Family Constellation: It's Effects on Personality and Social Behavior

I bought this book by mistake - I thought it was about Hellinger's work. It was interesting nevertheless. Very easy to read, very simply formulated ideas. It almost seems it could be three times shorter, so those non-professionals of us can go straight to the sections that describe personality profiles and marriage profiles. Remember though that it was written in 1961, so it seems that a lot of information on "typical" family structure is outdated (% working mothers, % of divorces). Still, people remain the same and our early childhood experiences with siblings would of course shape our later relationships. Reading this book may not give you ultimate answer to life, universe and everything (no one theory does), but will likely help you understand your family and friends better - and that's always worth the time, right?

After being recomended this book by a friend of mine, i was very skeptical about its content. Not only has this book proved me wrong, but it has changed my entire outlook on life. To be honest there is a lot of information in this book that bored me. Information such as how the statistics were compiled, and how there are anomalies that can be explained mathmatically, but for thoes 2 or 3 chapters where the book explains in detail how each persons birth order influences how they are socially in life, this book is priceless. I was astounded by the accuracy of my own profile, and then with further reading was able to see amazingly accurate trends in those people arround me. Now I can walk up to people and say "I bet you have a younger sister and an older brother," completely astounding them. This book is also invaluable as by identifying profiles, it shows ways in which you can manipulate people, recognise the right type of person to become involved in a serious relationship with, and how to directly influence your children all from their profile. As I said, before reading this book I was a skeptic, but after reading it (twice) I now can honestly say that with all the evidence provided this book makes total sense, and has become one of my most prized belongings. Whilst it may or may not change your mind and your life, if you are up for a good solid read that may just boggle your brain a bit, then this is the book for you.

You may have seen lots of books on the effects of birth order, but this one is the product of statistical research at a German university. They interviewed subjects. They interviewed the families and friends of subjects (whose opinions may be different from those of the subject). They took personality inventories. They took birth order data. And they ran statistical analysis of the results to determine coefficients of correlation. So, when they say that an older brother or brothers is like this or an female only child isn't at all like that, you're actually reading the results of a computer printout where the coefficient of correlation is greater than 0.9 or less than -0.9 (or whatever threshold they chose). This book is decidedly not fluff, like so many of the other birth order books. I have the second, third and fourth editions, which attests to how much I like it. The only reason why I didn't give 5 stars is that it can be pretty dry in spots, especially introducing a notation for his new taxonomy, and sometimes pretty grim. (In earlier editions, the good doctor explains how to calculate a numerical value to quantify the effects of death, separation or other losses of a sibling. Well, he's German, after all. If it can be named, it can be quantified.) The 'Constellation' in the name is a tongue in cheek reference to its similarities to astrology. But unlike astrology, where your average guess of someone's sign is the 6th try, you can actually get really good at guessing someone's birth order after reading this book. (But don't overlook the influence of the same sex parent's birth order if you undertake this as a parlor game at parties.)