Rating: 
Summary: What Makes Us Tick
Review: This book was recommended to me by our minister for pre and post marital counciling. We have all found it incredibly valuable. It's almost like a window into understanding how different personality types tick. I'm enthused enough to take the trouble to write this recommendation. Our minister also recommended (see his review/recommendation under "West Point..." by Remick) the well known book-of-character, "West Point: Character Leadership Education.." by Norman Thomas Remick which is an education in itself, and which Pastor .... says is THE book to read as a companion book to "Please Understand Me". I followed his advice. I read Mr. Kiersey's "Please Understand Me", first. Then I read Mr. Remick's book. Then I went back and read Mr. Kiersey's book a second time, and got much more out of it. Maybe you want to do it differently, but, I found both books to be valuable far beyond their cost.
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Summary: Incredibly Insightful
Review: I was first given this book at a company-mandated class (GE). I was a very naive 22 year old, and had very little interest in what some book would think of me. I was, shall we say, marching to the beat of a very different drummer. No book, I was sure, could teach me anything about ME! But I was very wrong. After a short question and answer quiz, I read in a few short paragraphs, a drop-dead accurate description of what I thought I was like.
That part was interesting. Its always nice to have some external confirmation that you are as you think you are. But the even more important thing about this book is that it taught me what I am not. I looked up the description of my exact opposite personality type, and immeadiatly realized why I constantly failed at certain activities. This book made me realize that I was perfect for certain things, and that other things were just not in me.
Ever since, I have been much more understanding of other people's behaviors. Because of this book, I know there are more than just INTJ people (my personality type, in the book's parlance) in this world, and that different people look at things slightly differently.
This book helped me understand who I was, and helped me understand my best and strongest traits. It also gently warned me not to be too hard on myself for not being good at other things.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in broadening their understanding of their own personality, and other peoples'.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't get the audiotape! BUY THE BOOK
Review: Don't expect this book to work on audiotape because it has too many lists. The reader sounds like she is reading a scientific text, makes no attempt to do the likely impossible task of making it work without the written word. I listen to many books on audiotape and wish someone had warned me to BUY THE BOOK. Only those highly tolerant of boredom could manage to catch some valuable passages.
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Summary: The "Classic" Book on Personality Type Still One of the Best
Review: "Please Understand Me" was for me-- as it has been for many people-- the first book I read that treated the idea of "Personality Typing" with something other than "Academic Textbook Dryness." And in making these psychological theories more "accessible" to the world, Keirsey was instrumental in moving a relatively obscure topic from academia into 1000s of corporate hiring offices, therapist practices, motivational lectures-- not to mention the flood of self-help and pop psychology books we can find here on amazon, today. Although it has since been updated and expanded, "Please Understand Me" remains a highly relevant and useful book for anyone interested in personality typing based on C.G.Jung and Isabel Myers' (MBTI) theories. I think central to my liking of this book is not merely the coverage of type, but Keirsey's call for a change in the way we view people and personality. Instead of the conventional (to that time, 1978) attitude that you could "change" yourself into any type of personality you wanted to be (the so-called "Pygmalion Project"), we should instead just accept, and work with, the basic traits and differences we were born with. This book provides readers with a 70-item "self test," and then goes on to outline some of the principles and history behind determining type. Keirsey then explains the four "basic" temperaments: Dionysian, Epimethean, Promethean and Apollonian, from which all other subgroups are derived-- 16, in all. Once explained, he moves on to cover the impact of type on "mate selection," children and parenting, as well as leadership and work. Finally, there is an appendix which contains detailed "Portraits" of each of the 16 (Myers-Briggs) personality types. Final thoughts: An excellent book (9 out of a possible 10 bookmarks). Possibly a little esoteric for someone looking for a "light read" introduction to personality types, but certainly a valuable reference for the casual to serious student of personality type. Highly recommended! --Peter (an INFJ)
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Summary: Truly Enlightening
Review: Reading the rest of the reviews, with the exception of a couple, the kinds of experiences people describe reading the book I can identify with, I recognize from my own experience--even the title, "The Best Book with the Worst Title Ever". I could pull out phrases from here and there and share a knowing laughter with other reviewers because of the ways Keirsey and Bates' book provides a common ground of understanding between others and me. Because of this, if you can "read between the lines" of all the other reviews, then you will have the kind of personality type that will most benefit from reading this book. This book is life-changing, but most powerfully so for those who are "intuitives" by nature. It is life changing, because it has the power to validate your life experience in a way that no book (for me) before or since has. This, because it says, clearly and unequivocably, "You are right that you felt alienated, isolated, estranged from everyone else. It wasn't because you are weird, but because your way of looking at the world occurs in only a fraction of the population." It will not tell you, "You're right, and everyone else is wrong." It will tell you, "The different ways of looking at things are not just differences of opinion that can be overcome by argument. They go straight to the heart of how we give value to things in the world, and so do not change easily, and then almost only always by violence to the self." I honestly can't say how this book is received by other types, specifically the S-types (who call themselves realists). All I can say is that reading this book took me miles and miles from my original (horrible) home of isolation, inarticulateness and estrangement, and also made it much more possible for me to accept and understand others. A more accurate appreciation