A sharp and informative guide to communication.
A distinguished actor and communication expert shows how to avoid “the snags of misunderstanding” that plague verbal interactions between human beings.
When Alda (Things I Overhead While Talking to Myself, 2007, etc.) first began hosting the PBS series Scientific American Frontiers in 1993, he had no idea how much the job would change his life. In the 20 years that followed, he developed an enduring fascination with “trying to figure out what makes communication work.” As a TV show host who interviewed scientists and engineers, Alda became painfully aware of his own shortcomings as a communicator and how his background as an actor could help him improve. In the first section of the book, he discusses how effective communication requires listening with ears, eyes, and feelings wide open. Drawing from research, interactions with science professionals, and his work as an actor, Alda reveals how individuals who aren’t “naturally good” communicators can learn to become more adept by practicing their overall relating skills. He describes activities like the “mirror exercise,” in which partners observe and mimic each other’s actions and speech. Not only do people learn how to focus on each other, but they also “strengthen cohesion and promote cooperation” in groups. In the second section, Alda, who founded the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University, points out the importance of empathy in communication. He discusses, among others, an exercise that forced him to name the feelings he saw others express. Raising awareness of emotion increases empathy levels, which can trigger the release of oxytocin, the feel-good “love hormone.” By adding emotion to communication, using storytelling, avoiding jargon, and eliminating the assumption that others share the same knowledge base, message senders can forge closer bonds with recipients. The book’s major strength comes from Alda’s choice to take an interprofessional approach and avoid offering prescriptive methods to enhance interpersonal understanding. As he writes, communication “is a dance we learn by trusting ourselves to take the leap, not by mechanically following a set of rules.”
A sharp and informative guide to communication.Pub Date: June 6, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8914-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
Another attempt by Delaney (Living Your Dreams, 1979, etc.) to whip our sleeping selves into waking fulfillment through step-by- step home remedies, visits to the author's Dream and Consultation Center, or both. Delaney advises that one keep dream journals, write brief biographies of family members, and ``incubate'' dreams to grow self-esteem and cure creative blocks. It will probably come as no surprise to most readers that personality can be expressed in sexual interactions. But read on if you want to learn to distinguish power struggles in bed from playful dominant/submissive erotic encounters. Delaney's ``interview'' method is endlessly introspective, basically narcissistic: ``How did you feel in bed with your most recent major lover?...Write down in the space below just how you felt.'' Or you might tell your dream to someone else who interviews you about it while pretending to be a visitor from another planet. Whether it's a celebrity or family member one dreams about, one is encouraged to describe the personality traits of that person and how they correspond to you and/or someone you are currently involved with (``You see the bear as a victim, a cuddly being you feel sorry for. Remind you of anyone?''). Incest dreams can signify buried memories of childhood sexual abuse, and the author provides a resources guide for victims. And one can't quarrel with her warning to avoid sex with one's therapist. With regard to the Creativity/Sexuality link: if you're feeling blocked, the titles of case-study dreams alone might be enough to get the juices flowing (``Boyfriend/Brother,'' ``Penis in the Bread Basket,'' ``Mom Interrupts Us,'' ``Sex in a Dorm''). Perhaps encouraging for people who, in the dated lingo of self-help books, want to get in touch with their feelings. But beyond this, its too-literal and disorganized approach leaves the reader—or the client—guessing.
Pub Date: March 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-449-90901-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1994
The commercialization of religion, discussed in a detailed historical survey that is also a critique of American religiosity. When Bruce Barton stated in the 1920's that Christ picked up 12 men from the bottom rungs of business and forged them into an organization that conquered the world, he was expressing a particularly American attitude toward religion. Here, Moore (History/Cornell; Religious Outsiders and the Making of Americans, 1986, etc.) attempts to trace its evolution from Independence to the present day. He believes that its origin lies in the First Amendment's rejection of an established church and the consequent need for religions to seek popular appeal in order to survive. Beginning with the challenge of the theater and the cheap novel in the country's early years, Moore shows how preachers agonized between condemnation of the growing popular culture and the idea that it could be used for religious purposes: the latter approach inevitably won, and religious leaders adapted all too successfully to the demands of the marketplace. The author takes us through such movements as Spiritualism, Mormonism, Chautauqua, the Jubilee singers, and New Age. We learn that Central Park was designed to induce ``orderly and contemplative habits'' among New York's poor and that the graham cracker was part of a health program for spiritual uplift. Moore observes that the preachers had a big problem with the imagination and stipulated that recreation needed to have a serious moral purpose. The religion that emerged was soft on dogma and emphasized feeling good, with revival meetings taking the place of European carnivals or modern rock concerts. Moore writes with sardonic wit as he describes the image of Christ as a Rotarian, and argues that commercialization is simply the American form of involvement with the ``secular''—and that if it strips religion of its prophetic power, at least it spares us the strife of such places as Ireland, Bosnia, and India. Likely to appeal to social historians and cynics everywhere.
Pub Date: March 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-19-508228-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
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