The Nine States

Every harmony in the Icosa grid sits at the intersection of two independent axes — a Capacity and a Domain — each of which can be Under, Centered, or Over. This page unpacks the nine resulting positions, walks through two complete examples, and shows why this two-axis precision transforms vague labels like “anxiety” and “depression” into actionable coordinates.

Two Axes, Nine Positions

Each of the twenty harmonies sits at the intersection of one Capacity and one Domain. Each axis can independently be Under, Centered, or Over. This creates a 3 x 3 space of nine possible positions at every harmony — the feature that separates the Icosa model from systems that describe only whether something is “good” or “bad.”

The nine-position space describes how and where a center is displaced, not merely that displacement exists. The precise character of that displacement is where the model’s diagnostic strength resides.

Walking Through All Nine: Empathy

Empathy sits at the intersection of Open (capacity) and Emotional (domain). Here are all nine positions — the same structure that applies at every one of the twenty harmonies.

Position 1: Centered + Centered — Harmony

Receiving + Felt. The gate is open and calibrated; emotions are present and moving. The person takes in emotional experience without being overwhelmed. This is Empathy at center — the capacity to feel with another person, to let emotional reality in and hold it without drowning.

Position 2: Under + Under — Both Blocked

Closing + Numb. Gate barred, emotional territory dark. Nothing enters and nothing is felt. The person is not in emotional pain but in emotional absence. “I’m just not very emotional” may be offered sincerely — not as a complaint but as a fact.

Both axes are offline, and the system has settled into quiet equilibrium. Despite its extremity, this position can be remarkably stable. No internal contradiction pulls the system toward change.

Position 3: Over + Over — Both Distorted

Flooding + Hypersensitive. Gate dissolved, emotional territory in overdrive. Everything enters without filter and the emotional system amplifies it all. Where Both Blocked is silent, this is deafening. The person is drowning in empathy instead of exercising it.

Like Both Blocked, this position is internally consistent — the two dimensions reinforce each other. The person is in visible distress, but the system is not fighting itself.

Position 4: Under + Centered — Blocked Flow, Healthy Territory

Closing + Felt. Emotional territory is alive. Feelings are present, accessible, and proportionate. But Open has shut down. The person has feelings but cannot receive the emotional reality of the world. They feel strongly inside and appear emotionally unavailable from the outside — not because they lack feeling but because the receiving function has closed.

The work here is with the Capacity, not the Domain. The territory is fine; the gate needs to reopen.

Position 5: Centered + Under — Healthy Flow, Depleted Territory

Receiving + Numb. The Open gate works — calibrated, available, receiving. But the emotional territory has gone dark. A parent here can hear their child’s distress, register that something is happening, but feel nothing in response.

The work here is with the Domain, not the Capacity. The gate is working; the territory behind it is depleted.

Position 6: Over + Centered — Distorted Flow, Healthy Territory

Flooding + Felt. Emotional territory is healthy, but the Open gate has blown past its container. The person is not emotionally dysregulated — the territory is fine. They are receptively dysregulated: the gate has dissolved. A practitioner at this position walks into a session and is immediately flooded by the client’s emotional material, not because their own emotions are volatile but because their reception has no boundary.

Position 7: Centered + Over — Healthy Flow, Overwhelmed Territory

Receiving + Hypersensitive. Open is centered — reception is calibrated and well-regulated. But the emotional territory itself is generating too much signal. A first responder here sees clearly and holds steady, yet the emotional territory is on fire from cumulative exposure.

The capacity function is not the problem. The territory is.

Position 8: Under + Over — Blocked Flow, Overwhelmed Territory

Closing + Hypersensitive. Gate clamped shut while the emotional territory surges. Simultaneously defended and overwhelmed — walling off input while the emotional system behind the walls is in alarm.

This is one of the most contradicted positions. Opening the gate risks being swept away by the Hypersensitive territory. Calming the territory may deepen the defensive Closing. Both axes need attention, and sequence matters.