of myself and others was, therefore, the first gift of the book. This gift from the book may very well be available for you, whether or not you buy the theory of personality typing, Keirsey and Bates' description of your type, or anything else in the book. It is no accident that almost all of the reviewers are Ns (even the grumpy ones). Personality type, as described by Keirsey and Bates, amounts to saying "the way in which you perceive the world and assign value or meaning to it". This means that the very language in which we speak carries the weight of our personality type, language being a reflection of personality. For example, an extravert calls himself "out-going"; the introvert calls him "overbearing". An introvert calls herself "reserved"; the extravert calls her "unsociable". The labels arise because of the values encoded in personality; neither are absolutely right or wrong. Realizing this, one can then communicate more effectively, dropping loaded terms and adopting the ones that your listener receives favorably, instead of as an attack. Secretly, the extravert might mean "unsocial" when he refers to the introvert as "reserved", but at least the remark won't spark an argument, and that five dollars he's trying to borrow will actually end up in his hand. My point here is that Keirsey and Bates' book not only says, "Everyone is different", but also gives you the tools to work with and even often overcome that difference. They insist that no one fits each type perfectly, and that the process of individuation is one of differentiation from the type itself; it's not about pigeonholes or sizing people up at a glance. It's about being shown a bridge between differences that otherwise seem uncrossable. It also clues you in to the fact that no spoken word is innocent; each is fraught with the values of the person uttering it. Even if you want to take issue with the specifics of Keirsey and Bates' presentation of personality typing, if you think the whole thing is off-base, it doesn't change the book's value for emphasizing how difference in personality (however you describe it) results in difference in language (however you use it), and how to negotiate around and through that fact.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: I am an ENTP, and I find it very interesting that the majority of the reviewers I've been reading are N's even though they are outnumbered my S's. Though it makes sense at the same time, because N'are searching for a reason that explains why everyone seems so different. This book helps you find yourself, so you know what other people are thinking about you, and you can find things about other people at the same time. Now I understand why I have a bunch of friends, but we rarely talk about things that I'm interested in. I've had to adapt to those circumstances. Anyway, THIS BOOK IS AWESOME!!!
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Summary: Excellent, simple book to understand
Review: This is one well written book that will help you get an understanding of personalities. Keirsey does a good job of outlining and defining some of humanity's personality traits. While nobody could effectively document every single piece of what a human is, Keirsey does make a good example. Some of the book however can be disputed, granted I'm an ISTJ personality, in the "mating and temperament" chapter it says my compatible personality is an ESFP and I should avoid fellow ISTJ's. Granted I've found ESFP's a turnoff and my girlfriend is an ISTJ, is this wrong? Or is this the exception rather than a complete rule-breaker? Then again personality is a strange thing.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: This book is one of the best Myers-Briggs books available. it explains the different types, and talks about temperment. The best part of this book is that it provides such a detailed explanation of the importance of temperments. The book is also extremely good at explaining how one's type can impact their behaviour, particularly in the area of communication, and the potential impact this can have on personal relationships. Reading this book gave me greater insight into myself and other people. The examples the authors give really helped to make the book interesting. The writing style can be dry at times. I have to add two caveats: First, there is a newer book, Please Understand Me II, that has been recently released. I would have to suggest, having seen this book (although I haven't read it through, or purchased it yet) that the newer book might be more worthwhile to read first. Second, this book is really geared to people who are either very familiar with the MBTI, or who are trained facilitators who are actually able to administer the test. It is a rather technical book. It gets into a lot of detail - much more than the average reader may need, at times. This book can be slow, difficult reading at times. As a result, if you aren't familiar with the MBTI, I'd have to reccommend that you start with a book like Lifetypes, or Do What You Are. Another excellent book, if you are already pretty confident about your own type and want to strengthen your ability to communicate with people who are different than you, is The Art of Speedreading People.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but complex
Review: I find myself returning to this book every now and then for reference. Written in a dense and complex manner, it probably shouldn`t be the first book you read on the MBTI. You might have problems if your eyesight isn`t too good: too much text has been crammed onto each page, e.g. paragraphs haven`t been set off from each other, which is rather annoying as it slows down your reading and makes it hard to find passages you`d like to re-read later on.
I deducted a star from my rating for this lack of clarity. Also, I find some of the author`s findings and recommendations in the chapters on mating, parenting and leading a bit dubious as a lot of different factors come into play in these matters which the MBTI doesn`t address and where it really shouldn`t be applied.
Rating:
Summary: The Best of the Best (reviewed by ENFP)
Review: Perhaps Im a bit partial as this was the first book on temperament that I read but it is the standard to which I set all MBTI type books. This book is fantastic. From the get-go, Keirsey leads you down the pathways of temperament and character, using the Myers-Briggs Temperament Indicator (MBTI) as a tool. The explanations are not only succinct, but exhaustive on why you behave the way you behave. He relates modern temperament with Jungian ideas, Platonian, and Socratic personality types. I have nothing but good things to say about this book, and today even 3 years after reading it, I find myself going back to it again and again to gleen new information both about me and the people around me. This book opens up a wonderful doorway to character and temperament and now its up to you to step through! -Cheers
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