I found this book of Myers-Briggs exercises very helpful in adding new interactive activities to my programs. The book has several examples of activities for each of the MBTIs mental functions (Sensing, iNtuition, Thinking and Feeling), the attitudes (Extraversion, Introversion, Judging and Perceiving) and combinations of the preferences. The directions are easy to follow and the programs can be adapted to your audience. I use them with college students as well as older adult groups. The exercises are fun and do a good job of explaining how preferences work in the real world. I do wish there were a few more facilitator tips in each exercise. Having said that, for people familiar with what the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is and is not, these exercises will keep your program fun and help in the learning process of your group.

I'm a horsewoman, but I don't often find a good story with a horse as a main character. The authors don't often get their facts straight. This one did. Every detail that was explained was correct down to the smallest little thing.

Old Black, the book, was a bigger book than it seemed. I counted about 35 characters counting Sam the Rodesian ridgeback dog, and, of course, Old Black himself. Not one character escapes my mind's eye. I knew them every one. Even the reporter, Paul Hardesty, was memorable, and had only a cameo (but important) appearance. Oscar and Ruby, I fell for them hard. Salt of the earth. And how I cried when ... but read it yourself. I could see why the author took that route, it was a big step up the ladder to adulthood for Jim. It took me a long time to read the whole scene because I had a hard time seeing anything.

The author truly introduced every character. And that isn't so often the case.

There was some extravagant adventure in this story, but I never once had to suspend disbelief. Old Black the horse was not overplayed into a super horse, either. Nor was that wonderful little boy Jim. And wasn't Alexandra something? Uncle Harry was right, she's a little princess. And speaking of Uncle Harry and Aunt Hazel, everybody who knows someone who has a loved one with Alzheimer's should get a copy of this book. I know in my heart that Jim's therapy would be beneficial.

There are some real heartbreaking scenes and events in this book. And some funny ones too. I thought I'd die laughing over Mr. Mehlman's "theoretical last days." And the incident involving the snake in the bathroom. My husband came in to see what I was laughing about. I told him I had been bitten by the fabled laughing snake. (Of course, he didn't get it until HE read the book.)Wasn't Harry's reaction something a man with a good sense of humor would come out with? And I can understand Matt and Jim laughing themselves sick.

I finished Old Black, lay back on the pillow and relished it a while, then started right back on page 1.

A wonderful story, and told in just the right voice. When I began the book I thought it was only a contemporary boy-and-his-horse story. But unlike most of the genre, it is much, much more. The boy and his horse are the cornerstone, but the story expands way beyond them to involve an interesting variety of people. This is not a children's book, but my 11-year-old daughter was soon captivated and sailed through it in good time. ("Is Old Black going to die?" she asked, teary-eyed. "Read on," I said.) One does not need an interest in horses to love this book. Readers with a keen eye will savor the precious little clues planted along the way, like Easter eggs hidden for the purpose of being discovered. The dozens of illustrations are simply marvelous. Early in the story, Old Black, the horse, is being readied to go off to his new life with the boy Jim Bradley. The part where the cowboy Buck Jones (I just loved him!) is stoically, silently bidding farewell to his dear, longtime friend, the horse displaying his own feelings about their parting, is as touching as any scene I've ever read. It was some minutes before I could go on. You will not miss the absence of profanity, sex, or unnecessary violence here, although that long, dreadful scene in the woods ends with violence aplenty. I found it completely called for and applauded when the criminals got what they deserved. I was drained at the end of the ordeal in the woods, and Aunt Hazel and Uncle Harry strolled onto the scene just when I needed an uplift. I still laugh when I replay that scene in the bathroom: a furious, hissing snake, two grown men and a boy "overcome by the most sustained and idiotic laughter Norma had ever heard." Like another reader, I felt that the scenes arising from Aunt Hazel's Alzheimer's disease were handled with sensitivity and good taste. My grandmother had the disease and I really believe I could have applied some of Jim Bradley's instinctive strategies to bring her some happiness if I had read OLD BLACK while she was still alive. Uncle Harry's exasperation with his wife's condition, his inability to deal with it effectively until Jim showed him the way, was sadly familiar. I feel sure that the author has experienced the anguish of being close to someone with Alzheimer's, to write about it with such delicate insight. The scene at Richter's store where likable old Walter Mehlmann gleefully rehearses how he will waltz through his theoretical last days was a fine piece of humor. Walter's influence on the other men present was hilariously realistic. So realistic, in fact, that after reading that part I found myself rummaging the kitchen for junk food, the more cholesterol laden and otherwise unhealthy the better! I wish I knew where to get some real country cracklings. Fat ones, Reinhard. I like FAT ones! Every character in the book played an essential role. They were so well developed that I could clearly see them in my mind as they came onstage, always true to their distinct characters in actions and speech. Old Black was not a superhorse, as so many fictional horses are. He had limitations and faults, which only made him more "human". OLD BLACK breathes with vibrant life, and did so even while I cried during that sorrowful part with the death and the funeral. It was an experience that gave Jim Bradley (and me too) a better, if bitter, understanding of life. The story is uplifting, happy, dreadfully sad and hilarious, and the ending is just perfect. Throughout, this intricate novel is entirely credible. I agreed to some extent with one critic below - that the book suffered a little in organization. But that defect was overwhelmed by a superb plot, clearly drawn characters, vivid action scenes, settings (I was right there in every scene: seeing, smelling, feeling), and the author's often touching insight into people and horses, especially that lovable Old Black. This is the kind of literature (I call this book literature) that can put a teeny edge on the reader's good side. It is the kind of story (too rare, today) that can open the eyes of young people to the reality that being good, responsible kids can be rewarding, and they can still have fun. This story is much too special to be confined to adult fiction. I would love to see an edition of OLD BLACK written especially for young readers.

