Investigating the triple levels of mental health in the characters of the novel Saq al-Bamboo based on the Enneagram theory

Abstract

The Enneagram is one of the templates for personality recognition in modern psychology. The Enneagram typography has nine types of personality including reformist, helper, ambitious, individualist, thinker, cautious, extravagent, controlling, peaceful. By using these nine types, one can recognize every person's level of health through the three levels of the Enneagram. Saud al-Sanousi is a contemporary Arab writer one of whose most prominent novels is Saq al-Bamboo. It addresses the identity issue of East Asian migrant workers in Kuwait and presents their social and psychological crises alongside internal conflicts. Therefore, the novel is worth examining on the basis of Enneagram theory. This research uses a psychoanalytical and statistical method to explore the health levels of the characters of the novel based on the nine Enneagram personality type.. The results indicate that eleven characters have the average level of health, six are at a healthy level, and only one character is in unhealthy conditions. It was also found that Hind, with the frequency of 15 is at a healthy level, Issa with the frequency of 91 at a medium level, and helth and Mindoza with the frequency of 17 are the healthiest and most unpleasant characters of the novel based on the Enneagram theory. Statistically, most of the characters are from averagely to completely healthy.

Keywords

• psychological criticism
• health levels of personality
• enneagram
• saud al-sanousi
• saq al-bamboo