Are You My Type, Am I Yours - Renee Baron & Elizabeth Wagele

Relational Fives: "Confidences"

● My close relationships often involve sharing secrets such as inside information with a
colleague, a piece of forbidden knowledge about someone, or a made-up language with
a friend or lover.
● Keeping things to myself can give me a feeling of excitement and power; I have taken
revenge by not telling something that I knew people wanted to know.
● I don't want my partner to discuss our relationship or private business without consulting
me first.
● I like to have interesting conversations, although I rarely initiate them with people I don't
know; as a thinking type, I tend to discuss logistics, scientific matters, or mechanics; as a
feeling type, I am more likely to discuss literature, the arts, or psychology
● I especially value the people I know who respect my boundaries.
● I know I look aloof, but I'm often very involved with what is going on as an observer. I
find this more comfortable than having to be a part of the action, where I might feel
inadequate or put on the spot.
● Expressing my feelings sensually is very important to me, because this gets me out of
my head and into my body.
● When I'm alone with my feelings, they seem quite clear; but when I try to express them
to my partner and close friends, I can't find the right words.

Notes on Enneagram Subtypes (from a workshop with Claudio Naranjo) - Mary Bast, Out
of the Box Coaching, www.breakoutofthebox.com

Sexual: Confidence (passion to confide). Looks for the ultimate in another person. A little more
assertive and with more feeling than other Fives. Chopin was verbally curtailed and prone to
feeling oppressed by social gatherings and by the only relationship with a woman in his life. He
almost couldn't "take" any relationship, but there was an outpouring in his music. Someone who
puts own self into animals, into activity (e.g., Najinsky). (Tells story of female Five in a workshop
who wanted him to work with her but Naranjo was exhausted; she said "Maybe one of these
nights we could go for a walk in the moonlight," like an excess of confidence in a specific
person: "This person has to be somebody who cares so much for me that I become the one and
I'm confident in that relationship.")

The Complete Enneagram - Beatrice Chestnut, Ph.D.

Sexual Fives express avarice through a search for ideal exemplars of absolute love. This is a
Five with a romantic streak. The name reflects their need to find a partner who fulfills an ideal of
trust. The most emotionally sensitive of the Fives, they suffer more, resemble Type Four more,
and have more overt desires. They have a vibrant inner life that may be expressed through
artistic creation but are still cut off from others in many ways.

The Sexual Five: “Confidence” (Countertype)

In the Sexual Five, avarice is expressed through an ongoing search for a connection that will
satisfy their need for an experience of the most perfect, safest, and most satisfying (idealized)
union. This Five may look like the other two Five subtypes on the outside, having all the regular
Five inhibitions and introversion in the area of relationship, but the Sexual Five places a special
value on one-to-one or intimate connections.
This Five has a passion for finding a special person they can connect with deeply,
sometimes a person they cannot find or have yet to find.Like the Social Five, this Five also
searches for a high ideal, but this Five looks for the ideal in the realm of love. This Five feels a
need to find a high exemplar of absolute love. Like the search for the extraordinary of the Social
Five, the ideal kind of connection this Five searches for represents a very high standard. Sexual
Fives seek something like the ultimate mystical union—an experience of the divine in human
relationship. And this can also happen with the search for good friends or a spiritual teacher.
While Social and Self-Preservation Fives are more removed from their emotions, the
Sexual Five is intense, romantic, and more emotionally sensitive. This Five suffers more,
resembles the Four more, and has more overt desires. This is the countertype among the Fives.
It may not be completely obvious from the outside, however—they may seem very much like
other Fives until you touch their romantic spot and inspire their romantic feelings.
While they can appear reserved or laconic on the outside, Sexual Fives have a vibrant
internal life that is highly romantic. There are examples of Sexual Five artists—like Chopin, who
Naranjo notes is the most romantic of the classical composers—who display extreme emotional
expressiveness through their artistic creations but are cut off in many ways from others in the
everyday world.32
Sexual Fives live in an inner world filled with ideation, theories, and utopian fantasies
about finding unconditional love. They live for a couple’s love as a kind of ultimate or ideal
experience of connection. However, what they search for represents an idealized form of
relationship that may not exist in the human world.
Trust is the basic issue with the Sexual Five. The name Naranjo ascribes to this subtype
is “Confidence,” which has a special meaning related to an ability to trust the other, and
suggests a search for the person who will be with you no matter what, the partner (or friend) that
you can trust with all your secrets. Confidence is the kind of ideal that makes Sexual Fives very
romantic deep inside. They search for an idealized version of love and relationship as a source
of meaning in life.
The Sexual Five’s search for a high exemplar of connection is so exacting that it’s very
hard to pass their test with consistency if you are the person in relationship with them. It’s very
easy for the Sexual Five to be disappointed. This subtype has such a great need to trust in the
other that the need is not easily satisfied, and so there can be a lot of testing in their
relationships.
Fives tend to be a private people, but this Five has a great need for intimacy under the
right circumstances—if they can find a person they can really trust to love them despite their
flaws. This subtype expresses a need to be completely transparent with their partner, and they
need their partner to be very open as well—and this ideal of trust and intimacy is not easy to
find. Because of this, Sexual Fives can get very picky about the people they have relationships
with, and they can become frustrated when they discover that the other is human. If a partner
does not live up to their expectations of transparency and openness, they tend to feel
disappointed and—because they have a fear of being hurt by others—to isolate themselves.
Some Sexual Fives say that their search for an ultimate kind of connection does not only
center on relationships with a lover or life partner. One Five said he related to the idea of
“emotional promiscuity,” saying, “I want ultimate contact with a lot of people,” one at a time. And
some Fives with this subtype report that although they feel guarded in the face of too much
emotional intensity, they have a deep desire for intimacy with a trusted few. One Five with this
subtype described especially appreciating the experience of “clicking” with someone—the
feeling of having chemistry with another person—saying that when he felt this he could become
infatuated very quickly.
Although the Sexual Five may look like a Type Four, this Five is still quite Five-ish, so is
not likely to be mistaken for a Four. And while this subtype is the Five countertype and seeks to
manifest an ideal of intimacy, it may be hard to discern the difference between this Five and the
other two Fives, as all of the Five subtypes experience a need to withdraw. However, This Five
has a need to find a special relationship that will provide both safety and an ultimate kind of
love.

