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There are tens of thousands of personality books in print, with hundreds more published every year. Unless you plan to devote the rest of your life to these publications, it's going to be pretty darn impossible to read them all. So where do you start? After giving it a lot of thought, here are the top five books that we think really drive readers to understand type, and to know themselves. Why it's a must read: The seminal text on personality, Please Understand Me was one of the first books to popularize the personality theory of Briggs and Myers and contains some of the best type descriptions of this personality model.
After 20 more years of researching personality differences, Keirsey uses this second book to share deeper insights into each type's behavior, and explores how each type interacts with other types. The book is literally definitive in the sense that it defines the four temperaments ST Guardians, SF Artisans, NF Idealists, and NT Rationals so clearly that most other personality books takes this book's concepts for granted.
If you like your personality theory straight from the horse's mouth, then this book's for you. In Gifts Differing , Isabel Briggs Myers serves up the definitive text on how the Myers-Briggs personality theory actually works and by doing so, offers a fascinating window into the world of personality typology.
A thorough but easy read, the book oozes warmth and compassion and reflects the wisdom of a woman who dedicated her entire life to her work. The technical data is there in abundance, but it's the homespun, "Oprah" quality that makes this book a must read for anyone in need of some positive self-awareness or an upbeat view of the world.
It will whet your appetite for more. Now in its sixth reprinting, Do What You Are uses the type personality system to guide readers in figuring out their strengths, weaknesses, and behavior patterns with the aim of learning out first, what careers are the best match and second, how to be as effective as possible on the job once hired.
As a career guide, it excels by going deep into personality type, explaining why everyone's experience at work differs so greatly from the idealized picture of skill sets and qualifications.
Be prepared to feel slightly uncomfortable when you realize how uncannily accurate these guys are. Another offering by the prolific Barron-Tieger team, the Art of Speed Reading People takes a close look at personality from an outside perspective. How can you determine the personality types of the people with whom you interact? How do you overcome your own biases when communicating with people quite different to you?
You will begin to notice certain cues in people, and use these cues to improve your interactions with those around you.
Recommended for everyone who's interested in the practical applications of personality typing, beyond the psychological theory. While Keirsey talks in terms of behavior and Isabel Briggs Myers analyzes some of the mindset behind the behavior, Thomson focuses on the cognitive stack associated with the 16 personality types and takes our understanding of the four-letter personality code to a whole new level.
For readers new to cognitive functions, the basic idea is that we each have specific modes of processing information and making decisions based on our four-letter type. These modes are known as cognitive functions. Each type possesses four out of a possible eight cognitive functions in a specific order, known as a stack.
Identifying which functions we use, and in what order, determines our four-letter type, not the other way around. So really, we're reaching deep into the Jungian psychology that sits behind the popular personality test. It is, but Thomson does a remarkable job of keeping things clear. It's recommended if you are at all interested in the "why" behind typology. It would be easy to make this list a top 10 or 15 or 20 , but it occurred to us that every reader probably has a favorite book that has helped them to understand personality typing that is not on this list.
If that's the case with you, leave us a comment. We'd love to hear from you! I think those sections are the weakest, actually. But the material in the body of each chapter is solid, well referenced and well written. If you want a basic book that explains some basic brain functioning I would definitely read this book.
The technical data is there in abundance, but it's the homespun, "Oprah" quality that makes this book a must read for anyone in need of some positive self-awareness or an upbeat view of the world. Read or listen to the main points of this title. I really enjoyed Do What You Are. In Reclaim Your Brain, M. Everyone knows pyramid schemes are frauds, and yet so many people fall for them.
Predictably Irrational , by Dan Ariely, There is some great content in this book, but I have a basic disagreement with the premise. Our unconscious mental processing works most of the time. And please forgive me if I put one of my books on the list! If you like psychology check out the YouTube channel Brain Signals. How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer is one of my favourite books of all time.
Really well written and really interesting. And, yet another good one: The Now Habit by Neil Fiore. This one will really help procrastinators! Daphne — I agree about Jonah Lehrer. I do like the Charles Duhigg book.. I think the appendix is the best part.
Maybe I should make it the top 12 books? I will have to check it out. People need to go to a school to learn that? Lehrer is a liar and a cheat.
He also plagiarized some facts. That said, you have to be very careful. There are few champions of the true fundamentals of economics as the science of choice.
The first of these includes a wonderful tribute by the man who hired him to the University of Washington himself a winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics http: His book Blink was the start of my checking out unconscious mental processing. Thanks for the list, I have read some and will check out the others. Also, I have a short list of great psychology books to add to your list: Well-researched and good read for psychology students and as a self-help for anyone interested in their gut instincts, covers neurological and biological research as related to body-mind consciousness, as well as giving techniques for improving gut awareness and intuitional intelligence.
In the spring of , when he was eighty-one years old, C. Jung undertook the telling of his life story. If you only read one book by Carl Jung or only one psychology book period , this is the one! It is his easiest to understand in narrative style and will give you an understanding of the development of his theories in depth psychology from his personal life journey.
If you only have time for one book on this topic, this might be a good choice. There is a lot of information we process unconsciously. Perhaps that is what you are doing. The Adaptive Unconscious for more information. I thought The 7Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey choose to be in your list…after all you help a lot by blogging this list……thank you thank you thank you for your information……. From a social science perspective, it would have been much more powerful to let someone else write this post on your site, and then recommend your book like this:.
And last but not least, one of the books of our talented author and good friend Susan Weinschenk. Have you read it before Susan?