Book Review: The Enneagram

For anyone with a slight interest in personality and/or psychology, you may have heard of the enneagram. If not, there is no required prior knowledge as Simon Parke’s The Enneagram: A Private Session with the World’s Greatest Psychologist will explain it all to you.

Basically, the enneagram is a 1500-year-old symbol developed by Sufi and Christian mystics that now helps people understand themselves better as well as helping businesses understand how to develop better. The whole concept of the enneagram is to allow people to develop; to see themselves in an objective light and understand how they see the world.

For personality, the enneagram is brilliant. There are nine distinct types: some are rooted in loyalty, others in knowledge. Not one of them is greater or lesser than the other. Of course, The Enneagram doesn’t say there are nine types of people in the world. There are ‘wing’ types too. So, you may predominantly be a Type 6, but have a part of Type 5 in you too, making you a 6w5. Parke’s book doesn’t delve deep into the ‘wing’ part of personality, so if you become interested, you’ll have to do further reading.

Why I like Parke’s book and way of explaining the enneagram is because it’s so simple yet a compulsive read. It’s told in first-person from the enneagram itself, making it sound like you really are having a private session with a psychologist. You’re encouraged to read about the history of the enneagram, your own type and understand it in many different ways.

The enneagram is more than just a personality test (you can do it here). It’s a way of self-understanding and consequently improvement. I’d recommend Parke’s book to anyone with an interest in psychology, human nature or anyone going through a tough time at the moment. Hopefully it’ll shed some light on life for you as it did me.