The Wisdom of the Enneagram: The Complete Guide to Psychological and Spiritual Growth for the Nine Personality Types [Paperback]

Don Richard Riso (Author), Russ Hudson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 1999

The first definitive guide to using the wisdom of the enneagram for spiritual and psychological growth

The ancient symbol of the Enneagram has become one of today's most popular systems for self-understanding, based on nine distinct personality types. Now, two of the world's foremost Enneagram authorities introduce a powerful new way to use the Enneagram as a tool for personal transformation and development. Whatever your spiritual background, the Enneagram shows how you can overcome your inner barriers, realize your unique gifts and strengths, and discover your deepest direction in life.

The Wisdom of the Enneagram includes:

Two highly accurate questionnaires for determining your type
Vivid individual profiles focused on maximizing each type's potential and minimizing predictable pitfalls
Spiritual Jump Starts, Wake-Up Calls, and Red Flags for each type
Dozens of individualized exercises and practical strategies for letting go of troublesome habits, improving relationships, and increasing inner freedom
Revealing insights into the deepest motivations, fears, and desires of each type


Highly accessible, yet filled with sophisticated concepts and techniques found nowhere else, The Wisdom of the Enneagram is a strikingly new fusion of psychology and spirituality. It offers an exciting vision of human possibility and a clear map of the nine paths to our highest self-expression.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Recommended by two highly credible authorities, consciousness explorer Ken Wilber and spiritual-growth guru Harville Hendrix, this compendium of Enneagram information was assembled by the cofounders of the Enneagram Institute as an introduction to the subject. Designed with a plenitude of charts, boxes, and quotes (by noted illuminaries such as A.H. Almaas, Maya Angelou, and G.I. Gurjieff), this exceptionally easy-to-use, manual-size paperback teaches the reader how to figure out which of the nine types she is, identifies red flags to self-illusion, and provides practical suggestions for spiritual growth. Advice on how to observe your type's fixations and let go of the need to act out automatic and dysfunctional behavioral responses are down-to-earth and attainable. A distinctly accessible approach to cultivating daily happiness through understanding the complexity of fixations that weave together human personality types. --Randall Cohan

Review

"The Wisdom of the Enneagram is a very important book. By combining the horizontal types of the Enneagram with a system of vertical levels of awareness, Riso and Hudson have produced one of the first truly integrated models of the human psyche. In addition to the importance of this pioneering work itself, it goes to point up the utter inadequacy of anything less than a full-spectrum model of human growth and development. Highly recommended."
--Ken Wilber, author of The Marriage of Sense and Soul

"I highly recommend this book, not only to anyone on the path of personal transformation, but to anyone who wants to understand the complex inner world of others, whether a spouse, family member co-worker or friend. The questionnaires were fun and illuminating. I received some very helpful information about myself, felt challenged to grow and experienced a deepening of compassion. Perhaps the most profound contribution of The Wisdom of the Enneagram is reflected in the word "Wisdom." The authors clearly communicate the complexity of human nature, the spiritual yearning resonant in all of us, and the ascending levels of our possibility. But they do not leave us there. They offer a clear path for personal and spiritual evolution."
--Harville Hendrix, Ph.D., author of Getting the Love You Want

"Don Riso and Russ Hudson thoughtfully engage the richness and depth of the Enneagram, and conjure with its power as a tool of transformation. The Wisdom of the Enneagram is filled with its own wisdom and depth. You'll find yourself returning to it over and over again and discovering new treasures."
--Tony Schwartz, author of What Really Matters

"The Wisdom of the Enneagram is not only a clear and comprehensive description and discussion of this ancient personality typology, but also a major and original contribution to its use and further development. Don Riso and Russ Hudson have designed simple practical guidelines and tests that make it possible to determine one's own personality type and use this knowledge for healing and psychospiritual transformation."
--Stanislav Grof, M.D., author of The Adventure of Self-Discovery

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (June 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553378201
• ISBN-13: 978-0553378207
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 1.1 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (83 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,196 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

145 of 157 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most readable, comprehensive explanation yet available., August 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Wisdom of the Enneagram: The Complete Guide to Psychological and Spiritual Growth for the Nine Personality Types (Paperback)

Use of the Enneagram, a remarkable tool for personal understanding and spiritual growth and development, has been limited by its appearance of overwhelming complexity. Despite the book's remarkable depth, Riso and Hudson have managed in WISDOM to explain the system in an easy-to-read format which incorporates most of the refinements they have introduced (such as levels of development and instinctual variants) which make it possible for almost any reader to find themselves in the system and begin to grow through it. As a bonus, the authors have added a validated self-assessment tool, as well as elucidating common mistypings. The final section contains recommendations for incorporating Enneagram work into a spiritual practice aimed at personal transformation. This book is, in my opinion, the ONLY one you need to begin your personal journey.

