Isabel Briggs Myers

Isabel Briggs Myers (18 October 1897 – May 5, 1980) was an American psychological theorist. She was co-creator, with her mother, of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). In 1918 Isabel Briggs married Clarence Myers.

She was home-schooled by her mother (Katharine Cook Briggs, January 3, 1875 – 1968) and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in political science from Swarthmore College. The mother read Carl Jung's book, Psychological Types and recommended it to Myers; they then formulated the MBTI together. Later in life, she collaborated with Mary McCaulley to conduct tests of her research and of the MBTI.

Myers wrote a prize-winning mystery novel, Murder Yet to Come, in 1929, using typological ideas. She also wrote second book, Gifts Differing.In 1934 she published Give Me Death (Frederick A.Stokes Co., New York), a murder mystery that revolves around a note to his daughter left by a supposed suicide, in which he confesses to a strain of Negro blood, advises her to forget she ever thought of marriage, and apologizes for the humiliation he has brought upon her. Dialogue in the book concerns the "impossibility" of interracial marriage.

Publications

 * Myers, I. (1995) Gifts differing:Understanding personality type. Davies-Black Publishing,U.S. ISBN 0-89106-074-X
 * Myers, I. (1990) Introduction to Type: A Description of the Theory and Applications of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Centre for Applications of Psychological Type Inc ISBN 0-935652-06-X