Rating: 
Summary: the real history of the enneagram
Review: The history of the enneagram presented in these personality typing books is false; the real one is simple enough to find out about for interested parties. Ichazo pieced together a method of labeling people that seems to be mostly distilled from fragments published by the followers of Gurdjieff and hung them around the nine-sided visual symbol; the even more fraudulent Naranjo then modifed them according to modern western psychological disorders (the similarity, especially to the DSM categories, is obvious); then a gaggle of gullible new-agers, most of whom know little enough about western psychology and are not even capable of understanding Gurdjieff, believed all the unsupported nonsense about this coming from ancient Sufis. Nevertheless, you can indeed learn something about personality types by reading the Riso version of these books; just take all this with a mine of salt and avoid the more glassy-eyed versions such as Palmer's.
Rating: 
Summary: A good start
Review: This book has good insight into the personality types and can really open your eyes. It has a chapter for each type with a quiz at the beginning, quotes, levels of development, descriptions of behaviors or preoccupations, tips for breaking free of them, and profiles for each wing and variant. I found it very informative and easy to read, so I would recommend it to beginners. The only problem for me was that at the end of each chapter, it goes into this mystical talk about spiritual growth and "Essence." That may appeal to some, but it got on my nerves. (For someone who merely wants to the system from a logical viewpoint without so much spiritual mumbo-jumbo, ... Aside from that, this is a great book.
Rating:
Summary: A good start
Review: This book has good insight into the personality types and can really open your eyes. It has a chapter for each type with a quiz at the beginning, quotes, levels of development, descriptions of behaviors or preoccupations, tips for breaking free of them, and profiles for each wing and variant. I found it very informative and easy to read, so I would recommend it to beginners. The only problem for me was that at the end of each chapter, it goes into this mystical talk about spiritual growth and "Essence." That may appeal to some, but it got on my nerves. (For someone who merely wants to the system from a logical viewpoint without so much spiritual mumbo-jumbo, ... Aside from that, this is a great book.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent resource
Review: This wonderful book is useful as an introduction to readers who are discovering the Enneagram for the first time while also being full of deep insights and helpful exercises for people who want to use the Enneagram to live more fully. As psychologist I recommend it to many of my clients and I use it as a textbook for seminars. The authors clearly have lived with this material and write about it with great wisdom. I have been a student of the Enneagram for many years, and this is the book I always return to.
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Summary: A must read for all enthusiasts of personality typing!
Review: 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.
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Summary: The most readable, comprehensive explanation yet available.
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Riso and Hudson have done it again!
Review: Yet another excellent book on this extraordinary personality typing system from best-selling authors Don Riso and Russ Hudson. They keep taking this material deeper and deeper, and bringing their readers ever more thoughtful insights into the power of the Enneagram, which has broad applications in the realms of both work and love. A must-read.
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