The Essential Enneagram: The Definitive Personality Test and Self-Discovery Guide -- Revised & Updated Paperback – May 27, 2025

This book is very useful in identifying and learning one’s own place in the Enneagram. In addition, it clarifies terminology like “wings” and recommends healing practices specific to type,

.Reviewed by C J Singh (Berkeley, CA).Positive-Psychology Paths to Happiness: The Enneagram WayInitially known as "The Stanford Enneagram Discovery Inventory and Guide," THE ESSENTIAL ENNEAGRAM, first edition, was published in 2000, the second in 2009. The jacket blurb claims it as "The First and Only Scientifically Determined Enneagram Personality Test and Guide." Appendix B summarizes the "Validity of the Essential Enneagram Test." I hastened to read it.On page 116: "The overall Kappa for the entire test was 0.5254, p<0.0001, considered a significant degree of concordance." Yes. Rereading sections of the two textbooks of my Stanford graduate course "Research Methods in Psychology," I found the statistical analysis convincing.THE ESSENTIAL ENNEAGRAM comes with an optional 2-hour DVD that features the author, David Daniels MD, Stanford Psychiatrist, and Courtney Behm, Harvard MBA, management consultant. More. The DVD presents nine narrators that personify one of the nine personality types. Watching it made studying the book even more engaging.The Enneagram is a nine-pointed diagram that indicates nine types of personalities, each numbered 1 to 9. Only nine? Hang on, with the subtypes included there are many more. Your personality Type emerges from your genetic heritage and your early childhood coping responses. Each Type has its strengths and weaknesses. The Enneagram shows you the behavior changes you need to make to overcome the weaknesses of your type.You discover your Type by taking the Essential Enneagram Test (pages 5-7). The Test comprises reading nine brief paragraphs and choosing the three that come closest to describing you. [I'm Type Four. Strengths of this type are: "Sensitivity, A creative orientation. Being attuned to feelings. A capacity to empathize with suffering. Intensity. Passion. Romantic idealism. Emotional depth. Authenticity. Introspection" (page 34). Limitations of this type are: "People and experiences not living up to my romantic ideals or desire for intensity. Wanting more than is available. Envying what others have that I do not have or what they are that I am not. Unmanageable feelings, especially in emotional crises" (page 35). Yes, the enneagram test is accurate.]Type One: The PerfectionistType Two: The GiverType Three: The PerformerType Four: The RomanticType Five: The ObserverType Six: The Loyal SkepticType Seven: The EpicureType Eight: The ProtectorType Nine: The MediatorOf the nine, Types 3, 6, 9 represent different kinds of intelligence. Type 3 personality and its neighbors 2, 4 represent an intelligence of the Heart; they focus energy on feelings and emotions. Type 6 and its neighbors 5, 7 represent an intelligence of the Mind; they focus energy on thinking and imagination; Type 9 and its neighbors 8, 1 represent an intelligence of the body; they focus energy on sensing through the body. The Enneagram shows the linkages of these 9 types with each other, as well as stress and security linkage paths, creating 45 distinct types. This complexity is easier to understand from the diagramThe origins of the Enneagram's personality typology and paths to happiness are derived from the ancient teachings of Hindu-Buddhist Psychology.In early 20th century, George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (of Greek-Armenian heritage) travelled to India, studied there for many years, and brought this knowledge to Russia and France in the 1920s. In the 1960s, Gurdjieff's followers took his teachings to the Americas. The Enneagram design itself is of India-origin: the "Mandala" (circle) and "Sri Yantra" (triangles and lines) shown as enclosed in a mandala of nine pointed-leaves. Even the name Ennea- is derived from the Indo-European root for nine, the earlier Sanskrit "nava" and later the Greek "ennea." If you have been told that numerals are of Arabic origin, please google the article by "Professor Ian Pearce, St. Andrews University, Indian Math History."Five-star Book and DVD.

What I wanted

I’ve been teaching the Enneagram for 20 years and this is the book I give clients after their typing interview for these reasons:1) David originally taught me the Enneagram and his depth of understanding and compassion for the dilemmas of each of these types is stellar. He was a man of both humor and kindness. That matters when you’re helping people unpack their core defense structure.2) He has some serious street cred. He was a psychiatrist at Stanford University and he understood the human psyche with depth. Back before anyone had ever heard of the Enneagram, he was advocating for it at Stanford as he knew how helpful it was in understanding who we are. You can see this in what he calls the “basic proposition” of each of the types. The basic proposition identifies those core survival needs of a developing child. What did we need for love, security and a sense of control and esteem? My clients are most always moved when their Enneagram patterns are positioned through this lens. They see how this is in our hardwiring.3) David did a lot of research on the biology of emotions and was endlessly curious about neurobiology and type. This never went away. This comes through in the book particularly in his explanations of the Enneagram centers. This is a guy who both did his homework and worked with countless clients and students. Straight up academics can often miss the empathy and heart when writing about the Enneagram. Not David. You can feel his compassion particularly in the practices.If there is one weakness in the book, it is a more in depth understanding of the body center. In fairness, this book was written prior to our understanding of somatic psychology and interception where we understand the internal state of our bodies in the present moment. Our type structure house is itself in our bodies and that is not unpacked in this book. This is a crucial contemporary understanding of the Enneagram that is best learned through practice with someone who knows what they’re doing.I highly recommend this book. It’s best read slowly and digested so you have a good sense of how the type lands for you.

this is a fun exercise to do on yourself. However, it is not the fully comprehensive test that I was hoping for. The "questions" are very similar, therefore confusing to say the least. They do not give very great directions on how to use the info and have a bunch of associated types that make no sense/have no explanation. I've always thought I was a 2. Sure enough, I'm a very strong 2 according to the results.

Great for research