Reviews of Type Books: Read First Post

[alcea rosea]

What's your goal here? Just career, or more broad?

I really liked Please Understand Me II by David Keirsey. He's a good people-watcher and rather thorough.

I'm simply very interested in MBTI and learning more about it.

I already have Keirseys Please Understand Me I & II as well as Keirseys Portraits of temperaments. I also have quite many other MBTI books.

I quess it's just my Si time in life: Reviewing and recalling past experiences and seeking detailed data.

[OctaviaCaesar]

I haven't read any of the books you mentioned, but you might like Renee Baron's What Type Am I?: Discover Who You Really Are.

[proteanmix]

Merged posts from MBTI books: Opinions?

[Gabe]

I use the amazon "search in this book" feature to read pieces of books by Dario Nardi, John Beebe, and Marie-Louis Von Franz. And I own the Berens-Nardi 16 types booklet.

[TenebrousReflection]

I have thought of buying the some of the following books. Do you know them? Are they any good? :confused:

1. Building Blocks of Personality Type: A Guide to Using the Eight-Process Model of Personality Type by Leona Haas and John Beebe

I'm currently reading this one and find it a good book so far. More detail on each of the cognitive processes than any other book I've read so far. The thing I like most about it is it has a section for each process about how outsiders might see a person with that as their dominant process. It also gives examples of how/when the processes are used and comments from people that self-identify as that type (tho I'm always skeptical about those being from mistyped persons, I haven't seen anything thats made me cringe as plain wrong so far.) It may be addressed in later chapters, but the weakness is that it really only shows each process in its dominant form, so trying to use the material to identify auxiliary, tertiary or aspirational process isn't quite as helpful (its still good for understanding the processes, but some of the descriptions are things I think will only show up as a dominant process).

4. The 16 Personality Types, Descriptions for Self-Discovery by Linda V. Berens and Dario Nardi

I have this booklet as well. Its very small and has a couple pages for each type as well. Its a nice helpful tool to have around, but by its more useful when used as a companion to other material.

I've read PMUII and its a good intro to type theory but I think at least for NFs, the specifics for types he list are poor descriptions (his overview of NFs in general is very good and matches me quite well, but neither of his descriptions for INFP or INFJ seemed a good match to me) - (this is an example where you could read that, ignore his descriptions and use "the 16 personality types, descriptions for self-discovery" along with it.)

Overall I'd recommend Building Blocks of Personality Type: A Guide to Using the Eight-Process Model of Personality to anyone before PMUII (it has some more advanced concepts, but its still written in a way that it could be used as an introductory book), but PMUII has the advantage that you can usually find a used version of it for cheap (possibly even at a library), and even tho I think there are better books, its still a good one to have in your collection.

I've only read a little bit of it, but I'd also recommend the book by Lenore Thomson reviewed earlier in this thread (its on my to read list after building blocks).

[alcea rosea]

I'm currently reading this one and find it a good book so far. More detail on each of the cognitive processes than any other book I've read so far. The thing I like most about it is it has a section for each process about how outsiders might see a person with that as their dominant process. It also gives examples of how/when the processes are used and comments from people that self-identify as that type (tho I'm always skeptical about those being from mistyped persons, I haven't seen anything thats made me cringe as plain wrong so far.) It may be addressed in later chapters, but the weakness is that it really only shows each process in its dominant form, so trying to use the material to identify auxiliary, tertiary or aspirational process isn't quite as helpful (its still good for understanding the processes, but some of the descriptions are things I think will only show up as a dominant process).

Thanks for you review! I think I'm going to order at least Building Blocks of Personality Type. I think I won't order the other book you mentioned (The 16 Personality Types, Descriptions for Self-Discovery).