Type Eight

Eights are power-oriented. In the eight’s might makes right universe (moreso, “my might makes right”), power is the one course open for them. Their carnivorous worldview of “permanent night” makes danger, pleasure and domination the point of existence. Gut anger radiates outward as a steady pressure in the environment, opposite of a high-strung, barking energy but equivalent to a low-frequency bass that people feel in their chest, in the floor, in the walls. Neither compromise nor bargain is available but only taking what you want before someone else does. Human morality and societal law are irrelevant. It’s not “only the strong survive” but “how dare you challenge me.” Existence is a playground for the powerful, with the eight seeing themselves as one of the few who gets to both write and break the rules. Since the eight likes feeling masterful, it is not enough for the eight to exercise power, but to exercise power masterfully. Aggression is the undercurrent that shapes all their choices. Even in stillness, the eight’s aggressive psychology is leaning in, ready to advance. They don’t have to “rev up” to be threatening. More than just outwardly aggressive behavior, the eight’s aggressive mind is the key instrumentality in their exercise of power, escalating situations to tilt the psychological balance in their favor, knowing most will back down before they do.

Eights are secure. The eight is internally stabilized by nature. They don’t live in fear of being harmed, controlled, conned, duped, etc., because their sense of self includes, takes for granted, a deep conviction that they can meet or overwhelm whatever comes at them. It is not even on their radar. They generate their own sense of solidity, direction and worth without needing reflection, praise, intimidation, loyalty, or approval from others. Their sense of authority sits low and heavy, like a predator conserving energy until it’s time to act. This inner resolve gives the impression of unassailability, that nothing can rattle the eight. They are tough enough that they don’t even have a need to seek out validation for their toughness. They like feeling masterful. They move through their world with an unshakeable baseline that gives the impression of being untouchable. On the other hand, their boundaries have solidified to the point that the ego keeps everything in the world outside of it and instrumentally dehumanizes everybody around them, discarding those who are no longer “useful” and manipulating to advance power.

Eights are deadened. The worldview of the eight leaves no room for softness, vulnerability, empathy, tenderness, moral reflection or the like. Denial keeps the eight out of touch with the experience of being human. Weakness is like a pit of despair that eights are wired to avoid falling into. They don’t have to make a conscious effort at not falling into it. Something inside them is just refusing to let them know what it is like to mourn, cutting them off from experiencing the emotional weight of the moment. They are unable to touch or be touched by remorse, compassion or love. Their disposition naturally renders them outsiders — on the other side of the fence of the playground, an “I amness” which knows its difference from “the them” and relishes it. They take roguish delight in being called out for their delinquent ways, smirking when somebody expresses how rotten they are.

Eights are unrestrained. All types have appetites. However, in most people, appetite is tempered by tenderness, regulated by conscience, or redirected through meaning. Here, with the eight’s worldview in which values, ideals and decency are illusions, and empathy as something to be mocked, those normal “inner brakes” are inactive. Raw appetite is thus unchained. The eight is not tethered by the usual human brakes like fear of consequence, societal rules or moral qualms. Their appetites are free-roaming. Pleasure, danger and dominance is sought without a self-imposed ceiling. There is no moral harness. Actions aren’t weighed against an inner ethical code. They are living outside containment, operating on instinct and opportunity, not restraint or long-term self-limitation.

Eights are willful. The eight’s willfulness is about asserting a reality in which the eight is the unmoved center. They are not negotiating with the world, but declaring it. Once the eight decides on an action, they are immovably self-directed, as if no external authority existed that could alter it. Resistance doesn’t make the eight back down but makes them lean in even more deliberately. They don’t need to yell or posture, but just stand there, continuing whatever they are doing while watching the other person’s resistance erode. They engineer discomfort until the opponent folds, creating situations where others either have to surrender or escalate in a way that plays into the eight’s hands. The casual flouting of rules makes authority figures irrelevant, turning them into a background annoyance rather than a real obstacle.

