Rating: 
Summary: Excellent guide for understanding your behavior !!
Review: If you want to understand the person you are, you would want to get this book! The 'Spirit-Controlled Temperament' gives you an efficient outlook on the four different temperaments. Melancholy-the thinker, sanguine-the fast talker, phlematic-the laid back one, and choleric-the quick tempered one. You'll definitely find yourself in one of these types of characters.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent read for Christians and non-believers alike
Review: LaHaye does an excellent job of explaining the good AND bad of each of the 4 temperament types. His plain language description and 'life-like' examples make it easy to understand your neighbor, coworker or better...your spouse. I found this book a tremendous help - the temperament analysis test offered in the back was AMAZING in it's accuracy. I would suggest this a must-read for anyone who really needs to understand others (which is all of us...!) As a believer myself - I know that we're doomed to exist in the 'bad' side of our temperaments - it's natural - and LaHaye does a good job of helping the reader understand how he/she can 'choose' to find the good side and lift it up to the top.
Rating: 
Summary: Read Huckleberry Finn instead
Review: Remember the King prancing around as a reformed pirate, at the camp meeting out in the woods while the Duke ripped off the print shop back in town? The King made out great that day, 80 dollars and more. LaHaye's made a lot more with this book. The King and the Duke wound up getting tarred and feathered, ridden on a rail.
When's Lahaye going to get shown up for what he is? How come 19th Century Arkansaw had more sense than 21st Century Middle America?
Rating:
Summary: Book worth reading
Review: The minute I got into this book and started reading about the different temperments, I was nodding and saying, "yea, that's me. Oh yea that is me, too." The best part is I often wonder if I could ever change or get rid of my weaknesses. Now I realize that it is a part of my temperment and I don't need to change it but find out how to turn my weaknesses into God's glory.
Rating:
Summary: Book worth reading
Review: The minute I got into this book and started reading about the different temperments, I was nodding and saying, "yea, that's me. Oh yea that is me, too." The best part is I often wonder if I could ever change or get rid of my weaknesses. Now I realize that it is a part of my temperment and I don't need to change it but find out how to turn my weaknesses into God's glory.
Rating:
Summary: Intensely weird reappropriation of discredited pagan science
Review: The thing that disturbs me most about this book's popularity is the fact that it ironically tries to get Christians to revert to a way of conceiving human personality that was 100% derived from Classic pagan thought. Unfortunately, most Christians do not know the historical background of the ideas LaHaye tries to resurrect, and therefore usually just assume that LaHaye knows what he is talking about. LaHaye's complete lack of knowledge therefore does great harm.Inspired initially by C. S. Lewis (another Christian writer) and Keith Thomas, I have over the past few years been reading a great deal about the world view that held sway from the time of the Greeks until the early 17th century, a worldview formed profoundly by Aristotelian science and Platonic philosophy. One of the core aspects of this rightfully rejected worldview was the notion of the four elements--air, fire, water, and earth--which undergirded all the scientific, magical, and astrological beliefs of the period. The psychological theories--in particular the theory of the four humours--was based entirely on this notion of four consitutive elements. The theory was abandoned in the 17th century after the work of scientists (especially the Christian chemist Robert Boyle) showed that the Aristotelian basis for a belief in the four elements was incorrect. One of the main things to remember is that the belief in the four elements (and hence the four humours) was in the strictest sense a heritage of paganism. LaHaye's book, of course, is a study of the Christian personality by constant referral to this classically pagan world view. It is important to stress that this world view, while adopted later by many Christian thinkers, was not at all developed by Christian thinkers and theologians. Given all of this, it was extraordinarily surreal to find a fundamentalist Christian attempt to resurrect a completely discredited pagan conception of human personality. I can understand why many late-20th century and early 21st century Christians can find this book compelling. LaHaye appears to be going back to a mode of those thought that predates Freud. But the problem is not that he goes back before Freud, but that the theses of the book are absurd. He does not harken back to a prior "Christian" way of thinking, but a way of thinking that was completely and irrefutably discarded by Christian scientists in the 17th century. But someone with a strong sense of history might find this rather bizarre book rather entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: Stick with "Left Behind"
Review: This book begins with a description of the four humors theory applied to temperament instead of medicine (since the body fluids this theory was originally based on are nonexistent). It's not the first time I've seen this idea, but I am wondering why it is better than the many, many other attempts to categorize people out there. It's not based on the Bible at all, which makes me wonder about Tim Lahaye's claim that this book started out as a set of sermon outlines. If I went to a church and the sermon was on something besides the Bible, I wouldn't go back to that church! As far as I know, there isn't a lot of research behind it either, though it is old. Eventually we finally get back to the Bible with a study on the fruit of the spirit. No problems there. Then Tim Lahaye attempts to explain and cure some of the common ailments of believers. I nearly choked when he stated that selfishness is the root cause of depression. Seeing as he apparently knows so much as to write a whole book on depression, I thought somewhere he would have noticed that introspection and self-centeredness are common symptoms of depression. He continues with a story about confronting a depressed friend about her selfishness. Unfortunately, she wouldn't believe him, and is still depressed. With all due respect, saying selfishness is the cause of depression is like saying sneezing is the cause of colds, and telling a depressed person to stop being selfish will be about as effective as telling a person with a cold to stop sneezing! Forgive my insistence on this particular point, but I have seen and experienced firsthand so many Christians rejecting their fellow believers because of their depression, anxiety, mental problems, or whatever. They think that this would never, ever happen to a true Christian, and have books like this one as their proof. Because of this belief, which conveniently overlooks David, Elijah, and Jesus, many people have been hurt. Tim Lahaye's theories do not come from the Bible, as much as they claim to be Biblical. I suggest that Tim Lahaye, as a pastor and Bible scholar, not a psychologist, stick to those areas he is qualified in rather than constructing elaborate theories in areas where he apparently knows very little.
