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Nick Barr

The Barrcast

A Buddhism and Religion & Spirituality podcast

#188 in Buddhism · 🇮🇳
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About the show

Subscribe to my podcast for musings on the Enneagram, IFS, the structure of care, the mystery of faith, and lots more. barrcast.substack.com

Newest episodes

Yes, but what kind of mask?

57 min

Hello and welcome to the Barrcast. I’m your host, Nick Barr, coming to you on a brisk fall Wednesday morning here in New York. So a lot of you have been messaging me saying, “Nick, when is your review of You Can See Everything going to come out?” And I resisted for some time, but I’m relenting. And so this will be not exactly a review of You Can See Everything, but an analysis of the film through the lens of this larger project that I’m working on. So if you’ve been following along with the Barrcast, you know we’re doing a lot of work on the Enneagram number 5. We are reading R.D. Laing’s The Divided Self. We are exploring what Naranjo calls the clinical antecedents of the Enneagram 5, which is the schizoid personality, the autistic personality, the highly sensitive personality, because I think there’s something really important about understanding this personality. Particularly right now. And Nathan Fielder has gifted us with a film that does exactly that. This is a film directed by someone who, you know, in Nathan Fielder, we recognize the personality type, and its subject is, in Elizabeth Holmes, someone who at least potentially has this personality type. And more importantly, this is ultimately a character study. This film is really about understanding. It is based on Nathan Fielder’s wish to understand Elizabeth Holmes’s way of being. And this film is coming at the perfect time in his career, because he’s matured so much that he’s at a stage where he recognizes that understanding is also never neutral. And so his need to understand itself comes under examination. So this is really all about understanding, and the Enneagram 5 is all about understanding, the need to understand, the need to know. But knowing is never complete. There’s always more understanding that can be achieved. There is a totemic (and I use that word because one of the keywords for the social 5 is totem), there’s sort of this longed-for vantage point. You know what Wallace Stevens says: the po...

The Atmosphere of the Five: Melancholy, Suspicion, Fascination, Sadism, and Strictness in the Enneagram

23 min

Description: Before we proceed to Naranjo’s traits of the 5, we work through the diagram that opens the chapter. * Why know the whole system: your number isn’t much use without the others. Plus, a case against wings and for subtypes. * 4 vs. 6: the 5 as a polarization between a melancholic aching to be known and a bright terror of being seen. R.D. Laing’s The Divided Self calls it a life torn between revealing and concealing. * The 8 line: under the bank-teller-behind-glass coolness, a punitive streak. * The 7 line: escaping isolation by falling in love with a model of the world (John Nash, formulas on the wall). * The 1: strictness, along the anal axis. * Five words: melancholy, suspicion, fascination, sadism, strictness. Less traits than an atmosphere the 5 is porous to, and often on the receiving end of. * The takeaway: everyone can touch 5 energy. The 5 just made it into an art form. Referenced: Claudio Naranjo, 27 Personalities in Search of Being; R.D. Laing, The Divided Self; Richard Rohr. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

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All episodes

Yes, but what kind of mask?

57 min

Hello and welcome to the Barrcast. I’m your host, Nick Barr, coming to you on a brisk fall Wednesday morning here in New York. So a lot of you have been messaging me saying, “Nick, when is your review of You Can See Everything going to come out?” And I resisted for some time, but I’m relenting. And so this will be not exactly a review of You Can See Everything, but an analysis of the film through the lens of this larger project that I’m working on. So if you’ve been following along with the Barrcast, you know we’re doing a lot of work on the Enneagram number 5. We are reading R.D. Laing’s The Divided Self. We are exploring what Naranjo calls the clinical antecedents of the Enneagram 5, which is the schizoid personality, the autistic personality, the highly sensitive personality, because I think there’s something really important about understanding this personality. Particularly right now. And Nathan Fielder has gifted us with a film that does exactly that. This is a film directed by someone who, you know, in Nathan Fielder, we recognize the personality type, and its subject is, in Elizabeth Holmes, someone who at least potentially has this personality type. And more importantly, this is ultimately a character study. This film is really about understanding. It is based on Nathan Fielder’s wish to understand Elizabeth Holmes’s way of being. And this film is coming at the perfect time in his career, because he’s matured so much that he’s at a stage where he recognizes that understanding is also never neutral. And so his need to understand itself comes under examination. So this is really all about understanding, and the Enneagram 5 is all about understanding, the need to understand, the need to know. But knowing is never complete. There’s always more understanding that can be achieved. There is a totemic (and I use that word because one of the keywords for the social 5 is totem), there’s sort of this longed-for vantage point. You know what Wallace Stevens says: the po...

The Atmosphere of the Five: Melancholy, Suspicion, Fascination, Sadism, and Strictness in the Enneagram

23 min

Description: Before we proceed to Naranjo’s traits of the 5, we work through the diagram that opens the chapter. * Why know the whole system: your number isn’t much use without the others. Plus, a case against wings and for subtypes. * 4 vs. 6: the 5 as a polarization between a melancholic aching to be known and a bright terror of being seen. R.D. Laing’s The Divided Self calls it a life torn between revealing and concealing. * The 8 line: under the bank-teller-behind-glass coolness, a punitive streak. * The 7 line: escaping isolation by falling in love with a model of the world (John Nash, formulas on the wall). * The 1: strictness, along the anal axis. * Five words: melancholy, suspicion, fascination, sadism, strictness. Less traits than an atmosphere the 5 is porous to, and often on the receiving end of. * The takeaway: everyone can touch 5 energy. The 5 just made it into an art form. Referenced: Claudio Naranjo, 27 Personalities in Search of Being; R.D. Laing, The Divided Self; Richard Rohr. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

The Four Devils: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on Severance

