‘The Path Between Us: An Enneagram Journey to Healthy Relationships’ by Suzanne Stabile

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

It’s just like college, this book has a pre-requisite. It is mandatory to first read The Road Back to You by Suzanne Stabile & Ian Morgan Cron (or any other book that you may have used to determine your number). I’ve read other enneagram books, but in my opinion, Stabile is the best on the topic.

The enneagram (any-a-gram) is an ancient tool for understanding human psyche through nine personality types. How we view ourselves, how we interact with others, and what our default tendencies are, can be instructive and hugely interesting. The way you discover your type is simply by reading descriptions of the nine types and discerning which comes closest to capturing you. Of course everyone is a unique version of one of the types and, unlike other personality tests, the discovery process itself is a personal journey. There’s no judging or finger-pointing and you can never determine anyone else’s number for them. The goal is always to gain understanding, not put someone in a box.

The Path Between Us is a follow-up book that explores how the different numbers interact with each other in relationship. It’s easy to read, clear without being simplistic, and focuses on the right things. It talks about how to protect relationships from anger, fear and shame. Using the enneagram can help us be more compassionate and understanding with one another, and teaches us something about how we react and interact.

Stabile says in the introduction, “This book will help in understanding how each of the nine enneagram numbers sees the world, how they make sense of what they see, how they decide what to do, and how all of that affects how they relate to others.

Of course, because this is a book about relationships, it won’t be tidy–human interaction can be unpredictable and messy. Sometimes we get it right and other times we’re dead wrong. The good news is that with the help of the Enneagram, we can all do better.”