The Essential Enneagram: The Definitive Personality Test and Self-Discovery Guide - Softcover

David N. Daniels; Virginia A. Price

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062516760 ISBN 13: 9780062516763

Publisher: HarperOne, 2000

Synopsis

The First and Only Scientifically Determined Enneagram Personality Test and Guide

A centuries-old psychological system with roots in sacred tradition, the Enneagram can be an invaluable guide in your journey toward self-understanding and self-development. In this book, Stanford University Medical School clinical professor of psychiatry David Daniels and counseling psychologist Virginia Price offer the only scientifically developed Enneagram test based upon extensive research combined with a self-discovery and personal-development guide.

The most fundamental guide to the Enneagram ever offered, this book features effective self-tests to determine simply and accurately what your personality type is. Daniels and Price provide step-by-step instructions for taking inventory of how you think, what you feel, and what you experience. They then guide you in your discovery of what your type means for your personal well-being and your relationships with others, and they show you how to maximize your inherent strengths. Brimming with empowering information for each of the nine personality types—Perfectionist, Giver, Performer, Romantic, Observer, Loyal Skeptic, Epicure, Protector, and Mediator—this one-of-a-kind book equips you with all the tools you need to dramatically enhance your quality of life.

About this title

About the Authors

David Daniels, M.D., is a clinical professor of psychiatry at Stanford University Medical School, and is a leading developer of the Enneagram.

Virginia Price, Ph.D., (1942-2005) was a psychologist with a private practice in Palo Alto. She wrote Type A Behavior Pattern, a book widely regarded as a landmark in its field.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Here is our response to the question, "What is the Enneagram?"

The Enneagram is a powerful and dynamic personality system that describes nine distinct and fundamentally different patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting. Each of the nine patterns is based on an explicit perceptual filter. This filter determines what you pay attention to and how you direct your energy. Underneath each of the nine patterns is a basic proposition, or belief, about what you need in life for survival and satisfaction.

Each one of us developed one of the nine patterns to protect a specific aspect of our self that felt threatened as our personality was developing. As you discover your Enneagram personality type, you will discover more about your original whole self. You will also understand more about the unconscious motivation from which you operate. Discovering your Enneagram personality type can help you achieve an understanding of how to bring positive change into your life. It can help change the way you relate to yourself and others, as well as give you a greater understanding of the circumstances and issues facing you.

Here is an example of the keys to differentiating two very common look-alike types on the Enneagram: Types Two (The Giver) and Nine (The Mediator):

Givers and Mediators can be considered look-alike types because they share the characteristic of pleasing others and meeting others' wants and needs. In the process they orient toward the claims made upon them by others, losing awareness of their own needs and priorities. The main differences are that Givers more actively focus their attention and energy on what others need and alter themselves to meet those needs, while Mediators are more reactive, allowing themselves to be pulled by whatever claims are made upon them. They blend in and disperse their energy to make things comfortable without changing their image.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperOne
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0062516760
• ISBN 13: 9780062516763
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 109