1 hr 23 min

Transcript Hello and welcome to the Barrcast. I’m your host, Nick Barr, coming to you on a rainy summer Monday afternoon here in Brooklyn, New York. If you’ve been following along with the Barrcast, you know that we ran a series of posts on Evagrius Ponticus, the Christian desert father, who wrote really influential teachings on the eight evil thoughts, or logismoi. These were later turned into the seven deadly sins, as well as becoming the basis of the Enneagram. But in Evagrius’s telling, these eight thoughts, these logismoi, are like little imperceptible devils sent to the human mind to attack it, to impassion it, to inflame it and turn it further away from God. So we’re now turning to a different religious tradition, that of Tibetan Buddhism. And I have in front of me Jamgön Kongtrül’s compilation on Chöd, or severance. This is a tradition that dates back to the 11th century, when a woman, Machig Labdrön, began teaching a new tradition. It says here that she taught what we’re about to read — this great bundle of precepts — in a single day to a large crowd that included three Indians who arrived instantly in Tibet by means of the practice called Swift Foot, to investigate the authenticity of Machig and her increasingly popular teachings. So she was a bit of a maverick, and as a woman, probably the target of a lot of suspicion. And at the same time, her teaching is very traditional. There are a lot of reasons why I’m excited to read it today, but as we’ll see, one of them is that we’re going to be firmly in the demonology realm — so, continuing Evagrius’s work with demons. And I think it maybe will surprise some that Buddhism is going to be using this word devil. But as we’ll see, the Buddhist conception of the devil is really different than Evagrius’s, even though a lot of the practice instruction is the same. So we’ll read the text — it’s short — and then explore a little bit about what her project is here. There are four devils in her classification. We’re not...

Evagrius Ponticus: Grandfather of the Enneagram (pt 2)

45 min

Transcript Hello and welcome to the Barrcast. I’m your host, Nick Barr, coming to you on a Wednesday afternoon here in New York. We’re in the middle of a major cold period here and storms may be coming this weekend. So what better time to learn about tactics for resisting the eight evil thoughts or tempting thoughts or logismoi. So let’s get right into it. We’re picking up where we left off on chapter 15. Chapter 15: Stabilizing the Three Faculties The wandering nous is made stable by one reading, two vigils and three prayer. Burning epithumia, that’s desire, is quenched by one hunger, two toil and three solitude. Churning thumos, indignation, is calmed by one, the singing of Psalms, by two, patient endurance and three, mercy. But all these practices are to be engaged in at proper times and in proper measure. What is done untimely or without measure is temporary. And what is temporary is more harmful and not beneficial. So I did some research on this because here Evagrius is presenting some new vocabulary with epithumia and thumos. And it seems like he’s creating a new kind of framework of these three faculties: wandering nous, burning epithumia (desire), churning thumos (indignation). You could map this onto the three faculties of the Enneagram or the three faculties in Buddhism. There are a lot of pre-existing maps, but just so we can ground ourselves in Evagrius’s own influences, this is from Plato’s tripartite model of the soul with kind of the logical center. I place it in the head, the logical center. Desire, epithumia in the lower body could say in the gut. And then thumos, indignation in the chest. And thumos, or indignation is a word that we’re going to visit many more times in these chapters. So let’s continue. When our soul longs for a variety of different foods, then its portion should be reduced to bread and water to make it thankful for a little more soul. It is satiety that desires variety in food. Hunger considers it blessedness just to have satiety...

Evagrius Ponticus: Grandfather of the Enneagram (pt 1)

29 min

Transcript Welcome to the Barrcast. I’m your host, Nick Barr, coming to you on a sunny and cold winter morning here in New York. We are going to start reading the Praktikos today. So this is 100 chapters. It’s not long, but I expect this to take two episodes. Why are we reading the Praktikos? This is a work by Evagrius Ponticus. If you’ve followed previous videos, you know, we’ve been doing a lot of work on the Enneagram and reading through Claudio Naranjo’s contributions. If Naranjo is sort of the father of the Enneagram of personality, then Evagrius is the grandfather. He’s a desert father, a Christian mystic from the three hundreds who lived in Egypt and led a nomadic life. And so we’re going to dive into the Praktikos. And I think the only piece of context that I want to lay out now is I’m just getting started on Evagrius’s work. But what I know about the Praktikos is it’s sort of considered groundwork on his end. So what we’re going to be reading here could be thought of as sort of foundational or training material or groundwork. If you practice in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, you maybe have heard of the word ngondro. This is kind of like training material. And so it’s written for someone still very much working on the foundations of practice. That doesn’t mean exactly that it’s like junior varsity material. But there’s a kind of a tone and approach to groundwork spiritual training that pervades here. And I think basically we’re going to be talking a lot about fighting demons and resisting demons. And it’s written for a spiritual practitioner who’s at a stage of practice where that’s really central in their practice is this kind of combat with temptation. And let’s get started. I love the way he starts it. So it’s a letter to Anatolius. And he begins, since you recently wrote to me in Scetis from the holy mountain, dear Brother Anatolius, demanding that I explain to you the symbolic habit of the Egyptian monks, for you believe it to be neither accidental nor...

