Portraits of Temperament [Paperback]

Keirsey and Bates's Please Understand Me, first published in 1978, sold nearly 2 million copies in its first 20 years. In 1998, it was reissued in a substantially expanded form as Please Understand Me II. These books have been perennial favorites for training and counseling in public schools (for teachers as well as students), college and university career-counseling centers, private psychotherapy practices, church therapy centers, and human-resource departments in business. I believe the Please Understand Me books have been so popular because Keirsey's personality questionnaire is both easy to use and very accurate in its results.

If you want to discover your personality type immediately using Keirsey's personality type test, you can do so at Keirsey's web site. Reviewers are not permitted by Amazon to give web addresses, but a quick search of Google or Yahoo for "David Keirsey" will net you his site in seconds. It is highly recommended that, before you read Portraits of Temperament, you at least browse the many articles on Keirsey's site or read Please Understand Me II sold here on Amazon.

Dr. Keirsey has been "people watching" for fifty years, and his interest in temperament stretches back almost that far. For those who know Myers-Briggs theory, it is no surprise to hear that Dr. Keirsey is an NT (Rational), a type that delights in logical investigation. Over his long career as a clinical psychologist, professor and researcher, Dr. Keirsey has been most interested in studying the three areas of personality, intelligence and madness. Since he is a highly educated academician, it is not altogether surprising that the language in his books, including this one, is often jargon-laden and hard to wade through. But if you can get past that hurdle, the content in this book, as well as in his other ones, is well worth the effort.

So, why exactly should you read Portraits of Temperament or, for that matter, expose yourself to Keirsey at all? The primary reason, I believe, is the following, which Dr. Keirsey states in Please Understand Me II: "People are different from each other, and...no amount of getting after them is going to change them. Nor is there any reason to change them, because the differences are probably good." Ultimately, the study of Myers-Briggs-based personality typing in Keirsey's books is a direct route to empowerment, of yourself and, through you, the people in your life. Learning what Keirsey teaches allows you to understand profound ways in which you and others "tick." This crucial knowledge can pave the way for accepting many aspects of yourself and others that you cannot change. And perhaps even learning to appreciate these unchangeables of personality as a positive rather than a negative.

Portraits of Temperament is a 124-page trade paperback first published in 1987. It has no index, but it does have a table of contents, appendices (one of which is the Keirsey Temperament Sorter and scoring guide), and a useful bibliography. The topics covered in the book include: (1) Comparison of theories of human personality across history, starting from Hippocrates' Choleric, Phlegmatic, Melancholic and Sanguine temperaments, through the typologies of Paracelsus, Adickes, Spranger, Kretschmer, Fromm, Myers, and on up to Keirsey himself. If you enjoy reading about the history of ideas, this section alone is worth the price of admission. (2) Discussion of various aspects of the two types of Artisans (SP), the Operators (STP) and the Players (SFP). (Again, please note that I am gearing this review to those who have studied Myers-Briggs or Keirsey and know the terminology.) (3) Discussion of the two types of Guardians (SJ), the Monitors (STJ) and the Conservators (SFJ). (4) Discussion of the two types of Rationals (NT), the Organizers (NTJ) and the Engineers (NTP). (5) Discussion of the two types of Idealists (NF), Mentors (NFJ) and Advocates (NFP).

In each section, in addition to general descriptions of how the various types function, Keirsey includes information on how they function as mates, how they learn and develop skills, and how frequent they are in the general population.

For anyone who is serious about studying Myers-Briggs, this book is definitely worth having in your library of resources. I highly recommend it.

P.S. I would also recommend picking up all the volumes of The Pygmalion Project by Stephen Montgomery, as well as Survival Games Personalities Play by Dr. Eve Delunas. They go into great detail regarding the MBTI, as well.