MSI Press Blog

Dr. Filatova is a highly respected Russian psychologist, specializing in the area of personality. A senior professor of psychology at St. Petersburg State University, she is the foremost expert in Europe on socionics and published the first-ever book on socionics in Russia (which was the Soviet Union at the time). Since then, she has written many books on the topic and is held in high regard by socionists worldwide. Her book with MSI Press,   Understanding the People around You: An Introduction to Socionics , is the seminal work on socionics in the USA and is gathering a following. Sad note: Katya died on March 14, 2015  of a heart attack in her home in St. Petersburg, Russia. Her son wrote that her last act, just minutes before her death, was to send off an email, related to her many books on socionics. “So”, he said, “she did work right up until the last minute of life.”  Katya was a wonderful person, larger than life. A professor of psychology at St. Petersburg State Unive

  MSI Press authors are located all over the world. Getting to know the authors can also mean getting to know a new part of the world. We have been sharing this information on a regular basis. Follow us and map our authors' locations. The famous Dr. Ekaterina Filatova introduced socionics to the Eastern world -- and through MSI Press to the Western world. MSI Press published her first and only book in English.  Katya was a professor at St. Petersburg University (formerly, Leningrad State University) in Russia. Our editor (who speaks Russian) and Katya (who did not speak English) were friends and met from time to time in "Piter" (as the Russians colloquially call the city). St. Petersburg is known for many things. One of the most beautiful cities of the world, it was the capital of Russia during the days of Peter the Great (hence, the name of the city). It is often called the Venice of Russia because of the canals throughout the city (and you do not want to be caught on th

  Excerpt from Understanding the Entrepreneur  (Quinelle) -  The Socionic Entrepreneur and the MBTI ENTJ The socionic Entrepreneur is a TIE. This nomenclature stands for an Intuitive Thinking Extrovert who is Rational. (The order of the letters, discussed later, represents the Rational, rather than the Irrational, typology.) For those familiar with the MBTI, the closest type to the Entrepreneur would be the ENTJ, the Extraverted (note MBTI spelling), Intuitive, Thinking, Rational type. The ENTJ in the MBTI, and especially as defined by Keirsey and Bates (1984), is a leader type. (In Keirsey’s system of metaphors, the ENTJ is a field marshal.) In socionics, there are some small differences between the ENTJ and the Entrepreneur, which may become evident to those familiar with the MBTI later in this book as the various characteristics of the Entrepreneur personality type are discussed. It is not at all required to know the MBTI in order to understand socionics. In fact, not knowing the M

The Filatova - Quinelle series of socionics books are just right for Valentine Day. The "big book" by Filatova provides an overview of personality types and how they work in relationships. The "little books" by Quinelle probe more deeply one individual personality style; the little books are meant for the lay reader, not for the psychologist and are easy to understand. The big book reaches out to both lay readers and psychologists. Quinelle has completed four little books, with three more in the works. In time, all 16 socions (psychology types) will have their own little book. The published little books are shown below.                                                                                                                       Coming soon: Understnading the Performer Understanding the Professional Understanding the Romantic For a brief overview of the 16 types, check out this post . (For the full descriptions, read Katya's bo

  Whether you slice the diversity pie into socionic types, MBTI types, or use one of the several other personality tests for your pie-cutting tool, the bottom line is that people differ from each other -- and some differ dramatically from each other -- which makes developing happy relationships complex. They also make teaching a class complex, leading a work team complex, commanding a military unit complex. Wherever there are people, complexities abound. These complexities can be managed and even used to advantage IF one understands them. There is much literature on the MBTI; I will not go into that here.  As they say, just google it. What I want to do here is put readers to some excellent but little-known works (theory, observation, research) by specialists published by MSI Press LLC and available wherever fine books are sold -- and at 25% discount at its website, with coupon code FF25. Some of these use the MBTI as a basis of discussion, but most use the socionics model developed and

  Dr. Kacee Quinelle (pseudonym) is a long-time friend of Dr. Ekaterina Filatova, author of the popular   Understanding the People around You: An Introduction to Socionics . Katya, a prolific author in Russia, had wanted to bring alive the various aspects of socionics once her first book had been published in the USA, but she unfortunately passed away before she was able to do that. Kac ee has undertaken the 16 follow-on small volumes, one on each socion (personality type), envisioned by her friend, Katya. The first four volumes in this series have been released. Others are in progress.         

  Excerpt from Understanding the People around You (Filatova) THE LEADER: Sensing-Feeling Extravert (S F E) General Appearance   The most distin ctiv e fea t ure of L eaders (SFE s ) is   t heir proud gaze. T he y look around as if they wan t t o e x amine a poten t ia l ba ttl efie l d before making a v i t a l decision. O ften, L eaders have round faces w i th shor t or «ha w k» noses. Leaders are g rea t optimists. T he y l i v e w i th gusto ; the y are v er y in v igora ti ng, se l f-asser tiv e, and so m eti m e s e v en i m pertinent . L eaders frequen tly w ear st yl ish and impressi v e cl o t hes. W omen prefer bright and vi bran t col ors, red is one of th e i r fa v or ite s.   Characterization According to Strong Channel Functions I.   P ersonali ty P r og ram Ch annel ( e — volitional pressure, drive, influence…) T he mo st important thing for Leaders is