several major personality traits resulting from just a few genes. The traits assort themselves in various combinations to give discrete "personality types" that anyone can learn to recognize. There are three basic traits and about a dozen common personality types. For those not familiar with the NPA model, there is ample introductory material so that the general reader can understand the model and apply it to one's personal life. Included are the twenty original "Case studies" that illustrate how the personality traits are inherited from parents to offspring. Here you will meet Giovanni and Pania, Zoey and Effinem, as well as King Lucifer IV and his many mistresses. Each of the "cases" has an instructive element to make the quantitative aspects of the theory easy to understand. The book concludes with a detailed chapter on the geographic distribution of the NPA traits throughout the world. Finally, there are two appendices: one that clarifies the parallel relationships between "narcissism" and "sadism", and a second appendix that describes the online "NPA personality test" by which the reader can self-diagnose his or her genetic personality type. Paperback, 123 pp., color illustr., charts, maps, glossary.

Hide more