Rating: 
Summary: Understand Me, Understand You
Review: I am an INTJ, and always wondered why everyone wasn't like me. Well, it turns out that I make up less than 1% of the population, and this book was a great help in helping people to understand me, but also in giving me the information I need to realize that everyone is different, and everyone needs to be understood in a different manner. What might make total sense to an INTJ, might really hurt someone else's feelings. And getting passionate about an illogical point in an arguement completely backfires when dealing with someone like me. Everyone is different, and this books helps to at least start defining those differences into 16 general personality types. Now, there is still a ton of differences within a single type, but getting to 1 of 16 is a great start at dealing with those around you, as well as giving them some insight into your personality as well.
Rating:
Summary: Very Valuable
Review: If you have one of the more unusual personality types you probably have the life-long experience of the more common personality types telling you that you need to be more like them. I am an INTJ, and this book was the first validation of my personality that I ever experienced. This book told me it's okay to be the way I am. I don't need to change. Different personality types are just part of the wonderful diversity that makes the world an interesting place. This book made me more tolerant of other people and I hope it helps everyone who reads it in just that way.
Rating:
Summary: good, technical examination of the MBTI 'types'
Review: This is an excellent introduction to the MBTI 'types' - this book has a bit more technical jargon and reads more like a handbook than the other equally excellent, yet less technical book "Type Talk", which covers the same material. This book is full of interesting revalations, and when read in conjunction with 'please understand me II' and the abovementioned 'Type Talk', it is an excellent resource in helping to understand yourself and those around you.
Rating:
Summary: Great book but why not buy the most recent one?
Review: I find it strange that there are two "Please Understand Me" books on the market -- Isn't Please Understand Me II a more recent version? I should think you would want to buy the more recent, updated one. At any rate, this book is a revolutionary tool to help people understand and accept other people. We have used it in our family, and passed it out to dozens of friends who also found it helpful.
Rating: 
Summary: A Glimpse
Review: It's not so much the book that grabs you here (if you let it..), but the appeal of understanding something that you didn't before, well, at least getting a Glimpse. Light Bulbs do come on. It's amazing how the shortened MB test inside grabs people, at least if they let it. Even the most hardened can be engaged. I've often nudged people to give it a shot. The results can be astounding. Frequently, they want to rush right out and give it to others. I think that it's interesting that they see it as a gift they want to pass on. Men give it to wives and vice versa. It's appeal is multifaceted-it doesn't LABEL, it allows you to look at, or at least consider, other sides to yourself that you were subconsciously unaware of, it can take a great deal of stress out of your life, and so on. Perhaps this is a "Road Less Traveled" type phenomenon for the 2000's. One problem: I wish the author had not gone on to seemingly try to cash in on it's appeal by writing versions II,etc. That can suggest credibility problems.
Rating: 
Summary: An average introduction
Review: Here is a rarity, a system of personality types that resists "putting people in boxes". While there are descriptions of each of the sixteen types, they are general descriptions that leave plenty of room for individual deviations. I personally like this system of personality types more than the Enneagram for just that reason: while it is more superficial, it is less limiting. The purpose of this book is not only for self-discovery; it is also in order to appreciate the wide range of personality differences that exist. Less than illustrating personality types, the book focuses on general tendencies, thereby making it possible for two people to be the same type, and still be entirely different. The book does have its down sides, though. While the system is interesting and the book is anything but dry, it is written more like an outline than an actual book. When I finished the book, I felt dissatisfied; it touches on each subject briefly, only scratching the surface. The reader is left with a very general idea of the system, but little beyond that. Another drawback is the "compatibility" fiasco. In this book Keirsey posits that people are happiest when they marry their diametrical opposites--for example an INFP is advised to seek out an ESTJ. Never mind that this ensures that there is no common ground whatsoever, which one would suppose to be somewhat necessary. Luckily Keirsey clears this up in the sequel, and changes his thesis to the idea that people are most compatible when there is a combination of similarity and complementarity. But someone who does not read the sequel could end up seriously confused! I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a book that explores human nature, with the caveat that it be taken with a healthy grain of salt, and that the sequel is necessary for a full understanding. ...
Rating:
Summary: Want to know what makes people tick?
