The Shadows of Type

by Angelina Bennet

Psychological type systems such as the Myers-Briggs® are incredibly useful in helping people to improve their self-awareness and awareness of others. However the current models do not explain how well somebody uses their type, why two people of the same type can differ greatly in their effectiveness, or how we can maximise the potential of our type? The ‘Shadows of Type’ model provides the answers to these questions by placing psychological type back into its original Jungian context, ‘upgrading’ this to set it within the psychosynthesis model, and then combining it with ego development theory. This leads to detailed descriptions of the 16 psychological types through seven levels of ego development. Using the suggested coaching techniques and applications, individuals can gain more insight into how they are using their type and the traps that they can fall into, and coaches are enabled to work with psychological type developmentally, transformationally and transpersonally.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Personal Development

232 pages, Paperback

First published May 8, 2010

Reviews

[Halah AlEssa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I read in years.

[Josh]

My first experience with a book that claims there are levels of psychological development, from basic and rudimentary power-seeking survival, through various others like social-self development, personal identification, awareness of the Personal ID's limitations and narrowness, etc., and culminating in the never-attained self-actualized magician.

Most Myers-Briggs sources which focus on how we're all equal, just different Types. So this was refreshing, given that Jung's original ideas were all about Type development and mal-development. I really liked the nature of the hierarchy, bc it emphasizes development of one's psychological self-awareness and others-awareness, which I believe in deeply. So it was tempting to swallow it wholesale, reading with my iNtuition.

But it's even more important to me to not jump into new ideas wo being careful of limiting my perspective too much. The new idea is presumed to be just another old idea that's one more way of seeing and understanding things. But it's also impossible for me not to be just plain skeptical. So I kept thinking that hierarchies are bad, bc they so often have pernicious effects. And this is just another hierarchy. And thinking that I saw no reason why this one was justified any more than any other, although this book was not intended to justify the hierarchy, merely report it and integrate it with Typology. And thinking that of course psychologists wd say that being psychological-minded wd make you more "advanced".

So in the end I was lukewarm about the hierarchical nature of the hierarchy, but excited about trying to apply it any-damn-way. While remembering that I don't believe the hierarchy is true, even if it's useful.

A quirky meta-twist is that this very attitude I'm describing is one of the phases in the hierarchy of development. So maybe I'm stuck in it, and I'll never understand how the hierarchy is fully true until I move on to the next stage. Some people might think this creates a catch-22, as maybe I can only move on to the next stage if I accept the hierarchy as true, but I can't accept the hierarchy as true until I'm beyond my current stage. This is how cults work, the cult of personality. But this isn't a catch-22, bc it I can move to the next stage by applying the hierarchy as if it's true, whether I really believe it's true or not. So that is what I will do, and am doing.

One day maybe I'll see that I was always at the Magician level (that's the actual name, Ma-friggin-gician), and the creators of the hierarchy were always below me, and I shd have ignored their ideas. Oh well, they seem right now, so I'ma use them. Or anyway, they're neat and I like them.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coaches and counselors who use psychological type need to add this book's wisdom, resources, and model to their practice. Too often, type is used as a point-in-time picture of a client's strengths and needs. Bennet's work integrates stages of adult development in ways that will lead to better counseling practices, more targeted descriptions of type strengths and blind spots, and deeper development.

[Yitzchok · Rating 4 out of 5]

First book that I have come across that tackles the issue of personal growth through Myers-Briggs personality types. She uses a system that is somewhat, but not quite, similar to Kohlbergs moral development and incorporates it with the personality types.