My wife came home from church one day and said, “I want to take that Sunday School class on the Enneagram.” I’d heard of it, but I knew nothing about it. Over the next few weeks, she kept calling people numbers. “You’re a five.” or “I’m a six.” Intrigued, I decided to read this book to learn more about it.
I was – and still am – very cynical that human personality can be broken down accurately into nine parts. Even though the enneagram has ancient roots in Christian spirituality, the system seems somewhat contrived and arbitrary. Why must things combine in a set way? Why can’t they be some other way?
At its best, this book offers a language to communicate about concepts that make people’s personalities tick. At its best, the enneagram provides a lens through which to understand the people in our lives with compassion. At its worst, it’s just another reductionistic self-help program.
These concepts are all-the-rage in mainline Christian churches today. Some people treat all of this as incontrovertible gospel. In some ways, it’s the new Myers-Briggs psychology test, which was the new Jungian archetypes. It’s helpful to be exposed to, at the very least in order to learn the language. But there is more to life than personality as there is more to psychology than the almighty self. This book needs to teach us about others, not self-absorption, about love-of-neighbor instead of mere narcissism.
Therefore, I think this book is misnomered. The goal is not self-discovery. The goal is discovery of how to understand those closest to us. I know I thought of co-workers and family members as I read. I thought of how I could have handled situations and people better than I did. Yes, it taught me about myself, but that wasn’t the point. It taught me about them and how I can relate to their lives better. It didn’t teach me how I can be me better. It taught me how handle me so that I can love them better.
The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery
by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile
Copyright (c) 2016
ISBN13 9780830846191
Page Count: 238
Genre: Self-Help, Psychology
www.amazon.com