Customer Reviews

The Essential Enneagram: The Definitive Personality Test and Self-Discovery Guide

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

the essential enneagram is a "must-have" book for anyone interested in the Enneagram, from beginning students to experienced teachers! This little book is power-packed with the expertise and wisdom of the authors condensed into a user-friendly form. It contains the Stanford Enneagram Discovery Inventory which is a short paragraph test that provides a first step in identifying one's personality type. The book then shows how to discriminate between possibilities and how to confirm one's choice. The section on the description of each of the personality types does not repeat the lengthy descriptions of behavior which are provided in other Enneagram books. Instead, it summarizes the key characteristics of worldview, attention, energy, avoidances, strengths and principles of personal development which are specific to type. In the final section of the book the authors provide principles and practices for personal and professional development which are general for all personality types plus practices which are specific for each of the types.

I have used the Stanford Enneagram Discovery Inventory as a key resource in helping students to discover their Enneagram personality type in an introductory workshop environment. After taking the test, we discuss how to discriminate between types using that section of the book. After more than 200 introductory students, I continue to be amazed at how much progress the students make within the course of a single day.

The final section of the book on general and specific practices for personal and professional development is a real gem. David Daniels brings his expertise as a psychiatrist (professor at Stanford Medical School plus private practice), his years of experience teaching the Enneagram with Helen Palmer to thousands of students, and his own personal embodiment to this deep and rich description of practical and simple practices for human and spiritual development. I personally will refer to this section often as my own development continues to unfold.

the essential enneagram is a whole library's worth of wisdom in a book...don't miss it!

Enneagram personality typing is fascinating stuff -- there are nine basic personality types, with connected wing, security and stress types. If you've taken (and found benefit from) the Myers-Briggs or other similar tests, give this a try. I was amazed that the description of my "type" really fit me to a tee, and the advice on how folks of my type should refocus their thinking was extremely helpful.

My concern is how valuable this book alone is as a diagnostic tool. The book is short (about a hundred pages, with lots of diagrams and white space), much of which will be irrelevant or marginally relevant to you. (If you find you're a type four, you probably won't need to read about type one.) You determine your personality type quite simply, by reading nine paragraphs (that describe the nine personality types) and choosing the one that fits best. It's a great introduction, but I think calling it "The Definitive Personality Test and Self-Discovery Guide) is a bit of an exaggeration.

The Essential Enneagram, by David Daniels, M.D. & Virginia Price, Ph.D.

This is an absolutely fabulous "user-friendly" book! I'm a psychologist and I've been able to use it quite comfortably with my clients who are totally new to the Enneagram : Not only does it provide an exceptionally effective way for everyone to discover their own type, but it also provides a daily spiritual practice specifically tailored TO each type. In terms of identifying one's own type, the reader is supplied with the following concise and comprehensive information applied to each type:

The fundamental principal I lost sight of: What I came to believe instead: The strategy I developed to cope with this belief: Because of this strategy, my attention is on: I put my energy into: I do everything I can to avoid: My strengths: What causes me stress: What makes me angry: The nature of my anger: The ultimate goal of my development: How I can further my personal development: What hinders my personal development: How others can support my development:

But as if this weren't enough, by far the most useful and important gift of this book is to be found in Section 2: What to Do When You Have Discovered Your Type. This section provides us with a daily breathing and centering practice for all, complete with Five General Principles: (Three Laws of Behavior; Three Centers of Intelligence; Three Life Forces; Three Survival Behaviors {the Subtypes}; and Three Levels of Knowing and Learning). Best of all, we are then provided with a specific daily meditative practice for each type which covers practices in awareness, taking action, previewing/reviewing our progress and reflection. Whether or not you are a student of the Enneagram, I highly recommend this book to you.

A friend had been talking to me about enneagrams for quite some time, and we had an initial idea of my type. This book, in just 9 paragraphs and a few descriptions made me certain. And it also provides both the strengths and the weaknesses for each type--what a type has lost sight of, and how they might be compensating. This isn't an "in-depth" book--it's the enneagram boiled down to the absolute essentials--and it's a great place to start--and the "What a # has lost sight of" is a great place to get a daily affirmation to try and regain sight of that lost fundamental principle.

