Self-Preservation One

Worry and almost paranoia

Self-preservation Ones are really hard to distinguish from Sixes because both worry a lot. Ones of this persuasion take their generalized critical attitude and decide they aren't going to be able to live up to the right way of doing things. But of course they don't do this in one fell swoop. They begin to worry about every little thing, especially decisions, because decisions are a function of the will, and it is the will that gets angry. Anger gets a quarter turn when focused on oneself for Ones.

The "one right way" that Ones are troubled with turns into a concern that one wrong move could knock down the whole house of cards. The thin line between thinking things are not right and that the world is not going to work is a fine one. For this reason, they may love routine and will cling unreasonably to it. And once plans are made and the inner work of making a decision has been done, it is very difficult to change a plan. From the outside they can look like a Five or Six because they anticipate everything than can go wrong and can make detailed plans.

One vs. Six

One difference between the worry and the almost paranoia of the One and the Six is that the Six can feel righteous and they know they don't deserve to have the world turned against them. Self-preservation Ones are not so sure -- sometimes. There can often be an element of being undeserving and inadequate, so they react with worry. After all, they think, if there is only one right way to do and be, I probably haven't found it -- the odds are against me. But Ones work tremendously hard to try to reach that one right way.

To tighten the focus even more, this whole worry reaches it zenith when it comes to material well-being. Job security, money, health, and work ethic are big. The thought of undeserving people getting welfare is enough to ruin their whole day, whereas a Social One, like Ralph Nadar will worry about corporate welfare.

Self Erasure

Like all of the 8-9-1 triad, Ones have gone to sleep about their deepest self. In the case of the One, they have substituted being right for being real. They give themselves over to a moral righteousness. That makes them "good," but what it costs them is their inner knowledge of their desires. They don't know what they want; they have substituted what they should do for what they want to do.

So, in the case of the self-preservation One, they are most anxious when they have to make decisions in which a desire is embedded (the choices we all have to make about where to work, live and play and with whom). How does one marry the right spouse, choose the right house etc. "Mr. Right" takes on a whole new and ominous meaning! And if you have kids, you vacillate between being nurturing (which is the right thing to do) and being critical (in order to make them grow up right). And Ones see being critical as being loving. After all, they're doing it for your own good. And when Ones criticize themselves, they do it as an act of self-love. But it feels like worry.

If you are a self-preservation One, you do have this strategy for simplifying and ordering life so you can predict and handle what you are sure is going to happen. This is what you learned from very early experience. Now, depending on the intensity and frequency of that experience, you will be more or less sure this is what will happen and you will be more or less sure this is the best way to handle it. But under stress, this is what you're apt to bet will happen.