Présentation de l'éditeur
Seeking to draw parallels between the one and the whole, this work is as much a study of individual character as a critique of society and its institutions. Viewed through the lens of the enneagram, a personality system that divides people into nine character types, this analysis aligns each of the ailments and difficulties of the individual characters with the broader "ills of the world." In addition to providing a discussion of the theological and psychological background of the enneagram, this work examines the interaction between the various ennea-types and theology's deadly sins. Each character type is presented in light of specific habits and behaviors that diminish a person's ability to give and receive unconditional love. The ensuing essay on the character of nations and cultures presents a commentary on the perennial flaws of modern society and the "defective operation" of social institutions and governments. Rather than proposing a political or revolutionary agenda as a solution, this text advocates a healing process that begins with individuals and associations of people as the ultimate means of effecting the habits of larger social spheres.
Publisher comments
"The reason for the misery of the world lies in the misery of the soul." This is the basic premise of Claudio Naranjo's fundamental work on mapping out personality types according to the Enneagram and its application for the study of the individual and collective consciousness. Dr. Naranjo, a pioneer of the Human Potential Movement and of transpersonal psychology analyzes in these pages the correspondence between disorders of personality and social pathologies, between cardinal sins of the individual--pride, anger, envy, vanity...--and those of humanity--authoritarianism, repression, corruption, violence.... The miseries of the world and our incapacity to maintain healthy relationships can only be resolved if we know and understand that the miseries of the soul have to be remedied first in order to remedy the illnesses of society. "If we consider it to be difficult for a healthy society to be able to exist without the underlying fundament of healthy individuals, it becomes imperative to recognize the political value of individual transformation..."
