HOW TO GET YOURSELF TO DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO

The author of How to Get Your Children to Do What You Want Them to Do turns a stern eye on the adults: self-victimized by I-can't philosophies, lost in their own convenient ""fuzzy thinking."" Wood is great at setting cases apart, textbook style, to indicate that we are not as helpless at the hands of compulsions, depressions, etc., as we think. (One 17-year veteran of voyeurism swore he couldn't stop--until, at Wood's insistence, he simply chose not to perform one part of his highly complicated ritual, and the whole habit fell apart.) This is self-help made a little too easy: define the problem you want to change (working on only one at a time to avoid impotence); ferret out the self-imposed roadblocks, such as the lack of commitment in ""I'm going to try to lose weight""; update beliefs about yourself; and then change--using deep relaxation and self-hypnosis techniques where necessary. Still, the tone is extremely encouraging, the call to selfcontrol effective for those on the brink of committing themselves.