Security and the Self-Preservation Three

46 min

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

Attractiveness and the Sexual Three

57 min

Hello and welcome to the Barrcast. I'm your host, Nick Barr, coming to you on a sunny and breezy, April 1st. April Fool's Day. So, it's been a while since my last chapter, but if you'll remember, we're on the sexual 3, whose keyword is attractiveness. So I actually recorded this one a few weeks ago and didn't feel great about the recording. I rushed my way through it and I realized we're back to, we're at the final number, the three. We started the four, because I'm a four, and it snuck up on me. But, we're back in my neighborhood. And the sexual subtype and the self preservation subtype, these are the subtypes that I find, myself connecting with more deeply. So I realized, gosh, I think I probably breezed through this chapter in a way to avoid my own inner stuff. So I'm gonna do another pass. I'm gonna be a little bit more connected with what's happening inside me. As I read is a super long chapter. So that's. That's part of the problem. And so I'm gonna do my best to navigate this. But let's hear what, Claudio Naranjo has to say about the sexual 3. For the passion of the sexual 3, Ichaso used the words masculinity or femininity, depending on the case. I used to explain it as an excessive attempt to conform to cultural images, perhaps Hollywood style, of what it means to be masculine or feminine nowadays. He says, I believe that the fundamental pathology of these individuals lies in the fact that instead of acting from instinctive freedom, they invest all their passion into the thirst for love and the corresponding seduction, either through compliance or by projecting an image that is meant to be attractive and exciting. The result of this is that a woman being overly focused on pleasing a man, loses her ability to enjoy herself. additionally, this personality type tends to have a certain passion for family, which, while it does not appear as a flaw, represents an exaggerated need to please others, perpetuating self alienation. Among the three subtypes, the sexual...

How the Enneagram bridges Eastern and Western conceptions of sin

24 min

[Transcript] The Origin of Sin According to the Enneagram Hello and welcome to the Barrcast. I'm your host, Nick Barr, coming to you on a Wednesday morning. Today I want to talk about sin and the Enneagram, particularly how the Enneagram explains the origin of sin. We're going to go esoteric, but I hope this will be interesting. It's certainly a way of drawing the Enneagram that you probably haven't seen before. If you watched my previous video, you saw a more traditional rendering of the Enneagram where we talk about the thinking triad, the feeling triad, and the doing triad. This is going to be a completely different approach, one that's more grounded in the origin of sin. Eastern and Western Approaches to Sin Let's ground ourselves in what we mean by sin before we go any further. I'd like to reference Adyashanti, who has a book called "Healing the Core Wound of Unworthiness." In it, he makes a useful distinction between Eastern and Western approaches to sin. As I describe this, I don't want to defend any kind of actual geographic claims about East and West—that's not my project. Think of this as a spectrum of how we relate to sin. A Westerner can certainly be anywhere on that spectrum, as can someone from the East. According to Adyashanti, the Eastern approach to sin is a lighter approach. It takes the origin of sin as a kind of cosmic joke or forgetting, potentially even a game in which this sort of awake awareness—this original deity or creator or Buddha—is, to its own surprise, separated from itself. There's a forgetting that happens, and the project is simply one of remembering one's own true nature. You can see this in the Greek tradition of the River Lethe, which the dying cross. When they cross it, they fall into oblivion and their previous life is forgotten. Forgetting and remembering is the focus for the Eastern approach. The Western approach, in contrast, is more focused on a separation that has a wound associated with it. Adam and Eve is the root text...

Prestige and the Social Three

36 min

In this episode of the Barrcast, we meet the Social Three, a personality structure driven by prestige, the need to shine, and the relentless pursuit of social validation. This subtype, the most chameleonic of the Threes, is deeply tuned in to the gaze of others, shaping their identity around admiration, applause, and external markers of success. Talking Points: 🔍 The Inner PR Machine: Performing for ApprovalThe Social Three operates as if it has an internal public relations department, constantly curating an image that garners admiration. This endless pursuit consumes an excessive amount of energy and inhibits genuine spontaneity. 💔 Breaking the Illusion: The Pain of Seeing the VoidWhen the Three begins to awaken, a deep existential nausea sets in. They realize that much of their life has been built on vanity—on performing rather than being. This moment of crisis is painful but necessary for true growth. 🛑 From Applause to Pause: Learning to Be Instead of DoGrowth for the Three involves stepping out of the performance loop, embracing uncertainty, and relinquishing the constant need for external validation. A crucial shift happens when they transition from seeking admiration to seeking presence—learning to value stillness, self-connection, and relationships beyond transactional gain. 🎭 The Jester’s Redemption: Laughing at the False SelfOne of the most powerful tools for the Three is self-awareness with humor. When they can see their own impulse toward falsehood and laugh at it, rather than being trapped by it, they gain true freedom. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

Privilege and the Self Preservation Two

40 min

In this episode of the Barrcast, we encounter the Self-Preservation Two, a personality structure deeply connected to privilege and the power of exhibiting childlike traits. This is a structure that seeks love and validation without the effort of achievement or responsibility. Transformation for this type involves embracing maturity, responsibility, and self-sufficiency, ultimately breaking free from the seductive, childlike persona. Talking Points: 🔄 Egocentrism and the Need for LoveThe core desire for this type is to be loved simply for existing. Ichazo’s concept of “me the most important” reveals a neurotic longing for adoration, similar to a child’s instinctive egocentrism. 💔 Facing Rejection and the Pain of DependencyThe self-preservation Two’s fear of rejection is profound, often driving them to manipulate relationships to maintain a sense of security. Confronting the possibility of rejection and the lack of control in relationship is key to their transformation. ⚖️ Transformation: Growing Beyond the Golden ChildGrowth for the self-preservation Two involves “growing up”—accepting responsibility, breaking free from the compulsion to charm and seduce, and embracing discipline, accountability, and most importantly limits. 💡 Practical Tips for Growth * Build routines and practice discipline to ground yourself in adult responsibilities. * Face rejection and discomfort instead of avoiding them. * Seek therapeutic relationships that challenge, rather than indulge, your childlike tendencies. * Accept and nurture relationships as mutual and dynamic rather than controlling or transactional. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

