The Personality Brokers

The Personality Brokers Plot Summary

Introduction

In a modest Washington D.C. home during the early 1920s, a remarkable intellectual experiment was taking shape. Katharine Cook Briggs, a college-educated housewife with no formal psychological training, had transformed her living room into what she called a "cosmic laboratory" for studying human personality. This seemingly domestic pursuit would eventually lead to the creation of the world's most widely used personality assessment tool, one that would profoundly influence how millions of people understand themselves and others. The journey from this humble beginning to global phenomenon reveals fascinating intersections between psychology, business, and popular culture throughout the 20th century. This historical exploration takes us through the surprising evolution of personality testing - from wartime intelligence screening to corporate team building, from academic controversy to internet meme. Along the way, we encounter fundamental questions about human nature: Are our personalities fixed or fluid? Can complex individuals truly be categorized into distinct types? How do we balance scientific validity with practical utility? Perfect for psychology enthusiasts, business professionals, and anyone interested in the hidden forces that shape our self-understanding, this narrative illuminates how two women working outside traditional academic structures created a framework that continues to captivate our collective imagination despite decades of scientific criticism.

Chapter 1: The Cosmic Laboratory: Katharine Briggs' Personality Theories (1875-1923)

In the late 19th century, as scientific thinking swept across America, Katharine Cook Briggs was developing her own theories about human personality from an unlikely location - her Washington D.C. living room. Born in 1875 to a zoology professor father who embraced Darwin's controversial theories and a deeply religious mother, Katharine grew up in an environment where science and faith existed in fascinating tension. This intellectual backdrop would profoundly shape her approach to understanding human differences. After marrying Lyman Briggs and giving birth to her daughter Isabel in 1897, Katharine transformed her home into what she called a "cosmic laboratory of baby training." She meticulously documented her daughter's development, conducting behavioral experiments and implementing regimens of obedience training. These weren't merely the actions of an overzealous mother; they represented Katharine's systematic attempt to understand personality formation. Her approach reflected a broader shift in early 20th century America, where motherhood was becoming professionalized and scientific child-rearing was gaining popularity among educated women. The pivotal moment in Katharine's intellectual journey came in 1923 when she discovered Carl Jung's book "Psychological Types" through a review in the New Republic. The encounter was transformative - Jung's concepts of extraversion and introversion, sensing and intuition, thinking and feeling provided Katharine with a vocabulary for the personality differences she had observed throughout her life. She devoted herself to studying Jung's work, copying passages into notebooks and referring to the book as her "Bible." For five years, she immersed herself in Jungian theory, even writing letters to Jung himself and developing an intellectual infatuation with the Swiss psychiatrist. In 1926, Katharine published an article titled "Meet Yourself: How to Use the Personality Paint Box" in the New Republic, introducing Jung's ideas to American readers in accessible language. She created a simple 2×4 grid - the first type table and precursor to the famous 16-type Myers-Briggs system. This early work laid the foundation for what would eventually become one of the most influential personality assessment tools in history. Katharine's "cosmic laboratory" demonstrates how significant intellectual contributions can emerge from domestic spaces traditionally overlooked by formal academic institutions, particularly when those spaces were occupied by educated women with limited professional opportunities in the early 20th century.

Chapter 2: From Domestic Science to War Effort: Isabel Myers' Vision (1923-1945)

