(Dis)Integration & Chaos: The Enneagram of Geralt and Yennefer, Part 2
Welcome to a series where FoG Staff and Horror Enneagrammarian, Asia (whose own work can be found here), will guide us all into the tragic psyches and wounded souls of the characters we know and love, using the Enneagram as a lens. Unfamiliar with the Enneagram? Asia’s got you covered. She’s written her own take on the “types” here and also recommends The Enneagram Institute as an online resource. Lastly, FoG favorite author Richard Rohr uses the Enneagram in much of his work and co-wrote this book on it. Our goal as ever is finding the holy in the horrific and the Enneagram is a helpful tool to do just that…
In the first installment, we talked about Geralt, drawing that conclusion that he is an 8w9. I won’t go into much summary here as that post is available to read. However, I will transfer the same caveats I made previously:
There are two things that will almost always make “typing” a person more complicated (and sometimes impossible) – major trauma and severe mental illness. The horror genre is comprised of almost nothing but characters that either have been emotionally traumatized (or very soon will be) and the devastating realities (and fantasies) of significant mental illness. When someone has been wounded as deeply as some of the characters we find in The Witcher, it can take some much deeper excavating to uncover the “real” them.
It also can’t go without saying that the fantasy genre is built stone-by-stone atop centuries of archetype. And these heroic and villainous archetypes, while riveting and inspiring, pointing us toward higher truths, do not always reflect the patters of authentic human behavior.
This installment, we will be discussing Yennefer.
And let me tell you, I agonized over Yennefer.
Truly, the amount of time I spent thinking about her at all hours of the day and night surprised shocked me.
The one thing that was fairly easy to decipher was her center. There can be no mistaking that, by her absolutely electric connection with anyone who crosses her path and her emotionally steeped temperament, she is home in the “Heart Center” (the orientation in which 2’s, 3’s, & 4’s exist).
From the first moment we see her, Yennefer is trying to prove that she is worth something.
Which is why I think many of you will disagree with my understanding of her type, but I only ask that you give me the chance to explain.
Yennefer is, by far, the most disintegrated (unhealthy) 2w3 I have ever seen.
It would have been so, so, so easy to simply write her off as a 3w4 and call it a day, but to do so would have been only unpacking her behaviors and ignoring all of her motivators, which goes against every reason the enneagram exists.
The enneagram has almost nothing at all to do with what a person does and everything to do with why they do it.
On the surface, Yennefer is power-hungry, flamboyant, determined, and driven… a dead ringer for a 3 right?
But let’s go back to the beginning of the previous essay in which I asked you to consider the level of “health” of someone you love.
Emotionally, would you call Yennefer healthy or unhealthy?
Anyone with functioning eyes in their sockets can see that Yennefer is operating out of the unhealthiest place possible. She has emotionally deteriorated so quickly from that quiet girl in the stable that it almost makes your head hurt to watch her spin that fast.
And this is where the enneagram gets a little complicated.
There is a concept in the enneagram which states that each type integrates (gets healthier) towards another type (borrows traits from and becomes more like the best version of) another type. The same goes in the other direction. Types look more and more like a counterfeit version of another type the deeper they spiral into their own personal chaos. And the less and less they look like themselves.
Sound familiar?
So, when I was typing Yennefer, I had no other option that to approach what I was seeing as just that – a counterfeit. A lost, falling soul, so detached from her true self that she would rather endure unfathomable pain and torture than resemble who she was meant to be.
I knew she was in the Heart Center – 4,3,2. That meant I had three points of disintegration I could pull from to analyze. But 4’ disintegrate towards 2, becoming needy and clingy and overly burdensome. Not Yennefer, who exercises every independence she can muster.
3’s disintegrates towards 9, becoming a hollow shell of themselves, so obsessed with others’ opinions about them, they cannot seem to shine their own colors anymore. They become stagnate and shockingly passive. Not Yennefer ,who springs into action at every waking moment, unashamedly flaunting herself to whoever might look. (Which is one reason I did bestow her with a 3 wing. No one can deny her natural 3-like tendencies)
Which leaves 2, who (and here’s where it gets fun) disintegrates towards…
8.
Explosive. Angry. Vengeful. Impulsive.
Yennefer at her worst looks like if Gerlat had let himself spiral into his own realm of chaos.
But still, her humanity is not all but lost. There are moments, when the light creeps through.
Yennefer screams in one agonizing moment of self-treachery, “I want everything!”
