STRESS, SANITY AND SURVIVAL

Another guide to regulating stress, more smoothly written than some but lacking special virtues. What these two clinical psychologists offer is their version of attitudinal control techniques: what to do when you can't alter the environment and you don't want tranquilizers. Like others before them, they suggest making lists and re-evaluating goals, and they've developed a few new phrases (Prolonged Imaginal Exposure) and awkward hyphenates (arousal-producing self-talk) to get their unoriginal message across. They enumerate twelve guidelines, introduced by epigrams from Shakespeare, Alfred Adler, and Ecclesiastes, and recommend the kinds of things you've heard before--and often. Keep a stress diary; develop a sense of humor; try a daily relaxation or meditation period; do a few written exercises; restring your expectations; watch out for should-ought-must thoughts. No outsized promises but hardly promising.