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Listen to the audio description while you read this page about Type 8 — The Protector:
more about the protector
The Protector tends to see the world as a hard place, where one has to be powerful or forceful. It’s all about being protected and respected. Underlying this, a sense of innocence has been lost because the world appears harsh and unjust.
This results in a great concern with being in control of a situation. This can result in conflicts, struggles over power, and the Protector easily erupts into anger.
There are many different reactions to a Protector. Some people counter their force by fighting back. Many others simply withdraw or avoid them. The Protector then feels unmet or disrespected, resulting in more anger and struggle.
A Protector has the internal mandate to deny any fear or vulnerability. They tend towards excess and impulsive action. While most people would say ‘ready, aim, fire’ — they will say ‘ready, fire, and who needs to aim?’ Hence, they readily leap before they look, and overdo things. This can result in being exhausted, and rejected.
People often feel intimidated or intruded upon by a Protector. They are pushed away by the sense that, according to the Protector, ‘It’s my way, or the highway.’ In their relationships, others feel a lack of the qualities of being soft, tender and sensitive — which in their need to deny vulnerability, a Protector hides from themselves.
Personal growth for a Protector is to be more aware of their intense drive and energy, and to better manage their impulses. They grow as they realize true strength is in the ability to be receptive and open to others — and as they recover a natural sense of innocence, and acceptance of being vulnerable.
Lost essential quality: The knowledge that everyone begins in innocence and can sense the truth in all others.
Compensating belief: This is a hard and unjust world in which the powerful take advantage of the innocent and impose their personal truths on others.
Attention/coping strategy: Becoming strong and forceful to gain respect. Imposing your personal will and truth. Using anger and confrontation if necessary. Denying personal vulnerability. Attention going to power, control and injustice.
Trap: Gaining protection and prevailing through power and invulnerability.
Driving energy: Lust for life and excess — a big energy that fuels the personality.
Avoidance: Weakness, becoming vulnerable and powerless.
Strengths: Courage, fairness, magnanimity, intensity.
Paradox: Power creates counter-force. Vengeance leads to retaliation. Hiding vulnerability creates vulnerability.
Path of development:
- Reclaim innocence
- Learn how much force is necessary
- Moderate impact on others
- Appreciate others’ truths
- Allow personal vulnerability
Ultimate task: Reclaiming the ability to come freshly to each situation without prejudging and overpowering it, and appreciating that truth exists in all others.
The basic proposition:
You lost sight of the fundamental principle that everyone begins in innocence and without guilt, and that everyone can sense truth and came to perceive the world as hard and unjust, where the powerful take advantage of others. As a result, you learned to assure protection and to gain respect by becoming strong and powerful, and by hiding your vulnerability. At the same time, you developed a big lustful energy. Your attention naturally goes to injustices and to whatever demands action right now.
The central issue for healing:
Since Protectors believe that they must be strong and powerful, and actively stand up for truth and justice, embracing innocence may seem implausible. This means that they should come to each situation freshly, without prejudice or power motives, ready to appreciate differences and realize that everyone has his or her truth.
To do this, you must learn to moderate your own overriding, boundless, instinctual energy, and notice how this energy defies boundaries, how it can be excessive, and how it impacts others. You need to learn exactly how much power is appropriate in any given situation and to delay the tendency to go from urge to action in an all-or-nothing fashion.
Six healing and growth commitments for Type Eights:
- Notice and moderate intensity, excess and impact
- Delay action and consider consequences
- Observe your all-or-nothing style
- Realize that true power comes from the appropriate or proportional application of force
- Reduce denial and allow for vulnerabilities
- Value the truth in opposites and differences
If the above personality type seems to fit you, we recommend you print out this page for easy reference. We also highly recommend that you listen to the audio description at the top of this page.