Understanding Yourself and Others: An Introduction to the Personality Type Code [Paperback]

Linda V. Berens (Author), Dario Nardi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2004

Introduce psychological type and the eight cognitive processes. Include descriptions of what each process looks like within each type. These breakthrough descriptions will help your clients understand their complete type pattern in way never before available.

Like the reflections of trees on the water, descriptions of personality type patterns are merely reflections of the human patterns of life. Sometimes these patterns are easy to see in ourselves and in others. At other times we miss important aspects of these patterns because they fall in our blind spots and are "in the shadow."

The personality type code devised by Isabel Myers can be a powerful tool for explaining individual differences. And while the type code embodies a simple presentation, it was meant to represent a "whole" personality pattern. We are more than the letters or the "sum of our preferences." Once we realize that we are dynamic and constantly developing, we are freer to step outside our natural pattern, bridge communication gaps, and follow our natural instincts for developing unexplored aspects of ourselves.

Understanding Yourself and Others: An Introduction to the Personality Type Code presents a first-of-its-kind look at the sixteen personality types and takes you deep into the richness of the patterns. You will explore the whole range of cognitive processes available to you for accessing and gathering information and for evaluating that information as well as how those processes play out in your personality in both positive and negative ways.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Like the reflections of trees on the water, descriptions of personality type patterns are merely reflections of the human patterns of life. Sometimes these patterns are easy to see in ourselves and in others. At other times we miss important aspects of these patterns because they fall in our blind spots and are "in the shadow."

The personality type code devised by Isabel Myers can be a powerful tool for explaining individual differences. And while the type code embodies a simple presentation, it was meant to represent a "whole" personality pattern. We are more than the letters or the "sum of our preferences." Once we realize that we are dynamic and constantly developing, we are freer to step outside our natural pattern, bridge communication gaps, and follow our natural instincts for developing unexplored aspects of ourselves.

Understanding Yourself and Others®: An Introduction to the Personality Type Code presents a first-of-its-kind look at the sixteen personality types and takes you deep into the richness of the patterns. You will explore the whole range of cognitive processes available to you for accessing and gathering information and for evaluating that information as well as how those processes play out in your personality in both positive and negative ways.

Product Details

• Paperback: 60 pages
• Publisher: Telos Publications (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966462424
• ISBN-13: 978-0966462425
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #190,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A top-flight introduction to the Myers-Briggs personality types, July 3, 2009

By 

John Wheeler "Johanan Rakkav" (King David's Harp, Inc., Houston, TX. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Understanding Yourself and Others: An Introduction to the Personality Type Code (Paperback)

I was introduced to Linda Berens' workbooks through a course I'm taking via TypeInsights. Dr. Berens et al. have developed a threefold model of temperament, interactive (social) style and cognitive dynamics which dovetail or "triangulate" to help one discover his "best-fit" Jungian personality type, the "core type" which was innate at his birth. While it takes much longer to go through the sort of guided self-discovery that this series of workbooks makes possible, the results are much more reliable than simply taking a "test" such as the famous MBTI, and one learns much more about one's psyche and those of others along the way.

Without question, the threefold model of Berens et al. is the most helpful, least confusing and best documented model of the normal human personality that I have ever seen, and I recommend this and the other workbooks as highly as any book I have EVER seen of ANY kind whatever.

This particular workbook details the contribution to the model made by the famous team of Myers and Briggs: personality types. Each of the four temperaments has four personality types within it, and interestingly each type has one of four possible interactive styles. There is a beautiful internal logic in the model that has powerful predictive value and practical application, and Berens takes great pains to be as clear and thorough as possible without drowning the reader in jargon. She obviously cares about human beings and the human psyche, deeply.

All the same this is the hardest and most challenging of the three workbooks I have been using in the TypeInsights course. For one thing, it not only owes much to Jung, Myers and Briggs directly, but also to John Beebe's model of archetypes. Mastery of the subject matter, and then practical application of it, is not easy to come by, although Berens et al. make it as simple as possible (without making the theory simpler than it really is, a commendable achievement).

This workbook was the final "triangulation" that helped my life coach (Vicky Jo Varner of TypeInsights - see her CD Type Insights: The Eight Level Model of Psychological Type) and I remove the fallacy from my mind that my "core type" is INTJ (as the MBTI has consistently indicated for decades). I am actually ENFP: Catalyst temperament, Get-Things-Going interactive style, and Discoverer Advocate personality type (in Berens' terminology). INTJ and some closely allied types are simply roles that I thought I had to put on. And the best part is, using Berens' workbooks and other means puts the results beyond doubt, so that when I start thinking of myself in outmoded ways, I can remind myself, "No, THIS is how you function most naturally, and THESE are the strengths and weaknesses that go with that functionality." All of which is more liberating than I can tell you...