Customer Reviews

Everything Enneagram Book: Identify Your Type, Gain Insight into Your Personality and Find Success in Life, Love, and Business (Everything (Self-Help))

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

 

 

I have over a dozen books on the enneagran, and this one offeres the best explanations, in an easy to absorb format.

I like the book and it is a great tool to use for getting to know yourself. I gave it 4 stars because it does come across as overly negative...however...I guess that is the punch some people need to make changes. All in all I really liked the book.

To begin I will say that I am a Social Psychology graduate with some graduate studies focusing on relationships and personalities. I have taken at least 30+ personality tests and they all seem the same. Then I took this. It is SCARY how accurate things become.

Format: You take the 20-30 minute test in the beginning, make sure you do it right! Read a paragraph (very bland like the other tests). Read the page long version of your number (now its a little accurate). Then read the 15 page chapter on your number. This is where it gets weird.

I have OVER 40 names of my friends (in my back cover to remember) who have taken this test, with number 6 Loyal Guardian being the least and 5 Masterful Hermit being the most. They all said it was 90%+ accurate. Most are between 20-28 and a few were parents but all agreed it fit them. Around 5 went on here and bought it because they were so creeped out.

The best part is in every chapter where it tells how your background made you develop into your number (some event specific!).

Bonus stuff in this that I couldn't find in other versions were "What it's like to love (insert your number)", "What it's like to have a (insert number) parent/child"

The best $12 I have ever spent. PERIOD.

It was everyting I hoped for in a Enneagram Book. Had questions for me to answer to help me find out who I am and why I think an do the way I do. I am still reading it occasionally to follow up on myself. Good, good book.

The strength of this book is its clarity and straightforwardness. It's like a Betty Crocker cookbook-- nothing revolutionary or experimental, but a solid, go-to volume that you'll refer to a lot because it's so useful. There's a good test to determine your type, a description of the general traits of each type that's long enough but not too long, plus descriptions of the type in love, as a parent, and as a child. Some Enneagram authors can be clinical, too dogmatic, cutesy, or too PC. Ms. Reynolds, however, is accessible, well-referenced, and her book reads like she's just telling you about the Enneagram in a conversational style. She is occasionally a little blunt, describing various traits as "irritating," "manipulative," "makes the person difficult to be around," "they become like an albatross around your neck," etc. But hey, if you're not ready to get a realistic view of people and want just fluffy clouds and sunbeams, you shouldn't be reading about human nature in the first place! Besides, Enneagram masters Riso & Hudson are FAR more negative than Ms. Reynolds ever is. Even though I consider myself a well-read Enneagram student, I liked this rather basic book so much I bought two copies because I anticipate loaning it out quite a bit.