What is your conflict style?
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The INTENSE REACTIVE CONFLICT STYLE’s response to conflict is direct and confrontational.  People with this pattern tend to react strongly and passionately when faced with disappointment, obstacles or difficulties. This conflict style is also called the Emotional Realness pattern, emphasizing honest expression of emotions.
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Their manner of emotional self-regulation reflects a need for emotional mirroring. They expect, demand or provoke equally passionate responses from others. When constructive, everybody involved learn about each other’s positions and a resolution is reached that takes into account everyone’s needs.
 
People using this style may come across more strongly than intended which often leaves them feeling misunderstood, being seen by others as “too much” or “too intense”. They may need to learn to down-regulate and contain intense emotions. In some instances they may come across as aggressive and they need to be conscious of how their venting of frustrations can impact others.
 
The intense reactive conflict style of Harmonics Group consists of Enneagram types 4, 6, and 8.
 
Enneagram type 4’s may take a more withdrawn approach, sublimating their strong feelings into artistic expression. They might privately rage, but not externalize their frustrations immediately. In the meantime there is an amplification of their inner states, which may result in depression or a devastating outburst which feels alien to them. They may get stuck in the negative feelings/self-states and see the expression thereof as authenticity.
 
Enneagram type 6’s may react in outspoken combative, defensive lashing out, standing up for what they believe, drawing attention to anything that feels wrong or dangerous. Most often they may be more selective in their reaction, using the emotional release as a way of assessing people or situations, testing their loyalty and safety.
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Enneagram type 8 reacts with aggressive force, with untethered anger and denial of vulnerability. They avoid being controlled and dominated by others and therefore become controlling and domineering in their need for independence/self-reliance. They often feel energized by conflict.
 
The Enneagram Conflict styles / Harmonics Patterns comprise a person’s defense or coping mechanism in response to stressful situations, whether faced with conflict, obstacles, difficulties or disappointment. It is an emotional regulation pattern for coping with unmet needs.
People may have different patterns in different situations or contexts, whether at work or in interpersonal relationships.
 
Even if it is not their dominant response, other Enneagram types might be connected to a specific conflict style through the wings or the inner connecting lines and express themselves in this manner in specific triggering situations. For example, the Enneagram 2, the considerate helper has internal connections (inner lines) to both the Enneagram 4 and 8. Consequently, the reactive conflict style may be a shadow aspect for them even though their main conflict style is Positive Outlook which I will be discussing next. 
 
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What is your conflict style?
 
The Enneagram Harmonics Groups refers to a person’s dominant response to stressful situations, crisis and conflict.  It shows the underlying similarity in how certain clusters of Enneagram patterns emotionally self-regulate and cope with obstacles and difficulties.
 
People whose preferred style is COMPETANCY respond to conflict by going into a competent mode of functioning and taking an unemotional problem-solving approach. They tend to avoid experiencing any strong feelings, focusing on objectivity, rationality and logic. These patterns value efficiency as opposed to what they see as ‘irrationality’ expressed in emotional reasoning. Although efficiency is an effective problem-solving strategy, denying emotions can have detrimental consequences. They may also come across as cold and lacking empathy to others.
 
People whose preferred style is POSITIVE OUTLOOK respond to conflict by avoiding negativity. They avoid acknowledging their (and other’s) negative emotions and reactions. They focus on the positives and the best possible outcomes, on the silver lining within the dark cloud. They habitually look on the rosy side of things, “everything will be okay”. Their ability to reframe problems to put a positive spin on them may sometimes be necessary in certain situations. However, their focus on happiness and positivity can be used as avoidance of problems, causing problems to escalate.
 
People whose preferred style is INTENSE REACTIVENESS responds to conflict directly and emotionally. They express their reactions openly and in doing so, look for emotional mirroring, needing the other persons to match their emotional intensity.  People with this conflict style may get caught in a never-ending loop of expressing emotions, without coming to a solution. Under stress, they have a hard time containing their feelings and venting their frustrations can significantly negatively impact others. The Reactive conflict style is probably the least supported by the western world, which values rationality and emotional repression. They are in touch with their negative emotions but less so with their positive emotions.
Each Ennneagram type in a specific Harmonic group has its own variation of the general underlying pattern. Different patterns can manifest in different situations, for instance at work or within intimate relationships.

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Jung regarded the ‘religious instinct’ as fundamental to our humanity. According to Jung, being human means having the capacity to reflect on one’s place in the greater scheme of things. Thus, wrestling with questions of meaning and purpose, often thought to belong in the religious or spiritual domain, has been part of our instinctual make-up across all cultures since the beginning of our existence.

Jung defined instincts as part of the “psychic regulatory system… determining human behavior…”(1) and he regarded religious instinct  as “the most important of the fundamental instincts…”(2), necessary for wholeness.  He understood instincts to be “the chief motivating forces of psychic events…”(1) 

So many people in our world today are experiencing an alienation from God and/or any form of spirituality which may lead to an inner emptiness and outer apathy - with people getting stuck in an attitude where nothing really matters, neither themselves, their existence nor what happens in the world around them.

Jung distinguishes between religious instinct and religion. The latter, which he refers to as ‘creed’, often manifests as dogma, codified views and customs. Jung regarded “… every religion (as) a spontaneous expression of a certain predominant psychological condition…” (3) Jung quoted Cicero’s De inventione rhetorica: “Religion is that which gives reverence and worship to some higher nature (which is called divine).”(4) He saw the religious instinct as  “… a peculiar attitude of mind which could be formulated in accordance with the original use of the word religio, which means a careful consideration and observation of certain dynamic factors that are conceived as “powers:” spirits, daemons, gods, laws, ideas, Ideals, or whatever name man has given to such factors in his world as he has found powerful, dangerous, or helpful enough to be taken into careful consideration, or grand, beautiful, and meaningful enough to be devoutly worshiped and loved….”(5)

References
(1)        CW 8 ¶233.
(2)        CW 10 ¶653
(3)        CW 11 ¶160
(4)        Ibid.  ¶9
(5)        Ibid. ¶8

Source:
https://jungiancenter.org/jung-on-the-instincts-and-the-religious-impulse/

Image credit: Johfra Bosschart, The Vision of Hermes Trismegistus (1972)

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