Discovering Your Personality Type: The New Enneagram Questionnaire

When you buy this book, make sure you also get the companion text "Personality Types" from the same author. The companion text is worth its weight in gold as it contains the real depth of your personality analysis.

Having read widely in the fascinating Enneagram literature, I find this test indispensable in accomplishing the actual typing of a person. People and their friends often wish for one Enneagram label or another to apply to them, and Enneagram typing from general reading is susceptible to this *major* distortion. Containing dozens of questions, this thought provoking, multiple choice test -- which forces a choice between the answers presented for each question, often including either *no* answers appealing to the examinee, or *too many* appealing answers -- gives the examinee less opportunity to answer by prior self-stereotyping, and less of a hint of what Enneagram types correspond to which answers. "Forced-choice" testing, widely respected in psychological testing circles, can be uncomfortable when no answers seem a happy fit, but they are a good testing format. Even in other excellent books by Riso and Hudson -- also my favorite Enneagram writers -- the shorter quizzes don't compare in clarity to this. Don't skip this in your efforts to type yourself or a friend. This book also contains a short exposition of the Enneagram approach and types. This part is cursory, and reading one of Riso and Hudson's lengthier books will be far more satisfying for this information and analysis. Helen Palmer's work is also excellent, but she takes a darker, more pessimistic view of human beings. Hudson and Riso, while recognizing each type's darker sides, present a far more balanced analysis.

The book is a quick read and easy to understand. The insights are mostly good and the system an interesting one. Take the test and see how accurate you think it is. It does provide a tool for understanding your own and others behavior.

Having read widely in the fascinating Enneagram literature, I find this test indespensable in accomplishing the actual typing of a person. People and their friends often wish for one Enneagram label or another to apply to them, and Enneagram typing from general reading is susceptible to this *major* distortion. This 144 question, thought provoking, multiple choice test -- which forces a choice between the answers presented for each question -- often including either *no* answers appealing to the examinee, or *too many* appealing answers -- gives the examinee less opportunity to answer by prior self-streotyuping, and less of a hint of what Enneagram types correspond to which answers. "Forced-choice" testing, widely respected in psychological testing circles, can be uncomfortable when no answers seem a happy fit, but they are a good testing format. Even in other excellent books by Riso and Hudson -- also my favorite Enneagram writers -- the shorter quizzes don't compare in clarity to this. Don't skip this in your efforts to type yourself or a friend. This book also contains a short exposition of the Enneagram approach and types. This part is cursory, and reading one of Riso and Hudson's lengthier books will be far more satifying for this information and analysis. Helen Palmer's work is also excellent, but she takes a darker, more pessimistic view of human beings. Hudson and Riso, while recognizing each type's darker sides, present a far more balanced analysis.

This test will either tell you what your type is, or help you narrow it down to a choice of two. You can also take the test answering as you think an acquaintance would answer, giving a strong clue to that person's type. I only came across one case where the test wasn't helpful, where an individual scored evenly for almost every type. In my case, a different enneagram test pointed to an incorrect type, but this test pointed correctly at my type. And that's the purpose of the book.