Enneagram Type 6

Passion: Fear

Fear as the ruling passion is mostly unconscious, therefore, it can manifest in the form of openly expressed anxiety, aggression, amiability, reservation, orientation to authority, being outspoken and reactive, being antagonistic etc etc.

Fixation: Cowardice

Needs a strong leader to follow; one who can be protective.

Defense Mechanism: Projection

projection is a process whereby what is inside is misunderstood as coming from outside. In its benign and mature forms, it is the basis for empathy…In its malignant forms, projection breeds dangerous misunderstandings

Basic Traits:

Fear, cowardice, anxiety, overcautious, skeptical, friendly, punctual, hardworking, defensive

Theory

When taken into account that Ichazo ascribes the fixation of the type 6 as Cowardice, which Lilly & Hart present as "Needs a strong leader to follow; one who can be protective.  Ego-Cow;" and that they go further to say that the type 6's trap is, "Security: Since such a person lives in fear—life is always threatening  —he always seeks something or someone as protector against impending  disaster. He will seek to build up a solid fortune or will become the devoted  follower of a strong leader," it becomes clear that this is an ego-structure seeking to find some way to orient, guide and protect themselves.

Usually, when the reader reads Fear as the ruling passion of the type 6, they interpret it as fear in the literal sense of the word, and restrict it to meaning "just a person who is always afraid" limiting its various manifestations. In doing this, they narrow the varied presentations of persons found at point 6 of the Enneagram. Fear goes a lot deeper than that, and as the ruling passion of the 6, it's mostly unconscious, therefore, it can manifest in the form of openly expressed anxiety, aggression, amiability, reservation, orientation to authority, being outspoken and reactive, being antagonistic etc etc. It's not surprising, therefore, that we find all these manifestations, and more, in type 6. It also becomes noticeable that the type 6, of all the types, are the most consciously identified with anxiety; and the most ambivalent of characters, constantly ricocheting between two extremes.