Rating:
Summary: A great book for learning about everyone's behavior
Review: This book is a great learning tool into understanding why people act the way they do. It would be an awesome book for married couples to read. It really helps you to see that some things people do and say are just part of who they are and they can't control them. It also helps you learn how to change your weaknesses by being Spirit-controlled. Your weaknesses can be turned into strengths by the power of the Holy Spirit!
Rating:
Summary: Invaluable tool for success in life
Review: This book is a wonderful continuation on the theme set in, "Your Temperament: Discover its Potential". They are like 'soup and sandwich' .. they are so complimentary, that you shouldn't do one without the other. I have developed and entire seminar and workshop series over the past 15 years based upon a great deal of what I learned from reading and applying the information obtained from these two books. Through the seminars and recommending several of Tim's books on Temperament, I have seen, first-hand, literally dozens of people who have had major positive changes occur in their lives. I know of not a single person, who seriously looked at the knowledge of temperament as an informational tool to engage personal development, who has not benefited. But, like all tools, they are incapable of 'performing' until put into action. The knowledge of the 'temperaments' gives you the basis for understanding human nature: the foundation of who we are and why we do what we do. "Spirit-Controlled Temperament" .. moves the bar up a level and into a whole new dimension: the spiritual dimension. The reader is shown that the development of their understanding of temperaments is more than just a physical exercise. Dr. LaHaye shows the value of looking deeper into the awesome potential of the Temperaments; looking at them in the light of spiritual understanding. Again, a tool's potential is never fully realized until a 'skilled' craftsman puts it into service. And one does NOT become a 'skilled craftsman' without an 'extra measure' of outside influence. Starting at 'square-one', with an understanding of the the 'rules of engagement' in life, and a relatively clear concept of the 'game-plan', is so much less painful than landing in the middle of the 'treadmill of life' with no clue as to the rules or the plan. This is the extreme value a thorough knowledge of the temperaments can provide. Imagine, the magnificent gift a parent can bestow upon their children by having command over their own temperament and then passing this knowledge on to the next generation, through example and instruction. What a grand gift to ALL of society! "Spirit-Controlled Temperament" provides valuable information to set that foundation for the reader. I strongly recommend finding a copy of "Your Temperament: Disover its Potential" and reading and refer to it regularly. It's out-of-print, but used copies can be found. I did, right here on Amazon.
Rating:
Summary: Invaluable tool for success in life
Review: This book is a wonderful continuation on the theme set in, "Your Temperament: Discover its Potential". They are like 'soup and sandwich' .. they are so complimentary, that you shouldn't do one without the other. I have developed and entire seminar and workshop series over the past 15 years based upon a great deal of what I learned from reading and applying the information obtained from these two books. Through the seminars and recommending several of Tim's books on Temperament, I have seen, first-hand, literally dozens of people who have had major positive changes occur in their lives. I know of not a single person, who seriously looked at the knowledge of temperament as an informational tool to engage personal development, who has not benefited. But, like all tools, they are incapable of 'performing' until put into action. The knowledge of the 'temperaments' gives you the basis for understanding human nature: the foundation of who we are and why we do what we do. "Spirit-Controlled Temperament" .. moves the bar up a level and into a whole new dimension: the spiritual dimension. The reader is shown that the development of their understanding of temperaments is more than just a physical exercise. Dr. LaHaye shows the value of looking deeper into the awesome potential of the Temperaments; looking at them in the light of spiritual understanding. Again, a tool's potential is never fully realized until a 'skilled' craftsman puts it into service. And one does NOT become a 'skilled craftsman' without an 'extra measure' of outside influence. Starting at 'square-one', with an understanding of the the 'rules of engagement' in life, and a relatively clear concept of the 'game-plan', is so much less painful than landing in the middle of the 'treadmill of life' with no clue as to the rules or the plan. This is the extreme value a thorough knowledge of the temperaments can provide. Imagine, the magnificent gift a parent can bestow upon their children by having command over their own temperament and then passing this knowledge on to the next generation, through example and instruction. What a grand gift to ALL of society! "Spirit-Controlled Temperament" provides valuable information to set that foundation for the reader. I strongly recommend finding a copy of "Your Temperament: Disover its Potential" and reading and refer to it regularly. It's out-of-print, but used copies can be found. I did, right here on Amazon.
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