Review: Do you want to get an insight into why people act the way they do? Do you want to find out what makes people tick? "Please Understand Me" is a book about personality types and temperaments. These are the "predisposition" which often influence how those people in your life may act. Reading this book could give you a better understanding in dating and marital relationships, relationships with your children, and those with whom you work. I was first introduced to Keirsey and Bates' work during a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) training course. Information on psychological type and temperament in the Keirsey and Bates book is similar to that derived from the MBTI. Of particular interest is the matter of temperament, which in this book is an aggregation of similar personality types. The book includes the Keirsey Temperament Sorter (a personality test) together with instructions on how to score the instrument. You don't have to be professionally qualified to administer this test by the publisher of the instrument like you do with the MBTI. People are different, one from the other. Different people have varying strong and weak points in their personalities. An individual is the product of his or her personality or predisposition, upbringing and training, and environment. We need to celebrate and work together with the strengths of others. There should be no discrimination against people for personality type. We should emphasize the complementary aspects of personality in a relationship, whether that relationship be a family or work relationship. Hopefully with an understanding of the personality and temperament, we can understand others, work better together, and sustain loving relationships. I am an ISTJ type with a "Guardian" or "Epimethean" (SJ) temperament. This book has helped me at home and at work. This book is one of general interest. Those who typically read "Psychology Today" magazine will find this book interesting. College and graduate school psychology students and HR professionals will find this book useful. The value of this book is that it will lead a reader to a professional qualified to administer the MBTI. Consulting Psychologists Press, the publisher of the MBTI, requires the completion of a rigorous training course and examination to be qualified to administer and interpret the MBTI. If you are a college graduate, graduate student, or clergyman, personnel specialist, or mental health professional, the MBTI will have value to you. The authors acknowledge the MBTI in their introduction to "Please Understand Me," but suggest their book as providing answers to some questions. People who read this book will enjoy Isabel Briggs Myers' "Gifts Differing" and Otto Kroeger and Janet M. Thuesen's "Type Talk," and "Type Talk at Work."
Rating:
Summary: read!
Review: so this book may take a while to do the test, but when you find out your personality you can really help yourself in ways. i am an intp, described as an architect. i didnt know what to do with my self and after i read this book i decided to become an architect, making a lot of money!!!
Rating:
Summary: A valuable tool for improving all of your relationships!
Review: I tend to be very skeptical of any book that smacks of 'self help,' but "Please Understand Me" has been one of my most frequently referred-to books ever since I bought my first copy five years ago. I don't ordinarily push books onto friends and family, but somehow or other I can never keep myself from INSISTING that others read--and, most importantly--USE it. I've always known I'm a kook, but never really understood why. I took the Kiersey Temperament Sorter in the front of the book, and found that I am split between INTP and INTJ, two of the rarest personality types. Most of my family members are SPs and SJs--small wonder they think I'm a wacko! And no wonder I kept thinking they were uptight, or lacking in imagination. No wonder they don't get my jokes (which are not really jokes--and if you don't get that, you need to read this book <laughs>). The light "Please Understand Me" has cast on my relationships with my family and friends has been of inestimable benefit. Sure, my ESTP father drives me nuts, but now I understand why, and it allows me to step back and say, "that's how he is--consider this before tearing off on a rant, will you?" It also helps me understand why I am so close to my INFP kid sister, but fought constantly with an ISTJ ex-boyfriend. By understanding how the different types relate to the world and the people around them, it is easier to understand why they behave as they do. It becomes easier to be more compassionate. Rather than lashing out in irritation and frustration because I assume I know why someone is acting the way he or she does, I can use what I know about the Myers-Briggs types and try to see the world through that person's eyes. Some very problematic relationships have been profoundly changed for the better, as a result. I recently bought "Please Understand Me II," and recommend it as a companion volume; it expands on the ideas here, and is gives more in-depth analysis of the types, but this is really where you should start if you're interested in Myers-Briggs. If you're stuck at Christmastime, wondering what to get your family members, maybe you could give everyone a copy of this book. Get them to take the personality test, and compare notes--especially with people you've never really gotten along with. What better gift than mutual understanding?
Rating:
Summary: INTP Female Loves This Book
Review: Great book. So much fun to have friends and loved ones do a test. It helps me to understand and love them for who they are. So interesting to read about how other people communicate, process information, learn, etc.
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