Early Jung/Myers personality type books were rather general in scope as they introduced the concepts to the public. Now more and more books are aimed at specific groups. This one is a very worthwhile book aimed at the health care industry and how it communicates with patients and their families. The authors have researched the topic on two continents: Allen in Great Britain and Brock in the United States. They were able to collaborate their work over the internet. (Susan Brock has died of cancer since this book was published.)
Most of us have been on the receiving end of the health care system and probably experienced both excellent care and also some that was also less than satisfactory. Often the difference in our level of satisfaction with the experience was the effectiveness of the communication between the care givers and ourselves. This book is designed to help care givers have an understanding of how personality type affects their interactions with patients and what they can do to make the consultations more effective.
The book begins with the basics, but gives examples from the health field. Then it moves on to FLEX Care®. Brock has developed FLEX models for various topics. Essentially, it looks at interactions in three parts: Meeting or Beginning an Interaction—use Talk It Out (E) or Think It Through (I) concepts; Investigating Needs and Suggesting Action—use one of the four function pairs (ST-Facts, SF-Service, NF-Vision, or NT-Logical Options); and Pacing to Close or Next Steps—use Joy of Closure (J) or Joy of Processing (P). They use the concept of type modes, i.e. when you are not in your own type and use the skills of another type you are in another type mode. In other words, communicate in the language of the patient.
There are numerous examples given using the Critical Incidents Technique where care workers and patients give examples of both a positive and a negative critical incident. The authors give clues to look for, the incident and then an analysis of the incident. These make excellent teaching exercises.
There is a chapter on breaking bad news. It looks at how each type finds it the most easy to receive bad news. It also looks at it from the care giver’s point of view. Another problem that care givers have is adherence, or getting the patient to follow instructions. They give type related tips to increase the chance of the patient following orders.
Care givers have to work as a team and the book looks at how personality type affects teamwork. Something new that I hadn’t come across before was the different way Js and Ps see closure. Js like the feeling when a project is completed or a patient is released. It is a time of celebration. Closure for Ps (The Joy of Processing) is not much of a time for celebration. They would be more into a celebration at the beginning of a project.
The chapter on professional development looks at problem solving using all of the functions. It also looks at type dynamics and development, and looks at the “in the grip” phenomenon.
The final chapter uses the Möbius strip as a metaphor for good communication. A diagram of two concentric circles shows the stages good communication goes through when it is done well. By reversing the steps, which often happens, it shows how communication can go awry. The outer circle represents the blame or worry cycle. Extraverts tend to be drawn into the blame game, while those who are introverts tend more towards worry.
As you can see this is a very comprehensive book. Overall, this is a very commendable book aimed at a very specific portion of the population, but anyone interested in the applications of Jung/Myers theory will find a lot of useful ideas as well.