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Summary: one of the best to find your number
Review: I highly reccommend this book as introductory work to the enneagram, especially if one is having diffuculty finding his/her own space. There are many good books out there, however, Riso, has broken the nine types each into nine subtypes which will allow one to more easily find oneself. One of the difficulties in studying the enneagram is that most of the material out there is geared to the average/unhealthy people looking for answers and growth. Those who are healthy have a more difficult time finding their number. I know a few people who found their numbers just by reading over the pages where the numbers are broken down into healthy/average/unhealthy. I find this better and easier than trying to administer a test.
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Summary: Negativity doesn't help.
Review: I think the "growing pains" the previous reviewer spoke about are really overdone in this book. As Riso describes the nine levels of health within each type, he starts with the healthiest and progresses downward, introducing more and more negative points. It is more than "pains;" it is discouraging. He should've done it the other way 'round, feeding us more and more positive things in order to create inspiration. I gave it an extra star because despite the sense of hopelessness it engenders, the book is very descriptive.
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Summary: I have read this book over, and over and...I always love it!
Review: I've been fascinated with astrology for as long as a can remember. I've read Linda Goodman's Sun Signs a thousand times since I as fourteen years old...and then, Love Signs, and Sun Signs again.I knew that something was missing. I can't tell how much I appreciate what you've done. I have always had a deep desire to understand people and what makes them so different (and so much alike to other people outside of your own family). The insight to me was so fantastic that I screamed! I felt almost invaded -- like someone was hiding in my closet all my life. How could I (as complex as I am) be a "personality type?" For the most part now, although quite relative, astrology is just something I do for fun. If I want realiity, it's your interpretation of the Enneagram. I thank you with all my heart and soul.
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Summary: The most complete enneagram book
Review: I've read a number of books on the enneagram, and must say that if you only bought one, it should be this one. "Personality Types" has far and away the most exhaustive descriptions of the nine points, or personality types. Don Riso and Russ Hudson also go beyond generalities and explain what happens to each of the types as they become more or less mentally healthy and integrated. Personality Types also contains a history of the enneagram that I found fascinating. I would have liked some personal examples, and I'm not sure about some of the correlations with Freud, but I have to say that most of the point descriptions are amazingly, sometimes embarassingly, accurate. If the enneagram eventually gets more respect in the mainstream, it will be, in part, because of this book and the work of Riso and Hudson.
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Summary: The Foundation for Meaningful Study of the Enneagram
Review: If Gurdjieff revived the dynamic model of the enneagram and Oscar Ichazo and Claudio Naranjo correlated it with psychiatric categories and ego fixations, Don Riso and Russ Hudson have made it an initially disturbing but, with a little effort, easy to understand dynamic map of personality that is an impeccable tool for self actualization. The descriptions of the healthy, average and unhealthy levels of each of the nine types are enough to scare any type to clean up their act, reach for their best and transcend their type. Once you understand its value, especially in its correlations with the Myers Briggs (Jungian) Type Indicator, you'll agree with others here that an in-depth understanding of the enneagram can be an essential tool for the conscious life for your type. The chapters on advanced guidelines and theories in Parts I and III (that include correlations with other personality models -- Karen Horney, Freud, Jung and the DSM) will continue to make this book the foundation for meaningful study of the enneagram. (Part II contains Riso's harrowing descriptions of the nine personality types.) Be aware, though, that the chapter on the origins of the enneagram is outdated; Riso and Hudson thoroughly corrected erroneous ideas here in The Wisdom of the Enneagram and at their Enneagram Institute site. Still, this is the one book no professional or everyday student of the enneagram will want to live without; there is an enormous amount of orienting information on the dynamics of personality and diversity of human experience here, and it remains an amazing achievement.
Rating: 
Summary: A Mental Labyrinthe
Review: It all started with a side colomn in a Thai newspaper on one of those culture shoking travel trips and I found myself buying every book on the subject. This was my first read and it sure drew the Enneagram maze in my mind, I found it extremely useful and very exhausting, it's the kind of book that you want to consume quickly yet you're overwhelmed with the depth of Enneagram. Read it, and buy more books, you're barely scratching the surface.