Conquest and the Sexual Two

43 min

In this episode of the Barrcast, we get to know the Sexual Two, whose keyword is conquest. Unlike the Social Two's ambition to impress groups, the Sexual Two channels their energy into one-on-one relationships, employing seduction as a tool for eliciting affection, loyalty, and recognition. Transformation for the Sexual Two involves dismantling pride and embracing humility, vulnerability, and authentic connection. Talking Points: 🌱 From Pride to HumilityTransformation begins when the Sexual Two acknowledges their limitations and relinquishes the need to be seen as perfect or irreplaceable. This journey includes learning to ask for help, accepting their shadow, and discovering the beauty in ordinary, unadorned love. 💔 The Wound of AbandonmentAt the heart of the Sexual Two's psyche is a fear of abandonment. This fear often leads to patterns of manipulation or preemptive withdrawal to avoid being left behind. True growth requires facing and feeling abandonment fully, allowing it to dissolve their false sense of invulnerability. ✨ Revisiting SexualityFor the Sexual Two, sexuality can often be a means of control or conquest. Healing involves reframing intimacy as an experience of mutual surrender, sensitivity, and connection, moving away from performance-driven interaction toward tenderness and trust. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

Ambition and the Social Two

50 min

In this episode of the Barrcast, we get to know the Social Two, a personality structure driven by the need for ambition and recognition in the social sphere. The Social Two’s pride fuels their desire to be "above," leading them to craft an image of importance and seduction to win admiration from groups. The Social Two’s transformation work moves them from leadership to equality, in which they embrace humility, vulnerability, and genuine relational intimacy. Talking Points: 🔗 Superiority vs. AmbitionEchoes of the Social One (Superiority/Inadaptability) are here for the Social Two, but the Two’s need to be above is ultimately more about relationship than it is about getting things right – a reflection of the Two’s position in the feeling triad. 💰 Confessing criminalityThe journey of the Social Two includes confronting their own "criminality"—the covertly selfish motivations behind their actions—and replacing these with empathy and accountability. The practice of giving and receiving genuine feedback helps dissolve pride and deepen their relational authenticity. 🐆 Reconnecting with the mammalian SelfAt the heart of transformation lies the reconnection to one's emotional and relational needs. By emerging from the "reptilian" mindset of conquest and control, the Social Two can embrace the humility and humanity that allow for true intimacy and belonging. 🌱 From Leadership to EqualityGrowth for the Social Two involves moving from a position of dominance to one of humility and equality. This transformation entails relinquishing the "golden child" role, acknowledging personal vulnerabilities, and embracing the needs of others without an agenda for self-glorification. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

Concern and the Self Preservation One

36 min

In this episode of The Barrcast, we wrap up the One with the Self-Preservation One, whose keyword is concern, a constant worrying. Unlike the other subtypes, the SP One accesses perfectionism through being painfully attuned to their own imperfections. Talking Points: 🫵 The Inner CriticUnlike the Social or Sexual Ones, the Self-Preservation One internalizes their imperfections acutely. This fuels an obsessive cycle of self-improvement that masks their anger with benevolence and service, often at great personal cost. 🎭 Acceptance and pleasureThe path to growth includes reconnecting with instinctual life and allowing space for pleasure. This involves letting go of guilt and embracing moments of silence, leisure, and sensory enjoyment—freeing themselves from the grip of self-denial. 💡 Perfection as a gift, not an attainmentUltimately, perfection is revealed not as a result of effort but as a gift that arises when one accepts life as it is. In the words of St. John of the Cross, "I no longer tend my flock… my only practice is love." This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

Zeal and the Sexual One

42 min

In this episode of The Barrcast, we explore the Sexual One, whose keywords are vehemence and zeal. Unlike the other One subtypes, the Sexual One channels their anger into a passionate pursuit of justice and righteousness. The result is a personality whose trust in the instincts of their body overrides other inputs. Talking Points: ⚔ The CrusaderThe Sexual One feels a fiery, embodied urge to address injustices and “make things right.” Their instincts become a vehicle for justice, resulting in a confident and determined approach to life. 🛡️ The Warrior's PactFrom an early age, the Sexual One may forge an inner pact with their “warrior self,” prioritizing confrontation and strength over vulnerability. While this leads to a commanding presence, it can come at the cost of spontaneity and playfulness. ⚖️ Between Aggression and BenevolenceThe Sexual One oscillates between passionate anger and genuine warmth. As they soften and transform, their vehemence gives way to serenity, and their perfectionism shifts to a tender acceptance of life as it is. 🎭 Pleasure and PlayFor the Sexual One, a significant part of growth involves accessing sensuality, spontaneity, and play—experiencing pleasure for its own sake rather than tying it to ideals of justice or righteousness. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

Inadaptability/Superiority and the Social One

39 min

In this episode of The Barrcast, we learn aboutthe Social One, whose keywords are inadaptability and superiority. Unlike the other subtypes, the Social One asserts their correctness and moral high ground through a subtler, more withdrawn approach. Talking Points: 🧍 Sitting at the grownups tableFrom a young age, the Social One often assumes a grown-up role, gravitating toward adults rather than peers. This early sense of responsibility reflects their drive to distinguish themselves and avoid the perceived mess of childhood. 🏔️ Moral High Ground as RefugeThe Social One’s need for superiority often manifests as a retreat to their “moral high ground.” Maintaining this ground, and separating it from the rest of the environment, requires constant effort – resulting in rigidity, isolation, and tension in relationships. 🔥 Anger Beneath the SurfaceUnlike other subtypes, the Social One rarely displays anger outwardly. Instead, their frustration transforms into a quiet demand for perfection—both from themselves and others. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

Not quite my tempo: Anger and the Enneagram One

21 min

In this episode of The Barrcast, we introduce the Enneagram One, known as the Reformer. As part of the doing triad, the One is characterized by the passion of anger— not the fighting instinct, but something more primordial, rooted in the frustration caused by the friction between what is and what ought to be. The result is an internal, fiery drive to correct what is perceived as wrong or imperfect. Talking Points: 🎄 The Divine Memory of PerfectionRichard Rohr’s account of experiencing perfection as a child—a perfectly trimmed Christmas tree—illustrates the One’s simultaneous longing for and burden of enforcing perfection. 🫸 Pushing the RiverThe phrase highlights the One’s tendency to impose their will on the world, striving to reform external contexts rather than adapt to what is. 🧹 Occasional PeaceUnlike other types, Ones sometimes achieve the perfection they seek, but this fleeting success only reinforces their belief in their “special access” to what is right. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