62 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for all enthusiasts of personality typing!, July 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Wisdom of the Enneagram: The Complete Guide to Psychological and Spiritual Growth for the Nine Personality Types (Paperback)

Those of us who have been following Riso's (and Hudson's) writings with gratitude and anticipation will celebrate their latest contribution to our growing understanding of the Enneagram. Each successive book, enriched with fresh insights, has explored this complex system of personality typing from a new angle. What's new about The Wisdom of the Enneagram?

Correctly identifying one's personality type is often difficult because the same traits can stem from very different, largely unconscious, inner dynamics. Both theorizing Fives and practical Ones, for example, can appear detached and logical. Based on matching two choices drawn from each of 2 sets of 3 descriptions, the new QUEST tool (pp. 13-18) is both simpler and more effective than their detailed RHETI questionnaire. The first group actually distinguishes Horney's assertive, withdrawn and compliant styles; whereas the second (or Harmonic) group corresponds to the authors' positive outlook, reactive and competency categories (pp.60-68). (It would be worth the effort to polish the wording of these 6 descriptions further to make them as accurate, neutral and balanced as possible.) You can then confirm your initial diagnosis by jumping to your specific Type Attitude Sorter (TAS) which rates your responses to 15 attitudes characteristic of your suspected type.

By distinguishing 9 (= 3 grades of healthy, average and unhealthy) levels in each type, Riso's 'vertical' analysis explained how an empathetic, people-pleasing Two, for example, could disintegrate into its seeming opposite, namely a domineering, self-centered Eight. This classification made it difficult to account for the curious ways in which healthy and unhealthy traits from different levels often combine to create contradictions characteristic of each type. In this regard, Helen Palmer's more 'intuitive' approach offered more colorful descriptions of the 'trap-door' mechanism through which principled Ones flirt with their repressed desires (compare p.114 on 'escape hatches'), or of the push-pull attraction that makes for the stormy relationships of tragic romantic Four. Now, by disassembling each type into a cluster of well-defined 'signatures' and focusing separately on each trait in turn, Riso and Hudson have largely recovered this lost territory. Such welcome nuances are seen in the application of new concepts such as Acting Out and the Security Point. Under stress, cerebral Fives act out, in the manner of unhealthy Sevens, the neglected appetite for sensory stimulation. The tough domineering Eight reveals its hidden vulnerability and tender feelings within the familiar circle of loved ones. This is a positive addition to Riso's previous critique and synthesis of Freudian, Hornevian, DSM-III(R) and other mainstream psychological theories. Riso was a Jesuit for thirteen years, and Hudson is an accredited specialist of East Asian religions. While endeavoring to demonstrate the centrality of the Enneagram to work, love and other sustained personal relationships (in books to be released soon), they never lose sight of the ultimate goal of self-fulfillment, of transcending one's type and thereby unleashing its full potential.

76 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive, though a bit diffuse..., June 13, 2000

By 

Alan F. Bradley "alabra" (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Wisdom of the Enneagram: The Complete Guide to Psychological and Spiritual Growth for the Nine Personality Types (Paperback)

I have purchased every Riso or Riso/Hudson project, my all time favorite being the revised, orange-covered "Personality Types." The style and content of "Wisdom of the Enneagram" is broader than "Personality Types" and perhaps tries to accomplish too much, with the effect of losing some of the clarity and succinctness of "Personality Types." BUT (!), ANY Riso/Hudson book about the Enneagram is a GOOD one and a MUST HAVE! There are lots of fresh insights and "spins" on Enneagram wisdom in this one. Of all the growing number of Enneagram authors out there, Don Riso has been, is, and will likely remain my favorite. His understanding of the Enneagram - in both theory and application - is rich and deep. Something about his interpretations seem to resonate more harmoniously with "how I see it", too. A definite "must" purchase to round out one's collection of Enneagram literature!