Customer Reviews

The Four Temperaments: A Fun and Practical Guide to Understanding Yourself and the People in Your Life

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Temperaments have been a favorite study of mine. Ms. Renee Baron's "The Four Temperaments" is a book I would highly recomment to anyone new or experienced with the topic of temperaments because she goes right to the core of what you're more or less looking for without including all the New Age junk science, such as attempting to corelate temperaments and astrology. I've always identified myself as phlegmatic or an Ideal Seeker, the term Ms. Baron uses. And wonder upon wonder, she amazes me at the insightful, time tested truths of the temperaments as, line by line, I exclaim, "That's me!" "That's how I relate!" "That's how I feel, I am!" This has become my favorite for giving to friends as well. Its simple, fun, accurate and less complicated than a full fledge, complicate study of the make up of the temperaments, providing thoughtful information and workable advice on how best we, people of one temperament or another can get along, be supportive of and nonjudgmental towards other human beings ... of another or similar temperament. This has been the most eye awakening study of my life. Ms. Baron, had I known it then, would have saved me lots of time and trouble searching for needles in haystacks.

Like Renee Baron, I came to the study of temperaments through the Enneagram and then through the Myers-Briggs system. For my purposes as a college professor, I find Temperament studies to be far more helpful than the other two systems.
A number of excellent books exist on the temperaments, such as Keirsey's, Linda Beren's, and the True Colors books, but Renee Baron's book is the best I've studied. It is simple enough for beginners and detailed enough for professions. Ms Baron's categories include childhood patterns, relationship patterns and occupational patterns, each discussed with depth and thoroughness.
Overall, this is the best book on the subject.

This book provides an introduction to temperament theory, describing the four temperaments, and for each temperament, how individuals of that temperament act and feel in relationships, as parents, as children, at work. For each temperament, Baron describes pet peeves, what others admire and find challenging, and -- what I like best -- a list of things persons of that temperament would never dream of doing. Throughout the book, Baron has included numerous quotes from famous people that illustrate the four temperaments superbly.

For a beginner just starting to learn about temperament, Baron's "fun and practical" treatment may be adequate. The presentation is simple, straight-forward, and easy to understand. She doesn't get bogged down in detail or academic explanations -- nor does she attempt to make a connection between Myers-Briggs types and temperaments. Aside from about six introductory pages at the beginning of the book, and a test to determine one's type, the entire book is essentially a compilation of lists, presented in bullet point format.

For anyone already familiar with Myers-Briggs type or temperament theory, this book may be too elementary. It is certainly easier to read than Kiersey's work, but it is also much less detailed. This book isn't quite up the high standards of Baron's other books on personality typing and the enneagram -- What Type Am I?: The Myers-Brigg Type Indication Made Easy, Are You My Type, Am I Yours? : Relationships Made Easy Through The Enneagram, and The Enneagram Made Easy: Discover the 9 Types of People , all of which are delightfully illustrated and more substantive.