My I traded out for an E during high school. I'm now ENTJ. Perhaps a P would make me a better programmer.
I have to admit, I'm not really a fan of Myers-Briggs. It makes loose, mutable categories, and doesn't make any helpful, testable predictions other than sweeping generalizations (such as INTP = programmer).
The enneagram, however, that I like. Its proponents attempt to attach mystical garbage to it, which is unfortunate: it makes strong predictions, changes in personality (my I -> E, for instance) occur in predictable ways, and it functions to make all sorts of interactions easier. At first glance, it seems less descriptive than MBTI (9 types instead of 16), but it also accounts for emotional health and secondary characteristics in a way that make it more descriptive and less of a pigeonhole system.
Yes, the Enneagram is much more accurate and much more profound than the MBTI.
The MBTI is really a confused mess. It purports to be based on Jung's type system. However, a close reading of the relevant section of Jung's <i>Psychological Types</i> reveals the following. Jung identified eight types. The descriptions in his book correspond quite closely, in fact, with eight of the Enneagram types. (The omitted one is the Three.) Myers and Briggs then took the dimensions Jung had identified and multiplied them out to get 16 types which now correspond more poorly to the Enneagram types.
If you don't know about the Enneagram, you might say, "okay, so what? so they don't correspond well -- that doesn't prove the MBTI is wrong." But if you will study the Enneagram you will see there is much more to it. For instance, the connections between one's type and how one related to one's parents; the spectrum of expressions of each type, from unhealthy to healthy; and the concepts of integration and disintegration, which connect the nine types in a clear, fixed, and quite beautiful structure. If you prefer not to hear the mystical overtones in that structure, that's certainly your choice, but they're there.
The Enneagram is a profound tool for self-understanding and self-improvement. The MBTI can be a useful place to start for people who are new to self-exploration, but it won't take you nearly as far.
I totally agree. Even without taking the test, I found that only one or two of the enneagram types describe me and many of my family members to the T. Not all of the types. And even though I've changed Myers-Briggs types over time (which MBTI does not model), my primary enneatype has not changed. The changes that I've gone through, however, were modeled by the enneagram in a predictable way, with (in my opinion) an accurate reason for why those changes occurred.
It won't work 100%; you can't pigeon-hole everyone. It's just a model. But in the end, I found my research of the enneagram to be extremely helpful for personal growth by allowing me to be more aware of my own patterns. Patterns for reacting to problems, patterns for trying to get what I want, etc.
I have to admit, I'm not really a fan of Myers-Briggs. It makes loose, mutable categories, and doesn't make any helpful, testable predictions other than sweeping generalizations (such as INTP = programmer).
The enneagram, however, that I like. Its proponents attempt to attach mystical garbage to it, which is unfortunate: it makes strong predictions, changes in personality (my I -> E, for instance) occur in predictable ways, and it functions to make all sorts of interactions easier. At first glance, it seems less descriptive than MBTI (9 types instead of 16), but it also accounts for emotional health and secondary characteristics in a way that make it more descriptive and less of a pigeonhole system.