Stephen, a Sexual Five, talks about his subtype:

Full access to my feelings came after I started doing body work in my early 30s, and
they were, and sometimes still are, very confusing and overwhelming—especially
“softer” emotions like compassion. I’ll find myself with tears welling up at times and need
to look inside for the trigger, which can be as simple as the sight of a homeless person
on the side of the road. My adult life has been a constant tension between my point’s
need to pull in and husband my (emotional, physical, intellectual, financial) resources,
and a mostly stronger drive to reach out and connect, not merely with my intimate
partner, but nearly everywhere.

The reaching out is an attempt to fill an existential-psychic hole that seems to have
existed from a prenatal stage. I seek connections with others to avoid feeling that
emptiness. The name of the subtype, Confidence, is about building a bond with another
(or many others on a one-to-one basis). For instance, when I have to give talks to a
group, I find a single person to be my focus, while appearing to address the group.
Relationships are the most fearful of objects, yet the most needed.

I have been called out on Enneagram panels as not looking like other Fives—too
flamboyant, too out, too willing to talk about the inner landscape and the demons that
inhabit it. This is true, and in my youth it was (physical) camouflage. Now it is merely a
way of being. I have learned that the desire to disappear into the background of my
youth was a false hope, and since I cannot disappear, I might just as well be who I really
am.

The most important thing that needs to be understood about the Sexual Five is that we
are in a constant struggle between the withdrawing and withholding (stinginess) of the
 basic point, and the need to reach out and connect driven by the instinctual energy of
the subtype. Behind this tension is an emotional sensitivity that is hidden to the outside
world and also to the Five until they [we] allow awareness of emotions into their daily life.

Specific Work for the Three Type Five Subtypes on the Path from Vice to Virtue

Sexual Fives can travel the path from avarice to nonattachment by noticing and working against
the tendency to hold others to high standards as a way of avoiding intimacy. Recognize when
you are testing others or adhering to impossible standards of connection as a way to avoid your
fear and defend against your own fear of exposure. Notice the ways in which you might close
yourself off to contact even as you long for it. Work toward achieving the intimate connection
you desire—not through an attachment to an ideal of what love can be, but through taking the
risk to express your real feelings to the people in your life. Allow yourself to feel into and work
with the fear that arises as you open yourself up to deeper relationships and authentic
expressions of your emotions. Release your preconceived ideas about what connecting with
others is supposed to be about, and challenge yourself to just allow contact to happen. Let
yourself be surprised by life, and communicate the beauty of your deeply romantic feelings and
desires more frequently and in more ways.

