The 16 personality types: descriptions for self-discovery (by Linda Berens and Dario Nardi)

(Amazon UK link)

I've been fascinated for some time by both the Myers-Briggs personality typing system, and David Keirsey's temperament theory. They are related, but look at personality preferences from different viewpoints. Keirsey's system seems to veer away from Myers-Briggs, which, in turn, veers away from the Jungian type theory from which it grew.

Linda Berens, however, has managed to find links and produce a holistic theory of personality which embraces them all: temperament theory, Myers-Briggs codes with sixteen types of people, and the cognitive functions which are fundamental to Jung's theories. She also believes that everyone is unique. That means that nobody will 'fit' 100% into any of the sixteen broad patterns.

Moreover, a significant proportion of people who have taken the official MBTI (Myers-Briggs temperament indicator) will not have found the result that describes them best, due to limitations of the testing instrument. Thus she has coined the phrase 'best-fit type'.

This very helpful booklet, 'descriptions for self-discovery', was written with Dario Nardi who is another expert in temperament and type theory. In it, full descriptions of each of the sixteen types is given, along with an overview of what they mean. There are some cartoon-style graphics, and tables to help people try and figure out which type really fits them best.

Definitely recommended, for anyone wanting to know more about personality theory, in straightforward language and helpful recommendations. New editions of this can be extremely expensive but it's sometimes possible to find it second-hand, much more reasonably.