Enneagram

"The Enneagram: Understanding Yourself and the Others In Your Life", is a book by Helen Palmer that my aunt Julia introduced me to. My aunt is one of those people who loves self-understanding, analysing personality types and just generally trying to make sense on oneself and those that surround them.

The word 'enneagram' is described in a dictionary as follows: 'a system of spiritual psychology based on an ancient Sufi typology of nine personality types or primary roles with the recognition of one's type tantamount to a spiritual awakening'. Essentially, there are thought to be 9 main personality types in the world, and everybody is supposed to be able to fit one of the types, more than any other type. The book aims to help people by trying to get them to figure out which type they are most like, and the reasons for why they might be as they are. The book explains how different personality types react in different ways, to different situations and towards different people. It also explains what certain personality types' generalised strengths are, what their weaknesses are, what they aspire to be and what they fear most. It is a very interesting book, and from having read parts on the different personality types I did feel as though I could associate myself to one of the types more than the others. It was helpful towards self-understanding, especially at the time that I read it, as for people my age many of us are still finding out who we are, and who we want to be.

The difficulty I have with the book though is the way it does seem to pigeon-hole people. The sheer number of people in this world, and the fact that there are only 9 different types of personality does seem to be fairly ridiculous, and it takes away the idea that each person in the world is said to be unique.

However, pigeon-holing aside, I think overall the book could be very useful, especially for going into a career where one is dealing with many different people and having to communicate effectively. Understanding the different personality types and finding out effective ways of dealing with the different types would, in my opinion, prove to be beneficial to both parties in a professional / working environment. I have not read the whole of the book before, but I think I will make it a personal aim to try and read it within the next year!