When Isabel Briggs left for Swarthmore College in 1915, she experienced her first taste of independence from her mother's meticulous training. College life exposed her to new ideas and people, including Clarence Gates Myers (nicknamed "Chief"), whom she would marry in 1918 despite her mother's initial reservations. Their relationship represented Isabel's first significant rebellion against Katharine's influence, especially when Chief gave Isabel a copy of William James's "The Varieties of Religious Experience" - a book Katharine considered dangerous for its emphasis on individual spiritual experience over institutional religion. As Isabel settled into married life while Chief attended law school, she grappled with questions about her purpose beyond being a wife. During a summer in Memphis where Chief trained as a bomber pilot, Isabel worked as a typist and began formulating ideas about "different gifts" and the "right things" for different people - concepts that would later become central to her personality indicator. She found temporary success as a mystery novelist in the late 1920s, winning a substantial prize for her novel "Murder Yet to Come," though her literary career stalled after the stock market crash of 1929 wiped out most of her prize money. The outbreak of World War II in 1939 marked a turning point in Isabel's life and work. Disturbed by Nazi atrocities and concerned about the inefficiency of placing people in jobs unsuited to their natural abilities, Isabel began developing what she initially called "Form A" of the "Briggs-Myers Type Indicator" in 1942. Unlike her mother, who saw personality typing primarily as a path to self-understanding, Isabel focused on practical applications - specifically, how matching people to suitable work could strengthen American society against fascist threats. She approached Edward Northup Hay, Philadelphia's first personality consultant, offering to work for his firm to learn about "people-sorting instruments." Under Hay's guidance, Isabel gained exposure to workplace personality testing, which was becoming increasingly common in American corporations. She quickly recognized the limitations of existing tests like the Humm-Wadsworth Temperament Scale that categorized workers on a spectrum from "Normal Worker" to "paranoid schizophrenic." Isabel envisioned something different - an instrument that would help people discover their natural preferences and talents rather than identifying abnormality or pathology. By transforming her mother's philosophical ideas about personality into a practical tool for workplace application, Isabel bridged the domestic sphere of Katharine's "cosmic laboratory" with the emerging field of industrial psychology, setting the stage for the indicator's future adoption by major corporations and government agencies.

Chapter 3: Corporate Adoption: MBTI Enters the Workplace (1945-1960)

The post-World War II economic boom transformed American business and created new opportunities for personality assessment in corporate settings. As organizations grew larger and more complex, managers sought scientific methods to understand and optimize human resources. Isabel Myers' type indicator, with its positive framing of personality differences, found a receptive audience among forward-thinking executives who were grappling with the challenges of managing increasingly diverse workforces. Edward Hay became an enthusiastic promoter of the indicator among his corporate clients, which included major companies like General Electric, Standard Oil, and Bell Telephone. These organizations were facing rapid growth and needed effective ways to place workers in roles where they would be most productive and satisfied. The indicator promised to match employees to jobs that suited their natural preferences and abilities, potentially reducing turnover and increasing productivity. Isabel worked directly with many of these companies, analyzing their executives and workers and providing detailed reports on how type differences affected workplace dynamics. Oliver Arthur Ohmann, assistant to the vice president of Standard Oil and head of its industrial relations department, became one of Isabel's strongest conceptual allies. Ohmann was concerned with what he called the "spiritual impoverishment" of workers in modern industry. "Our economy has been abundantly productive, our standard of living is at an all-time peak, and yet we are a tense, frustrated, and insecure people full of hostilities and anxieties," he lamented. He saw the type indicator as a potential solution - a way to help workers understand themselves better and find meaning in their work, bridging what he perceived as a gap between spiritual values and workplace demands. The indicator's corporate success coincided with broader cultural trends in postwar America. Sociologist William H. Whyte's 1956 bestseller "The Organization Man" noted that 60 percent of American corporations were using personality tests, reflecting a growing belief that work could and should be a source of personal fulfillment. The indicator offered a more positive alternative to tests that categorized workers as normal or abnormal. Instead, Isabel emphasized that "each type has its own special advantages," promoting a vision of workplace harmony through mutual understanding of differences. This approach resonated with corporations seeking to maintain productivity while addressing growing concerns about worker alienation in increasingly bureaucratic organizations. The corporate adoption of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator during this period represented a significant shift in how businesses understood and managed their human resources, moving away from treating workers as interchangeable parts toward recognizing and valuing individual differences.

Chapter 4: Academic Validation and Resistance at ETS (1960-1975)

