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Summary: If Self-Help Books Are Tools, This Book Is a Hardware Store
Review: There are a lot of self-help books out there, all of which promise to give you the tools you need to maintain and improve the quality of your life. _Please Understand Me_ delivers on that promise.<BR> This book has two separate, but related, virtues. First, it contains some of the best descriptions ever written of the sixteen types defined in the Myers-Briggs personality model. Unlike astrological descriptions, which tend to offer useless generalities ("Today you will breathe air!"), Keirsey's portraits of the sixteen types are written clearly and specifically, allowing readers to recognize their individual types as distinct from others and thus leading to real self-understanding. This section alone makes _Please Understand Me_ worth its cover price, but the truly unique aspect of this book is its description of Keirsey's theory of temperaments.<BR> According to Keirsey, the sixteen types can be further grouped into four temperaments: the NF "Idealist" (consisting
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Summary: Don't consult a psychic! Buy this book instead!
Review: Who would make your best mate? This book tells you. What type of careers are best for you? This book tells you. What is your parenting style? This book tells you. How do you view money? This book tells you. Just answer 70 easy short questions and voila! find out which one of 16 different personality types you are. What does this mean? Well, are you extroverted or introverted; thinking or feeling; judging or percieving; use intuition or sensation? The unique combination of these four types forms your personality. Discovering this is a very affirming experience. Suddenly the decisions you have made--wrong or right--make sense in light of who you are. You don't need to read this book from cover to cover; instead you'll find yourself skipping from page to page and section to section. Extra scoring pages are in the back of the book so you can administer this test to your family and friends. So far this book has a perfect batting average with everyone who has "consulted" it. True confession time: I stole this book off my mom's shelf and since I've had it, it hasn't gathered any dust...my brother has it now, and there is a long line behind him waiting for it
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Summary: Get to know how people "tick"
Review: This book was recommended to me by my minister as "pre-marital counseling" and it hits the nail on the head when depicting personality types. It's almost spooky -- as if it were written just for you. This book lays out every aspect of each personality; it's almost like a window into how a person thinks
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Summary: Amazingly accurate at classifying our personality types!
Review: Fill out the quiz form. Find your personality type.
And THEN let the person who knows you the best read
the description of the personality type. They will
probably fall over in *shock* wondering how amazingly
accurate the description is!
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Summary: A valuable resource
Review: This book helps the reader understand why people behave the way they do. It uses the Myers-Briggs type indicator to define sixteen different personality types. It describes, in detail, the sixteen different types. The reader may take the test at the beginning of the book to discover his or her own type. A person can be either an extrovert (E) or an introvert (I), intuitive (N) or sensing (S), thinking (T) or feeling (F), and judging (J) or perceiving (P). The book emphasizes that no personality type is better than another. This book suggests good professions for each type of personality and tips for dealing with people of different types.
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Summary: This Book Changed My Life
Review: I'll try to keep it short- the negative reviewers must not have really read this incredible book. I read it in 1980 while in college and found out the reason why I always felt like an "alien" in grade school even though I was popular. Reading about my ENTP temperament finally allowed me to appreciate parts of myself and not compare myself to all my SJ and SP friends! It even made me appreciate a family member that before I thought I'd never get along with. I mistook her non-verbal personality as hostile- then she took the test and I found out she was an ISFP- I felt like I was looking into her very (artistic) soul as I read the words that described her exactly. Now I value her deeply. I've given this book to many friends who all agree with me that above any other "self helper" none other even comes close to the insight this offers. I'm using it with my high school students this spring. (Thanks Xerox!)
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Summary: How to Understand Yourself and Those Around You
Review: +++++
This easy-to-read book, by clinical psychologists David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates, is about character and temperament types. Character is the integration of all traits to yield a unified whole which reveals the nature or personality of a person. Temperament is an aspect of a person's general make-up characterized by dispositions toward particular patterns of behavior (for example, emotional reactions and mood shifts).
The authors explain the purpose of their book:
"The point of this book is that people are different from each other, and that no amount of getting after them is going to change them. Nor is there any reason to change them, because the differences are probably good, not bad."
The book begins by making the reader aware that there are four pairs of "dimensions of difference":
(1) (Extroversion vs Introversion) or (E vs I)
(2) (iNtuition vs Sensation) or (N vs S)
(3) (Thinking vs Feeling) or (T vs F)
(4) (Judging vs Perceiving) or (J vs P).
All these dimensions are thoroughly explained. These are very important and form the basis of the entire book.
There is a page in this book that summarizes these four dimensions. I suggest photocopying this page and keeping it for easy reference in order to get maximum benefit from the rest of the book.
