# Type Four **Covers**:: **Source**:: [Type Four](https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/type-4) **Creator**:: [[enneagraminstitute.com]] # Highlights ##### ^214854073 ###### ^214854073q Fours are self-aware, sensitive, and reserved. They are emotionally honest, creative, and personal, but can also be moody and self-conscious. Withholding themselves from others due to feeling vulnerable and defective, they can also feel disdainful and exempt from ordinary ways of living. They typically have problems with melancholy, self-indulgence, and self-pity. At their Best: inspired and highly creative, they are able to renew themselves and transform their experiences. ^214854073 ##### ^214854074 ###### ^214854074q Fours feel that they are unlike other human beings, and consequently, that no one can understand them or love them adequately. They often see themselves as uniquely talented, possessing special, one-of-a-kind gifts, but also as uniquely disadvantaged or flawed. ^214854074 ##### ^214854075 ###### ^214854075q Fours are acutely aware of and focused on their personal differences and deficiencies ^214854075 ##### ^214854076 ###### ^214854076q Healthy Fours are willing to reveal highly personal and potentially shameful things about themselves because they are determined to understand the truth of their experience ^214854076 ##### ^214854077 ###### ^214854077q This ability also enables Fours to endure suffering with a quiet strength ^214854077 ##### ^214854078 ###### ^214854078q Their familiarity with their own darker nature makes it easier for them to process painful experiences that might overwhelm other types ^214854078 ##### ^214854079 ###### ^214854079q Fours often report that they feel they are missing something in themselves ^214854079 ##### ^214854080 ###### ^214854080q They feel that they lack a clear and stable identity, particularly a social persona that they feel comfortable with ^214854080 ##### ^214854081 ###### ^214854081q Fours often feel different from others, they do not really want to be alone. They may feel socially awkward or self-conscious, but they deeply wish to connect with people who understand them and their feelings ^214854081 ##### ^214854082 ###### ^214854082q they long for someone to come into their lives and appreciate the secret self that they have privately nurtured and hidden from the world ^214854082 ##### ^214854083 ###### ^214854083q If, over time, such validation remains out of reach, Fours begin to build their identity around how unlike everyone else they are ^214854083 ##### ^214854084 ###### ^214854084q Fours typically have problems with a negative self-image and chronically low self-esteem ^214854084 ##### ^214854085 ###### ^214854085q Fours may try several different identities on for size, basing them on styles, preferences, or qualities they find attractive in others. But underneath the surface, they still feel uncertain about who they really are ^214854085 ##### ^214854086 ###### ^214854086q When Fours look inward they see a kaleidoscopic, ever-shifting pattern of emotional reactions ^214854086 ##### ^214854087 ###### ^214854087q Fours can become so attached to longing and disappointment that they are unable to recognize the many treasures in their lives ^214854087 ##### ^214854088 ###### ^214854088q Fours are in the same predicament. As long as they believe that there is something fundamentally wrong with them, they cannot allow themselves to experience or enjoy their many good qualities. To acknowledge their good qualities would be to lose their sense of identity (as a suffering victim) and to be without a relatively consistent personal identity (their Basic Fear). Fours grow by learning to see that much of their story is not true—or at least it is not true any more. The old feelings begin to fall away once they stop telling themselves their old tale: it is irrelevant to who they are right now. ^214854088