The Law of Role Playing People wear masks. Every person must adjust the way they behave to the circumstances they are and the audience they are speaking to. You cannot interact with your boss the same way you do with your wife. If each person was the same way with everyone, if they were 100% … Read more
The Law of Narcissism In this chapter, Greene tells us about the different types of narcissism that exist, and how to identify the chronic narcissists who will try to exploit you. First, it is important to acknowledge that narcissism is a quality we all share. After-all, we are social creatures, and earning the attention and … Read more
The Law of Irrationality “Trust your feelings!”—But feelings are nothing final or original; behind feelings there stand judgments and evaluations which we inherit in the form of . . . inclinations, aversions. . . . The inspiration born of a feeling is the grandchild of a judgment—and often of a false judgment!—and in any event … Read more
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield is a book about fighting Resistance with a capital R – the most dangerous force that any creative person can encounter. Pressfield spent most of his life doing odd jobs while working on his writing. While life forced him to take several paths that were unrelated to his … Read more
On Becoming a Person is a book by Carl Rogers about the third psychological paradigm. There were two psychological worldviews that dominated the way the human mind was understood. The first was Freud’s idea of the unconscious and the view that human beings were by nature impulsive and aggressive, and that their behavior has their … Read more
Carl Rogers advances many concepts in A Way of Being that today are more widely accepted. He advocates for openness, self determination, being skeptical of tradition and authority, and of anything that seeks to dominate and control. He urges his readers to seek a balanced life that includes the body and spirit instead of being constrained by only the intellectual. … Read more
The price we pay for the advancement of civilization is the heightening sense of guilt that we experience. In Civilization and its Discontents, Freud explains why we feel guilt, where it came from, and what consequences it has had on the individual. Religion Freud starts his inquiry by alluding to a shared reality among religious … Read more
The premise of Games People Play by Eric Berne is that human beings as children are imbued with certain rituals, needs, desires, and thoughts by their parents and by their society. As they become adults, they do not fully transition from child to adult. Their relationships with others, characterized by the scripts they are willing … Read more
Influence by Robert Cialdini teaches us about the science of persuasion. The author himself spent his life studying the most common techniques that were used by salesmen and persuaders, and the six most pervasive strategies were presented in this book. The Six Laws of Persuasion Reciprocation People feel obliged to give back. When you offer … Read more
Jung departed from Freud’s theories about the unconscious because he believed that the unconscious contents of the psyche consisted of inherited knowledge of archetypes, in addition to contents that were derived from the individual’s conscious life. In Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Jung explains the reasons for his departure, and gives us a detailed discussion … Read more