The Stanford Enneagram Discovery Inventory and Guide is a great book. Actually, it is more of a workbook than another extensive text of Enneagram knowledge. Before discovering this workbook I had been exposed to the Enneagram through a multi-week course and several extensive texts on the topic. I had read or heard lots of Enneagram details which never coalesced into an understanding of how to use Enneagram knowledge in my life. This workbook is helping me become aware of some of the systematic aspects of my habits. I am a 9 type and am becoming aware of my habit of putting other's agendas and priorities above the agenda and priorities that are best for my well being -- I developed this succinct understanding with 20 minutes study of this workbook. If you are a student of the Enneagram, this book will surely add somethig valuable to your understanding or use of the Enneagram model. If you are not a student of the Enneagram - check it out, its a good system for understaning yourself and others....

Just what enneagram enthusiasts and those curious to discover what all the talk is about needed--a complete, compact, crisp compendium of: how the enneagram really works...what it tells you about yourself and others...how to discover your real type...and what to do with the information to make yourself the best you can be.

After reading dozens of enneagram books by any number of therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, counsellors, teachers, students, and academics, here, finally, is a book I can recommend to every one of my students to help them take their next steps with the enneagram. Why this book? Because Daniels and Price have transgressed communication style limits and boundaries and made it truly user-friendly for the masses, not an easy task with multi-layered material.

I truly believe this is one of the books that will help the enneagram get into bedrooms and board rooms of mainstream North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Antartica.

How can one little book do all these things? It is brief for the bottom-liners, personal for the emotionals, and detailed-enough to satisfy the cerebrals.

Anyone with curiousity about the enneagram from the seasoned to the surface-testers can sit down with one mug of something delightful and gain a working knowledge of the enneagram and the mysterious self in less than three hours.

I got different results on different enneagram tests and found other books cumbersome and confusing. This book is concise, practical, and geared toward personal development. It made the process of discovering enneagram types easy. I laughed and nodded with recognition as the authors clearly described basic personalities using four identifiers. Basic Position: erroneous belief and strategy developed to cope with it; Characteristics: what energies are put into, what is avoided at all costs, and personality strengths; Stress and Anger: what causes stress, what provokes anger, and the nature of that anger (sulking, crying, explosion, etc.); and Personal Development: ultimate goal, how to further personal development, what hinders it, and what others can do to support it.

Avoiding the maze of misidentifications and confusion that other approaches are so vulnerable to, The Essential Enneagram discusses wings, security types, stress types, look-alikes, and probabilities. It is a simple and practical guide to understanding and applying Enneagram theory.

...it isn't definitive, not by a long shot. If you're reading recommendations for this, you're probably already somewhat familiar with enneagrams. If you're somewhat familiar with them, then you probably already know most of what this book contains. It is a handy dandy reference guide to the 9 types. It boils them down into quick reference, eliminating some of the repetition that I've seen in other sources. It also offers a somewhat laughable "self improvement" section for the different types which completely ignores the fact that not all 2s (or 8s or 9s or 7w6s) are at equal stages of health and development.

The reference value alone earns this slim volume a 3. Why the four? Because I find the self-assessment paragraphs, coupled with the very useful section explaining how each type differs from the others for those who are conflicted between types, far superior to the usual enneagram test. This bumps this book up a notch.

It isn't by any means definitive, and it isn't even essential, but it is useful as part of a library on the topic.

I am an executive coach and I work with the Enneagram extensively with my clients. This book has by far the most accurate and reliable self-typing system available, and it's also very fast.

After the typing, Daniels goes deep quickly, summarizing the world views and distortions of each type very succinctly. This can be a bit abrupt for those who are new to the Enneagram or self-work. So I tend to encourage new clients to work with other materials until they have a fuller understanding of the model and emotional readiness for the "bright light" of Daniel's inspection of the types.

This book is one of the top 3 staples in my Enneagram library.

Once you pop, you can't stop. This book is wonderful, and written by some very intuitive folks. However, this book does have one downside:

It is only a start!

Please be aware that this book does little more than give you a brief synopsis of the enneagram types and a simple way to self-diagnose your type, as well as a few exercises to work with once you know your type. There is so much more to the enneagram, and if you are truly interested you should go to a workshop or buy a more thorough book.

I use this book like a cliff's notes for the enneagram because it is small and simple. However, it is by no means complete. So use it to supplement your library or get an overview, but by all means don't stop here.

Hands down, this is a 5 out of 5 stars. Buy this book today and then impress your friends on the train while you reveal their most deeply held beliefs in a non-chalant sweep of lyrical genius.