Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type [Paperback]

Isabel Briggs Myers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 3, 1995

The classic work on the 16 major personality types as identified in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

The late Isabel Briggs Myers devoted her life to the observation, study, and measurement of personality. With her mother, Katharine Briggs, she authored the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator(R) personality inventory. Peter B. Myers, Ph.D., continues research work on the development and application of personality type. Former staff director of the National Academy of Science, he is currently extending the use of the MBTI(R) instrument worldwide

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing; 2nd ed. edition (May 3, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 089106074X
• ISBN-13: 978-0891060741
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,473 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

142 of 146 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE book on Myers-Briggs Typology, January 13, 2004

By 

Patrick (Tri-Cities, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type (Paperback)

If you are at all interested in the Myers-Briggs personality typing system, this book should be number one on your reading list. Unlike 95% of the books on the subject, this one is not a bunch of pop pyschology fluff. This is one of the only books on the subject with any depth at all to it. And it's a good thing it does, seeing as it was written by the co-creator of the MBTI herself, Isabel Myers. Unlike other "Please Understand Me" or "Type Talk", this book actually deals with the Jungian basis of personality, and not just the four letters associated with each type. The Jungian personality typing system is based on the concept of dominant functions. ENFPs and ENTPs for instance are both "Extraverted Intuitives", which is what defines the way they think more than anything. (And ENFJ, on the other hand is an "Extraverted Feeler"). You won't be taught these concepts in most other books on the subject. Isabel also eloquently explains why the MB system is different, especially concerning introverts, from Jung's original system.

If you're interested in MB personality types and actually wish to read a book by some one who knows what they are talking about and isn't just writing to sell pop psyschology best seller, read this book. This is also a must read if you have been trying to reconcile Jung with the MBTI and have had trouble doing so.

115 of 121 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful background, but won't help you discover your type, June 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type (Paperback)

This book gives an overview of the history and theory behind the widely used Myers-Briggs personality type inventory, and briefly but thoroughly summarizes the characteristics of each personality type as well as the "groups" of related types. This is straight from the horse's mouth: Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother, Katharine Briggs, developed the inventory based on Jung's theory of psychological types, and tested it extensively before it became widely used. The book is generally well organized, easy to read, and clearly written, with occasional touches of humor. But it won't help you identify your type if you don't already know it -- I recommend Kiersey's "Please Understand Me" for that. Still, it's a good resource if you already know your type and want to find out more about it. (Incidentally, you don't have to swallow Jung's psychological theories whole in order to find the Myers-Briggs useful!)

47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Roadmap to what lies behind the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, February 19, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type (Paperback)

Written with exqusite care, Gifts Differing is one of those rare books to be pondered and reread. I first read it in 1980 when it first came out, and my copy is dog-eared and much underlined. It is not for casual reading, or a quick approach to finding out about one's personality type. Wanting to get Carl Jung's ideas of the psychological types out of the psychiatrist's office into general use, she wrote Gifts Differing to lay out the theory for general readers, with care and in detail. It is a classic, will never be "out of date," and I strongly recommend it for anyone who has been affected by her instrument, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and wants to go deeper into the ingenious theory she fleshed out from Jung's work.