Finally, there is a simple, clear, true-to-life map of personality that gives you the key to understanding people and communicating with them effectively. This can change your life.

Steven Kessler has been studying people his whole life. As early as the 9th grade, he was attending the school plays night after night to learn more about people's emotions. After a stint studying physics at MIT, he transferred to acting school at Boston University for his undergraduate degree. After four years as an actor […]

At around the age of two, a new need arises in the child. He is now walking and talking and grappling with the discovery that he is separate from his mother. This discovery of separateness brings with it the need for autonomy — the need to be in charge of his own body and actions. […]

When you first discovered the book, The 5 Personality Patterns, your first question was probably, "Which one am I?" So what did you do? Probably you downloaded the pdf of the personality traits of each pattern. Or you searched the big chart in the book that shows the attributes of each pattern. Or you took the […]

One of my favorite fairy tales starts with an orphaned boy wandering alone in the forest at night. Far off through the trees he sees a glimmer of light. Following it, he finds a huge bonfire in a clearing and a giant man asleep by the fire. He lays down against the giant man's legs […]

Here, the wounding happened very early, most likely during pregnancy, when the baby’s incoming spirit did not experience the safety that it needed to complete its transition into the physical world. During this time, the developmental task is embodiment, the process by which the spirit re-orients itself from the spirit world to the physical world […]

"As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live." --- Goethe

One way to come up with gift ideas for your loved ones is to take a look at what kinds of things their personality patterns like. If you’re unsure how to discern which patterns a person does, take a look at my article How to Discern Your Patterns.And remember that each of us typically does two of the patterns, not just the one that is the most obvious.

Here, the unmet need was the need to feel contained and protected by something larger and stronger. This child won the battle for autonomy and felt proud of his strength and will. But then, in what felt to him like a life or death situation, he discovered …

Here the unfulfilled need was for nurturance. The deprivation happened during the first few years of life, usually in relation to feeding. The child didn’t get or couldn’t take in the nourishment and soothing she needed, so she never felt full and satisfied. The tension of being hungry or otherwise upset was not fully released, […]