"Myers-Briggs was well-positioned, in the mid-'70s, to ride the wave of 'self-actualization,' the trend that brought us a dizzying array of personal growth programs and gurus."

"The new publisher offered the test not just to schools and corporations but to consumers as a 'self-test'—individuals could buy the assessment and grade it themselves. This was a new market for such tests, which previously had only been sold to organizations, with the answer sheets sent back to the publisher for grading. The DIY option was perfect for the 'me' decade. People who felt unfulfilled could send off for a little green booklet with a self-scoring guide. Like reading a horoscope or doing a love quiz in Cosmopolitan, bored suburbanites could fill out the Myers-Briggs chart during the commercial breaks of Kojak and discover their 'true type.' By 1979, more than a million Myers-Briggs answer sheets had been sold. The story of the Myers-Briggs follows the history of personality testing in the 20th century. Earlier self-improvement ideas, like those of Dale Carnegie, focused on doing the right thing. After the 1960s, the focus shifted to being the right thing. Neurolinguistic programming and self-hypnosis suggested that we could change ourselves. Myers-Briggs gave a softer option: It would help us know ourselves, uncritically. But the knowledge is a mirage. Reading through the questions is like looking at a script for a cold reading. Every answer could apply to everyone to some degree, possibly changing depending on mood."

From "Myers-Briggs Is Bunk/Why doesn't that stop people from taking the enduringly popular personality test?" (Reason)(reviewing the new book "The Personality Brokers: The Strange History of Myers-Briggs and the Birth of Personality Testing").