Eights are dominant. The dominance of the eight is effortless but total, like a tide pulling people in without them realizing that they are moving. Authority is not announced but established through an unspoken claim of space, moving through the space as if the environment bends to the eight. Social gravity applies dominance relationally, positioning themselves in a manner that others naturally orient around. Unlike an impulsive hothead, the eight plays the long game in interactions. Their confidence radiates without declaration such that they don’t need to announce that they are the leader. Their confidence makes people who don’t even know they want to be led fall in line. Dominance is extended through invitation, not demand, not barking orders, but through framing compliance as getting involved with something big. Others who want to follow dislike the alternative of being on the outside where everything just feels small and dull in comparison.

Eights are predatory. Eights are social predators within a dominance ecology. They are not prowling for random victims but asserting dominance in a territory and pulling people into their power structure. Their “kills” are just as much about claiming status and expanding influence as they are about appetite. Predation by the eight is tied to power and making a statement as opposed to private compulsion or enactment of personal fantasy. The eight’s camouflage is “cool charisma”. Since the eight operates on their own turf, the prey enters the eight’s world, which amplifies the eight’s power. The hunt is culminated by the time the individual even knows they were in a trap.

Eights are cunning. The eight’s cunning is street level and instinctive, sucking people into their schemes like a skanky reprobate. The dead stare of the eight looks through people as if they were objects, indicating that the eight is not seeing or recognizing the soul of the other. Cunning includes a fast-reading of people, sizing someone up in seconds, sensing insecurities, desires and weaknesses and then playing into or against them to get what one wants. They know when to escalate and when to hold back to keep somebody twisting in the net. Since they are not constrained by truth or principle, they can cultivate an impression of good intentions to camouflage the excesses of their power-orientation. They pull strings so as to masterfully exercise power even over the consequences of exercising power.

Eights are fearless. The fearless quality of the eight is woven into every move they make. This is not just bravery in the face of danger but a deep lack of hesitation that comes from living as if nothing can truly threaten them. Fearlessness is controlled, calculated within their overall dominance strategy and even at times appearing suicidally bold, which is all par for the course to eights’ preference for high-risk, short-term investment strategies; more risk, more reward. More deeply, the rejection of human limitation and not allowing fear a place in their psychic economy, by refusing to duck, flinch or even acknowledge danger, the eight performs a type of ritual denial of being human. Grandiosity combines with guts, the eight are odds on favorites to self-mythologize themselves through the “grand gesture”–a maneuver so daring it can’t be scripted—standing under fire as if to place themselves in a story of Godlike fearlessness. At an existential level, this fearless quality comes from living outside the rules of ordinary morality. The predator’s assumption is that danger isn’t something to avoid but part of the game. Tense situations are moved into with casual, almost lazy confidence, signaling an expectation to dominate whatever unfolds. They are the least squeamish type and have the stomach for anything, even appearing effortlessly nonchalant in the face of things that make other people’s stomach turn, sending the message that “this is nothing to me. Imagine what I could do.”

Eights are controlling. The eight’s control is rooted in the gut’s expansion of its center of gravity in every interaction. People orbit around the eight because being inside their sphere brings excitement, danger and the eight’s affirmation. The eight’s control isn’t about micromanaging details, but about drawing an unspoken circle around their position as leader; letting others move freely but only within the space the eight defines. There are implied consequences, an unspoken understanding that if you cross the eight, the atmosphere changes instantly and fun turns into violence. The eight’s iron fist is effective because it’s embedded inside the seduction. When eights seek to control the environment, it is not because they fear being harmed or controlled but because controlling their environment gives them the leverage to wield a greater degree of power.

Eights are dominating. The dominating quality of the eight includes an active, ongoing imposition of their will on the environment and the people in it. With the control they have, the possibilities for wielding power in an even more masterful way become realistic. The lust to realize these possibilities sets into motion the total objectification of the people they have or believe they have control over. Subtle or overt pressure is now constantly exerted to bend others, even when it is unnecessary to survival. Megalomania manifests as a constant, lived reality of being the center of gravity – a constant space claim. Every interaction is tilted to reassert the eight’s position at the top. The eight assumes their infallibility and behaves as if they cannot be outsmarted, outmaneuvered or toppled. Even where their reach is geographically small, they are territorially omnipotent, expecting absolute submission—as if a God within a contained universe–lack of restraint expands ego. Yet, the grandeur is hollow inside, merely covering the corpse underneath, as if their charisma were a funeral procession for the amputation of their humanity.