Old Black is the most wholesome, absorbing, exciting, touching book I have ever read! And that's going back through a lot of books! Everything in the world that should be in it is there. Old Black the horse was as wonderful as his master, Jim Bradley.

I loved the old black couple, the Jacksons, who lived on the lane to the Bradley's little weekend ranch, and was truly touched by the genuine friendship between that couple and the Bradley family. All of the characters in the story, and there are quite a few, come vividly to life. You never have to think back and ask yourself, "Now just who is this walking on stage?" You know every one of them as if you had known them a long time.

The chapters involving the visit of Jim's Aunt Hazel and Uncle Harry are precious. Aunt Hazel has Alzheimer's disease and Uncle Harry is allowing her condition to get to him. It took the intuitive therapeutic interaction of a boy with compassion for his ailing aunt to show Uncle Har! ry, by examples, how to mitigate her suffering, how to lift her spirits. There was hilarity galore in those chapters, much of it at Aunt Hazel's expense, but it was never once in bad taste.

The rescue of Sheriff Martinez in the woods by Jim and Old Black, which consumed several chapters, was an endless stream of excitement that continued to escalate right up to the very last page of chapter 24. It was a tough job for both the boy and his horse that almost proved to be impossible, but every bit of it was entirely credible.

Old Black is a beautiful piece of creative writing. The story moved. It had a start, a middle, and definitely an ending, an ending that swept along through several chapters in such a rewarding way for the reader. Briggs never takes the writer's easy way out of a single scene or event, but works his plot with fascinating detail and excellent execution. The story was a fine blend of happiness, sadness, tragedy, and humor. Every aspect of the ending was perf! ect -- all the little loose ends that had collected along t! he way were neatly tied up in the most satisfying ways one could imagine -- even better than I ever imagined.

Without giving away the REAL treat at the very end, I will say I loved the way the jealousy toward Jim by the boy on the flashy horse was disposed of. That scene was a magnificent stroke! Then there is a very nice vignette involving that same boy at the very end that had best be left for the joy of reading it first hand. At that last horse show in the Astroarena, I swear I could hear the bawling, cackli! ng, mooing, crowing, grunting . . . of the animals, I was aware of the constant announcements over the loudspeakers, I smelled every aroma of the place, saw and heard the hay carts buzzing around, felt the presence of the activity going on all about -- I was THERE!

Old Black is a fairly long book --387 pages of text -- but I flew through it way too fast to suit me. We should be able to give an extra star to special books for appearances. This one is a beauty, with a nice oil painting for the cover, a pretty full-color map of "Old Black Territory" on the front and back endpapers, and at least five dozen gorgeous illutrations, which is why I presume the book was printed on such fine paper.

When you buy Old Black, you may as well buy two and get it over with. You'll just HAVE to let certain friends read it, and you'll sure not want to part with your own special copy.

(This review was provided by the reader, who does not have a computer, to the publisher for sending on to amazon.com.)

