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Fine Distinctions: Sevens
Subtypes
Self Preservation Sevens
• Self-Preservation Sevens are confusing since they tend to be
highly sociable and gravitate toward groups like Social Subtypes do.
They specialize in “chosen family” in that they tend to create a network
of people around them.
• They enjoy sharing on a circuit of interesting or like-minded
people. Other people are a source of information and stimulation;
interested in the latest gossip and everyone’s news.
• To the Seven, the group is a comforting barricade against the
dangers of the outside world, a bulwark against an infringing universe.
• Can be loyal, if slightly detached, friends; protective towards
those within their inner circle and good about staying in touch.
• Canny and practical, they look for the deals and the loopholes;
can enjoy bargains, sales or getting something for nothing.
• Equally well-versed in and fascinated by a large variety of subjects. May lack depth but have a breadth of knowledge.
• Tend to depersonalize, talk in abstract or intellectual terms and don’t explicitly toot their own horn.
• This subtype is associated with the cliche of the “party
animal,” compulsive socializers who want to enjoy perpetual good times.
• In NLP terms, Self-Preservation Sevens are “activity-oriented.”
Sharing activity with others is a way to make contact or to avoid
personal intimacy.
• Can use people for stimulation and drop them when they stop being exciting.
• Some fear being alone and will use others as a protection against solitude.
• More likely to have an unconscious self-image of being
abandoned, uncared for or left to their own devices. Abandon others out
of fear of being abandoned.
• Can live beyond their means and be chronically in debt; self-induced cycles of bounty and scarcity.
• Could equate being disciplined and financially successful with
being dull and stodgy. The Seven rebels by staying “free” (i.e.
irresponsible and broke).
Intimate Sevens
• Intimate Sevens tend to have rich imaginations and are exceptionally creative.
• They embellish reality with fantasy; see daily life through a veil of imagination.
• Often think and communicate in stories.
• Can see intimate relationships as shared experimental adventures.
• Avid learners who are open to adventure and new experience.
• Dreamers in the best and worst sense of the word.
• Intimate Sevens tend to be suggestible and can be swayed in their positions and opinions.
• Trend
spotters who seek the new with the enthusiasm of a faddist; they filter
reality through fantasy and the fantasy is what they purchase.
• Sevens with this subtype are often more explicitly narcissistic. • They tend to personalize their experiences, talk more about themselves and use the word “I” more than other subtypes.
• Can be tentative about commitments and have a wandering eye.
• May
romanticize people outside their primary relationship as a way to avoid
the limits and boredom of mundane life with the same old someone.
• Can be more involved with their fantasy of their partner than with the real person.
• Intimate Sevens can easily move from relationship to relationship searching for the right person or an “all time high.”
• Sexual freebooters; Don Juan and Don Juaness patterns are possible.
• Some report having high expectations of their fantasized partner and being easily disillusioned.
• Some
intimate Sevens do stay in long term relationships. They may be
interested in the mysteries and vagaries of love as well as genuinely
love their partner.
• Can see the partner as several different people.
Social Sevens
• Healthy Social Sevens are notably steady, practical and accountable to others.
• This subtype brings Sevens more conscience and follow-through.
• When
extraverted, they can enjoy social celebrations, fine wine and good
food, storytelling, jokes, and travel, all with an obvious gusto.
• They
can be unusually grounded and faithful in their responsibilities. They
are relatively at ease with their commitments and are often stable and
generous.
• They
are sometimes motivated by idealism, serving something beyond
themselves. This subtype can have a stronger connection to One.
• Protective
of group members; want every member to have a good time. If someone
causes trouble for the group, a Social Seven may react with a flash of
temper against the interloper or troublemaker.
• Can be generous, protective friends.
• Feel torn between their duty to others and a desire to escape.
• Tend to feel codependently responsible for people close to them but experience that as a confining burden.
• Can be highly irresponsible, overpromise and underdeliver.
• A
number of Social Sevens are firstborns or come from a large family
where they were given a lot of responsibility and little guidance.
• Others recall having to compensate for codependent or unstable parents.
• Social Sevens sometimes resemble Sixes, because of their dutiful quality and their propensity for feeling guilty.
• Social
Sevens with an Eight wing tend to rebel against their sense of burden
and can sometimes act terse and angry toward those they feel burdened
by.
Seven with a Six Wing
• Healthy Sevens with a Six wing are responsible, faithful, endearing, and funny.
• More accountable to others, oriented to relationships; loyal friends.
• Steady in their commitments as the Six wing brings a longer sense of time and more continuity to their perceptions.
• They often have more conscience, are hardworking and idealistic.
• Often
funny or enjoy a good laugh. An amazing number of comedians are Sevens
with this wing. The humor can have a playful, subversive quality.
• Can be openly vulnerable and have an unguarded, tender sweetness.
• Able to empathize with a wide range of people and experiences.
