THE ENNEAGRAM: UNDERSTANDING YOURSELF AND THE OTHERS IN YOUR LIFE -- a framework for understanding ourselves and those around us

The Enneagram: Understanding Yourself and the Others in Your Life by Helen Palmer (1988, Harper & Row; 392 pages)

This is a book about a tool to self exploration and it is based on the model of the Enneagram. It is both an ancient and modern model based on an ancient Sufi teaching that describes nine different personality types and their interrelationships. The Enneagram helps us to recognize our own type, cope with issues, understand our work associates, lovers, family, and friends. It is also helpful to appreciate the predisposition that each type has for higher human capacities such as empathy, omniscience, and love. The Enneagram is considered part of an oral teaching tradition, and the material is still best transmitted by seeing and hearing groups of people of the same type speak about their lives.

The book is a compendium of the model. It is divided into two parts: the first one is an orientation to the Enneagram and includes a background of the system and an introduction to the types, and chapters that explain attention, intuition structure of the Enneagram diagram, and contributors to the system. The second part focuses on the nine points of the Enneagram, and includes a chapter per personality type. There is also an appendix with empirical research on the Enneagram model.

The book is an invaluable resource for those interested in practical guides to analyze systems of personality types to understand oneself and others in our lives. Fascinating and helpful, a must for those who need to work in a team.

Find this title in our catalog: The Enneagram

Recommended by: Maite

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