Appetite and the Self-Preservation Nine

21 min

In this episode of The Barrcast we wrap up the Nine with the self-preservation subtype, a character shaped by “appetite.” Unlike the overt hunger of other types, the Nine’s appetite is a more instinctual desire for comfort, stability, and numbing pacification. We discuss how this appetite manifests not just physically but as an unconscious strategy to avoid the deeper question of being. Talking Points: 🍽️ I Eat, Therefore I Am The unique Cartesian expression of the self-preservation Nine reflects a substitution of being with physical satiation. We explore how this subtype’s appetite goes beyond food, encompassing a craving for the mundane comforts of everyday life—sleep, routine, and possession—that mask a deeper existential void. 📺 Life on Standby: The Remote Control Metaphor Emilia Ligi’s metaphor of living life like a TV on standby mode captures the essence of the self-preservation Nine’s strategy. This subtype often hands over their metaphorical remote control to others, allowing external influences to dictate their experience while they remain passive and disconnected from their true desires. 🪞 The Elusiveness of Presence Despite their grounded, physical presence, the self-preservation Nine often lacks a metaphysical depth, presenting as elusive or hard to pin down. We explore how this subtype’s tendency to retreat into comfort leads to a life lived on the surface, with little engagement in the deeper currents of self-awareness or transformation. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

The mind's moment of truth

34 min

(This is an edited transcript of the video) I’m going to do something a bit self-indulgent here and just riff for a few minutes. I’ve been asking myself: what is this project I’ve been working on for the past 18 months? It started with implementing Internal Family Systems (IFS) in ChatGPT, and now I’m translating Naranjo’s book on the Enneagram subtypes. What connects all this? It’s not like I have a tidy answer. I’ve been doing the work without naming the project, which is the beauty of independent work—you just do stuff and figure out why later. But it feels like it’s time to start naming it. I think it begins with describing the moment we’re in and the energy behind it. Dreyfus is my guide here, specifically his book What Computers Still Can’t Do the follow-up to his first critique of AI. Dreyfus isn’t around anymore to comment on the current state of affairs, but two quotes from his work frame the urgency I feel right now. The first quote: If we are on the threshold of creating artificial intelligence, then we are about to see the triumph of a very special conception of reason. If reason can be programmed into a computer, this will confirm an understanding of man as object, an idea Western thinkers have been moving toward for 2,000 years. But if AI turns out to be impossible, we will have to distinguish human from artificial reason, changing our view of ourselves. Thus, the moment has come either to face the truth of the tradition's deepest intuition or to abandon the mechanical account of man's nature. The point here is that things are coming to a head. We’re either about to prove that reason – the supposed essence of human nature – is mechanical, or we’re going to have to throw that intuition away. This is 2,000 years of Western philosophy culminating in this moment. It’s a big deal. But Dreyfus goes further. He argues that this isn’t just a spectator sport where we wait to see who wins. He highlights the deeper issue: our nature is malleable. This malleabilit...

Symbiosis and the Sexual Nine

42 min

In this episode of the Barrcast, we explore the Sexual Nine, a character defined by their drive for “symbiosis” or deep fusion with others. The Sexual Nine’s yearning for union stems from a profound sense of disconnection within themselves, leading them to seek a complete merging with others as a way to feel whole. Topics include: the difference between true connection and codependent fusion; the neurotic game of symbiosis as a substitute for true selfhood; and the Sexual Nine’s journey toward reclaiming their autonomy and discovering genuine intimacy. Talking points: 🕶️ The “Nowhere Man” – how the Sexual Nine’s tendency to fade into the background, becoming invisible in relationships, stems from an unwillingness to occupy their own sense of self. 🦁 The “lion’s roar,” in which the nine incorporates their eight wing to pronounce No to some way of life that cannot go on any longer, creating space for the Yes. 🌱 Reclaiming Self in Relationships. The shift from seeking union through others to building self-worth independently, allowing for real partnership and mutual respect. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

Participation/Belonging & the Social Nine

24 min

In this episode of the Barrcast, we get to know the Social Nine, a character defined by their need for “participation” or “belonging.” The Social Nine’s longing to belong stems from a chronic feeling of not fitting in, leading them to overcompensate by taking on roles that make them indispensable to the group. Topics include: the self-sacrificing, good-natured qualities of the Social Nine; their tendency to avoid personal emotions in favor of maintaining group harmony; and the driving need to feel included, even if it means working tirelessly to earn a sense of acceptance. Talking points: 🐘 The “elephant skin” of the Social Nine, a thick protective layer that shields them from responding to their environment in ways that may threaten homeostasis ꩜ The existential void a Social Nine is confronted with when an anchoring relationship is removed 🏋️‍♀️ How practices that build the capacity to be with anger, fear, and other emotions help in the transformation process This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

Float On: Sloth and the Enneagram Nine

16 min

In this episode of the Barrcast, we introduce the Nine, a personality type often described as peaceful and self-forgetting. Positioned at the top of the Enneagram, the Nine is sometimes considered the "baseline" type, able to look down on with unique challenges in self-awareness and motivation. Key Points: * Nines possess a unique ability to empathize and see the perspectives of other Enneagram types but often struggle to assert their own identity. * The nine’s “sloth” is more than lethargy; it represents a resistance to inner change and personal awakening. * By avoiding conflict, nines may ultimately face physical or emotional burnout, especially when life calls for decisive self-awareness. Quotes from the Episode: * “Nine is the least egoic, the least motivated to change. It’s as if the nine is asleep to their own needs.” * “Self-forgetting only works for so long…eventually, life requires us to be an ‘I’ capable of making decisions.” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