The Enneagram Movie & Video Guide 3.0 How To See Personality Styles In The Movies -
Thomas Condon

Intimate
Intimate Fives trust only a few people but then do so totally. Friendship is based on the sharing
of confidences. Intimacy is equivalent to exchanging secrets. Can go from enigmatic, deliberate
distance to intense, unguarded openness. Seductive invitation to sharing secrets; seek a total
merging. When entranced can be a little kinky.

A great movie example is James Spader in sex, lies and videotape. Sharing intimate sexual
secrets is what he gets women to do on videotape. See also Anthony Hopkins, Shadowlands;
Ben Kingsley, Turtle Diary; James Mason, Lolita; and, again, Jean-Louis Trintignant in Red.

The Spiritual Dimension of Enneagram - Sandra Maitri

5. CONFIDENCE
Sexual Fives lack confidence in their attractiveness, capacity for relationship, and sexual
performance. This makes it difficult for them to follow through on their attractions, despite the
false confidence that they manifest as a compensation for their sense of inadequacy or
undesirability. As Ichazo says, a Sexual Five "needs someone he feels safe with—a refuge"7 in
order to overcome his inhibitions. The passion of avarice manifests here as a holding back of
his affection for fear of being rejected and a holding on to his love object once he has set his
sights on her.

Nine Lenses On The World : The Enneagram Perspective - Jerome Wagner, Ph.D.
Intimate Subtype
When the vice of avarice leaks into the sexual instinct, the resultant state is the drive for
confidence. Intimate FIVES use sex in the service of augmenting confidence more than
expressing love. With every sexual act, some assurance accrues. Surprisingly FIVES can
express themselves passionately through sexuality where they may be reluctant to do so
through verbal and emotional enunciations.

Intimate FIVES come out of themselves and are particularly confident and competent when
playing prescribed roles. FIVE actors and actresses are often exemplars of this intimate
subtype. When they are without a role, FIVES feel inadequate and vulnerable and so become
diffident.

There can also be a bonding, an immediate intimacy, which happens through the exchange of
confidences. No one else knows these secrets we have shared. This situation may be found in
the intimacy of the confessional, the privacy of the therapist's office, or the exchanges between
confidants and lovers.

Intimate FIVES wear a look of confidence. They appear particularly cool and can be con-men
and women, wolves in sheep's clothing, who seductively charm people to get what they want.

There is a forcefulness about FIVES' intellectual convictions. "If you think about this, you'll know
I'm right." They can be intellectually contemptuous of others. As Camus, an alleged FIVE,
remarked: "There is no problem that cannot be overcome by contempt."
Enneagramcentral.com - Clarence Thomson

The Intimate Five It's just you and me

All of the intimate styles tend to gravitate to one-on-one relationships. In the case of the intimate
Five, the relationship is often one of shared secrecy. It's you and me against or at least without
the rest of the world.

In the case of the intimate Five, part of the focus on the partner is parsimony. "I only have
enough emotional juice for one person." The other person becomes the focus of attention, but
also the only place to put the precious resource of time and affection. There is not much, so
they don't waste it on anybody other than the chosen one.

Because Fives live in their head (remember Descartes, "I think, therefore I am") a primary way
of showing affection is sharing secrets. While everyone else in the world is kept at arms length
and privacy is an obsession, Fives can share everything with this one person.

Sometimes sharing information can actually replace sexual intimacy. Sex, Lies and Videotape is
an old movie that has stood the test of time. It may seem a bit kinky to some because James
Spader plays an intimate Five who substitutes video taping girls talking about sex but does not
have sex with them. The movie is an Enneagram clinic and Spader nails the dynamic of an
intimate subtype Five.

Fives have a general fear of being overwhelmed by the demands of others. They are acutely
aware of their emotional poverty, feeling unable to meet the expectations and desires of others.
So when an intimate Five falls in love, there is often an accompanying fear of being owned. The
relationship can feel like a contract with terms they can't meet.

Like everyone, Fives want to be loved, but they also fear being loved because they understand
that love and affection can only be repaid by love and affection. Their central fear is around the
difficulty of adequate emotional response.

However, if an intimate Five can become confident of their ability to respond, then they can
make wonderful spouses and lovers because they focus all their attention on the one they love.
Like someone on a strict budget, they do not waste their resources on impulse or adventure.