In 1956, Henry Chauncey, president of the Educational Testing Service (ETS), first heard about the Briggs-Myers Type Indicator and saw potential in its approach to personality assessment. Unlike many psychological tests of the era that focused on identifying abnormalities, the indicator emphasized normal differences and their constructive applications. Chauncey invited Isabel to Princeton in 1957, beginning a complex and often contentious relationship between the self-taught test creator and the professional psychometricians at America's premier testing organization. ETS established a new Office for Special Tests to validate the indicator through rigorous statistical methods. The questionnaire expanded from Form C to Form D, and eventually to Forms E, F, and G as ETS staff tested and retested thousands of subjects across the country. Isabel's relationship with the ETS staff was strained from the beginning. The professional psychologists viewed her as an amateur enthusiast without proper training, while she resented their skepticism and what she saw as unnecessary delays in bringing the indicator to market. She was particularly protective of her scoring keys, which she initially refused to share with ETS statisticians. The cultural clash reached its peak in 1960-1961 when Lawrence Stricker, a 27-year-old statistician at ETS, prepared a devastating critique of the indicator. Stricker's memorandum questioned both the theoretical foundations of the test and its psychometric properties. He argued that Isabel had misappropriated Jung's concepts, that the indicator's scales measured trivial characteristics, and that there was little evidence for the bimodal distribution of types that the theory predicted. For Isabel, this criticism was not just a professional setback but a personal attack on her life's work. Despite these challenges, the indicator continued to spread through academic institutions. Isabel conducted a major study of medical students at 42 schools across the United States, collecting data from over 5,000 students. She found correlations between type preferences and performance in medical school, choice of specialty, and willingness to practice in rural communities. She used these findings to advocate for changes in medical school admissions policies, arguing that the overemphasis on MCAT scores favored intuitive types at the expense of sensing types who might make excellent primary care physicians. By 1964, ETS had published the indicator's manual, but the organization's enthusiasm had waned. The test had not generated the commercial success they had hoped for, and the research division had moved on to other projects. In 1965, ETS ended Isabel's consulting arrangement, effectively cutting her loose. Though she had gained the institutional validation of having her test published by ETS, the experience had been deeply painful. She left Princeton determined to find new allies who would appreciate the indicator's potential beyond its statistical properties. This period of academic scrutiny and resistance would ultimately strengthen Isabel's resolve and lead her to seek alternative paths for promoting her work, setting the stage for the indicator's eventual global expansion.

Chapter 5: Global Phenomenon: Type Theory's Cultural Impact (1975-2000)

The late 1970s marked a turning point in the history of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. In 1975, following Isabel's disappointment with ETS, publication rights were transferred to Consulting Psychologists Press (CPP), a move that would dramatically accelerate the indicator's commercial growth. Under CPP's more aggressive marketing approach, the MBTI began reaching new audiences beyond academic and corporate settings. The instrument was streamlined into a more user-friendly format, making it accessible for workshops, retreats, and training programs across diverse sectors. Mary McCaulley, a psychologist at the University of Florida who had discovered the indicator in the mid-1960s, became Isabel's most important collaborator during this period. Together they established the Center for Applications of Psychological Type (CAPT) in 1975, creating an institutional home for research, training, and advocacy. McCaulley's academic credentials helped bridge the gap between Isabel's practical approach and the scientific establishment. When Isabel died in 1980, McCaulley continued their shared mission, overseeing the indicator's expansion into new markets and applications. The 1980s witnessed explosive growth in the indicator's popularity, coinciding with broader cultural trends emphasizing self-discovery and personal growth. The human potential movement, with its workshops and seminars focused on self-actualization, created receptive audiences for personality assessment. Major corporations like Apple, Ford, and Procter & Gamble incorporated the MBTI into their hiring and team-building processes. Universities used it for student counseling and career guidance. Religious organizations employed it for leadership development and conflict resolution. By the late 1980s, an estimated 2 million Americans were taking the indicator annually. The indicator's global reach expanded dramatically during the 1990s. Translated into dozens of languages, the assessment found receptive audiences in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. In Japan, where interest in personality assessment was already strong, the MBTI became a popular tool for self-understanding and relationship management. International corporations used the instrument to navigate cultural differences, though critics noted the inherent Western biases in its conception of personality. The fall of the Berlin Wall and opening of former communist countries created new markets eager for Western management techniques, including personality assessment. The rise of the internet in the 1990s further accelerated the MBTI's cultural penetration. Online versions of the assessment—many unauthorized and of questionable accuracy—made type language accessible to millions who had never encountered the official instrument. Discussion forums allowed people to connect with others of the same type, creating virtual communities based on shared psychological preferences. The four-letter type designations (INTJ, ESFP, etc.) became shorthand identities that people proudly displayed in early online profiles. What had begun in Katharine Briggs's "cosmic laboratory" and developed through Isabel's persistent efforts had become a global cultural phenomenon, influencing how millions of people understood themselves and others across national and cultural boundaries.