Position 9: Over + Under — Distorted Flow, Depleted Territory

Flooding + Numb. Gate dissolved; everything enters without filter, but the emotional territory is dark. The person reports that sounds bother them intensely, other people’s moods hit like a wall, everything feels invasive — yet when asked what they feel about it, there is nothing. Reception is distorted; the emotional ground that would give meaning to what is received has gone offline. Impact without feeling.

The Same Structure, Different Content: Agency

The nine-position space at Empathy is identical in structure to the space at every other harmony. To show how the same framework yields completely different clinical pictures, here is the full nine-position walkthrough for Agency (Move x Mental) — where thought meets action.

The position “Freezing + Lucid” is among the most recognizable in everyday experience: the person who knows exactly what needs to happen and cannot make themselves do it. The position “Exploding + Lucid” is one of the most confusing to observers: the person clearly understands the consequences but acts destructively anyway — not from ignorance but from a Move function that fires without modulation. Same harmony, different positions, opposite interventions.

The Same Structure Everywhere

At Presence (Focus x Physical), the same 3 x 3 matrix applies: Dissociating + Absent at one corner, Fixating + Overtaken at the opposite, Attending + Embodied at the Harmony point.

At Identity (Bond x Mental), Connecting + Lucid at center means a clear, owned sense of who you are. Severing + Hazed at the depletion corner means no intellectual self-concept forms because neither integrative function nor mental territory is available. Fusing + Storming at the flooding corner means over-identifying with racing thoughts — every idea becomes “me,” and the mind generates them faster than identity can absorb.

Structure is invariant. Content — which verb fills the Capacity axis, which adjective fills the Domain axis — is what changes. Understanding the nine-position space at one harmony is understanding it at all twenty.

Why It Matters: Precision from General Labels

Consider what is commonly called “anxiety.” In the Icosa model, what presents as anxiety might occupy several distinct positions:

• Fixating + Storming at Acuity: Attention locked while the mind races. Both axes Over, feeding each other.
• Closing + Overtaken at Sensitivity: Open clamped shut while the body is in alarm. Two separate conditions requiring two different responses.
• Freezing + Hypersensitive at Passion: Expression locked while emotions flood. Everything felt, nothing released.
• Dissociating + Overtaken at Presence: Attention departed while the body is in overdrive. Physically activated, cognitively absent.

Four positions, all described as “anxiety,” each with a different process and a different implication. The person who is Fixating + Storming needs the mental territory calmed and Focus released. The person who is Dissociating + Overtaken needs the body settled and Focus restored. Same conventional label. Opposite work.

Capacity-Driven vs. Domain-Driven Off-Centering

The independence of the two axes reveals a critical clinical distinction. When the same off-centering pattern appears across multiple domains, it reveals a capacity-level issue — the function itself is compromised regardless of territory. Open Under across Physical, Emotional, and Relational tells you the receiving gate is systematically shut.

When off-centering is scattered across different capacities within the same domain, it suggests a domain-level issue — the territory itself is the problem, not the functions operating through it. All four capacities struggling in the Emotional column tells you the emotional territory is disrupted regardless of which function engages it.

This distinction changes where attention goes. A capacity-level issue calls for restoring the function. A domain-level issue calls for tending the territory. Applying the wrong one wastes effort and can deepen the problem.

180 Positions: The Complete Space

Twenty harmonies, nine positions each: 180 distinct positions form the complete position space. Each has a unique signature — a specific Capacity verb operating in a specific Domain adjective at a specific grid coordinate.

This is not a taxonomy to memorize. It is a coordinate system to navigate. A person learns three Capacity states, three Domain states, and the nine-position structure, then applies that structure at whichever harmony is relevant. The combinatorial expansion (3 x 3 x 20 = 180) is the product of three simple ideas, not an additional layer of complexity.

The nine-state structure is where the Icosa model’s descriptive precision meets practical utility. Knowing that someone is “off-center at Empathy” is a start. Knowing that they are Flooding in a Numb territory at Empathy — gate dissolved, emotional ground dark, impact without feeling — tells you exactly what needs attention and in what order. That specificity is the difference between a map and a label.