Rating: 
Summary: Big Disappointment
Review: _Gifts Differing_ sets out to explain the theory behind the Meyers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). I was looking forward to reading this book, because I hoped that it would expand my knowledge and understanding of type theory. I wanted a deeper understanding so I could bring my knowledge of type theory to bear in even more contexts than I do already.I anticipated an eloquently written and stimulating outline of Type theory, but was discouraged by what I found in the book. The writing was dry and bland, and I often found myself reading several paragraphs before I realized that I didn't remember one thing that I had read. Also, the book's target audience seemed to be inconsistent. At times the authors seemed to be writing for someone who had never before studied the MBTI, and at other times they seemed to be writing for people who were already expert at the system. For example, they frequently wrote of effect introverted and extraverted forms of a process have on a personality, yet they never explained what the differences were between the introverted and extraverted forms of a function. The last part of the book contains several chapters which try to relate common experiences to type theory. There's a chapter on marriage, choice of occupation, early childhood learning, and a couple others. These chapters were all duds without exception, and the chapter on childhood was the most irrelevant. They made a brief mention of the cognitive processes at work in early childhood, and spent the rest of the chapter proselyzing on how to raise our children, how we should accept them for whatever type they are, etc.. Overall, this book contained a few nuggets of useful information, but the rest was poorly explained, poorly organized, and poorly written. Not recommended.
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