From these four pairs of dimensions of difference, it has been determined that there are four temperament types that consist of combinations of two of the above letters. For example, there are SPs (Sensation/Perceiving temperament). This is also called the "Dionysian" temperament. These temperament types are well explained.
From these have emerged sixteen different personality or character types that consist of four letters each. For example, there is the INTJ (Introvert/iNtuition/Thinking/Judging). This type is also known as the "scientist." In the appendix of the book, each of these sixteen types is discussed.
The rest of the book has interesting chapters on mating & temperament, temperament in children, and temperament in leading.
A feature of this book is that it enables you to determine your own character type. The reader does this by completing "The Keirsey Temperament Sorter" which consists of seventy questions. There are no right or wrong answers to these questions. (For those with some psychology background, this sorter is based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test.)
Finally, there is a second version of this book that has much more psycho-babble. This book has no psycho-babble and is easy to follow.
In conclusion, read this book to understand why people are different from each other and why that's OK!
(first published 1978; 5 chapters; main narrative of 170 pages; appendix; bibliography)
+++++
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Summary: Useful and rational
Review: "Please Understand Me" is a clear description of the 4 variables in Briggs-Meyer personality types. It is fairly simple to understand. One is either introverted or extroverted. One looks at the world through one's senses, or through intuition. One evaluates the world through thought, or through feelings. One prefers the world either structured, or open-ended. Each of these preferences can be mild, moderate, or intense, and the way the four preferences can be combined creates 16 personality types. Yet, with variations in intensity, there is ample room to understand the true range of human personality.
"Please Understand Me" and "Please Understand Me II" are two completely different books, not an original and updated version of the same book. "Please Understand Me" covers the basics, understanding what each letter means, and the way they combine. "Please Understand Me II" is a detailed description of each of the 16 personality types, carefully structured to allow easy comparison. It would be difficult to understand for anyone not already familiar with the Briggs-Meyers personality type system from "Please Understand Me" or another basic book.
While the "Please Understand Me" system can be interesting as a means of self-analysis, it is most useful when turned outwards, as a way of understanding the people around you, and as a way of planning your actions for maximum effectiveness.
For example, when planning a party, it can be easy to slip into planning only the types of activities that you like. But your guests will be of all personality types. So consider - the extrovert's may love a loud dance floor, but the introverts will need a quite space to recharge now and then. Sensing types will love the stimulation of good food, good music, etc. Intuitive types may want a space to chat. Judging types will want an idea of what to expect, perceiving types will want room for spontaneity. So invite a few SJ's to show up early and help set up. Let the SP's bring some excitement. The NFs will love making sure everyone feels pampered and appreciated. And the NTs will be ready to understand any possible crisis, and solve any technical problem that may arise.
This is not a way of ranking personal development through "stages," or of telling you what you should be. It is a way of understanding the world for what it is, and people for what they are. At times it can seem almost ruthlessly pragmatic, such as when discussing leadership types, and how to lead different types of people. Yet it can also be idealistic, seeing the role of a leader as one of understanding and inspiring followers, and the importance of appreciating people in a way that matters to the person being appreciated.
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Summary: If you only knew
Review: Despite its cheesy title, this book is not only a lot of fun to read and test out on friends and family, but it's also helpful and informative. It was given to me by a guidance counselor while I was in high school, and being an INFJ, it helped me understand myself and others better. I think we should be discussing this stuff in classrooms, especially classrooms of young kids, not as a model of absolutisms or concrete scientific fact, but as a method for teaching tolerance for different types of people. I really think these temperments are legit, and it inspired me to read about Jungian psychology. I've taken the test a few different times over the span of the past several years to see if my type had changed as a way of testing the Myers-Briggs-based test itself, and I've always come up w/INFJ. At the risk of sounding narcissistic, I also find that when I compare INFJ w/other types, the profile of INFJs most closely describes me so I think the test is accurate. It's not an exact science, but it's still useful.
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Summary: Please understand yourself!
Review: Everyone wants to be understood, loved, respected. But, few understand themselves to begin with. Know thyself! These two words are full of so much mystery. If you want to crack the code of your own psychological DNA, this book is a great start.It is a great interpretation and practical application of the Myers Briggs test and psychological theory. The test in the book is as accurate and detailed as any test you can take online. What is good about taking the manual test, is that it really improves your understanding on why you scored the way you did on each of the different four psychological axis. When you take a test online, it typically spits out a result, but you don't get to review the underlying data that you just inputted. This book can save you thousands of dollars in expensive psychological testing,and psycho analysis.
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