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Summary: A very self illuminating book
Review: Nobody likes to be typecast, nevertheless, if we're totally honest and have taken some notes on our lives, we perceive reoccuring patterns. Amazingly, Riso and Hudson have researched thousands of lives (all by their parameters) and people generally fall into some groups and subgroups that can be defined and yes, catagorized. This can be a huge let-down for some who strongly believe in their own uniqueness ("All men are unique, and so are pumpkins. Yet every pumpkin goes through every point of pumpkin history." --Emerson) yet a strange relief also for those who felt alienated from others. Riso and Hudson pegged some aspects of my own personality (4) so accurately it hurt. It actually brought tears to my eyes of both self-understanding and self-loathing. It is painful to know some of your history is so predictible. Yet my life is my own and Riso/Hudson's second book, "The Wisdom of the Enneagram" is more positive in stressing where one needs to go after the revelation--self integration of one's higher possibilities. One caveat I will give here: this book is like a close friend who finally drops the pretense and gives it to you straight about your personality. It can be uncomfortable reading. But it should be said finally so one can see oneself as others see one--a rare gift indeed. I would say this book is a priority to read once, maybe twice, then put away while you do the work of integrating yourself. It's all about Soul.
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Summary: The Best Book on the Enneagram
Review: Out of the dozen or so books I've read about the enneagram, this one is the best. Riso divides each of the 9 personality types into 9 levels, giving us 81 different readings. The readings are in depth and on target. The levels bleed into each other, so you may find that you identify with levels 1, 2, 3 and 4 of your type, for example. Riso also does an excellent job of describing the two wings to every personality type, so if you know your type you will probably be able to recognize your wing easily. I'm sure there are other possible systems of differentiating people from each other by type, besides this and Myers-Briggs, that haven't yet been discovered, but Riso's enneagram should be more widely known than it is. Educated people should know their type. Some people make the argument that individuals are all unique, that there are no types, but this attitude basically tells us not to try to understand human nature because it's too complicated. This excellent book gives us a good system to understand people.
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Summary: The deepest and most incisive Enneagram book
Review: The description of my personality type (five) is like a report on the most intimate secrets of my psyche. It seems as though it had been prepared personally for me by a psychologist. It's all there...coping methods, defense mechanisms, thought habits, tendencies, reactions to other people, strengths and challenges. I instantly recognized myself even as it revealed aspects of my personality that I hadn't previously acknowledged. Since I first read Personality Types a few years ago, the book has helped me in many significant ways. First, it has helped me to understand and accept myself. Second, it has moved my relationship with my wife (a six) to a place where we no longer judge each other. (To paraphrase another Enneagram author, "Everybody thinks everyone else is their same personality type, just a defective version of it." Third, it has helped me to open paths of communication with people who interact with the world in a completely different manner than I do. (Not everybody lives by facts!) This book takes a psychological approach to the Enneagram and does not pull punches when it talks about paths of disintegration. This suits a "five" just fine, but if you prefer a spiritual approach you might try Helen Palmer. I personally don't go for that, but hey...it takes all types.
Rating:
Summary: The deepest and most incisive Enneagram book
Review: The description of my personality type (five) is like a report on the most intimate secrets of my psyche. It seems as though it had been prepared personally for me by a psychologist. It's all there...coping methods, defense mechanisms, thought habits, tendencies, reactions to other people, strengths and challenges. I instantly recognized myself even as it revealed aspects of my personality that I hadn't previously acknowledged. Since I first read Personality Types a few years ago, the book has helped me in many significant ways. First, it has helped me to understand and accept myself. Second, it has moved my relationship with my wife (a six) to a place where we no longer judge each other. (To paraphrase another Enneagram author, "Everybody thinks everyone else is their same personality type, just a defective version of it." Third, it has helped me to open paths of communication with people who interact with the world in a completely different manner than I do. (Not everybody lives by facts!) This book takes a psychological approach to the Enneagram and does not pull punches when it talks about paths of disintegration. This suits a "five" just fine, but if you prefer a spiritual approach you might try Helen Palmer. I personally don't go for that, but hey...it takes all types.
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