Satisfaction and the Self-Preservation Eight

33 min

In this episode of the Barrcast, we explore the Self-Preservation Eight, whose passion is “satisfaction”—a need driven by survival and self-interest. Topics include: the lion-like nature of the Self-Preservation Eight, their pursuit of security and control; how they express strength through commanding loyalty; the reasons behind their instinct for protection and their rejection of love and the good. We examine the challenges the Eight faces in letting go of material and emotional control, and the transformative potential of embracing vulnerability and trust. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

Possessiveness and the Sexual Eight

34 min

In this episode of the Barrcast, we dive into the Sexual Eight, whose core passion is “possessiveness.” Topics include the voraciousness of the Sexual Eight, their intense need for control, power, and autonomy and their tendency toward detachment from intellect. Discussion touches on their amoral perspective – it’s right because I do it – and how their need for power manifests in a vicious cycle of possession and isolation. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

Complicity and the Social Eight

41 min

In this episode of the Barrcast, we look into the Social Eight, whose passion is “complicity;” a particular flavor of friendship that is defined by teaming up against a shared enemy. Topics include: the rebellious yet loyal nature of the Social Eight, the origins of their opposition to authority; how they defend their loved ones through intense and paradoxical behavior; the motivations behind their drive for protection, solidarity, and justice. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

Some Like it Hot: Lust and the Enneagram Eight

24 min

In this episode of the BarrCast, we start our journey into the gut triad, starting with the Eight. Topics covered include: the passion of lust in type eight, their need for intensity, and the psychological underpinnings behind their pursuit of justice, autonomy, and dominance. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

Family and the Self Preservation Seven

15 min

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

Suggestibility and the Sexual Seven

34 min

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

Sacrifice and the Social Seven

43 min

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

Warmth and the Self-Preservation Six

45 min

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

Strength and the Sexual Six

46 min

Transcripts now supported on web and mobile. Hooray Substack! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

Duty and the Social Six

29 min

Transcript Hello and welcome to the BarrCast. I'm your host, Nick Barr, coming to you on a windy Friday afternoon. So we're jumping into the social six and the keyword for the social six is in Spanish, in English duty, duty or obligation. And remembering that the background passion for all of the subtypes of the six is fear. We've also been playing with angst as a keyword there. But it's funny because I've been sitting with fear versus angst. And I think angst is a better description of a condition that the six might find themselves in. But fear might be a better word to describe the passion, right? The engine, the motivating, sort of the battery source of the six. The six scans their environment from a place of fear for danger and through that projects danger onto the world and sometimes even manifests danger where there wouldn't have been any uh previously and so that's that self-fulfilling prophecy that's that um see you know see that means i need to continue to scan for fear right so there's that pattern that reinforces itself And angst doesn't, as much as I like the word angst, it doesn't quite lend itself as clearly to that passion. So let's look at duty. And the other thing we need to keep in mind as we dive into the subtypes of the six is two things. One is that the six and the four have the most diversity in the subtypes. And secondly, that another way sixes are presented in the Enneagram is along the lines of phobic and counterphobic. So you can roughly think about this as people who have more of a flight response or more of a fight response. Do they move toward the danger or do they move away from it? So all that's just background as we begin our translation work. Doody, here's what I call a Prussian character. The social six is cold, very formal. Kant, for example, was a great philosopher. He was Prussian, and the Prussians had this type of character. It feels great love for precision and intolerance for ambiguity. This is precisely the complete opposite...

Angst! 😱 Fear and the Enneagram Six

25 min

Transcript Hello and welcome to the Barrcast. I'm your host Nick Barr coming to you on a rainy gray Thursday morning here in New York. We're moving on to the six today and I'm excited for that because the six is the type that I feel the weakest on in terms of my understanding of the operating mechanisms behind the six. And so, yeah, this will be this will be good education for me. And we're going to start with the social six. But each each type has this little prologue. And so we're going to just read a little bit about the passion of the six overall, which in Spanish is el miedo or fear. Although I've also heard it rendered as angst by Russ Hudson and i think that's a pretty compelling alternative so we'll talk about that in a second. Let's read this translation. If the nine seeks to overcome the anxiety of separation with forgetfulness or the illusion that it never existed. The six has a surprising awareness of loss and in the face of it reacts compulsively to defend against the danger inevitably spread in the external world. The passion fear implies a compulsive need not determined by internal or external events to move in relationships and in the world, always in a state of alert. The anxiety of the loss of meaning becomes constant background anxiety, which it manages to mitigate with a clear separation between good and evil. It is as if, faced with the anxiety of feeling lost and fragmented, the Six finds relief only in constantly defending against danger, with the illusion that fear will guarantee control to foresee from where or from whom that danger will come. The anxiety is channeled through the search for the enemy, the cause of the suffering experienced, even preferring to feel guilty to avoid navigating an uncontrollable ocean. This tension implies a disconnection from one's own emotions and a paralysis of action, because since each action would be a possibility of error, guilt that deserves punishment, and each error would be irreversible, it paralyze...

