Please Understand Me: Character and Temperament Types

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   本書は、「己を知り、他を知る」ために読む本。気質、性格診断テストを行い、「自他の違いに気づくこと」で悩み多き人間関係から、脱却する術を提供している。診断の基本要素は、ユングのタイプ論に基づき、「外向型（E）対内向型（I）」、「感覚型（S）対直感型（N）」、「思考型（T）対感情型（F）」、「認知型（P）対判断型（J）」、の4つである。テストで選択された要素の組み合わせから4つの気質と16の性格に分類される。

   行動の指向性を示す4つの気質は、「自由を愛し衝動に生きるディオニュソス（SP型）」など、ギリシャの神々になぞらえつつ語られ、興味深く読める。16の性格タイプは、「ENFJ型の素顔―― 面倒見がいい」など、タイプ別の特徴を示す言葉がそのまま小題となり、該当ページだけ引けるようになっている。

   本書の優れた点は的確な診断だけにとどまらない。タイプ別に職場でのリーダーシップ、どんな恋人を選ぶか、さらには子どもの学習法など、あらゆる場面で参考になる話が掲載されている。診断項目が多く面倒だが、二者択一回答で集計作業は簡便化されており10分もかからない。4つの基本要素だけでの判定も可能だ。

   人間関係で不満があるのは、「自分と他人は違うのだ」という単純な事実に気づいていないせいかもしれない。相手を変えようとむなしい戦いをせず、「違い」を受け入れることをすすめる本書は、人間関係改善の第一歩を踏み出そうとする、読者の背中をそっと押してくれる。（青山浩子）

Product Description

This book is excellent for understanding your own character and it is in new conditions. No marks or breaks on any of the pages.

Amazon.com Review

Does your spouse's need to alphabetically organize books on the shelves puzzle you? Do your boss's tsunami-like moods leave you exasperated? Do your child's constant questions make you batty? If you've ever wanted to change your mate, your coworkers, or a family member, then "Put down your chisel," advise David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates in this book of personality types. We are different for a reason, and that reason is probably more good than bad. Keirsey and Bates believe that not only is it impossible to truly change others (which they call embarking on a "Pygmalion project"), it's much more important to understand and affirm differences. Sounds easier than it is, you might say. Well, this book is a guide for putting an end to the Pygmalion projects in your life and starting on the path to acceptance.

For anyone acquainted with the ubiquitous Myers-Briggs personality test, Please Understand Me will be familiar territory--but gone over with a fine-toothed comb. And for the uninitiated, this book will be a quick introduction to personality typing the Myers-Briggs way--with a Jungian accent. After presenting a brief rundown of 20th-century psychology movements, Keirsey and Bates encourage you to take the 70-question "Keirsey Temperament Sorter," a sort of mini-Myers-Briggs test that places you in 1 of 16 personality types. Like the Myers-Briggs system, this test sorts your personality into groups of extraversion/introversion (E/I), sensation/intuition (S/N), thinking/feeling (T/F), and perceiving/judging (P/J). Unlike the Myers-Briggs system, Please Understand Me also presents four easy-to-remember temperament types--Dionysian (freedom first), Epimethean (wants to be useful), Promethean (desires power), and Apollonian (searches for self)--that underlie the 16 possible personalities identified by the test. The book then delves into a detailed analysis of each type, with sections on mates, children, and leaders. An appendix paints portraits of the 16 possible personality types.

Unless you're already a true personality-typing devotee, this book may seem a little esoteric, especially the somewhat "in" references to psychological theory that few laypeople will be likely to understand. But give it a chance and you may find that you'll begin to understand why you always know where to find Anna Karenina on the shelf (you have an ESTJ husband), why your boss is sarcastic one day and praises your achievements the next (she's an NF), and why knowing the reason that the sun comes up in the same place every day is important to your little one (he's Promethean). You may even find that once you accept quirks and ticks in others, they will understand you a little better, too. --Stefanie Durbin