©1995-2023 Katherine Chernick Fauvre: Originator of Tritype®

Tritype® vs. Trifix® Mini Explanation

A short version of Trifix® vs. Tritype®:
Tritype® and Trifix® are two theories that share an important similarity. Both Tritype® and Trifix recognize that individuals use all three triads (a.k.a., centers) within the Enneagram.

Tritype® was based on Katherine Chernick Fauvre's research and represented the full types: the fixation of the head type: (567), the passion of the heart type: (234), and conviction of the gut type: (891). 

Trifix was based on Oscar Ichazo's view of the "fixations," or “fixed beliefs,” of only the head types within the three types in the Trifix. The word “fix” is short for “fixation” which is the mental preoccupation of the types.

A Brief History of Tritype®:
From 1994-1996, Katherine conducted her first qualitative research on the “internal experiences” of the nine types. She discovered that participants used the idealized images, core fears, and defense strategies of three types, not just one, but that these three types were the dominant type in each center. Katherine called it 3Types, Trigram, and TriCenter.

Each Tritype® was given a name and a Tritype® Archetype, Core Triggers, Core Fears, Life Purpose, Blindspot, and Growing Edge. Katherine also added how each Enneagram type was influenced by the Tritype® they had. And those with the same Tritype® had a natural affinity for one another. In other words, people with the same Tritype® had more in common than people with the same type but different Tritype®.

Two years later, in late October of 1996, Katherine learned that Ichazo, the creator of The Enneagram of Personality, had begun to tell students their Trifix®. Unfortunately, only two paragraphs on Trifix were published in a 1996 interview.

A Brief History of Trifix®:
In 1996, the editors of The Enneagram Monthly, Jack Labanauskas and Andrea Isaacs, interviewed Oscar Ichazo for the article “Setting the Record Straight”. It was at this time that Ichazo introduced Trifix. Later, in 1996 he began giving some students their personal Trifix. In 1997, Arica Institute introduced the Fixations in the Trifix Analysis Day.

Trifix is Oscar Ichazo's term that refers to the mental preoccupations and fixed beliefs of the three types in a Trifix, which consists of the dominant fixation in each triad. Trifix® is literally based only on these terms:

1) Resentment
2) Flattery
3) Vanity
4) Melancholy
5) Stinginess
6) Cowardice
7) Planning
8) Vengeance
9) Indolence

Individuals have a mental fixation in each triad. One fixation is dominant and the other two are co-fixations. Most Enneagram scholars acknowledge that these fixed beliefs are ego driven and produce mental confusion, suffering, and/or psychic panic. One can become aware of fixated beliefs by developing an inner witness. One can find references to psychic structures in ancient theories and models, however, organized in this particular manner leads to the seminal work of Oscar Ichazo. The concept of fixations with respect to the Enneagram types was added to Oscar Ichazo’s work in 1972-1973.

More about the History of Trifix and Tritype®: 
In 1996, Katherine learned that Oscar Ichazo, the creator of The Enneagram of Personality, had begun to tell students their Trifix®. She asked everyone she could about it, including his students. They only knew that Ichazo told a few students that they had three fixations, not just one that was used in a clockwise order beginning with the dominant fixation, and that these fixations cascaded into one another. He never taught more about it or referenced what happens when the types merge.

Katherine thought this concept was the same as what she had found in her research. So as not to confuse people, she added the term Trifix to her teachings and gave Ichazo attribution for the term Trifix. However, anything she wrote, posted, or taught was based on what she learned from her study participants during her ongoing qualitative research on the internal experience of type. Nothing was documented on Trifix until many years later.

In 2007, a board member from Arica Institute, the non-profit built around Oscar Ichazo’s work, attended a workshop that Katherine taught on Trifix. After the training, she told Katherine who she was. They went on to spend a pleasant time talking about their different experiences with the Enneagram. It was at that time that Katherine shared that she wanted to separate her work from Ichazo’s term.  Arica wanted to trademark the term.  So together, they explored what they knew about Katherine’s work, 3Types, TriCenter, and  Trigram and Ichazo’s term Trifix.  They finally found a key distinction.

On that day they chose to separate the terms…Ichazo would keep “Trifix” since it was his term and highlighted that he only talked about the fixations of the three types. It was suggested that Katherine use “Tritype” to clarify this difference because her research was on the full type. Katherine loved it since it was a much more accurate description of what her work was based on. They both trademarked their terms to continue to clarify and maintain the distinctions.

From 1994-2019 all teachings and postings of both Trifix® and Tritype® came from Katherine’s work.

In 2019, Ichazo wrote five paragraphs on Trifix in a very general way in his book The Nine Constituents. Over the years, many have come to use the term Trifix incorrectly but are actually talking about Katherine’s Tritype® work when writing as Trifix. It has been modified, of course… ;) But what was lost is crucial when trying to determine your accurate Tritype®. So make sure you can literally observe that you use the idealized image, core fears, and defense strategies of the types in your potential Tritype®.

The term, Trifix®, belongs to Arica Institute and cannot be used without permission. You can learn more about Ichazo’s work with Trifix® at https://Arica.org.

Katherine Chernick Fauvre, the creator of Tritype® and Instinctual Stackings, is an internationally recognized personality expert.  She is an IEA Accredited Teacher with Distinction and is Triple Certified: Palmer-Daniels, Riso-Hudson, and Hurley-Dobson. She is also distinguished to be the only person in the world to have attended week-long intensives with both Claudio Naranjo and Oscar Ichazo. In 1996, Naranjo validated her 1995 Research on the Instinctual Subtypes. Her 23 qualitative research studies on the Enneagram Types and her many innovative Courses correlating the Enneagram with many other fields such as Karen Horney, MBTI, Archetypes, micro-expressions, talk styles, lexicon use, gestures, and body language have made her a thought leader in the field.

Oscar Ichazo, the originator of the Enneagram Theory and Practice, presents a Teaching of the enneagram and its application in his book, The Enneagrams of the Divine Forms–Perfect, Eternal, Unchanging Truths. The Divine Forms Teachings begin with the scientific foundation upon which the enneagrams of Integral Philosophy are based. The book outlines how the Divine Forms are an integral part of the complete Theory of Integralism and how this builds a ‘Theory of Knowledge,’ that otherwise would be baseless. Ichazo provides a comprehensive perspective on the relationship of the Divine Forms with a full description of the nine Fixations, the Trifix, and an ego–reduction of each Fixation. For those interested in a substantial philosophy of Enlightenment, The Enneagrams of the Divine Forms book exposes a fundamental Teaching in which the study and practice with the Divine Forms opens Transcendental Knowledge beyond concepts and language into States of Perfection, Eternity and Innate Awareness.

More on Tritype® here:
Katherine created a test that has been programmed to pick up particular patterns that the types use.
Take the Test here:  https://enneagramtritypetest.com
General Information:  www.katherinefauvre.com/tritype
YouTube: Katherine Fauvre | Creator of Tritype®

©1995-2023 Katherine Chernick Fauvre: Originator of Tritype®