Eights are ruthless. The eight’s ruthlessness is the cold, unblinking side of their charisma. It is the part that ensures their kindness is never mistaken for weakness. Although the eight might play, tease, or even bond superficially, when dominance or survival is at stake, the eight cuts off all emotional considerations instantly. There is no sentiment once crossed or betrayed. When the eight decides that someone’s time is up, the eight moves with decisive aggression, acting without buildup, hesitation, or visible regret. They don’t just lash out impulsively just to vent anger; their ruthless acts often double as displays that cement loyalty or fear within their pack. Once the eight makes the decision against someone, there’s no going back. There’s no “cooling off” period where the eight reconsiders. To hesitate is to be weak, and every ruthless act is a signal that this is what happens when you challenge me. Cleaner than chasing someone for revenge in a way that becomes personal and costly, it’s a removal, not a grudge match, in turn heightening the eight’s mystique. In the end, the scope of their ruthlessness is: unlimited.

Eights are merciless. Mercy also does not sit right with the eight’s gut and are liabilities that the eight needs to purge and expel out. The next time the eight is in a similar situation, they go beyond what’s necessary, inflicting extra harm to exorcise the earlier “failure,” creating a compulsive escalation of aggression rooted in the gut’s dissatisfaction. Escalated aggression becomes a cycle in all areas of life where each aggressive act must “one-up” the last act to satisfy the gut’s craving of power and erase any trace of an earlier missed opportunity.

Eights are sadistic. The eight thrives on creating and releasing tension at will, letting people’s fear build until the eight cuts it with action. While the eight’s leadership doesn’t rely on sadism, the reactions it provokes feeds the eight’s sense of dominance. They don’t simply hurt people to remove them. The eight toys with them, stretching out the moment so the eight can savor the fear, confusion or humiliation. The act of domination is more than a necessity but an entertainment, an amusement of how easily the eight can break someone down. They take satisfaction not just in the act itself but in the visible evidence that they own someone’s emotions, that someone is jumping to the eight’s psychological rhythm. This includes a verbal teasing before the strike, drawing out the inevitable to let the object’s mind spiral (enjoying their realization of no way out), and a visual flourish—something memorable and unsettling—meant to echo long after the moment is over. Idi Amin, an 8w7, was known for his penchant of keeping severed heads of enemies in his residence. These human remains symbolized his absolute power over life and death. Showing political insiders his “trophies” in the fridge was not only about a warning, but about owning the enemy even in death, making their body parts props in his drive to dominate and creating a climate where nobody could feel safe, because even their death wouldn’t release them from being used as a tool of his power. At a deeper level, the eight is the walking absence of a soul, shrugging off devastation while remaining nonchalant and undisturbed; their charisma a funeral procession for the corpse underneath. 

Eights are unrepentant. The eight’s unrepentance is the quality of never looking back, never softening, never apologizing, not even internally, for who they are or what they have done. Their unrepentance is casual and even stylish, not frothing defiance but implied in the smirk. The eight’s smile takes on a more twisted dimension, as the cool, predatory finality of someone who sees every act as an extension of their nature, and thus beyond the realm of regret. It is not just an absence of guilt, but an active rejection of guilt as a concept, leaving in the end a hollow victory: unreachable, irredeemable, and ultimately alone. They aren’t building an empire or carving out a legacy but cycling through “death rituals”, getting higher on their own self-mythology, with no dream and no vision, only repetition and reenactment, until somebody kills them.