The Wisdom of the Enneagram: The Complete Guide to Psychological and Spiritual
Growth for the Nine Personality Types - Don Richard Riso & Russ Hudson

THE SEXUAL INSTINCT IN THE FIVE

"This Is My World." In the average range, the detachment and avoidance characteristic of
Fives clash with the Sexual Variant's desire for intense connection. Sexual Fives like sharing
secret information with their intimates. ("I've never told anyone this.") But they are always
experiencing some degree of tension between pursuing those they are attracted to and lacking
confidence in their social skills. Thus Sexual Fives are driven to engage intensely with people,
although often with anxiety and a tendency to withdraw at a moment's notice. They are more
affable and talkative than the other two Instinctual Variants of Type Five, but they can cause
others surprise and consternation when they unexpectedly drop out and disappear for periods of
time. On the one hand, when romantically interested in someone, they can become extremely
open and merged, more like Nines. On the other, when they feel unappreciated or
misunderstood, they can quickly become emotionally distant. Powerful connections with others
alternate with long periods of isolation.

The sexual instinct mixes with intellect to produce intense imagination. Sexual Fives create
alternative realities—private "worlds" of various kinds—that they present to potential intimates.
They are looking for the ideal mate, the mate for life, who will not be turned off by their
strangeness. ("Does this intensity frighten you?") Strong sexuality gives Sexual Fives the
impetus to risk emotional contact and also provides relief from their constant mental activity. It
becomes a way to ground themselves. But in less healthy Fives, the mix of imagination and
sexuality can become dark and fetishistic: they can become lost in disturbing fantasies and
dreams.
In the unhealthy range, longing for lost love and feelings of rejection can lead Sexual Fives into
isolation and self-destructive behavior. They are often drawn, through voyeurism, into
dangerous lifestyles and can be attracted to society's underbelly.

From Fixation to Freedom: The Enneagram of Liberation - Eli Jaxon-Bear

Sexual: Confidence
Sexual Fives display confidence in their sexuality. They know they are lovable, perhaps
because they were truly loved as children. They also have confidence in playing a role, which
they in fact play most of the time, even in private. Behind the role-playing they hide their feelings
of uncertainty, vulnerability, and shyness, as well as their terror of invasive demands and
exposure. Some of the finest actors are sexual Fives: Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, William Hurt,
Jeremy Irons, Jeff Bridges, and Ben Kingsley.

Becomig Conscious - Joseph Benton Howell, Phd

Type Five: Sexual-Syntony

This type of Five is looking for someone with whom his intense thirst for knowledge can be
shared. His preoccupation with mating, pairing off, and the romantic dance, brings a life of
pursuing. Possessing the partner will provide the Five with a person to share knowledge and to
fill his emptiness. There is a strong sexual intensity to this relationship, as the Five is generally
monogamous and clingy to one person who understands his knowledge base, talking and
thinking style.

The conscious Five of this classification is not inhibited but is free flowing in interactions with
potential partners, lovers, etc. He has confidence that the best person will come along
eventually and he is not a “loser” if things don’t work out. He shares his knowledge and is not
possessive of his partner because he has found a spiritual source of fulfillment that does not
depend exclusively on another person. He relaxes and lets God’s Providence (Holy Idea),
replenish his knowledge and his relationship.

The unconscious instinctual subtype of this genre is either over-confident with potential lovers,
or is very inhibited. At his worst he feels undesirable except to those who can “get into his head”
where he feels his real treasure lies. Repressed sexual feelings can be unleashed on a person
who he can dominate and own. As he deteriorates, this Five drives away the person he possess
because he hoards his partner as he would a piece of knowledge.

Bringing Out The Best In Everyone You Coach - Ginger Lapid Bogda

One-to-One Subtype Fives search for a strong, deep connection with one other person whom
they can trust and share confidences with, then hoard themselves, the other person, and these
special relationships.
The Enneagram in Love and Work: Understanding Your Intimate and Business
Relationships Helen Palmer

Confidence in Sexual and One-to-One Relationships

Confidential understandings are private bonds of connection. They are not to be shared. Fives
often maintain their privacy by keeping their emotional connections separated from each other.
That habit lends itself to a kind of lust for intense, brief, highly meaningful encounters. Avarice in
one-to-one relationships refers to a preoccupation with key disclosures and emotional ties that
can endure periods of separation. Confidants are the few with whom they share an
"understanding." The private adviser, the personal moment, the secret love affair.

