Type Six, the Loyalist, Skeptic or Guardian, stands at the centre of the head triad and is the type most directly identified with fear. Its basic desire is for security and support, its basic fear is of being without support or guidance. Its passion is fear itself, and its virtue is courage. The system distinguishes two expressions, the phobic Six, which seeks safety in alliance and authority, and the counterphobic Six, which meets the same anxiety by running at what frightens it, and this doubling makes Six the type hardest to identify from the outside. Its wings are Five and Seven. Under stress the system places Six at Three, becoming driven and image-conscious; in growth it moves to Nine, becoming settled and trusting.
In the Hornevian groups, Riso and Hudson's second classification drawn from Karen Horney's three neurotic trends, Six is placed among the compliant types that move toward others, alongside One and Two, a placement some readers find counterintuitive for the counterphobic expression of the type, which can look assertive on the surface; the system resolves this by treating compliance with an internalized authority, rather than surface behavior, as the deciding trait.