MERVE EMRE is an associate professor of English at the University of Oxford. She is the author of Paraliterary: The Making of Bad Readers in Postwar America. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, Bookforum, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The Baffler, n+1, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, where she is senior humanities editor.
"In this riveting, far-reaching book [Emre] brings the skills of a
detective, cultural critic, historian, scientist and biographer to
bear on the MBTI and the two women who invented and promoted it....
She is never condescending to or dismissive of the people who find
their four-dimensional profiles illuminating and helpful. That is
why, when Ms. Emre describes her book as being 'for the skeptics,
the true believers, and everyone in between, ' she is absolutely
right."
--Wall Street Journal "Merve Emre's new book begins like a
true-crime thriller, with the tantalizing suggestion that a number
of unsettling revelations are in store.... It takes a while to
realize that Emre has gotten you hooked under arguably false
pretenses, but what she finally pulls off is so inventive and
beguiling you can hardly begrudge her for it. The revelations she
uncovers are less scandalous than they are affecting and
occasionally (and delightfully) bizarre.... The Personality Brokers
is history that reads like biography that reads like a novel--a
fluid narrative that defies expectations and plays against
type."
--New York Times "[A] brilliant cultural history of the
personality-assessment industry."
--The Economist "A unique meld of a hidden history of two admirably
prickly women and an examination of why their ideas were
simultaneously damaging and popular."
--The Ringer "The Personality Brokers goes into the flawed, fraught
history behind the Myers-Briggs Type Indication, which is about as
psychologically credible as a Buzzfeed quiz.... Emre is careful to
be generous to those who fit into this category [who believe in the
MBTI], writing at the end of the book about the enthusiasts she
encountered along the way."
--The Outline
"Crackling.... The pleasure of Emre's book...is not vague
grandiosity but specificity. Whatever her reservations about
Katharine [Briggs] and Isabel [Myers]'s work, her commitment to her
subjects is total--she renders personality in all its detail and
contradiction."
--Bookforum
"A gripping mix of history and opinion relevant to anyone who has
ever taken--or thought about taking--the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator."
--Forbes.com "[A] fascinating true story."
--People
"Emre's account of the emergence and appeal of the MBTI is nuanced
and non-judgmental...[her] careful investigations of the tool's
bizarre origins and alarming impact weave a compelling
narrative."
--Nature "An archivally rich mix of history, biography, and a bit
of reporting.... [A] close, sympathetic study of the test's
creators and their aspirations."
--New York Review of Books
"A fascinating and necessary exposé of personality testing and why
people are so eager to find their type."
--Real Simple "Revealing that backstory is where Emre's book
shines.... The details unfold novel-like from one chapter to the
next....Emre takes readers along for the wild ride as the
Myers-Briggs evolves from infancy to youth to maturity."
--Christianity Today (4 stars out of 5) "Superb and deeply
thoughtful... a thrilling biography of Katherine and Isabel as well
as a broad analysis of our modern mania for defining the human
self...a tremendous piece of storytelling and an acute analysis of
the craving of the contemporary, secular imagination for
certainties."
--Sunday Times (UK)
"Merve Emre... is a masterful and nuanced storyteller. [The
Personality Brokers] is a riveting biography of Katharine Briggs
and Isabel Myers and their controversial, influential test."
--New Statesman (UK) "The story behind the Myers-Briggs tests
proves an interesting one, and is told with considerable relish,
vim and some savage comedy by Emre.... [R]ichly entertaining.... A
very funny book."
--The Spectator (UK) "This is a sparkling biography--not just of a
pair of remarkable women, but of a popular personality tool. Merve
Emre deftly exposes the hidden origins of the MBTI and the
seductive appeal and fatal flaws of personality types. Ultimately,
she reveals that a sense of self is less something we discover, and
more something we create and revise."
--Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take,
Originals, and Option B with Sheryl Sandberg "Genius, passion,
insight, love, heartbreak, war, family, competition, corporate
villainy: the story of the Myers-Briggs personality assessment, and
the extraordinary mother-daughter duo who conceived and developed
it, has all the stuff of a great novel, with the added advantage
that it's true. Chances are you didn't know that Myers and Briggs
were women. In the tradition of Hidden Figures, this brilliant book
proves--yet again--that women were behind some of the most
important scientific innovations of wartime and postwar America. I
absolutely love it."
--Liza Mundy, New York Times bestselling author of Code Girls
"Merve Emre pulls back the curtain on the world of personality
testing and the mother-daughter duo whose work catapulted the field
into a movement. The Personality Brokers is a fluid mix of history,
research, and first hand reporting that speaks to both true
believers and skeptics alike. With her engaging and persuasive
narrative, Emre elucidates how personality testing became a
cultural force, one whose influence persists."
--Nathalia Holt, New York Times bestselling author of Rise of the
Rocket Girls
"Scholar and trenchant literary critic Emre uses archival research
to tell this story, revealing the fictions woven into a supposedly
'scientific' instrument."
--The Millions "[A] fascinating survey...Emre delves deeply into
these women's personalities and those of the many others who spread
their ideas far and wide over the course of nearly a century."
--BookPage "An illuminating dual biography...Emre has dug deeply
into published and archival sources to produce a deft, gracefully
written account of Katherine Briggs and her daughter Isabel
Myers.... A discerning history of the quest for
self-knowledge."
--Kirkus Reviews
"[Emre] tells the fascinating story of the origins of the world's
most widely used personality test.... She is excellent at
recounting how the MBTI began to sweep American institutions in the
1950s. [A] fine study."
--Publishers Weekly
"This combined dual biography and social history seeks explanations
for why an admittedly flawed, unscientifically proven personality
test--created in the 1920s by a mother-daughter team of two
untrained pseudointellectuals--continues to be the most revered
personality indicator in existence...[T]his eye-opening account
gives readers insight into how one evaluation method morphed into a
neat, satisfying packaging system for our complicated psyches."
--Booklist
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