I found this book an eye-opener - it helped me understand the results of the Myers Briggs assessment and to understand how differently different people approach life. I have been reassessing my interactions with family, friends and colleagues ever since. It is written in an easy style, positive and helpful. I soon went looking for more on type theory and I am very glad I read this first, rather than Keirsey's more arrogant work.

I loved this book. It was one of the first I ever read on typology and Myers-Briggs. The writing style is easy without being condescending. The descriptions of the different types were really useful. I totally recognized myself. Best of all, there was no judgement of readers for being who they are. The book showed me how to embrace my weaknesses as well as my strengths. Highly reccommended.

This book describes the ways in which people most naturally relate to each other and the world. It is based on the Myers-Briggs dimensions and is the most useful, easiest to read, and clearest description of these preferences I've ever seen. Even if you are not at all familiar with the Myers-Briggs, you will learn an enourmous amount about yourself and everyone you come into contact with in this very readable book. It will also be simple to figure out how to use this information to make it easier to relate effectively at home and at work. I'm a psychologist and this may be the most useful book I've ever found.

It's an engaging first-hand account from an anthropologist who went to live with an Inuit family. She gives a very candid account of her own difficulties in adapting to their culture.

The book is an engaging first-hand account from an anthropologist who went to live with an Inuit family. She gives a very candid account of her own difficulties in adapting to their culture.

This book applies Myers-Briggs type theory and much more to the way managers operate. I found most interesting the distinction between type preferences, which are essentially given, and needs, which are formed by interaction with the environment. Needs are independent of type. For example, a Thinker can have high nurturance needs - the need to help and be affectionate towards others.

He has more interesting material about conflict management style and the kinds of power managers use. They were interesting, but unlike the needs discussion, I think it would be very difficult to accurately assess these for yourself. There are too obviously "right" and "wrong" answers in these areas. After all, don't we all know that it's usually not right or effective to use "coercive" power?

A good book, and worthwhile adjunct to those interested in applying more than just Myers-Briggs type to management issues.

Jean Briggs' doctoral dissertation, _Never In Anger_ (1970), became one of the great classics of psychological anthropology, both for its incredible wealth of data on how individuals are drawn into cultural patterns (even in such apparently "biological" or "private" matters as emotions), and also for the impressive fieldwork itself (Briggs spent nearly two years in small tents or igloos, where in winter she had to warm up the interior sufficiently for the ink in her typewriter to unfreeze, with an unruly and undisciplined three-year-old). The first book has been cited as charter for an entire generation of researchers in the cross-cultural study of emotions. Unfortunately, this book was not worth the 27-year wait since its predecessor. It contains valuable information, as well as the condensed reflections of Briggs' career on the cultural patterning of emotions, but the style is somewhat repetitive, and the book should probably should have remained as the articles from which it was expanded.

Briggs does make a number of arguments about enculturation/socialization which seem accurate. Interactions are redundant (in that the same message will be given in multiple contexts on multiple occasions), overdetermined (in that many different messages or motives within them will push towards the same socialization outcome), polysemous (in that there are multiple, and sometimes quite complicated or conflicting messages within each drama), that adults and children are not both seeing all the levels (in fact, Briggs argues that this is one point of much of the interactions with children -- to get them to see the adult messages as well), and that in terms of symbolic associations to possible culturally relevant meanings, the system is fairly open. Finally, as she repeats again and again, each individual will obviously experience a different series of enculturating interactions. Different members of a culture will end up with similar, but not identical, profiles.

There is much here to suggest further studies, and specialists in this area would do well at least to browse through the analyses of childhood dramas. However, the book is frustrating. Briggs remains eclectic in her theoretical standpoint, which is puzzling from someone who has spent three decades examining these issues (a less charitable reader might say that she refuses to develop a systematic theory). The chapters are meant to build, but to a large degree they merely repeat each other with minor variations in theme. There is relatively little ethnographic context, and readers wanting to know more about the Inuit would be better advised to read _Never in Anger_. All in all, a somewhat disappointing book from an otherwise great ethnographer.

I actually met and spent some time with one of the elders that this book is about. We tend to over analyze cultures and look at them through a certain "gaze", possibly an anthropological one. However, when we do this we overlook the brilliance in some of the aspects in cultures and specifically books, we must read against the grain. If you've never spent any time in the north or with Inuit people, it is easy to misundertsand a lot of things. It's easy for a person to write a review strictly on the book and decide from one certain perspective that it doesn't meet their needs. I think this book is great and it must be noted that some understanding of Inuit culture might help you in looking at things in a slightly different context.