LOK: A Guide to the Enneagram

Champlain College psychology student Ben Aurelio created this website as a senior capstone project with the intent to combine two great interests: Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Legend of Korra (ATLA/LOK) and the Enneagram System of Personality. When learning the Enneagram and trying to memorize all its different parts as well as the nine types, it can be trying without any associations. Accordingly, the overall goal of this project, as stated above, is to provide a fun and informative resource to be used to engage with this approach to personality by providing character typings in addition to thorough yet succinct explanations for all facets of the Enneagram.

You may be thinking to yourself, why this show? Isn't this just a cartoon? To that I would respond, well, yes, but it's so much more than that. With an outstanding storyline and well-developed characters, both ATLA and LOK are ripe with opportunities for character analysis. However, for the purposes of this, the sole focus will be on LOK. This is for a number of reasons: 1) The lengthier timeline enables us to see Korra’s longitudinal journey and growth; 2) With the pretext laid by ATLA, we already have insight into Korra’s world and are able to contrast her with Aang (which is done so perfectly); and 3) Korra encounters four different enemies, with a new antagonist each season, as opposed to Aang’s singular, albeit mighty and doom-imposing, foe in the Fire Nation and Fire Lord. Each of Korra’s enemies represents a different threat, posing both external and internal conflicts for Korra, lending to a multi-faceted understanding of Korra’s self and identity.

For information on the strengths of LOK and its suitability for this project, as well as the show's relevance and reception, see the "About the Show" tab.

Popular culture, the power of the narrative and storytelling, and psychology are actually more interrelated than meets the eye. In their work “Stories of Experience and Narrative Inquiry”, Connelly and Clandinin (1990) write that “humans are storytelling organisms who, individually and socially, lead storied lives … the study of narrative is the study of the ways humans experience the world”. So rather than being viewed as merely a show for entertainment, LOK can be viewed as a vehicle for a story imbued with meaning and lessons.

Popular culture and media analysis can also be viewed through narrative psychology. American psychologist and leading author in the field Ted Sarbin discusses "the storied nature of human conduct" in his book by that very title. This particular school of thought is interested in the role of stories in human nature and in how humans create stories to relay meaning. As Sarbin describes, in a story there is a beginning, middle, and end. A story is bound together by a string of events, otherwise known as a plot. Often central to this plot are human predicaments, conflict, and resolutions. Therefore, a story is a way to transmit a message in an engaging, impactful, neat package.

In observing stories, we extract meaning from them and apply these meanings and messages to our own lives. As this pertains to LOK, throughout the series Korra, our main character, encounters a new enemy each season, each representing a different threat or fear. In viewing this show and its characters in the context of the Enneagram, we can come to better understand Korra, the other characters, and the messages that were woven into the show by its creators. This also provides a useful framework for learning about and memorizing the different Enneagram personality types and their various traits.

For more information related to pop culture as well as LOK and its suitability for this project, see the "About the Show" tab.

(Sarbin, 1986) (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990)