What's My Type? [Paperback]

Kathleen V. Hurley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 3, 1992

Hurley and Dobson explore how the wisdom of the Enneagram allows you to bring out the best in yourself and others. Delving deeper than other systems of personality exploration, the Enneagram system of nine distinctive patterns of unconscious motivation reveals the primary sources of our behavior and the reasons we live as we do.

Through detailed descriptions and discerning self-inventory questions, Hurley and Dobson make discovering your personality type fun and easy. They provide simple, proven methods for neutralizing negative attitudes about self and others and releasing untapped potential. Armed with the Enneagram's insights, readers learn to transform weaknesses into strengths, break free of crippling patterns, choose new ways of relating to others, and enjoy balance and harmony. For example:

• The Achiever can move from dissatisfied perfectionism to effective leadership and become a Pathfinder.


• The Observer can move from fear of commitment to curiosity and courage and become an Explorer.


• The Helper can move from over-involvement in the lives of others to mutual relationships and become a Partner.

Inspirational, easy-to-use and practical -- What's My Type? puts the Enneagram system to work for you.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kathleen V. Hurley and Theodore E. Dobson, the authors of What's My Type?, are counselors and Enneagram workshop leaders. They live in Lakewood, Colorado.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne; 1 edition (January 3, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062504215
• ISBN-13: 978-0062504210
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #560,706 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond Pathology, January 18, 2001

By 

Cindy Wells "eskcindy" (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What's My Type? (Paperback)

I have a veritable library of books on the Enneagram. I have many books by Don Richard Riso and Helen Palmer. If you wish to have an overview of the Enneagram types and their attributes, or if you want to try typing your friends, family and work mates so that you can understand how to get along with them, their books are really good. But there is one glaring difficulty when it comes to typing yourself: their books seem to focus mainly on what is wrong or unhealthy in each type. I am at what Don Richard Riso calls "Level 1" of my type, basically the healthiest edge of the spectrum, and I could not figure out what type I was until I read this book. Instead of just going for the negative fixations, What's My Type? describes nuances, such as how the different types focus their energy into activities, things that frustrate or upset them and other relatively neutral traits. Attributes are stated in terms that you can identify with without seeming unhealthy or defective. And when it comes to the types outside of your own, each is written about in a descriptive way that helps you understand what it's like to look at the world through their lenses, both facilitating compassion and broadening your own perspective to include each type's unique value system. It does a beautiful job of exploring what can really take each personality to its highest spiritual level, rather than merely attaining psychological health. I highly recommend going on to read "My Best Self" by the same authors after you read this. It builds brilliantly and insightfully on the foundation laid by this book.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Book for Learning the Enneagram, May 14, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Kansas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What's My Type? (Paperback)

This was the first Enneagram book I read. It was the most excellant in terms of describing the way the system works. The authors use layman words and spiritual references in ways that make you truly come to understand the sometimes wonderful and sometimes lacking personalities that make us who we are.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nine Personalities Categorized by Their Basic Flaw, November 25, 2003

By 

John Helmeke "jetzenpolis" (Le Sueur, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What's My Type? (Paperback)

Kathleen V. Hurley & Theodore E. Dobson's book, "What's My Type?" offers the clearest method for understanding which of the nine of the Enneagram's personality types you actually are.

Each of the nine points on the Enneagram correspond to a numbered personality type.

Each of these nine personality types is characterized by its own unique major personality flaw. These personality types are:

1.) anger
2.) pride
3.) deceit
4.) jealousy
5.) greed
6.) fear
7.) gluttony
8.) lust
9.) sloth

Whether we care to admit it or not, we know ourselves very well. It's very hard to deny the obvious in our failings.

But don't despair that this way of viewing personality is too "negative"! It's actually a great first step toward getting to know yourself better. The clarity of Kathleen V. Hurley's & Theodore E. Dobson's method gives you a very solid, very practical understanding what you need to do to improve yourself.

Essentially, the underlying differences in the characteristics of the nine enneagram personality types are a matter of how the personality types use instinct, emotion, and thought to arrive at the sort of decisions that are typical for each of the nine personality types. ("Instinct" is knowing without knowing how you know. The authors provide this very useful description of instinct in their book.)

As brilliant as the approach that Kathleen V. Hurley & Theodore E. Dobson have adopted in their understanding of the Ennegram - that the nine points on the Enneagram correspond to nine personality types, each personality type having one of nine major personality flaws - their theoretical explanation for the underlying differences in personality types would benefit from a sharper writing style.