Chapter 6: Scientific Criticism vs. Popular Appeal: MBTI Today

In contemporary psychology, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator occupies a paradoxical position. On one hand, it faces mounting scientific criticism; on the other, it commands a devoted following that few psychological instruments can match. Academic psychologists have largely dismissed the MBTI, pointing to fundamental problems with its reliability and validity. Studies consistently show that when people retake the assessment, even just a few weeks later, around 50% receive a different type classification. The instrument's forced-choice questions and binary categories contradict research showing that personality traits are normally distributed in the population. Critics also note the lack of predictive validity—knowing someone's MBTI type doesn't reliably predict their job performance, relationship success, or other important life outcomes. The "Big Five" personality model (measuring Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism) has gained favor in academic circles as a more empirically supported alternative. Unlike the MBTI's categorical approach, the Big Five measures traits on continuous scales, allowing for more nuanced personality descriptions. Research consistently supports the Big Five's cross-cultural validity and predictive power for important life outcomes. Many psychologists argue that the MBTI persists not because of scientific merit but because of effective marketing and the human tendency to embrace positive, affirming descriptions of ourselves. Despite these criticisms, the MBTI continues to be widely used in corporate settings, with an estimated 89 of Fortune 100 companies employing it for team building, leadership development, or career counseling. Major tech companies, financial institutions, and government agencies regularly incorporate type workshops into their training programs. The assessment's non-threatening language and positive framing of differences make it palatable in environments where more critical evaluations might generate resistance. Proponents argue that scientific validity is less important than practical utility—if the framework helps people communicate better and appreciate differences, perhaps absolute accuracy is secondary. The internet age has both challenged and reinforced the MBTI's cultural position. Social media platforms host vibrant communities of "type enthusiasts" who analyze fictional characters, celebrities, and historical figures according to their presumed types. Online forums allow people to connect with others who share their type, creating virtual communities based on psychological preferences. Simultaneously, the internet has amplified scientific criticisms of the instrument, creating greater public awareness of its limitations. Articles with titles like "Why the Myers-Briggs Test is Totally Meaningless" regularly circulate online, yet do little to diminish the indicator's popularity. Perhaps the MBTI's enduring appeal lies in what it offers that more scientifically validated assessments do not: a positive narrative about ourselves and others, a language for discussing differences without judgment, and a sense of belonging to a recognizable group while still feeling individually understood. In a world of increasing complexity and division, there remains something powerfully appealing about a system that transforms differences into complementary strengths rather than hierarchical rankings. The story of Katharine Briggs and Isabel Myers—two women working outside institutional structures who created a global phenomenon—reminds us that influential ideas can emerge from unexpected sources and that the questions they sought to answer about human differences remain as relevant today as when they first transformed their homes into laboratories of human personality.

Summary

The journey of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator from a mother's living room experiments to global cultural phenomenon reveals fascinating tensions at the heart of our understanding of human personality. Throughout its evolution, the MBTI has maintained a consistent philosophical core: the belief that understanding personality differences can lead to greater self-acceptance and improved human relationships. This optimistic vision, more than any scientific validation, explains its enduring appeal across cultures and generations. The indicator's history illuminates broader cultural shifts in how we conceptualize the self—from the early 20th century's interest in scientific child-rearing to wartime efficiency concerns, from postwar corporate management to the self-discovery movements of later decades. The MBTI's paradoxical position—widely embraced by the public while dismissed by academic psychology—highlights a fundamental question about what we seek from personality assessments. Do we primarily want scientific accuracy, or do we value frameworks that help us make meaning of our experiences and relationships? The indicator's continued popularity despite scientific criticism suggests that empirical validity may be less important to users than a system's ability to provide a positive narrative about themselves and others. In our increasingly polarized world, perhaps the most valuable legacy of Katharine Briggs and Isabel Myers is not their specific personality categories but their fundamental insight that differences need not be divisive—that with the right framework, we can transform potential sources of conflict into complementary strengths. Their work reminds us that understanding human differences remains essential to navigating our complex social world, even if the tools we use for that understanding continue to evolve.

About Author

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Merve Emre

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.

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