Refuge and the Self-Preservation Five

42 min

Hello and welcome to the Barrcast. I'm your host, Nick Barr, coming to you on a Sunday evening. We're getting a lot of rain in New York, so we've got hot, muggy weather. And it's a good time to seek refuge, and so that's the keyword of the Enneagram Type 5 self-preservation, or in Spanish, conservación, or refugio. Beautiful word in Spanish, translated neatly to refuge. But let's get right into it and find out what keyword makes most sense for us. This is a really wonderful chapter, so I am going to go deep on it because I actually think this is... The self-preservation five is the fiviest of the fives subtypes. And so I want to go deep on this. It's also the best written chapter, in my opinion, because it goes into more of the five in their less integrated state. I've also had a glass of wine, so I'm amped up to do this. So let's see how it goes. The need to retreat is a clear characteristic for the conservation type five. However, it must be taken into account that each subtype of the five has some of that, a need to withdraw. In the case of conservation, the passion has a lot to do with finding refuge, erecting high walls that separate them from a world that can invade them, that can take them out of a small precious world hidden inside them. The idea of self-conservation becomes clear if we imagine them as firm supporters of retreating into a cave. The five conservation extremely limits their needs and desires as each desire could mean a status of dependency for them. Like every conservation subtype, this one is also linked to survival in the concrete, attached to objects in personal space, but as a five, which is the most mental of the mental characters, it is in thought, in incessant reflection on the way to survive and live by limiting external disturbances where they find the greatest refuge. So already just like really wonderfully lucid writing. I think we're seeing themes again of why Buddhism... might appeal to a five, a practice that literally talks abou...

Confidant and the Sexual Five

27 min

Transcript Hello and welcome to the Barrcast. I'm your host Nick Barr coming to you on a Tuesday afternoon. We're trucking along here with the five and we're on to the sexual five today. The keyword for the sexual five is confianza which is translated here as trust. If you also hear confidence in Confianza, I think that's a connection. But in the deeper sense, maybe like the confidence man. I guess that's where con man originates from. Should we just start with a quick etymological investigation of the word confidence? Because there's something about contract and trust here that I don't think I fully understand so let's look at the etymology of confidence. Of course, right we have confide, confiding having full trust. Let's see what else we have to say here. Assurance or belief in the goodwill veracity of another is the original meaning of confidence. Firmly trusting, fully trusting, full reliance. So there's a, the origin of confidence is relational. Assurance or belief in the goodwill of another. And so I think that's where, you know, it can connect with trust. And then Con, Con Man. Confidence with a sense of assurance based on insufficient grounds dates from the 1590s. Con Artist is attested by 1910, but Confidence Man is a Melville book. So obviously, yeah, 1840s, I would guess. So let's just invite in all of that association, trust, contract, fully trusting another in sort of a formal way that sort of establishes reliance on the other. And I'm going to, once again, I'm not going to read the whole chapter, although this is actually the shortest chapter I've seen yet after the social five, which was quite long. And the keyword there was totem. And the points made multiple times that fives have, as it says here, is if one tries to find the difference between the sexual five and the other type of five, it will not be easy. But if one engages in conversation with them, they will hear them say that they're very passionate about a person, generally about a person the...

Totem and the Social Five

29 min

Transcript Hello and welcome to the BarrCast. I'm your host, Nick Barr, coming to you on a Sunday evening here in New York, a little muggy. I've had some recording issues and I lost the audio for some reason. It dropped in the last couple of attempts. So I'm just going to try something a little different, mix it up. And rather than go through the translation... We're just going to try to make meaning out of and make sense out of the keyword for the social five, which is Totem. And so remembering that the passion for the five overall is avarice. And like all the passions, really, it's not quite what you'd expect. So take avarice at face value and you're thinking about greed and wanting more. And that's a really odd word to describe the five who is oftentimes the least materialistic, least interested in monetary gain. They might be a minimalist. So what kind of avarice are we talking about here? The five and we're moving into the head triad from the four so we're talking about um people who kind of uh their head their thinking and their mental simulating is sort of their uh control tower from which they're experiencing a lot of the world um And there's a lot... The five in general is really out to protect themselves from kind of sensory overload, you know, is one way to start talking about it. And... I think the five is probably the most important type to understand from a cultural perspective right now, because I think the five was probably in most of history was very rare and would sort of be the absent-minded professor, brilliant researcher, scientist type who used to be a rarity, but culturally we're living more and more in a five space in the sense that there's more withdrawn Were more withdrawn from the frictions of human interactions. And that's what the fives organized their life to sort of avoid is friction and just sort of unpredictability in human interactions. That is to say, sometimes people are going to be too much and they're going to be kind of invadin...

Tenacity and the Self-Preservation Four

1 hr 11 min

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

Rivalry and the Sexual Four

1 hr 17 min

Transcript Hello and welcome to the BarCast. I'm your host, Nick Barr, coming to you on a Wednesday evening. I am taking off for a few days, flying out to Miami tomorrow, but I thought before I do that, I want to carry on this project and record another session. So we're doing the sexual floor today, which... 0:31 which is closer to home for me than the social four. I think I'm still yet closer to the self-preservation four, but we'll get to that. So the sexual four is classified by Ichazo as odio, hatred. So it's an intense keyword. And the sexual four is an intense person. So we're going to learn about it. 0:58 And before we dive in more, just a word on sexual as a subtype. So the subtypes, the instinctual subtypes, social, sexual, and self-preservation really are a somewhat distinct invention specific to the Enneagram. In a way, that's kind of a bummer. You would like the vocabulary to be common across other paradigms, but 1:26 It has a little bit to do with attachment, right? It has a little bit to do with survival. And the idea is a pretty simple one. As a child, we quickly develop not just survival strategies, but strategies on whom our survival depends. So if our survival depends on a close relationship with a caregiver, 1:55 then we might develop a sexual, or sometimes it's called one-on-one subtype. So this is someone where the intensity and depth of one relationship becomes of utmost importance for the survival strategy. I don't know enough about why it's called sexual. It certainly can show up as sexual in terms of sort of seducing the partner or 2:25 seducing the other person in relationship. But of course, it would have its roots in caregivers, a mother or a father. Then there's the social subtype where survival is to be found in belonging, in fitting in. in not standing out, maybe you've got a large family or, um, or your family of origin, you know, 2:56 wasn't where you were safe, but school or, uh, you moved around a lot. So you needed to sort of ble...

