My Best Self: Using the Enneagram to Free the Soul – Integrate the Three Centers for Harmony, Creativity, and Self-Love

by Kathleen V. Hurley

The authors of the popular What's My Type? break through to a dramatic new level of Enneagram work by exploring the Original -- or Hidden -- Wound and outlining the recovery of our Repressed Center -- the key to releasing our power to love ourselves, love others, and put our unique talents to work in the world. Reclaiming the Hidden Self or Repressed Center completes, heals, and integrates our personality. Through real-life examples and questions for personal or group use, the authors detail this soul-making process by which we become rounded, capable of love, and empowered to create and contribute. Hurley and Dobson explor the three centers of human intelligence -- the Intellectual, the Relational, and the Creative -- and how they operate in our lives. Each of the nine personality types prefers one center, relies on another for backup support, and represses one center altogether. The Enneagram challenge is to recover the lost resources of our personality's repressed center. Freed to be fully intellectual, creative, and relational in our living, we become able to achieve harmony, joy, love, and creativity.

Genres: Self Help, Spirituality, Psychology

304 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 1993

Reviews

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains some gems of Enneagram knowledge, but one has to hunt for them. I'm currently skimming through a second time and taking notes on the key points I want to add to my teaching. Perhaps the most useful is the authors' approach to stances. I haven't found much written in books about stances, and I find that area of study to be the best tangible way to navigate self-work with the Enneagram.

Some people may find this book too mystical or esoteric. The main theme running throughout is "soul-making".

[Elaine Messineo]

a more in depth look at the enneagram

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a very good introduction to the Enneagram concepts, and a very good guide to the personal and group work that can be done using the Enneagram for spiritual growth/transformation. Authors Hurley and Dobson have created the book I would offer to anyone interested in the Enneagram or in getting beyond blockages in spiritual growth. Positive and thorough.

[Jeni Hogenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent for self understanding and personal growth.

[Henry Haney · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some interesting nuggets here and there but overall I was disappointed with this one. I learned so much from the previous book by these authors called “What’s My Type”. While that book was informative and deep, this one mostly seemed to be reaching for something deeper that either doesn’t exist or was never brought into complete focus. If you are desiring to learn more about the enneagram I suggest skipping this book. You won’t be missing out on anything.