Oscar Ichazo created the foundation for how we understand the Enneagram today
Oscar Ichazo has a personal mission to bring peace and compassion to the world
Oscar Ichazo founded the Arica School in 1968 named after the city in Chile, where Oscar was born. He is born on the 24th of July 1931 and passed away on the 26th of March 2020. He developed some of the most fundamental teachings of the Enneagram, where especially the Passion, Virtues, Fixation, and Holy Ideas are central elements of the understanding of the Enneagram.
Oscar Ichazo and protoanalysis
At the Arica School, Oscar was teaching ‘protoanalysis’, wich describes how we get fixated by identifying with our ego or personality, and he groups these fixations into the point of the Enneagram. According to Oscar ego-fixations are built from childhood experiences as a subjective understanding of the inner and outer world and the fixations can be transcended and reduce suffering. We also have several triads produced by Oscar which serve to understand how we can balance our behavior avoiding both extremes of overdoing and underdoing.
Before and after Oscar Ichazo
Oscar Ichazo was including all the points of the Enneagram in his approach, presenting the idea that we should develop qualities from all 9 points. His was not considering the dynamic between the types and was not using the idea of ‘defense mechanism’ and the teaching of the Arica Schools was for the few. His idea was, that we are all attached to repetitive and mechanical behaviors and that very attachment is creating suffering. Using the Enneagram one can recognize this attachment in a more precise way, and at the same time receive some guidance on how to eliminate these attachments. It is unclear if Oscar did meet Gurdjieff, but ideas about the symbol and the centers are parallel to the ideas of Gurdjieff.
Books by Oscar Ichazo
Oscar Ichazo did author several books and materials, but it can be hard to get around them. Some are out of print and some have to be bought through the Arica School. You might be lucky to get one of these books.
(1977) Arica Psycho-calisthenics: The Arica Institute’s original program of exercise and meditation (click here to read more)
(1982) Interviews With Oscar Ichazo (click here to read more)
(1982) Between Metaphysics & Protoanalysis: A Theory for Analyzing the Human Psyche (click here to read more)
Links about Oscar Ichazo
Read more about Oscar Ichazo on Wikipedia (click here)
Interview by Jack and Andrea (click here)
The profile of Oscar Ichazo on Arica.org (click here)
