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Rating: 
Summary: Useful, but ...
Review: Don Riso and Russ Hudson are superb writers and teachers - their books are highly regarded, and deservedly so. But their test may be flawed. The advertised accuracy figures are actually for internal-consistency, not correctness. Somewhat deceptively, this crucial distinction is not apparent until one has already bought the product - for example, it is not noted in the advertising on this site. Internal consistency is certainly important, but most Enneagram tests have a high internal consistency (the WEPSS by Jerry Wagner is even better than the RHETI on this measure). And internal consistency is not the same as accuracy - this may seem like a mere technical distinction but it is critical. (Conspiracy theorists are usually self-consistent, but few would say they are accurate!) At least one Ph.D. dissertation (by Josie Dameyer) notes that another test - the Stanford Enneagram and Discovery Inventory and Guide (SEDIG) may be more likely to give the correct Enneagram type. The SEDIG, now called the Essential Enneagram Test, is part of David Daniels' book "The Essential Enneagram". The RHETI may be the most widely known test, but for research purposes there are a number of other tests that perform better, and are advertised more accurately.
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Summary: hello reader from san francisco
Review: I am a german student and I am searching information about enneagram-studies, cause I want to do my diplomwork about it. do you know josie dameyer or other researchers who did it? or do YOU have ideas, at which point in the ennegram-field I could do research? I will be glad to hear from you
Beate Helbling: beate-helbling@gmx.de
Rating:
Summary: tell me something I don't already know
Review: If you are looking for insight, look elsewhere beyond the Enneagram. This construct is great at illuminating qualities of oneself and others that are obvious. But in terms of really digging for deeper understanding, they are lacking. This is fun stuff to have, much like the astrological horrorscopes, the I-Ching, and tarot cards. They are fun, but not necessarily enlightening. The Meyers-Briggs can also tell you a lot about yourself, but again, I challenge you to find something from these types of personality inventories that you don't already know.
Not for people looking for insight, its a fun conversation piece.
Rating: 
Summary: *THE* Test for Accurate Enneagram Typing
Review: The Enneqagram was a fortuitous and happy discovery for me several years ago, going wonderfully beyond the hocus pocus of "human potential" and "self-realization" psycho-babble -- to cohenrently intergrate, in a series of compelling explanations, a whole range of seemingly disparate parts of one personality. To oversimplify, the Enneagram concept is one of 9 personality types, complete with its own vocabularly, and subtypes classified a) by degrees of healthy (integrated) vs. unhealthy (not integrated) states we each travel through at different times; and b) by each person's closeness also to some type other than her prinicpal type ("wings"). The RHETI ("Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator") analysis attempts to classify by how we have felt "during most of our lives", whether or not it is our feeling at the moment the test is taken. A sensible approach, once you understand and accept this one guideline. This RHETI series of "forced choice" questions is THE only Enneagram test I have ever seen, taken or "administered" to others I care for, which seems to ask the truly difficult questions, revealing type most accurately. "Forced choice" is lingo for a testing method that requires that no question on the "test" go unanswered. The "test taker" *must* choose an answer from test's exact two choices offered for a question -- i.e., ways s/he have typically felt throughout his/her life -- even though (as is fairly often the case for everyone) both proposed answers seem may equally and totally inapplicable and foreign ....or equally and totally 'right on'. Choices between such puzzling options are telling, like no others can be. I knew I was 'on to something' when, after trying the RHETI on my kids,family, friends and lovers, I dared try it on my... MOTHER! What greater insight could a son ever hope to have than to gain the Enneagram sort of insight into my dear, complex Mom's personality and her psychological underpinnings?!!! So I was full of anticipation as I began to take Mom -- age 88, and still sharper than anyone she knew -- through the questions. After a few of the "forced choice" questions, she squirmed uncomfortably, stopped abruptly and declared with finality: "I don't like this test!" She'd not allow me to ask even one more question. By the time she died not too long later, I still had no Enneagram answer to my maternal puzzle! Raised in a world aware (by whatever name) of at least some psychological perspectives, most of us do just fine over the hour or so required for thoughtfully answering all Qs, despite momentary, mild discomfort with the tough choices. The exercise can generate lots of laughter and side discussion! It could almosty remind someone of that odd board game I played only once in the early 70s -- "Group Therapy"! But this exercise is actually useful. The results are uncanny, and each person can then use their "type" to learn about how parts of their personality work and fit together. There is a large literature on Enneagram analysis. Helen Palmer seems to be the senior stateswoman in the field, and she is very sharp. But I find her descriptions overly pessimistic and austere. Riso & Hudson -- these guys -- are more to my liking in all they write.P>Different analysts 'name' these types differently, and the subtleties of the analysts' differences are interesting in and of themsleves. As a "Type 4" myself. I can now see how my interest with aesthetics, music and the Arts fits with my attraction to high drama, my ability to empathize with a friend in distress, or my recurrent feeling that life's rules were 'just not meant to apply to me', the outsider ... and a host of other peculiarities I did not understand about myself. I also have come to understand better under Enneagram analysis how some of the very same characteristics which work a certain way when my life is going well can subtly transform when the going gets rough and I am feeling far less "together". The often surprising light and shadow of each trait are here beautifully illuminated I have seen "quickie tests" for determining your type, including several on the web. (Look in Google under "Enneagram" for a ton of on-line stuff; there is now even EnneaMates for Internet dating to compete with Match.com!) The "quickies" are, well, like "quickies" generally -- empty and dissatisying. Instead, I recommend this more thorough test as the very best I have seen. It is a supremely useful entry into a fascinating and often brilliant field of thought, well worth the time of any person interested in understanding how people tick.
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