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A review by delights
The Essential Enneagram by David N. Daniels, Virginia Price
1.0
I had high hopes for this book. Although I never heard of Virginia Price, David Daniels seems to be really well respected between the Enneagram community. Beatrice Chestnut talked about him in her book, "The Complete Enneagram", Helen Palmer even wrote something for this book and worked with him, he appears on Katherine's Fauvre video about the Tritype, etc. But...
This book should be called something along the lines of "The Enneagram Journal" or something like that, not "The Essential Enneagram". It didn't really deliver the essential. By the way, this book promises to deliver you answers about your actual type, but I am afraid I would selftype as 9w1 925 if I only read this book. My type is SP2w1 296. Well, let's go by topics:
1. The Enneagram Test
It was actually pretty nice. I liked it, despite being very simple. Unfortunately, Appendix B, in the end of the book, is the only part that really talks about the scientifically efficiency of it. Sincerely, I expected it to be the highlight of the book by it's introduction.
2. The Type Descriptions
I felt like I was reading a “bad” website. They were SO simple, to the point they seemed like stereotypes. There's no depth about the defense mechanisms involving the types or any of the other essential things. It was mostly traits.
3. Where are the subtypes?
It was pretty much just ONE PAGE for subtypes. They just wrote in the most lazy way about the instinctual variants, giving a general idea and not how they affect the type focus — Naranjo would be SO ashamed.
4. WHY SO MUCH SELF-HELP?
The book is supposed to cover the basics of the Enneagram, but... it's mostly empty self-help with copy pasted content with slight changes for each type. Just... why?
Well, I could say more stuff but... I feel like there's no need. I pretty much recommend Riso-Hudson, Naranjo and Chestnut, if you would like to dive deeper on the Enneagram. The book written by Chestnut that I mentioned in the beginning is really good for starting, Riso's and Hudson's "The Wisdom of the Enneagram" is good too!
This book should be called something along the lines of "The Enneagram Journal" or something like that, not "The Essential Enneagram". It didn't really deliver the essential. By the way, this book promises to deliver you answers about your actual type, but I am afraid I would selftype as 9w1 925 if I only read this book. My type is SP2w1 296. Well, let's go by topics:
1. The Enneagram Test
It was actually pretty nice. I liked it, despite being very simple. Unfortunately, Appendix B, in the end of the book, is the only part that really talks about the scientifically efficiency of it. Sincerely, I expected it to be the highlight of the book by it's introduction.
2. The Type Descriptions
I felt like I was reading a “bad” website. They were SO simple, to the point they seemed like stereotypes. There's no depth about the defense mechanisms involving the types or any of the other essential things. It was mostly traits.
3. Where are the subtypes?
It was pretty much just ONE PAGE for subtypes. They just wrote in the most lazy way about the instinctual variants, giving a general idea and not how they affect the type focus — Naranjo would be SO ashamed.
4. WHY SO MUCH SELF-HELP?
The book is supposed to cover the basics of the Enneagram, but... it's mostly empty self-help with copy pasted content with slight changes for each type. Just... why?
Well, I could say more stuff but... I feel like there's no need. I pretty much recommend Riso-Hudson, Naranjo and Chestnut, if you would like to dive deeper on the Enneagram. The book written by Chestnut that I mentioned in the beginning is really good for starting, Riso's and Hudson's "The Wisdom of the Enneagram" is good too!