Bonds of special connection are mental treasures. They can be privately reviewed and
imaginatively re-created, over and over again. They are meaningful not only because they are
few and far between but because they are deeply embedded in the mind. Confidence Fives say
that they're drawn to sexual expression as the antithesis of intellectualism. They also say that a
remembered friendship can enjoy a perpetual life in their imagination, that any meaningful
encounter can be re-created at will. Because Observers allow emotions to emerge in private, a
love enshrined in memory does not fade away.

Loneliness is a by-product of isolation. No matter how interesting you are, you tire of your own
mind. You can read and think and imagine just so long, and then you crave experience. You will
have to reach out. Confidential exchange can be highly charged because of the secrecy
element. "Only we two share this understanding. We two out of millions know about this." Fives
carefully censor private material. It's devastating when private disclosure goes public, when
confidence has been betrayed.

The Positive Enneagram - Susan Rhodes

The Wizard.
Sensitive, secretive, mysterious, deep, paradoxical, eccentric, crystalzing. Like SX Fours, SX
Fives are unconventional and shy, especially with people they don't know. They tend to be not
just introverted, but secretive—even mysterious. With an SX Five, it's hard to say how much of
the secrecy is created and how much simply goes with the territory. It's true that SX Fives often
appear to be operating in a secretive way, compartmentalizing their lives so as to ensure that no
one person has access to all sides of them. But what is not so clear is the origin of this impulse,
which is itself mysterious.

SX Fives seem to have access to deep (secret?) places in the psyche, deeper than thought or
feeling. They can be extraordinarily sensitive to energies in the environment or in other people,
and thus even more reclusive than other Five subtypes. Like all SX subtypes, they seek
intimacy with others, but the intimacy they seek is very exclusive, far removed from the flow of
everyday life. There is a desire for intensity in the relationship, for intensely personal sharing.
The relationship may be strange or unusual in some way, sexually or otherwise.
Not surprisingly, SX Fives are excellent candidates for any work requiring a talent for keeping
secrets, such as intelligence work. They often have brilliant intellects, and this brilliance—
combined with their penchant for secretiveness—makes them perfect candidates for work such
as code-breaking, secret weapons development, or esoteric research. On the other hand, they
often have difficulty relating to other people, especially those who do not interest them. So they
have to find a way to reconcile their secretive and asocial nature with the social demands of
ordinary life.

Archetypally, they fit the image of a shaman, wizard, or magician. Spiritually, they can be
intensely inward and extreme practitioners of meditation, contemplation, or other austere or
ascetic practices. Whatever the approach taken, it often requires a great deal of focus,
concentration, and discipline, as well as the ability to comprehend esoteric texts or other
obscure forms of knowledge.

It can be difficult for the SX Five living in a modern-day, consumer-oriented society to find a way
to fit into such a culture (although the Internet has provided opportunities to interact with people
in a way that many SX Fives find appealing). But this doesn't completely solve their problem of
with interacting people in real life. Sensitive friends can help them by offering gentle
encouragement while at the same time respecting their boundaries and not taking offense at the
Five's inability to be open at times.

The Five can help himself by taking the initiative to figure out ways he can function in the world
without becoming overwhelmed. He also needs to cultivate realistic expectations in his personal
relationships with others (especially relationships with non-Fives), so that he's not disconcerted
when other people lack the same sense of exclusivity that he values in his intimate life.

Archetypes of the Enneagram - Susan Rhodes

Social Roles: Wizard, Sleuth, Detective, Spy, Alchemist, Mad Scientist, Investigator, Internet
Wizard, Undercover Operative, Private Tutor, Chat Room Enthusiast, Secret Society Member

Profile: Wizards: Mysterious & secretive individuals with a few special contacts & unique
powers of perception; may be monastic or live alone "in the depths"

Archetypes: Amateur Sleuth, Secret Agent, Professional Spy, Double Agent, Fascinated
Scientist, Serious Alchemist, Secret Investigator, Private Eye, Undercover Operative, Charlie
Chan ("Inscrutable Oriental"), Behind-the-scenes Internet Wizard, Chat Room Enthusiast,
Chess Player, Private Tutor, Secret Photographer, Psychoanalyst, Underworld Guide, FBI
Profiler, Exchanger of Confidences, Weirdo Voyeur, Secret Society Member, Wizard of Oz,
Eccentric Inventor, Mad Scientist

