Customer Reviews

The Pygmalion Project (Vol. III : The Idealist) (Love & Coercion Among the Types)

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This is an absolutely groundbreaking work by Mr. Montgomery. I saw myself so clearly in his portrait of the Counselor that I reread it three times and still could not believe that it was not written about me. To those who seem confused by the purpose of this book, I will warn you that it should be taken mainly as a companion to Keirsey's spectacular Please Understand Me. This book may be hard to follow for someone who has not first familiarized himself with the content of the aforementioned volume. Anyone interested in this subject should buy the two as a pair. Brilliant!

In Pygmalian Project v. III, Love and Coersion among the Types - The Idealist, Montgomery artfully shows us how famous literary characters display their type (the Idealist in this case) in their loving relationships, and the "survival games" that they play to change their loved ones into something akin to themselves.

All to often it is a story of a love-tragedy or mispent youth. If you are looking for some "nightstand reading" and are more of the scholarly reader then this is the book for you. For those of you looking for more explanation about why you are the way you are, I would refer you other MBTI / Keirsey type books.

While Montgomery's work is well executed, easy to read, and "fun", it offers little in the way of substansive knowlege on the subject.

On the other hand (and I am an ENFP) let me state that although I originally didnt like the stories / characters that Montgomery chose to focus on, I now have a new respect for those works and intend to go back and review them at my leisure.

Let me reiterate - if you are looking for famous literary figures and why they act they way they act then this is the book for you. If you are looking for "why do I play these games", then you would be better served by other texts.

Personally, I found this book to be amazingly accurate and perceptive. The personality type identification of various classic literary characters was completely accurate from my observations. Of course, you need to be somewhat well read to readily understand the literary references, but then most Idealists do tend to be readers.
For me, it was almost synchronistic, both the way the books and characters that I had been drawn to over the years were described, as well as, how the passages stated seemed to be echoes of my own thoughts or journals. As an INFJ, I was naturally drawn to Tolstoy, and now I know why.

For the analyst, one who truly wants to understand people. The comparisons and contrasts made with the use of classical literature are utilitarian while still remaining compelling.

This book is much better appreciated by those who are familiar with either the Keirsey Temperament Sorter or the Myers-Briggs (MBTI).

This is a wonderfully global view of idealists in relationships
with other types, through examples in classic literature.It is a nice read in particular for my INFJ preference, with much nuance and symbolism.
I have read this book several times and enjoyed it more each time.
I am sure I will read it again and enjoy it just as much.

valuable is an understatement for rhis book i garantee you will re story youre lifes experiences on the basis of the knowledge and wisdom gained from this book. a powerful and nessesary tool for any human being simply to be a better human being in the broadest sense.

The first time I opened this book to read it, the spine broke. What a cheap job of publishing by Prometheus Nemesis Book Company! I love the topic and I think I appreciate the author, but it's hard to tell when the book immediately becomes virtually unreadable. Very unfortunately, this purchase was a waste of my money. I'm hoping that Vols 1-4 (vol. 4 as yet unreleased) will be published as a set, and bound with not just glue, but binding yarn too!

I found this book to be extremely misleading. First off Montgomery is not a Psychologist; he is a Literature instructor that edited David Keirsey's Please Understand Me II.

I found that much of his research to be impractical. He was drawing conclusions from literary figures in history and not from Psychological research studies. If I hadn't paid what I did for the book I likely would have laughed when he started writing "if Idealists in literature seem to be easily broken in body, they suffer as well from various psychosomatic afflictions" (page 31) and then concluded by listing off various idealist characters in literature with psychosomatic afflictions. How does this have any bearing on reality whatsoever?

What frustrated me is that Montgomery simply used other literary works and the work of David Kerisey to write this book for him. Many paragraphs were summaries of idealist character sketches in literature and references to other idealist characters in literature. Frankly, the book is peppered with them to the point that it becomes repetitive and tedius.

Maybe because Montgomery is an idealist himself he projects what his audience will want due to his own interests. It almost seems like this book is a Pygmalion Project in and of itself by he how draws too much from his own school of thought to explain the Psychology of Personality. One would have to be an extreme idealist with a Master in English and extremely little common sense to agree with what is stated in this book.

There is a reason why the basis of Psychology is evidence based on statistical research; and not the dissection of individuals who have only existed in fiction rather than reality.

This book is awful. It merely gives literary conjecture and refence to all the idealist types. It didn't help me learn anything new. I was really disappointed. There are so many other books out there that are better. Don't buy this one.