Customer Reviews

Was That Really Me?: How Everyday Stress Brings Out Our Hidden Personality

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This has to be one of the most interesting books I've yet read on Jungian/Briggsian personality type dynamics, and probably one of the most accurate as well, when it comes to predicting how a certain personality will react when under stress. Actually, that is the central topic to this fascinating book: how different, normal personalities react in different ways to external stressors, which vary, as well, by the 16 different types.

What's fascinating is to see, for example, that as an INTP, my stressors are radically different than they would be for an ESFJ (my polar opposite). What I find to be stressful, someone of another personality type would find to be the ideal situation in which to find him/herself. My stressors include: routine work, having my space intruded on at work, situations that involve lots of forced small talk, deadlines, inefficient paperwork and excessively (to me) emotional situations. And yet, someone else might find precisely these kinds of things heavenly.

I found typical INTP (related, ISTP) reactions to highly stressed situations to be very true for me as well. From the bitter cynicism, to blowing up emotionally and completely losing control, to losing complete touch with logic, I've seen every one of these behaviors in me when I'm pushed to the max, and am forced into the depths of emotion. Sometimes I don't stay there very long, in fact, I honestly hate being there, exactly as Quenk mentions.

What's even more interesting about this book, is that the behaviors are culled from Quenk's experiences and interviews with hundreds of different individuals from all personality types. While each person's reaction is very slightly different within the explorations of the sixteen types, it's very easy to see some very common patterns. Quenk does this in a very well thought out and a thouroughly researched manner.

My one (VERY) small gripe with the book is that there appears to have been a template used for each of the personality type chapters, because the introductory paragraphs to each subsection of each chapter are identical. But, with the sheer wealth of information in this book, it's really almost irrelevant. I've learned a lot about how to handle my "grip" and stressed behaviors a bit better, and to understand others' stressors as well.

A wonderful book, and a must-read reference for everyone!

This book was incredibly accurate in describing me when I'm under stress. I never knew why, when under stress, I can't seem to keep track of ANY details and I become completely disorganized. Upon reading the book, I found out that people of my personality types (I'm an ISXJ, which means that I fit most of the description for both ISFJ, and ISTJ) tend to lose control of facts and details in their lives, which these 2 personality types are normally pros at dealing with. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to expand their knowledge of the MBTI types by learning how the types act when under stress (and "in the grip" of their inferior function).

I am learning to practise MBTI. After reading the rave reviews on Amazon, I decided to buy this book.

I have to say the descriptions in the book of my wife's and my Type is hauntingly true.

One of my classmates at the MBTI accreditation program who read her own Type description was also fascinated. She was hooked and could not put it down immediately when the training resumed.

If you are familiar with the MBTI and want to go a bit deeper, this is the book for you. This book highlights how you are when you are stressed, by type. Greatly insightful! My daughter and I spent time reading and discussing portions of the book which allowed us to better understand ourselves as well as each other. If you do not have a basic understanding of the MBTI suggest gaining that knowledge before tackling this book.

Great book about shadow functions. Helps to understand your behavior under stressful situations and conditions.

Concise, not dumbed down yet highly readable, although it is assumed you have a base introduction to personality types. And if you do, this is totally the next step in the path of understanding people in all situations, especially those rare out of character episodes.

I have her previous edition (Besides Ourselves) and I highly recommend it. For more mature people, or people whose innate type is obscured by lifes events, or anyone who tests borderline, I believe that people's highly stressed type is less affected by life's events. So if you get a stressed type correct, you can reverse it to get the normal type.

I can't say this to people enough; that MBTI method typing is flawed, because of the following reasons. First, the test you take on typelogic dot com determines you internal self. Myself for example-internally I am ESTJ but in reality I am INFJ (ESTJ is my dual-the person who is the best match for my personality type). Second, as you can see from my example of testing ESTJ my internal dual-seeking self is menefesting outwardly flawing the resaults of the test thereby putting you in a pool of people you wouldn't get along with. For correct resaults-type yourself using How to Find Yourself and Your Best Match Socionics by Rod Novichkov then take the MBTI test and you'll know exactly what I'm taling about.