Abasement and the Social Four

51 min

Transcript Hello, and welcome to the Barrcast. I'm your host, Nick Barr, coming to you on a lovely Monday morning here in Brooklyn, New York. We're going to continue on with our Enneagram journey, our close reading of Claudio Naranjo's 27 Personalities in Search of Being. 0:19 We are on the four, and today we're going to be looking at the social four. Quick housekeeping notes. For some reason, last time, the screen recording didn't scroll when I scrolled, so I apologize for that. Hopefully that's fixed this time. And if you're a longtime listener to the Barrcast, 0:37 you may be interested to know that I post these on YouTube as well as Substack. You can check out polytrope.substack.com. So if you're getting this on the feed, that's great, and I'll make this listenable. But if you do want to see the visuals, they're up on YouTube. Okay, so... 1:01 We're in the four and we're gonna talk about the social four first. And so maybe a little bit of context here. So Naranjo's book is a collection of essays. He does some framing, but then the essays are largely written by psychotherapists in this community, in this circle. 1:29 So each person writes about their own psycho-spiritual development for their type. So we'll get into that. And each subtype has a kind of a keyword. So for the social four, the keyword is shame or vergüenza. I think vergüenza is... pretty straight ahead shame, but let's just quickly see if there's nuance to that. 2:02 Maybe it doesn't come through in English. It's maybe a bit lighter. I don't know if that's just my own imagination. It maybe is a little bit closer to embarrassment than shame is. One of the tricky things with shame is that shame is also used to describe the whole heart triad. 2:38 Two threes and fours all have their core emotion as shame as opposed to fear for the head triad and anger for the gut triad. So shame is being used elsewhere in the Enneagram. And let's get into it. Naranjo is going to point out another limitation of the word...

Dearly Missed: Envy and the Enneagram Four

45 min

Hello and welcome to the Barrcast. I'm your host, Nick Barr, coming to you on a sunny and reasonably cool Friday morning here in New York. I want to do a podcast within a podcast. So I'm going to be doing a series of recordings about the Enneagram, in particular the types four and five, where I find my own personality sort of most at home. And I want to explore these with a very deep and very close reading of Claudio Naranjo, who is considered one of the sort of fathers, of the modernization enneagram. He worked, in the 1970s, extensively on the Enneagram and produced a really wonderful book called 27 Personajes en busca del ser, or 27 personalities in search of being. As far as I know, this hasn't been translated into English. I've translated it using the help of modern AI tools, but I also speak Spanish reasonably well, understand Spanish reasonably well, so have been able to spot check it here and there. And it's funny if you find some of my earliest podcasts. I started, a podcast called reading Spanish, where I was practicing my own spanish translation. So in some ways, this is a real throwback for me. I think Naranjo's work is very powerful and full of insight, so I'm excited to dive in. So this is going to be the first recording, and we're going to talk about Enneagram type four. And we're going to read Naranjo and discuss. So I, have here on the left, my translation, on the right, the source text. So Enneagram type four has the sin or the passion of envy. So right away we're getting right into sin, which is such a fraught word for the Enneagram, and will immediately turn off two kinds of people. One is the religious or Christian type, who feels uncomfortable working with sin. because sin is so loaded, it evokes thoughts of hell. It might evoke cultural norms like, let's say, homosexuality being a sin according to some churches or some religious people. So it might be unbearably heavy for some people, and then for others, it just might feel, outmoded or so...

Tár: Death of the Sun God

2 hr 43 min

In celebration of the Oscars and my favorite film of the year, I’ve recorded a running commentary of Tár. The best way to experience this is to start the movie right when you click play on the podcast, and it will feel like we were hanging out on the couch together… and I’m talking the whole time. Transcript: (00:00:04) - Hello, and welcome to a very special episode of the Barrcast. I entitled this episode, TAR, Death of the Sun God, and we will be watching together the Oscar-nominated picture, TAR, commenting on it. Treat this episode like you're having a friend over and you're watching the movie. And if you haven't started the movie already, start it now, I'll synchronize with you momentarily. But I've started it, and I am at this moment 35 seconds in. And we start with this mysterious livestream or text thread of what's happening.  (00:00:53) - We don't quite know who this character is. Almost by the end of the film we'll know who it is. And in some ways TAR is a horror film or a mystery or a whodunit. For me that's one of the least compelling ways to experience this film, but if that's your preferred way, more power to you. I do think that there are more fruitful ways to experience the film, and Todd Field shows us one right here. TAR is thrusting the microphone in front of a group of people speaking their language. We don't know who they are yet.  (00:01:50) - And in comes this high-pitched female voice at the center of the first credit screen to the Shipibo-Konibo people. And so that's our grounding for this film and for this interpretation. The Shipibo people are most known, at least in the US, for ayahuasca ceremonies. And what we're listening to is an ikaro, a song sung in ayahuasca ceremonies. And so accompanying these credits is something like a spiritual introduction, a bridge into another way of being. And so we'll take the invitation and spend a couple minutes transitioning into that way of being.  (00:04:55) - You know, it's coming up for me on the se...

The Power of Cards – #2 ft. Azlen Elza

54 min

Video: Episode highlights: * Designing in nouns and verbs * Inside-out vs outside-in design * Alien technologies * Cards as supernouns * Progressive competition Selected links: * Azlen’s card prototype * Bananagrams * Metaphors We Live By * Voyages in sentence space This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

The Power of Cards – #1 ft. David Cole

1 hr 9 min

Video here: Episode highlights: * Magic the Gathering: cards that left an impression * Can managers use cards to understand and be understood by their teams? * David’s prototype using whiteboard cards (!), label-makers, and dice * What’s the opposite of cards? Selected links: * Amy Weber’s cards * Melissa Benson’s website * Erasable whiteboard cards * Human Design * Players who suit MUDs This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

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