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Beside Ourselves: Our Hidden Personality in Everyday Life

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This book is a great intro to how your life can be undermined by not being aware of your inferior function. Quenk is a master at presenting each of the eight functions and how we can lose control of these functions if we don't know exactly how our inferior function can take control when we're stressed, tired, irritated, etc. I've read a couple of books on personality type but I don't think I really understood the eight functions until this book. By going back to the basics (using Jung's typology instead of Keirsey's temperament theory), Quenk is able to see farther than most authors I've read. I also liked Quenk's discussion of the auxilliary function, which I'm slowly learning might be the most helpful function in becoming a complete person. With the information in this book, I feel like I can empathize so much more with other types than I could before. This is especially useful for an INTJ like myself who can have problems attending to people's feelings. I recommend this book and another excellent book: Lenore Thomson's Personality Type: An Owner's Manual.

This was an excellent, excellent book about the underpinnings of type and in particular, the inferior function. In addition to the excellent descriptions about what each type is likely to do when "in the grip" of the inferior function, I thoroughly enjoyed the sections that described each type's development in mid-life. I'd recommend this book to anyone familiar with type who wants to get a better depth of understanding.

WOW! New information! I am an avidly interested lay person who, since discovering Myers-Briggs through other popular books on the subject. has used MB informally and superficially for years in day-to-day personal and work settings. But MB had never even crossed my mind as relevant or helpful on really bad days when I or those near me were stressed to the point of being "beside themselves". But this book explains that people feeling, speaking and acting out of character during different kinds (depending on their Type, of course!) of stress can be understood and predicted just as successfully as their preferences, feelings and reactions on a normal, less stressful day can be understood and predicted. The beauty of the inferior function analysis really has to be read to be appreciated. If you are interested in Myers-Briggs, you owe it to yourself to read this book. For me, it was the eye opener of the year! (So far.) Granted, I love Myers-Briggs, but my jaw has not closed since I picked up the book. I am an ISFJ, by the way, living with an ESFP. Thank you, Naomi L. Quenk, for writing this book and thereby lifting the tent canvas up to offer us lay folk a deeper appreciation of the broad applicability and plain old day to day helpfulness of Myers-Briggs personality type theory.

For decades I had been searching for a book on how the shadow function operates during stress or job burnout. This book explains this function clearly. I highly recommend this book. Here I am, a senior citizen, INFP, looking for one great book on how the inferior function handles thinking, particularly, how my INFP shadow function, inferior extraverted thinking, actually operates under stress or job burnout, and this books explains what I want to know, and does the same for the other 16 types. It's a book I will keep on my shelf and comes in handy when I write plays or novels as well to get a handle on my characters and how they interact. I write books on how to write fiction according to one's type, and this book certainly opens doors for me to explore as I select the dialogue for my characters. The Hart Family

MBTI is becoming everyday more popular, more of a tool for business. Also, it is more and more misused as people settle for the quick fix approach of the system, the labelling of people and an expected (or rather hoped for) predictability of people's attitudes and reactions. Some of us amateurs understand that this is not a labelling tool, but a sophisticated tool to understand some of the aspects of human thought process; and that it is not easy to always assert the psychological type of the person that we are dealing with. Naomi Quenck offers us another way to look at the role of type in our lives, by looking at the obscure side of psychological type, the side that "generalists" gloss over pretending that we are all great and beautiful. We are not. She clearly explains that under grip experience, or Jungian shadow as you might have it, the negative side of our personalities can act up. The understanding of this dark side of course helps us in our individuation process. And also help us in understanding some of the reasons that bring our loved ones into trouble, perhaps allowing us to help them more effectively without any of the sentimental language that we find in so many "help and self help" books. Also we can use the examination of grip experiences to ... the true type of the people that surround us and for whom we cannot get a clear idea of their actual type, be it due to their secretiveness, their need to conform to society's norms or any other reason. Grip experiences do not lie. It is to the credit of Naomi Quenck to have written a book that does not sugar coat what type is about, yet of easy access by its organization and good redaction.

Until I began reading Beside Ourselves, I had really only thought of the Myers-Briggs types as defined by the dominant functions. In other words: being an ENTP, I thought that my personality was dictated and defined by extraverted intuition (my dominant function). After reading Quenk's insightful work, however, I realized that my actions are equally a result of my inferior function (introverted sensing).

For me, Beside Ourselves is a guide to recognizing the importance of our "hidden personalities" and recognizing why we can act in ways that seem foreign even to ourselves when "in the grip" of our inferior functions, as Quenk puts it. This book shows that there is (obviously) value to accepting and understanding the "dark side" of our personalities, and that true equilibrium can usually be reached when we learn to deal with and even embrace the "eruptions" of our hidden inferior functions.

In my opinion, grasping the concepts found in this book will require that the reader has an understanding of personality type as defined by Jung, Keirsey, Myers-Briggs, etc. In order to understand the hidden personality, or inferior function, readers should have a strong understanding of the dominant function, which is essentially the personality we feel best describes us under "normal" circumstances. Highly recommended!

Ever wonder why your gentle, friendly co-worker turned into a snarling, raving lunatic? Or why your easy-going spouse becomes suddenly obsessed with minute details? _Beside Ourselves_ describes what happens when people are under stress and get caught "in the grip" of their inferior, less-developed functions. Excellent book for helping decipher unusual actions and reactions of different types and learning to work *with* our stress reactions instead of fighting them

This is a jewel of a book. Quenk describes some of the predictable ways our inferior function on the MBTI can get us into trouble and also provide the most intense enrichment. The book brings critical understanding for people who are consistently being undone by their "shadow" and also those in mid life seeking to expand their territory and use their less dominant functions in a more positive way. (written by an INTP by the way

I am not a psychology or mental health professional, but I found this book fascinating. It uses enough theory to be credible, but didn't get me lost in terminology or assumptions. Not only did I find this book to be beneficial for understanding myself, but as a business consultant I find it a great tool for helping organizations understand their personalities.

This book explains the nature of the eight functions in their inferior roles when they're exerting an uncharacteristic influence on a person. It briefly summarizes the nature of the functions when they're in the dominant role for purposes of contrast, but that's not the focus of the book. This is to my knowledge the definitive book on the nature of the inferior functions, and together with Lenore Thomson's "Personality Type" which deals with functions in their dominant role, it covers the most important aspects of personality theory. If you're new to personality theory, I recommend reading Lenore Thomson's book before this one. They're both roughly the same quality (excellent), but knowing the nature of the inferior functions isn't as urgent as knowing the nature of the dominant functions. These two books are a must read for anyone interested in personality theory. Naomi L. Quenk (the author) is INFP. I am INTP.