The 5 Personality Patterns - by Steven Kessler (Paperback)

About the Book

This groundbreaking, bestselling book provides a simple, clear, true-to-life map of personality that gives anyone the key to understanding people and interacting with them successfully. This is a book that changes lives.

Book Synopsis

Understanding people this way is like having x-ray vision!

This bestselling book marks a major advance in the psychology of personality. Suddenly, you can see what's going on inside people: you can see what motivates and matters to them and how to influence and communicate with them successfully. Finally, you have a simple, clear, true-to-life map of personality that gives you the key to understanding people and interacting with them successfully. The 5 Personality Patterns is a book that can change your life.

"This is one of the most useful popular psychology books I have ever seen. . . . It should become a classic."

--- Stephen M. Johnson, author of Character Styles and Characterological Transformation

Much of our human suffering is not necessary. It is created by old safety strategies that helped us survive our childhood traumas, but then got stuck in our bodies. Reinforced by the power of habit, they continue to shape our actions and personality even today. They have become an invisible prison. We live our lives trapped in that prison, repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

As we attempt to understand the psychology of success and become successful ourselves, studying the habits of successful people is not enough. To create real self transformation, we must dissolve the obstacles to success buried within us. To reclaim our power and regain control of our lives, we must uncover the old safety strategies and patterns that still run our lives so that we can heal and transform them.

Often, these patterns have shaped us so deeply that we think that's who we are. But in fact, they cover up our true self and prevent it from shining out into the world. Finally, we have a map of these patterns, a map that will help you:

- Discover how you got stuck and how to get free

- Heal your core wounds

- Learn the skills you missed

- Communicate effectively with others

- Develop emotional maturity

Many readers seeking self improvement have discovered that this map of personality is even more helpful to them than the Enneagram and Myers-Briggs personality types, because those maps focus on the surface of the body, on your behaviors, while this map starts with the core of the body and how the flow of your life energy got distorted. And that distortion of the flow of life energy through the body is at the root of much of the suffering and conflict we experience in interpersonal relationships. Understanding those differences will dramatically increase your empathy, compassion, and people skills. Understanding how to bridge those differences will dramatically increase your interpersonal communication skills.

Review Quotes

"This is one of the most useful popular psychology books I have ever seen. . . . It should become a classic." --- Stephen M. Johnson, author of Character Styles and Characterological Transformation

"As a psychotherapist with close to 20 years of experience who is constantly reading books in my field, I find this book to be extremely illuminating and applicable for both my personal experiences, and for my work with clients in private practice. I almost never write product reviews, and I felt compelled to write a review for this book. I appreciate the author's inclusion of energy and the body with psychological perspectives about the survival patterns of human beings. His voice is gentle, clear, humane, and optimistic. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in being a student of life and from being a human. I would love to see the author write a book about ways to heal each survival pattern." -- Kun-Hong Lu

"Wow. This book is incredible. I have worked doing deep healing work with clients for the last 9 years and I integrate the enneagram, energy work and other somatic practices. Steven has done a brilliant and deep work developing and compiling this information in a way that is approachable and also vast. His writing shows he has obviously put in his time sitting and supporting and studying real humans. This work is a game changer." -- Micah T. McLaughlin

"This book has changed my life. I have read many personality and self-help books, this one has given me the perspective for true change. Not only does Steven Kessler help me feel understood and help me understand myself, but he has given me tools that are healing me. Now, after reading it, I use it as a reference book daily... the more I re-read, the more I learn. He addresses the physical, emotional, mental, energetic and spiritual body. I love the way he points out that as we heal from our wounds, we'll be able to use the 'gifts' we have developed through our 'wounding'. This book is written clearly and with empathy. Thank you! I love it!"

"This brilliant book has ben a game changer in my life. Kessler writes with deep insight, understanding and compassion about human beings and our struggles, differences and gifts. This book is uncannily revealing and will be a great help to those looking to learn more about themselves. If you want to understand how you got stuck, how to get unstuck, how to lovingly grow yourself up and gather our own buried gold, this book is for you. It is eminently readable, accessible and frankly, hard to put down."