Customer Reviews

The 16 Personality Types, Descriptions for Self-Discovery

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

With the explosion of new books on type in the last few years, you might wonder what more could be written to be put into an introductory booklet on the sixteen types. Well, Linda Berens and Dario Nardi have done just that. As a student of David Keirsey, Dr. Berens has long been an advocate of the concept of temperament and has been a key force in having the concept become accepted in the Manual for the new Form M of the MBTI. Dr. Nardi was a collaborator with Dr. Berens on her previous booklet: Understanding Yourself and Others: An Introduction to Temperament.

Imagine you are shown an oval shadow. What do you think produced it? Depending on the angle of the light, it could be a sphere, a cone or a cylinder. Now move the position of the light on the unknown object. The shadow now might appear as a diamond. With a few more clues you may determine that the object was a cylinder. This is a metaphor for describing personality. When you are helping people determine their personalities, you help them compare themselves to patterns that have been found to apply to various other defined personality types. The authors call them best-fit type patterns. The descriptions are not composited based on preferences or temperaments but are observable holistic patterns. They are also careful to show that the concepts do not place people in a box, but rather give them a vocabulary to understand differences and similarities. The graphics chosen are simple but effective in demonstrating these concepts.

The authors have used the Johari Window (a training diagram from the days of group dynamics) to show that a description of the type is a combination of how others see us and how we see ourselves. Next you are encouraged to read over brief descriptions of the sixteen types, read the two page descriptions of the types that seem to fit, and then choose the one type that fits best.

People used to seeing the Myers-Briggs Type Table will find the sixteen types arranged in a different pattern. Here they are grouped according to temperament or in a Temperament MatrixTM. So, if you have identified your temperament, you would start in that quadrant and read those descriptions first to find the one most likely to match your type.

The sixteen types are each described in a two-page format. On one side is the objective description, including a short snapshot summary, and then a longer portrait that describes the theme of the type and the type in relationships. The other page describes how it feels to be in that type. These descriptions are a composite of responses to the question What is it like to be you? by four individuals (two men and two women) who have identified themselves as that type. My wife and I both felt our descriptions were quite accurate and insightful.

Having identified your type, you are encouraged to further use the Johari Window to use it as a matrix to identify new learnings about yourself, and to go on and take action to further develop your personality.

The booklet has two appendices: one elaborates on the theory relating temperament to type, and the other provides notes for facilitators.

While it has some very useful information for people trained in the use of the MBTI, they may want to experience the full presentation by a TRI trained facilitator to fully benefit from the material. This is a very worthwhile book to add to your MBTI library. But be warned! You may feel that your presentations are somewhat lacking and that you need to find out more about The Self-Discovery ProcessSM. You may get so excited that you will want to see that all of your clients get a copy of the book as well.

Having an amateur interest in psychology (and particularly Jung), I have read a few books on the subject of personality type, and I found "Descriptions for Self-Discovery" to be a good purchase for the small price. The book provides fairly small, two page descriptions of each personality type, briefly detailing the traits. A good deal of information is stored in the two-page synopsis, but there is no functional analysis of the types, so look elsewhere for deeper textbook-style reading. I also found that people tested for the first time reacted well to the short and descriptive type-models, and were interested in learning more after being "primed" with the information in this book. A good aid for counselors aiming to deepen initial interest and active participation in self-discovery with patients.

This book is not a reference for psychologists, but is well worth the small price for its unique and easily digestible type descriptions.

These descriptions are the best I have read. The self-discovery description of my type ( INFP ) was spooky. I really like the introduction of how to find your best type, it is a really unique way of looking at the MBTI. The section on relationships is especially interesting, it really helps me get an idea of people I know. I teach a psychology class at the local college and use the Keirsey Temperament Sorter. I am going to order a copy for every one of my students. Great work!

The classification of temperament is as at least two millenia old. Some of this effort falls decidely in the the half-baked side of the pan. Yet much of it is decidely helpful in understanding 'the way we are wired' and 'the way we process things', to use two very modern metaphors of personality typing.

Maybe you've never thought of it like that.

Linda Berens and Dario Nardi want you to think again, and to discover yourself in the profiles they've developed and invited you to try on. Their paradigm is the well-known Myers-Briggs assignment of four letters to a temperament, each of them a choice between two options. If you run the math, you'll quickly discover that there are sixteen possibilities, thus the title of this book. (Full disclosure: I'm an INTJ, so I'm really enjoying systematically reporting on this book, gentle reader.)

Berens and Nardi have made this guide user friendly and it is not necessary to have taken the Myers-Briggs 'test' in order to use it. In my opinion, the reader will greatly benefit from having done so. There are so many 'hooks' that one finds to hang one's temperament on in just about any prose description, that I find the M-B system is almost necessary in order to inject some element of objectivity into the process.

The great value of Berens' and Nardi's work is their trademarked (yes) two-word description of each of the sixteen types (INTJ: 'Conceptualizer Director') *and* the one-page 'Self-Portrait: What's it like to be you?'.

The latter is distilled from interviews with individuals belonging to each personality type. I have checked this against a number of friends in the presence of family and peers and found an extraordinary degree of confirmation that this is how the typed individuals actually feel about the world and their selves in it.

This book could serve as good introduction to the modern practice of temperament/personality classification. I also find it helpful in a business/organization context, where mutual understanding (without the touchy-feely excesses that lead so predictably to the gag reflex) is often essential to accomplishing shared goals and avoiding hallway assassinations.

I have most of the books probably published on the Myers Briggs Persoanlity Types and explanations. But, the book by Linda Berens, while each type is covered in a short space and not as in depth as many, did an excellent job of giving the salient points for each type. It is probably the best organized book on the 16 types, and the best general description and discussion of each. I found it an easy read and for people new to this process, the very best overview I have read. It is an excellent book to recommend to 'beginners' in unstanding the "Types", and the reader can go to other books for more in depth discussions if they choose. But, this book is the best one for new readers in the subject. It is now one of my favorites on Types and I have already recommended it to several people. Jim Stitley 8/9/2005

In the introduction, the authors mention that many people read the first-person narratives of their type and those of their friends and family's and feel that the descriptions are right on -- well, that's my experience too. I have never gotten excited by romanticized type descriptions found in most books about the MBTI, and even David Keirsey's type descriptions in Please Understand Me_ often seem to be a bit too much the product of the author's imagination, but this book is based on actual interviews with people of all 16 types. And it shows in the descriptions, which are the most balanced, fair and unbiased ones I've ever run across. I originally got into type
theory in order to better understand certain family members who are way different than me, and I'm finding this book very useful and practical.

I thoroughly enjoyed this review. As a newly-discovered ISFP, this article helped tremendously to verify this identity. I appreciated the article's breadth of topics as well. Unfortunately, only those with this Myers-Briggs temperament can relate, but for us 1%, it's a wonderfully-written article!

I feel the descriptions are extremely complete and very accurate. The Self-Portraits are very well done and complete. In my opinion, this is an exceptional comparison the other similar resources.

I was shocked, amazed and delighted to read my own personality type. It was like I'd written it myself. I wanted to meet and speak with the writer immediately because I'm sure we'd be best of friends. It's a bit scary to find that I can be described in a book. I like to be unique and different. But it also gave me comfort. This is a great tool to help you become more aware of yourself and also discover and effectively deal with others.

I feel like I wrote the description for my type myself it was that accurate!