The Enneagram Made Easy: Discover the 9 Types of People Paperback – March 11, 1994

.Reviewed by C. J. Singh (Berkeley, CA).GRAPHIC NOVEL MANUAL for ENNEAGRAM NOVICESThe wonderful cartoon-illustrations and the concision of its text make the book fun to read. For those who feel unease at the "made easy" title, suspecting it to mean simplistic, there are several ponderous books on the enneagram."The Enneagram (pronounced ANY-a-gram) system is represented by a circle containing a nine-pointed starlike shape" (page 2). It introduces the 9 main types of people. Actually, once you count the subtypes and the connections between the nine points, this system presents 27 types.One, The Perfectionist;Two, The Helper;Three, The Achiever;Four, The Romantic;Five, The Observer;Six, The Questioner;Seven, The Adventurer;Eight, The Asserter;Nine, The Peacemaker;The description of each main type begins with a 20-item "Personality Inventory" to help you determine your type. Next, each type's positive and negative adjectives are listed, followed by several brief sections such as "How to Get Along With Me"; "Relationships"; "What I Like About Being this Type"; "What's Hard About Being this Type"; and detailed "Practical Suggestions and Exercises for this Type." The Enneagram tells me that I'm Type Four, with wings, that is, incorporating some of the traits of the neighboring Types Three and Five. "Type Fours at their best are: warm, compassionate, introspective, expressive, creative, intuitive, supportive, refined" (p 53). Fours at their worst are...? My strong wing to Type Three, the Achiever, is fluttering EVEN STRONGER, so I'm not telling.This compact book even includes a 20-page chapter "How the Enneagram and the Jungian Types Fit Together." Based on the Jungian Types, the Meyer-Briggs Type Indicator comprises 16 types: combinations of Extrovert/Introvert; Sensing/iNtuitive; Thinking/Feeling; Judging/Perceiving. I am an ENFP -- Extrovert, intuitive, Feeling,Perceiving type. "Extroverted Fours are sociable and expressive (sometimes flamboyant). They are likely to have more developed Three wing. iNtuitive Fours are insightful, idealistic, and often more interested in the world of imagination than in everyday reality. Fours prefer Feeling. They are emotionally sensitive, empathic, and warm. Perceiving Fours are more impulsive, indecisive, and adaptable" (p 144).I disagree with the book's ascription of the Enneagram origins to Sufi sources. The psychologcal typology is derived from the ancient teachings of Hindu and 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."GRAPHIC-NOVEL MANUAL for ENNEAGRAM NOVICES.

The format of the book is easy to follow. This is especially important for a concept that has multiple layers to it.

Short and easy read - I finished in a few hours over the course of a few days. It is bit repetitive in language but overall easy an digestible read for those interested in personalities inventories.

I love this book mostly due to all of the cartoons. It helps make the different types relatable. You can look at a lot of the drawings and see yourself in your type or your wing. It breaks down each of the nine types in a way that makes it easy to understand. As a 5 I want to understand everything I can. This book is a great toe in the water to understanding the different types. It is not as in-depth as some of the more popular enneagram books but it inserts a funny quality that the other books lack. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the enneagram or anyone who enjoys "typing" themselves with online quizzes or Myers Briggs. It's a fun and quick book that is fun to share with others while you compare personality types.

This is one of the easiest to understand books on enneagram that I have ever come across. Previously, I had been struggling to figure out my type and wing and was torn between several. I have a firm grasp of mbti and have been studying it for years but enneagram had always confused me. After much internet searching, more confusion, and searching other books, I finally came across this one. The illustrations made me smile and the outlay of each chapter was so easy to read and to understand. It reads like an activity book rather than a novel, and is well written even for a non enthusiastic reader. I was easily able to pinpoint my type after reading this book and find myself able to explain enneagram much better now. Note: it is simply a beginner's guide and does not delve into sx, so, and sp tritypes.I highly recommend this to anyone looking to get a beginner's understanding of enneagram.

I was disappointed in this book.

This book gives a quick, funny synopsis of the Enneagram. For more detail try one of the many other more serious and thorough books. The internet has a lot of information too.

This book makes it easy for beginners to understand the nine types of the enneagram. Illustrated with a number of simple cartoons, this book makes an excellent companion to more in-depth works such as the introduction by Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective  or by Helen Palmer The Enneagram: Understanding Yourself and the Others In Your Life . The book includes quizzes for readers to use in identifying themselves or others; I found these to be quite helpful. It's a fun book, both textually and visually, but don't think that it's shallow; it contains a great deal of excellent information. If I had one criticism, it's that the book struck me (a male) as written primarily from the female point of view. Then again, that in itself might be a valuable source of insight! This book is well worth the price and a great addition to one's library.

Lo leí en una tarde, es un libro claro y divertido. Se apoya con el MBTI, lo cual ayuda para el protoanalisis. Me percaté que la autora no describe las variantes: sexual, conservación y social.

Les auteurs décrivent clairement les différents types de personnalités décrites par l'énéagrame et donnent des exemples de chaque type, très simples à identifier.

The Enneagram Made Easy is the best beginner enneagram book that I have read. It is a fun starter book for those just learning about the enneagram. The book is filled with entertaining illustrations to compliment it's written content. It's a painless way to introduce people to the overwhelming topic.The Enneagram Made Easy breaks complex information down and makes it digestible. It explains the chart, wings, and gives a good overview of each type. Some helpful information is listing traits of each type at their best (most health) and worst (unhealthy). The cartoons are funny and spot on for each type! Each type overview has a little checklist that organizes typical behaviour for that type. Each section goes into very brief descriptions about how each type is in relationships, what's good about them, what's difficult about them, and how they were as a child. The information is just a taster and it will leave you wanting to know more!If you fall into the typical models of your type, this book provides amazing accuracy. If you are still struggling and/or want to expand upon the information you have learned in this book, I recommend The Complete Enneagram: 27 Paths to Greater Self-Knowledge by Beatrice Chestnut. This will go further into subtypes, including counter-types that act different from the traditional type description.

Of all the books on the Enneagram this one was the clearest down to earth and easiest to grasp. Wish I had read it 1st before wading through the others. And the authors did it with about 150 pages of easy to read and understand info. They clearly know how to get this info across in a highly organized way that also isn't clinical. Plus they also added the Jungian Types (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) at the end of the book matching up with Enneagram types that some say can't be done. They did it and did it well! I was very impressed with this book and would buy anything these authors wrote after reading this book. A definate buy and keep book.

This book is fun to read, non-serious. Picture is so beautifully showing each types. You will have a great opportunity either love yourself more or hate yourself more. Hahaha.