I never bought that line for a second. Because, while she manages to push away any and every one who could possibly be so, there is one thing Yennefer very clearly wants more than anything.
Someone to love.
When she is not manipulating, fighting, and deadly, she cannot escape her absolute need to nurture.
Before her descent, she is the first to rush to a classmate’s aid in their lessons when hurt. She wastes very little time being pursued by lovers as a typically insecure 3 or a 4 would. Yennefer does the pursuing and gives love in whatever form she can (her words, her time, her body) like it’s an endless resource that will never run dry. Which is one reason she becomes so enraged when it is scorned.
Contrast this with Geralt, who also loves deeply.
8’s integrate towards (can you guess it?)
2.
At his ultimate best, Geralt is tender, generous, nurturing, and fiercely protective. But at his worst, 8’s disintegrate towards the detached 5.
8’s run on a higher frequency than everyone at their bare minimum. The moment Geralt walks into a room, in spite of his best attempts to blend in and be left alone, the sheer magnitude of his energy is enough to draw every eye and whisper in the room. Big energy. Big feelings. Big reactions. Everything about Geralt is on a higher plane.
Until he sees red. This is possibly the easiest way to tell the difference between an 8 and a 2 if you’re not sure. What happens when they are at their absolute worst?
2’s explode. They can yell. Cry. Get physical. Curse. Their usually pleasant and even wavelength expands to unimaginable heights.
8’s flat-line. Their usually boisterous personalities fade away into some forgotten place, and their fire burns a laser-hot white. Be assured they can destroy you quietly and immovably. And so it is with Geralt. While he is a fighter, when he is at the limits of his sanity, Geralt still never fights like Yennefer, wildly and blindly. He gets shark-eyes and zeros-in with terrifying precision.
But back to Yennefer.
Even once having achieved what she has deceived herself into believing was her soul’s desire – power, beauty, autonomy – all of these pale in comparison to the one thing she has been lacking her entire life – something to love and be loved by. A child. Even after having rejected and given up her maternal potential, Yennefer desperately wants a child, and her fiery nature still stop at nothing until she has one.
But not before Geralt of RIvia crosses her path. It is in the presence of each other that their truest selves begin to shine forth. Initially tumultuous, their caustic first encounter (yes, I mean that in multiple ways) seems to begin a prolonged molting process for the both of them.
Knowing Geralt as the secret softy that he is, it isn’t all that shocking when he finds himself immediately unwilling to give up his connection with Yennefer. But the Yennefer that begins to emerge under the protective attention of The Witcher is almost a completely different witch than we have known up to that point. Her frequency settles somewhat, her starved heart finally receiving the nourishment it needs from Geralt’s tender loyalty. Her flames dim from a forest fire to a gentle heat by which she could actually warm others with the love she so desperately wants to give.
Still, when confronted with Geralt’s immovability in his own understanding of what would be best for her, Yennefer pours fuel on her fire, still determined that she needs a more permanent love than what a friend or a lover could possibly provide for her… let alone herself.
Both of these characters end Season One in more of less extreme versions of the conditions they came into it with. Geralt may now exercise his magnanimity by protecting the little princess who has been working so tirelessly to find him. He has a goal to charge towards now, and it is a noble one, which satisfies his moral code by which he can ultimately protect himself and his little ward. Now… it remains to be seen whether the ghosts from his long past and the heat from the fires of his new non-lover will overwhelm his abilities to stay kind.
Yennefer has exercised her pain to the furthest extent possible. Her rage has destroyed nearly everything that could possibly lie in her way of happiness… and also anything that could pave the way to happiness. Somehow, as always in her life, in spite of her best efforts to attach herself to a human soul to give her life meaning, she stands completely and desolately alone.
The interplay of the 2 and the 8 is a fascinating dance. Both hold some of the same beautiful traits – love, generosity, tenderness, and selflessness. And both can devolve into similar pitfalls if not grounded – stubbornness, anger, control, and violence.
And this dance is a testament to all of us that none of us are immune to the depravity within us. While 8’s can often unfairly get a bad rap for being “too intense”, our society tends to idolize a romanticized version of 2’s, ignoring that the helpers among us have toxicity too. Forcing us to look at how similar disintegration can make them, reminds us that all of us are just one very bad life, or year, or tragedy away from losing ourselves.
So, let’s be honest with ourselves about who we are today, while we still can. And maybe tomorrow when the unexpected arrives, we will be grounded enough in the Roots of our Maker to not cling to what we think we need – but rather accept the strength and love we are given every day.
