Rating: 
Summary: An outstanding key to insight on how people think
Review: .********************************************************* The theory is basically this: There are three main type of personality types. Feelers, Thinkers, and Relators. Each of these has three sub-types, and each of these sub-types has a healthy, average and unhealthy sub-sub-type. Additionally, your personality type varies depending on whether you are under stress, relaxed, or average (sometimes called childhood state). The Enneagram is an ancient symbol that diagrams the relationship of the different personality types move to other types depending on your state of mind. It is not the whole answer to how people think, but a large part of it. You will be amazed. Consider this. If you read this book and determine what personality type a friend or relation is, you can then predict, with a high degree of accuracy, how they will react. With time, you can get quite good at it. Some examples of the nine principal types: Helpers-the type of people that give you many small gifts, but then look for the big payoff, Performers-who sacrifice feeling for gold stars and high grades, Observers-who fear the unknown, and have a sense of awareness of their environment and understanding or people that is almost supernatural, Leaders-who see only black and white, and never shades of gray, and the Flakes, who break plans if something else more interesting comes along. There are nine of them. Study them all. Find out what personality type you are. Unless you are a type 7 you will find this very informative. If you are a type 7 it probably won't do you any good. Any book an the Enneagram is a book that will open your eyes, your vision will be expanded. Read it. ********************************************************* Conrad B. Senior
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Summary: A TOP NOTCH ENNEAGRAM BOOK!
Review: Amongst the myriad of books about personality, The Wisdom of the Enneagram stands out as one of the most clear, focussed, and nurturing. I love the charts, graphs, and explanations about high/low level functioning of the types as well as the easy flow used when describing an intricate theroy. This really should be required reading for all -- would improve all types of relationships and help reduce the divorce rate! For the person looking for answers about his or her life choices, this is a good place to begin.
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Summary: Its a Wonderful Life
Review: Any successful pilgramage requires that the traveler have knowledge of both the destination and of the path to be traveled in order to arrive at the destination. As a clinical psychotherapist, I have come to realize that this is especially true of the pilgramage to becoming fully alive! There are some incredibly helpful resources in religion, philosophy and psychology that give us insight into what being fully alive looks like. They detail the essense of this way of being and do it in such a way that something deep within us stirs with recognition. This stir of recognition moves us to know that there is "MORE" to us than we are. Unfortunately, these resources most often leave us frustrated in the learch between recognition and actualization. They help us recognize the "what", but give little insight into "how" to get there. Other resources point us in our search to "The Destination." Unfortunately, they fundamentally operate from the perceptual framework that believes we do not need an apriori recognition/validation of the destination. If we just "do it this way" and "take these steps down this path", then we will recognize the destination when we get there. Both resources are important, but incomplete. The "Wisdom of the Enneagram" provides both. The pilgram who reads and uses this "complete atlas" of the soul will find their recognition stirring within and their path unfolding before them. If caring for the Soul, yours and that of others,is for you, the path you travel, then The Wisdom of the Enneagram IS "the" essential! It clearly and concisely details the landscape of the Soul. Theoretically sophisticated and practically useable, it equipts the reader to DO the work, which sets us free to truly BE.
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Summary: Best for beginner and expert
Review: As someone who believes the Enneagram is the most profound and practical way of understanding ourselves and others, I use the Enneagram to help me increase personal and spiritual growth, enhance my work as a psychotherapist, and relate & communicate more appreciatively with others. Wisdom of the Enneagram is my favorite Enneagram book and the one I reccomend for both beginners and experts (though Don and Russ's other books are 5 star as well). I'm constantly impressed by how Don Riso and Russ Hudson can write such a comprehensive far ranging book of great depth and make it so readable and appealing. Especially since it is so well organized with many very interesting tables, charts, and sections; this is a book you will read and refer to again and again.
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Summary: A popular extension of Personality Types Revised Edition.
Review: Done in something of the format that made The Artist's Way such a popular success, Don Riso and Russ Hudson have made a fine, though busy, addition to their body of work. For me, nothing will ever replace their extraordinary accomplishments in Personality Types, Revised Edition; it will remain the "highly recommended" systemtatic bible and centerpiece for anyone truly studying and applying the enneagram in depth as its horizontal and vertical revelations unfold in an increasingly integral world. I found the omission of an index disappointing, but have nothing but gratitude and respect for anything Riso and Hudson add to the enneagram literature with their incomparable precision and vision. I don't know if I'd call this the "complete guide" to either psychological and spiritual growth or the nine basic types, but -- bravo, nonetheless.
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Summary: Comprehensive book on pyschology
Review: I am the biggest arm chair shrink in the world. This was my first book and I always go back to it for reference. Forget the "annegram" reviews. This is a book about personality types. This book clearly shows the nine personality types and explains them from healthy to unhealthy behavior. I cannot stress enough the importance of this book. If you are ever going to understand yourself and others you must know the pyschological basis of personalities. You will be writing down all of your friends and family names on the pages where they correspond. By doing so, you will be able to deal with difficult people and in an awe inspiring moment, be able to identify yourself and why you are the way you are. It is an amazing book and Riso is one of my all time favorite authors.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Source for Self Reference
Review: I found this book to be quite interesting. However, it did seem to emphasize the negative aspects of almost all of the personality types. Thus the 3 stars. It is probably the best beginners book for the enneagram. It goes into a lot of detail regarding the types, wings, etc.
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Summary: This book changed my life...really
Review: I have been looking for insight into my life (I'm a type four go fig) for what seems like an eternity. This book shined a giant flashlight of truth right in my eyes and to this day refuses to take it away. It even pegged everyone in my family down to our manipulations and quirks. Not Astrology, hell this book blows astrology out of the water! Get and it WILL change your life.
Rating:
Summary: This book changed my life...really
Review: I have been looking for insight into my life (I'm a type four go fig) for what seems like an eternity. This book shined a giant flashlight of truth right in my eyes and to this day refuses to take it away. It even pegged everyone in my family down to our manipulations and quirks. Not Astrology, hell this book blows astrology out of the water! Get and it WILL change your life.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive, though a bit diffuse...
Review: 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!
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