Film Themes:
Subterranean sexuality creates unusual sexual situations (The Collector; sex, lies, and
videotape; Crumb; Kinsey)

Autism is no barrier to love (Rain Man), is cured by love (Son-rise) or is part of a mystical
healing crisis (House of Cards)

Brilliant thinker is redeemed by love (A Beautiful Mind, The Luzhin Defense)

Creepy but intelligent psychopath shares confidences with the privileged few (Silence of the
Lambs, Capture of the Green River Killer)

Dark shadows fascinate (spy, horror, comedy-horror, sci-fi, mystery flicks, e.g., Twilight Zone,
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Outer Limits, The Day the Earth Stood Stil, The
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, later Harry Potter films, Brazil, Fargo, Dr. Who)

SEXUAL FIVE THEMES

Here is where we find most of Searle's film themes: the sci-fi, horror, spy, and mystery flicks that
I include in the Dark Shadows category. SX Five is also the place of secrets, taboos, exclusive
confidences, unusual or hidden spiritual paths, subterranean love and sexuality, and bizarre or
unexpected happenings.

If SP Fives are relatively self-contained and impassive, SX Fives are intensely curious and
intellectually restless. They see intimate relationships as part of their quest to go to a deeper
level, especially intellectually or esoterically. It's helpful to have an interested confidante who's
receptive to their compelling need to discern hidden patterns and explore new arenas of inquiry.
Although SX Fives are a bit more people-oriented than SP Fives, they still feel caught between
the desire for intimacy and the need for privacy. This can result in a more emotional or "jerky"
style of relating that is the result of lurching forward, then (feeling overwhelmed), quickly
stepping back. Other people can find this reactivity confusing and don't always know how to
respond. By the same token, SX Fives don't always know how to respond to the subtle
intricacies that intimate relationships involve. This lack of social finesse can lead to
misunderstandings and feelings of frustration for both the Five and her closest friends and
confidantes.

SX Fives seek out close friends with whom they can share their ideas. But they often prefer to
take the lead in intellectual matters, which is why they enjoy intellectually mentoring other
individuals. Generally speaking, they would rather have one dedicated apprentice than a large
group of casual pupils who lack intellectual competence or a serious interest in the subject
matter.

Sherlock Holmes' relationship with Dr. Watson illustrates the kind of intimacy that is most
valued. Holmes likes to be the primary investigator and is fond of engaging in long soliloquies
with Watson, his appreciative listener. He likes the fact that Watson, while less keenly observant
than Holmes, can still follow Holmes' logic. And he especially appreciates what Watson
contributes in the way of medical knowledge.

For SX Fives, personal validation means intellectual validation, which is why they get annoyed
with people who nod approvingly when they speak but who obviously don't understand a thing
they're saying. They want to speak to an educated listener who can intelligently respond to their
comments, and perhaps even enhance their own understanding. That's their idea of a satisfying
intellectual exchange.

SX Fives have an aura of quiet intensity and an inquisitive quality that can both attract and repel
people. It can attract people because it evokes a sense of unseen realities that aren't bound by
the limits of social convention. It can repel people for much the same reason: because it
reminds them of parts of reality that are completely different than what they're used to,
dimensions of being that are beyond what we know or can control. This is a place where we
drop through the Rabbit Hole, go Through the Looking Glass, stumble into the Twilight Zone, or
venture beyond the Outer Limits. Once we're there, we meet characters like Rod Serling,
Freddy Kruger, the Mad Hatter & Red Queen, the Pod People, the Rain Man, kinky cartoonist
Dick Crumb, Hannibal Lecter, Bela Lugosi and his alter-ego Dracula. Such an excursion is as
fascinating as it is dreadful.

SX Five is also the place of espionage, counterespionage, secret projects (like WWII's Enigma
Project or Manhattan Project), encrypted messages, decoding devices, behind-the-scenes
dealings, and ultra high-tech gadgets. Judith Searle assigns the spy genre to Type Six, and as
far as spy films go, she may be right—because spy films are designed to create suspense, and
suspense is more associated with Point 6 than Point 5. But in real life, the activities that involve
secret research or the keeping of secrets are probably more Five-like (and require the Five's
secret-keeping abilities).

