Bolivian philosopher Oscar Ichazo developed a theory that he called “protoanalysis,” out of which he developed the Enneagram of Personality. Ichazo argued that nine “ego fixations” are formed early in life, each becoming the core of a self-image and linked to a specific “passion,” or disordered emotional energy. The relationships between these fixations can be mapped using the enneagram.
Groups formed across South America to study his emerging theories in the 1950s, and by 1968, when Ichazo was based in Chile, he was lecturing on protoanalysis at the Institute of Applied Psychology in Santiago. Out of these lectures came the Arica School, which he founded that year in the Chilean town of that name. The Arica Institute was incorporated in New York in 1971.
Ichazo is considered the originator of the “Enneagram of Personality” movement. A U.S. federal court recognized him as the author of applying the enneagram figure to ego fixations. While the enneagram symbol was used by G.I. Gurdjieff, Ichazo stated that his work was not derived from Gurdjieff’s since Gurdjieff did not teach a system of personality types associated with it.
Ichazo’s taught a system of 108 Enneagrams, focusing on those of Passions, Virtues, Fixations, and Holy Ideas to elucidate the relationship between Essence and ego. His theories drew upon concepts from Western mysticism, Neo-Platonism, early Christian mysticism, and Kabbalistic teachings.
Ichazo relocated to Hawaii in 1981 and continued to lecture and publish. He died in 2020.
Key Sources:
Almaas, A. H. (2000). Facets of unity: The Enneagram of Holy Ideas. Shambhala Publications.
Goldberg, M. (1993, October 15). Inside the Enneagram wars. LA Weekly.
Ichazo, O. (1982). Between metaphysics and protoanalysis: A Theory for Analyzing the Human Psyche.
Ichazo, S. (2015). Oscar Ichazo: Insights Into the Teacher, the Philosophy, the School.
Keen, S. (1973, July). A Conversation about Ego Destruction with Oscar Ichazo. Psychology Today.
Lilly, J. C. (1975). The Arica Training: Transpersonal Psychologies. Harper and Row.
Palmer, H. (1991). The Enneagram. Harper Collins.
Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religious Movements 