Healthy eights are pioneers. Eights battle against the internal void through sheer will. Their self-activation reflects a relentless pursuit of action, effort and vitality. They possess an internal engine of motivation and energy that operates independent of external rewards, prompts or pressures. This is not about being productive but about being compelled from within to act, move, do, conquer and transform. They are still dangerous to the status quo, but more because they are building something powerful rather than tearing it down. The same comfort with risk and danger makes them an early mover in new ventures or causes. They still take charge decisively, but as a stabilizing force, not a destabilizing one. They still play right at the edge, but it is the natural leadership of somebody who won’t follow corrupt systems, won’t conform for comfort and won’t compromise their inner compass, even when it costs them, but yet doesn’t forget where real omnipotence lay.

8w7s are adventurous and get a double dose of subversion. The impatience of the 7 wing combines with the 8’s power-orientation to make for an individual who is always on the move in the conquest of more territory. They exercise power through more subversive means.

8w9s are consolidating and traditional. The inertness of the 9 wing combines with the 8’s power-orientation to make for an individual who is heavily involved in the consolidation of their own territory. They exercise power through more traditional means.

Distinctions:

The two’s approach to exercising power puts a high premium on keeping up appearances and doing the dog and pony show. This is vastly different from the eight’s approach to exercising power. The two’s expansiveness is driven by pride and image; the falsification of feeling. The eight’s expansiveness is driven by a lack of inner brakes.

Some threes can be dominating and therefore easy to confuse with eights. But for threes, dominance is a means of showing off and courting admiration. For 8s, dominance is an end in itself. In conflict, Threes lose ground because they get tied up trying to defend their past accomplishments, before they go back on the attack. An eight will stay more on the offensive without having to step out of the action to self-promote. Furthermore, threes who have chosen to actualize a dominant image need constant proof they have power and have to constantly perform power to know it exists. Also, eights don’t need to look good, while threes need to be seen as successful and brilliant even when failing. Although threes can give off a “my might makes right” vibe, the three’s “my might makes right” is not unapologetic like the 8’s “my might makes right” but the three simultaneously pretends to be the victim. Threes have a sneaky moral framework in their back-pocket in spite of their outward displays of amorality and aggression that they often appeal to when critiquing others, which isn’t just a critique but a right/wrong style judgment.

Although both types are strongly motivated by deprivation, eights instinctively turn their deprivation into action and drive (i.e. empire building) Fours remain more locked inside the emotional pain of their deprivation kicking and screaming. It is as if the four were more concerned with the emotional intensity that being deprived fuels them with and less concerned with actually obtaining those things that they have been deprived of. Also, although both types can be quick to disagree and argue, Fours don’t enjoy fighting. They don’t like to get into arguments and they don’t quickly forget about the arguments they get into it. It can weigh on their nerves, cause them to go inward and reevaluate their relationship with the person they got into the argument with. For eights, getting into an argument is not a big deal and something easily forgotten.

Both fives and eights are cunning. However, the fives’ cunning utilizes better foresight and tries to exert power more through remote control, from a distance. Fives are also vulnerable to intimidation. Eights are not. What eights lack in foresight, they make up for in guts.

The six’s entitlement to power is compensatory and thus depends on weakening others in order to successfully do what it is supposed to do, soothe/block insecurity. The eight’s entitlement to power is baked into the eight’s inner resolve and therefore doesn’t cause them to continually fall behind the eight-ball due to interpersonal conflict. The six’s aggressiveness is also fundamentally defensive in nature. The eight’s aggression is fundamentally offensive in nature.

Eights and Sevens are both unrestrained, but the seven’s lack of restraint is mood-driven and situational whereas the eight’s lack of restraint is existential. The former is a temporary emotional state that comes and goes. The latter is akin to a default setting.

The deadened quality of the eight is nuanced by a denial of those feelings which foster connection and cooperation, of humanness, of weakness but also gives raw expression to those feelings which have the opposite effect; i.e. anger, selfishness, rapaciousness, eventually calcifying into sociopathy. The deadened quality of the nine is more encompassing of all psychic and internal content, eventually calcifying into major depression.

Ones are oriented towards bureaucracy. Eights aren’t.