Type 1: The Perfectionist

"And always let your conscience be your guide."

Jiminy Cricket

Snapshot
Ones are based in the Body Center. Their issues revolve around being right and good. They are detail-oriented and like to keep their environments and themselves neat and orderly. They are productive and continually strive to do things perfectly in all aspects of their lives. They have an "inner critic" in their minds that constantly reminds them of what they "should have done." Being right and avoiding being wrong is important to Ones.

Best Example of a Famous "ONE": MARY POPPINS
Celebrities	Public Figures	Characters
Harrison Ford	Pope John Paul II	Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek
Anthony Edwards	Rudolph Guliani	Mary Poppins
Martha Stewart	Jerry Falwell	SNL’s the "Church Lady"
Cybill Shepherd	Hillary Clinton	Inspector Javert, Les Miserables
Katherine Hepburn	Ralph Nadar	Robespierre
Nicole Kidman	Mary Baker-Eddy	Dudley Do-Right
Celene Dion	Margaret Thatcher	Lucy from the Peanuts comicstrip
Dr. Laura Schlesinger	Miss Manners

Ones play the parts of the idealistic, upright crusaders. Their roles range from the truly humanitarian types like Nelson Mandela through the regular, dependable good guys like Harrison Ford and Anthony Edwards, to the self-righteous, judgmental vigilantes like Jerry Falwell or Inspector Javert in Les Miserables ("And those who follow the path of the righteous shall have their reward.")

Ones have a definite internal picture or standard by which they measure everything—including themselves. They are conscientious, idealistic, principled, rational, self-controlled, purposeful and constantly striving to be without blame. They are deeply committed to the achievement of their ideals. At their best they exemplify integrity and wisdom.

They tend to suppress the anger and frustration they sometimes feel because they see themselves as good and right, and "good" people "shouldn't" feel anger or frustration. Ones often have an "inner critic" in their mind that continually reminds them of all the things they "should" have done. They can become nit-picky, moralistic, impatient, and constricted. Typically fastidious and orderly, they sometimes feel as if they are the only ones who care enough to do things the right way.

People are often attracted to Ones because of their clean, crisp appearance, their love of the high moral and ethical ground, their orientation to detail and their stability and dependability.

As A One:

I know the right way to do things.
I seem to worry an awful lot.
I'm almost always on time--or early.
I feel guilty if I relax too much—and even a little relaxation is probably too much.
I like being self-disciplined and am able to accomplish a great deal.
I can get resentful when I feel others aren't trying as hard as I am.
I know how to have fun—provided it's time to have fun and when I'm supposed to have fun.
I just know that if everyone else lived like I live, the world would be the way it's supposed to be.
I feel that if I want something done right, I'd better do it myself.
I am reliable and I follow through.
Some people see me as judgmental or critical, but they have no idea how much harder I am on myself than I am on anyone else.
I often feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders, and if I don't come through, who knows what will happen?
I hate being criticized, so I try to do everything perfectly.
I show my love for people by working hard on their behalf.

Also known as:	¹The Reformer, The Humanitarian, The Good Person
The Main Plot:	The main character (a One of course) sees himself as good-the righter of all wrongs, the keeper of order and justice, and the final judge of what's right and proper for the good of all, The theme of this life-story is to enforce his judgments on himself and on the world around him.
Chief Feature:	²Resentment.
Basic Motivation:	³The need to live life the right way, improve self and others, and avoid anger.
Basic Fear:	Of being bad, defective or wrong.
Basic Desire:	To be good, have integrity, be "right."
Focus of Attention:	⁴"What's out of place?" What's right or wrong in any situation, what needs to be improved. Life is about continually working towards a set of high internal standards.
Passion:	⁵Anger
Virtue:	Serenity
Psychological Defense Mechanism:	⁶Reaction Formation -- that's when you unconsciously turn a feeling or a behavior into it's opposite so you don't have to realize you are experiencing an emotion that would make you "bad." It's like when you really feel someone off, but you sexually attracted to someone but act like a prude instead of showing your real interest, or when you really want to tell smile and say something nice instead thinking you "should" feel kindly towards them-so you "convince" yourself (unconsciously of course) that you really feel that way.

¹ Names of the Types - We have given each type an easy-to-understand name. Every Enneagram author has their own name for each of the types. To see a chart of the names used by various authors, go to the History section of our site http://www.enneamates.com/enneagram/history.php. The names we have chosen are intended to provide some general indication of the issues that type is dealing with. Using names is also convenient, but the names are not as important as the numbers and their placement on the Enneagram symbol.

²George Gurdjieff first taught the idea of the Chief Feature. Ouspensky's In Search of the Miraculous is a good source of information on Gurdjieff's ideas regarding the Chief Features. The list we use on our site is from Eli Jaxon-Bear's book The Enneagram of Liberation, Leela Foundation Press, 2001.

³The Basic Motivation, Basic Fear and Basic Desire were first developed by Don Richard Riso. See, Personality Types,Houghton Mifflin 1987, 1996.

⁴The concept of the Focus of Attention comes from the works of Helen Palmer, see, Palmer, Helen, The Enneagram, Harper Collins, 1988.

⁵Oscar Ichazo introduced the concepts of the Passions and the Virtues.

6 The Defense Mechanism for each of the types was originally recognized by Claudio Naranjo. Don Riso's works are a good reference for further information. Also see, Eli Jaxon-Bear's book The Enneagram of Liberation, Leela Foundation Press, 2001, for simple descriptions of these mechanisms.