The Positive Enneagram: A New Approach to the Nine Personality Types [Paperback]

I am not an expert, but I have read a number of enneagram books, and this is my favorite. Susan Rhodes' top-down approach really works for me, and I find her descriptions helpful, insightful and balanced. Her connection of the enneatypes to the process enneagram and her hints of the Gurdjieffian system provides new insight.

The book begins with an overview of her entire model. This is then fleshed in: descriptions of the nine enneatypes, expanded into descriptions of the 27 subtypes and the 18 wing types. The book ends with more details about the process enneagram, followed by self-tests in the appendices. After the enneatype description are two chapters on the energy centers and on the connection points.

Although Rhodes' introduction focuses on her effort to create a "positive" view of the enneatypes as an innate typology of individuality rather than as personality fixations, as many of the early enneagram books saw them, I find her presentation on the whole balanced, showing both strengths and challenges of each type. I don't agree with her assessment that Freudianism influenced the early books--rather, I think Oscar Ichazo was influenced by Gurdjieff (who in turn was influenced by a Gnostic Christian tradition), who saw humans as very far removed from God and far from what we ought to be (to become, as he put it, "man without inverted commas"). But this is a minor quibble.

I do experience this as a remarkably useful book for newcomers to the enneagram, while Rhodes' depth of personal work shines through in ways that certainly makes it useful for those with a broad background. I find her writing lucid and entertaining, and her diagrams helpful.

Susan Rhodes' book is a welcome paradigm shift in Enneagram thought, away from seeing personality type as an obstacle, a thief of our energy, or a set of flaws demanding our attention. It's about taking a neutral approach and see personality as a set of traits that are not a bunch of suffocating limitations, but our own individual assortment of particular gifts, strengths and challenges.
I was first introduced to the Enneagram in 1979 and went to Berkeley for a 9-week course on Monday nights with focus a different type each week. We'd watch a panel composed of several exemplars of the same Enneagram type being questioned by the facilitator and tried to recognize what they all had in common. I too sat on one of those panels. The promise of an answer to what my soul was searching for since I began the "Who am I" quest as a teen, was irresistible.
I was so impressed with this system and excited about finding this elusive "me" that for the next 20+ years I became absorbed in learning all I could about the Enneagram. I read all the books that came out in the mid 80's and 90's, went to conferences and even completed a teacher-certification training.
What caught many seekers like me in those early days was the promise that this system could give you the keys to discover the mysterious inner Self -- and all that sans gurus, studying scriptures, sitting in uncomfortable postures and doing boring practices.
The Enneagram promise was that finding your personality type and making it conscious somehow would put you in touch with your True Self and voilà, it would emerge in all it's glory.
It was tricky though. The personality was like the evil twin which had to be redeemed through conscious awareness and acceptance practices... once neutralized, it would let go of it's grip on the true self. But I kept running into a snag: learning more about my quirks did not make them go away.
Moreover, most books and Enneagram teaching at the time described the nine types in fairly negative terms -- a laundry list of nine groups of flaws that clustered together into what we then called nine personality types. You were supposed to transcend or toss off those chains by some magic and find your mysterious "essence" that was like a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.
The more I focused on myself as my Enneagram type, the more I felt trapped in my flawed personality. I felt like a hostage held by a personality responsible for my bondage and unhappiness. It was a vicious cycle, the harder I worked on my self, the more desperate and hopeless I became, instead of freeing me from the prison of self the walls got thicker.
This went on until I started reading Susan Rhodes' articles in the "Enneagram Monthly" which helped me rediscover the original practice of self acceptance and allowing -- the non-attached witnessing of life, albeit through the lens of my Enneagram type. I realized that it was not the shade of coloring in my type's lens that was at the root of my discontent but my assumption that ALL my personality traits came from being wounded or defective. When it became clear to me that we simply can't be alive and NOT have personality traits, it was so much easier to make peace with myself.
Susan Rhodes' "Positive Enneagram" is exactly about this and affirms my journey. Bravo, such a book was long overdue and I wish it was written earlier. In fairness, it's not that other Enneagram authors do not mention the positive sides of type, it's that they place less emphasis on type as a perfectly natural and healthy way of being an individual. I for one respond to honey more than to vinegar and that's why I recommend this book to newcomers as well as veteran students of human nature and type.
Susan Rhodes is a profound thinker and a very good writer. Her book is clear, to the point, well organized and loaded with practical common sense. Its primary focus is of course just as the title suggests "The Positive Enneagram." And given that just about all other books on the subject are heavily tilted towards a view that most our quirks and internal problems are the results of traumas suffered, it offers a fresh perspective that allows us to view our nature in a value-neutral way, as a map to our purpose in life rather than a mine field of obstacles to overcome. It also includes an excellent personality test and a test to gage our instinctual inclinations. All in all it's a reference manual, a must-have for any serious student of the Enneagram.

This book, although a little heavy on the theory at times (must admit I skipped some parts), offers great descriptions of the enneagram personality types. I tend to be skeptical about most theories that put people into discrete personality categories, but have found the enneagram to be really helpful when dealing with people in my personal and work life (e.g., the reclusive guy in my office, who won't even look up when I say "Hi" (Type 5); my incredibly ambitious manager who types 120 words a minute and keeps worrying that someone else will steal credit for the stuff she does (Type 3); my next-door neighbor who constantly guards the parking space in front of his house (Type 1)). It also helps me get a read on my own frequently nutty behavior and emotions.

What I like about this enneagram book in particular is that it's relatively free of jargon and is loaded with real-world examples that really bring home the unique qualities and perspectives of each type. You don't have to be a counselor or have any prior knowledge of the enneagram to get a lot out of it.

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