A blurb for National Geographic's series Taboo captures the nature of SX Five ter-ritory rather
well:

In all societies there are those who find themselves isolated from their fellow humans. In
Australia, a man's belief that his right leg is not part of his body has devastating
consequences. In Bangladesh an entire community is mistrusted, and cast adrift on the
country's waterways. In England, a man rejects his society's food customs by choosing
to eat road kill. They all have one thing in common. They are outsiders, misfits, taboo.

What's interesting is how getting acquainted with one of these quirky individuals can change the
lives of more conventionally-minded people, helping them to see past their social conditioning
and superficial orientation towards life. As discussed in Chapter 13, Rain Man is the story about
two brothers—one a cynical Three and the other an autistic Five savant. Raised apart, they only
get to know one another after their father's death. Tom Cruise plays Charlie Babbitt, the Three;
Dustin Hoffman plays his older brother Raymond, who was institutionalized during Charlie's
early childhood by their father, who became concerned that the oblivious Raymond might
accidently hurt toddler Charlie.

Despite his quirks and sensitivities, Raymond can perform extraordinary memory feats but who
suffers from a complete lack of social skills and extreme sensitivity to any change in his routine.
Charlie's Three-ish insensitivity and Raymond's Fivish oversensitivity put the two characters on
a collision course.

A pivotal change in their relationship happens after Charlie gets totally frustrated with
Raymond's behavior and announces to him, "I think this autism is a bunch of garbage. You can't
tell me that you're not in there somewhere!" Raymond does not, of course, respond. So Charlie
takes him to a small-town doctor who informs him that Raymond is simply wired differently from
other people, helping Charlie to better understand what he's dealing with. As Charlie begins
accept Raymond's quirks, Raymond becomes more relaxed and less rigid. He nevertheless
remains autistic. So the bond that begins to form between the brothers is based mostly on
Charlie's willingness to accept Raymond as the individual he is, instead of expecting him to
conform to some sort of cultural ideal.

In the documentary Crumb, we get an rare peek at the personal life of Robert Crumb, quirky
creator of the "Keep on Truckin," "Cheap Thrills," and "Fritz the Cat." Crumb is a great example
of an SX Five: a brilliant, quirky cartoonist with strange sexual preoccupations that often show
up in his cartoons. He's an obvious iconoclast whose forward-looking leaps into kinky
cartoonery has managed to offend a wide range of people over the years. One of his cartoons
shows a cramped room resembling a well with its sides completely covered by huge electrical
switches and cables; a sign with a skull and crossbones reads Danger: High Voltage. (The
image brings to mind the ubiquitous duct work in Terry Gilliam's underground classic Brazil.) At
the bottom of the well/room is a skinny naked figure with huge but obscured genitals cowering in
mock terror; the caption reads "The little guy that lives inside my brain."

The first thing Robert says in the film: "If I don't draw for a while, I get really crazy, really
depressed and suicidal...but [laughs weakly] then I get suicidal even if I do." This is meant as a
quasi-joke, but there's a dark edge to it. Robert has two brothers, Maxon and Charles, that are
also talented artists who are even more bizarre in their lifestyles. Maxon has lived in a derelict
hotel in San Francisco since 1980 and spent years panhandling while sitting on a bed of nails;
Charles lived as a hermit with his mother, in a barren room piled high with books but little else.
What is wrong in this family? We get a clue when Charles remarks that their father was a
"tyrant"; a online source characterizes their father as a tough Marine who frequently beat the
kids. Considering their sensitivity (all three seem like Fives, with Charles a probable SP Five),
that kind of treatment would probably be guaranteed to push them over the edge. Robert seems
the most well-adjusted of the three brothers. Charles took his own life a year after Crumb was
made; Maxon continues to live in the hotel but now sells some of his art to support himself.

None of the brothers were popular as teenagers and, in fact, seemed to have been on the
receiving end of a lot of teen cruelty. Those were lonely years but for Robert, at least, it was a
prelude to better days. He may not have originally been a ladies' man, but—as he says with a
wicked smile— "All that changed after I became famous." Even so, Crumb never became
mainstream; he passed up offer after offer to appear with groups like the Rolling Stones or on
shows like Saturday Night Live, even though he needed the money. It just wasn't him.

While Crumb is a testament to Robert's professional success and the recognition he's gained in
some segments of the art world—he's been called the Bruegel of the last half of the 20th
century" and "the Daumier of our times"—it's hard to believe that anyone watching the film
would actually want to swap lives with Robert Crumb: his world (and his mind) is just too bizarre
for most of us. But Crumb sure gives us an idea of what life looks like from an SX Five
perspective.