reidob 's review for:

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than I.Q by Daniel Goleman

4.0

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This may well be one of the most important books to emerge from the new psychological thinking, which doesn't seem to think of us as illnesses to be cured so much as potentials to be realized. The states of being to which these new theories point us are those of joy, satisfaction, happiness, and maturity. Goleman makes a convincing case that we have been given models of emotional behavior which are at best neglectful of what is needed, and at worst destructive. There is also a prescriptive aspect to the book, which allows us to educate a new generation to be more emotionally intelligent, as well as retrain ourselves. A psychologist as well as a journalist, Goleman is not in the business of developing pie-in-the-sky, unproven methods, but of reporting the most recent research and deriving from it the ways in which we might proceed. As such, it is a trustworthy guide to our emotional futures. Merely seeing the patterns in our own behavior is enlightening and can lead to the beginnings of change. Highly recommended.