• Often
late bloomers. Some stall at the gate of adulthood, avoiding
expressions of their power or competence because they unconsciously
doubt themselves.
• Some have trouble expressing anger even when they have been wronged.
• Might exhibit some of the doubting, ambivalent qualities of a Six. Can have surprise episodes of anxious insecurity.
• Aware
of authority figures but tend to evade or finesse them. Can be unduly
respectful towards traditions and authority structures.
• They can feel (neurotically) guilty more easily than Sevens with an Eight wing
• Can
have distinct paranoid streaks that they are blind to; their self-image
is of someone who is positive, forward-looking and adventuresome.
• Project their conscience onto others and then act irresponsibly; can display a frantic all-over-the-place mentality.
• Prone to codependence even to the point of enduring physical or mental abuse.
Seven with an Eight Wing
• Healthy Sevens with an Eight wing are often gregarious and expansive.
• Self-confident in worldly matters and have few qualms about getting what they want.
• Often
talented at creating something out of nothing – perhaps by inventing a
successful persona for themselves or by creating a thriving career by
accident after spontaneously seizing upon an opportunity.
• Exceptionally
materialistic. “Living well is the best revenge” is one possible motto
for this wing. In a hasty, rapacious hurry to get what they want.
• Loyal to their friends and can leap aggressively to their defense.
• Generous, often sharing what they have; want everyone in their orbit to enjoy their sense of bounty and range of interests.
• Sevens with an Eight wing are generally more kinesthetic and auditory and less consciously visual than Sevens with a Six wing.
• Can be demanding, impatient and self-centered.
• Thin-skinned; may require that the people in their lives candy-coat the truth, telling the Seven only what he wants to hear.
• Can be hypocritical – moralizing to others about behavior that they practice
• Some
have hair-trigger tempers and can suddenly erupt. Their anger may pass
just as quickly and the Seven then returns to a baseline of good cheer.
• Some
tend to age-regress, sometimes to a very young age. Can have the
quality of a small child stuck in the “terrible twos,” behaving like a
demanding toddler who wants instant gratification.
• They unconsciously anticipate being frustrated and deprived and preemptively strike against the possibility.
• Can grow delusional and grandiose; may love to hear themselves talk about big schemes that never come to pass.
Seven’s Connection to Five
• The
connection to Five brings Sevens sobriety, perspective and the power to
integrate and internalize their experience – to digest what they have
eaten.
• Helps Sevens become calm and detached, to see the Big Picture.
• More willing to accept the painful aspects of their experience; more likely to seek and find their own depths.
• An introverted need to spend time alone; may do this ritually or periodically.
• Sevens can also be bookish; may have distinct intellectual interests or embark on a search for philosophical wisdom.
• Some
Fiveish Sevens have an almost aesthetic distaste for excess. They
could, for instance, be offended by how much something costs.
• While
Sevens tend to be naturally expansive and generous, they can have an
incongruous cheap streak. Could be frugal and then go on spending
sprees.
• The connection to Five supports escapism, stinginess and depressive tendencies.
• Unhealthy
Sevens will check themselves out of difficult situations, withdrawing
into their minds like a Five. Intellectualize their feelings out of
existence.
• May detach from people and commitments with alarming speed.
Defensive vanishing acts; can skate away when things get tough.
• Prone to withdrawn depressions, especially as part of a cycle of highs and lows.
• May have trouble handling and expressing their emotions or be emotionally dry beneath their high spirits.
• More likely to have mental addictions – to information, ideas, fantasies. Defensively retreat into abstraction.
Seven’s Connection to One
• Helps Sevens make appropriate, worthwhile, comfortable commitments.
• Brings discipline and follow-through; Sevens do things well and work hard.
• Oneish Sevens are often idealistic and can sacrifice for a cause or principle.
• Solution focused; search for “win/win” outcomes to problems.
• Oneish discipline helps Sevens give their lives a stable form.
• Helps with appetite, brings restraint and self-control.
• Oneish Sevens are good at sober, balanced critical evaluation;
while they’re generous and sort for the positive they have a discerning,
critical eye.
• Can begin to confuse discipline with repression, build a jail
that they need to escape from, while blaming their confinement on
outside sources.
• Some can be critical and dogmatic with a perfectionistic streak.
• Might start to think in black and white; may become obsessive about detail.
• The connection to One can also bring self-criticism and an overactive conscience.
• Sevens who project their Oneness can see Ones as oppressive
symbols or foils. “They don’t want me to have fun.” May provoke
judgmental reactions in others.
• Can latch on to a Big Idea, a future possibility or principle
that the Seven is certain will resolve their present discomfort. The
deluded, obsessed mentality of a compulsive gambler; excuse themselves
from present responsibilities.
• Can be libertine in their youth and then adopt a pious,
conservative lifestyle as they age. Try to rein in their appetites with
rules and morality.
• Might be drawn to religious or ideological fundamentalism. Could be preachy and self-righteous.
• “Do as I say not as I do.” Hypocritical.
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