Dynamics of Personality Type : Understanding and Applying Jung's Cognitive Processes

Rating:
Summary: Practical material for type professionals
Review: As an accredited MBTI(R) professional, I have been administering the instrument for over 10 years primarily in organizational settings. I really appreciate the practical nature of Berens' book and its immediate applicability to employees in the workplace.

My experience is that many novices in the field of personality type make erroneous assumptions about the way the cognitive processes operate, and confuse Jung's psychological terminology with everyday word usage. For example, some people mistakenly regard a Judging function as being "judgmental". Berens is careful to define her terms (as one would expect an INTP to do), and her descriptions of the way different cognitive processes are manifested are well-researched and well-considered. She manages to keep her descriptions of the functions content-free, and doesn't confuse functions with traits, which so many people mistakenly do.

An error that many people make is assuming that personality type can be explained by simple addition of the component letters in the MBTI code. Nothing could be further from the truth! An ENFP is not E+N+F+P. Berens makes it very clear that, although she is discussing the cognitive processes in isolation, they must always be considered in the context of the "whole" type. This is a valuable distinction that many people, even qualified professionals, often overlook.

There is an unfortunate tendency for people to take the MBTI and assume that the results it offers are final, whereas even the developers of the instrument will tell you that it is never more than 70% accurate. Consequently, many people labor under the delusion that they are a particular type "because the MBTI said so". These people may then read descriptions of their type and become confused or even reject what they read because it doesn't match their own experience.

Berens very sensibly encourages "self-discovery" when it comes to exploring one's personality type. She believes that each person is the best judge of their own type, provided they are given sufficient resources to determine that type. In my experience, the best personality type results are achieved through a combination of live workshops, experiential exercises, and access to a variety of high quality type-related reading materials. The best resources are those which approach personality type from several different perspectives, including the use of an instrument like the MBTI; explanations of Temperament theory; social styles; and cognitive processes. This book is naturally relevant to the latter.

Another valuable section of this book is Berens' interpretation of Dr. John Beebe's archetypal mappings. I've heard Dr. Beebe speak on several occasions and his theories can be quite complex and daunting. Berens simplifies Beebe's ideas without trivializing them, and makes them more accessible to the layperson.

Although this is an excellent book for beginners, it also contains enough "meat" to satisfy an experienced personality type professional such as myself. While it isn't very thick, it contains more useful material than many texts ten times its weight, and has become an indispensable addition to my training toolbox. There are sections on learning styles, interpersonal communication, and problem solving which are extremely relevant in the workplace, and there are a host of exercises and diagrams that assist me when presenting personality type to my clients.

It's worth mentioning here that Berens' book is a relatively recent publication and incorporates many current trends in psychological type that earlier books will not mention. For example, MBTI training originally stressed four "function/attitude" pairs with a distinct hierarchy, and with decreasing proficiency assigned to each. These are often called the four "dichotomies," and they normally consist of choices between E/I, S/N, T/F, and J/P. Harold Grant's work on Type Development advanced the theory that we achieve greater proficiency with each function in our hierarchy as we age.

Nowadays, the prevailing view is that all 8 function/attitudes are accessible, to a greater or lesser extent, to all personality types, depending on a variety of factors, including age and environment. This new perspective minimizes the sort of stereotyping and "pigeonholing" that often occurred with the old methodology. Berens explains this concept clearly and succinctly in this book.

By invoking Jung's original term "cognitive process" to refer to a "function/attitude", Berens follows this modern trend toward terminology that is more representative of the true meaning of those words. Although she uses the familiar MBTI letters in her book, she is careful to explain the psychological meaning of each in order to reduce the confusion that usually arises when explaining these terms.

This is an excellent book, and I recommend it to the psychological type professional and beginner alike.

Rating:
Summary: Delivered what was expected...
Review: Contrary to what some others have said, this book delivered exactly what it said it would. It is cleary a beginners book (only 60 pages) and states up front that was designed for that purpose. The book does not make any promises that it doesn't deliver on. I am an MBTI certified practitioner and felt it gave me the push to the next level that I was looking for. I would agree that Lenore Thomson's book Personality Type: An Owner's Manual is a much more comprehensive resource, but this is a very good starter. I very much appreciated the inclusion/adaptation of John Beebe's work with the Jungian functions that differs slightly from Lenore Thomson's perspective - (I think!). Anyway, the book is a great value and from someone that has been using type since 1985--it's a great resource.

Rating:
Summary: Probably good for beginners
Review: I felt the best part of this excellent book was the information about exploring the "Shadow" parts of your personality and how you can transform them with awareness into positive processes that work for you. I knew something about Types from previous reading but this book expanded my knowledge considerably.

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Summary: Worst MBTI related published material I've ever seen
Review: This booklet explains how to translate between people's MBTI types such as "INTP" and their cognitive processes such as "dominant Ti with auxiliary Ne." The explanations of the cognitive processes themselves are the worst I've ever seen. For instance, Ti is described by reference to apples as follows: "Think about those apples again. What kinds of things are apples anyway? List the categories that apples fall into." This is incorrect, has nothing to do with Ti (which is a judging function), and promises to be misleading to anyone not already very familiar with MBTI. Some reviewers have noted that other books don't talk about cognitive processes. This is incorrect. Isabel Briggs Myers' Gifts Differing explains cognitive processes and is as a whole an excellent book. Lenore Thomson's Personality Type: An Owner's Manual focuses specifically on explaining the cognitive processes in their dominant and auxiliary roles and does an excellent job of it. Naomi L. Quenk's Beside Ourselves focuses on cognitive processes in their inferior and tertiary roles, and also does an excellent job of it. If the price of those books is what's making you consider buying this booklet, then consider that free explanations of how to translate MBTI types to cognitive processes exist online (teamtechnology in the UK is one site at time of this writing) and that this booklet has nothing else to offer. There's no reason to buy this unless your intention is to mislead someone about the nature of the cognitive processes. As an illustration of the value of this booklet, consider that I gave it as a gift to a friend of mine who is also familiar with MBTI, are who upon reading the alleged description of his dominant function (he's ENTJ), proceeded to put the booklet in the trash. It's that bad. (I'm INTP.)