Portraits of Temperament

by David Keirsey

Dr. Keirsey examines in detail the ingrained attitudes and habitual actions of the four basic personality the Artisans, Guardians, Rationals, and Idealists. Keirsey summarizes the four temperaments, showing how behaviour of each is either concrete or abstract, cooperative or pragmatic, directive or informative, and finally assertive or responsive. The book includes two brief self-scoring personality tests to assist in observing the differences and similarities among us.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Reference

123 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1987

Reviews

[Tom Hartung · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book! I disagree with a few of his calls - most obviously,it is clear that George Washington was not extroverted, but the authors claim he's an ESTJ. That's not a big deal, and the book is definitely excellent even though I disagree with a few of his calls.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was quite looking forward to reading another book by David Keirsey, of 'Please Understand Me' fame. However, I found this one a little disappointing. There was nothing new; in the prologue he simply repeats what he's said before about there being four temperaments, each with two main variants (as well as Introverted/Extraverted versions) and recounts the history of temperament theory.

Then he describes, in somewhat caricatured terms, each of the eight variants of the temperaments. I happen to know mine, and certainly recognised some of myself, but found the others rather long-winded and stereotyped.

Might be useful to someone wanting an overview of Keirseyan temperament theory, but not nearly as good as his other book, or those by Linda Berens on the same topic.

[Beneth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just an expansion of the "temperments" section in Please Undertstand Me. The temperments are:
NT
NF
SJ
SP
I think there are definitely defining characteristics of these 4 defined temperments. However, I think that people who are both N and P, who may have nothing else in common to each other, may have more in common with each other than some of the temperments defined in Portraits of Temperament, the 4 listed above. In studying about Attention Deficit Disorder, I think it is quite possible that people who are ADD have a greater likelihood of being both "N" and "P".

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gave my copy away.