Though much I want that most would have,
Yet still my mind forbids to crave.

No princely pomp, no wealthy store,
No force to win the victory,
No wily wit to salve a sore,
No shape to feed a loving eye;
To none of these I yield as thrall;
For why? my mind doth serve for all.

I see how plenty surfeits oft,
And hasty climbers soon do fall;
I see that those which are aloft
Mishap doth threaten most of all:
They get with toil, they keep with fear:
Such cares my mind could never bear.

Content I live, this is my stay;
I seek no more than may suffice;
I press to bear no haughty sway;
Look, what I lack my mind supplies.
Lo, thus I triumph like a king,
Content with that my mind doth bring.

Some have too much, yet still do crave;
I little have, and seek no more.
They are but poor, though much they have,
And I am rich with little store;
They poor, I rich; they beg, I give;
They lack, I leave; they pine, I live.

I laugh not at another’s loss,
I grudge not at another’s gain;
No worldly waves my mind can toss
My state at one doth still remain:
I fear no foe, I fawn no friend;
I loathe not life, nor dread my end.

Some weigh their pleasure by their lust,
Their wisdom by their rage of will;
Their treasure is their only trust,
A cloakèd craft their store of skill;
But all the pleasure that I find
Is to maintain a quiet mind.

My wealth is health and perfect ease,
My conscience clear my chief defence;
I neither seek by bribes to please,
Nor by deceit to breed offence:
Thus do I live; thus will I die;
Would all did so as well as I!