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Epstein Removes the clutter

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In a world filled with folks who want to "clutter" up the concept or goal of human thinking, it is so refreshing to find a book that reaches back to the essence of what makes us...well, such cool and complicated creatures--the melding of our emotional and rational minds operating in a purposeful way. One can find many a book on the bestsellers list these days whose authors actually complicate the wolrld of human perception for their own profit. Gardner's books on varying IQ and Goleman's on emotional intelligence offer (or at least imply) the reader what I consider hurtful advice: that you are limited as a human being based on biological forces and that you should accept what you're "good at," doing the best you can with what you've been given. Thankfully, Prof. Epstein puts personal desire and motivation back into the mix; showing the reader that one can achieve, in most cases, what one wants in life if one properly aligns his or her experiential and rational minds to reflect his or her desires and does the work to constructively create the thinking necessary to reach his or her goal. This is a book that should be referenced often by those who seriously believe that, with a bit of guidence from Epstein, they can reorganize their thinking processes; thus freeing themselves from the bounds of thier emotional and irrational prisons.

great book

Customer Rating:
Def. a thinking mans book, while the topic is EQ, this book requires a fair amount of IQ to grasp the concepts as he give the reason behind the theories. Everything he says is backed by a LOT of supporting evidence, but most of it feals right like you knew that all along.

one thing I found is my constructive thinking is actually rather good, which I now point to the reason why I maintain low levels of stress. (I also realized how screwed up my now ex girlfriend is and why she is such a stress head...)

I learned WAY more about how people think than I did in my psychology class. I now pay attention to my internal dialog and think of how constructing my thinking is and if it is not, how and what I should be thinking. for the most part my blunders are mostly calling myself a dumb*** after I do something stupid and fear of aproaching women and such, but i highly value this book and would recomend it to anyone who wants to learn how the thought process REALLY works.

One bad thing is the title of the book, people would ask me what I'm reading and after showing them they woudn't know what to think and I'd have to give a little discription. Its probably one of the main reasons this book passed over by most people...

Epstein steals the show

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I have dozens of books of this genre and Epstein steals the show. Incredibly well written, Constructive Thinking is extremely well researched and very balanced in its approach. His 'two mind' theory is profound and (as another reviewer mentioned) just makes sense. His theory powerfully advances the premise the we alone are responsible for our emotional reactions to things and people...and are not simply automatic. Thus, we control our destiny far more than others would have us believe. This is an inspiring message, as it suggests we that we can create new experiences and unlearn that which had previouly held us back. This is a 'two highlighter' book which you'll be referring to over and over. Every chapter in my book is marked with not only interesting but truly important insights. I thought so much of Epstein's work that I dedicated a chapter in my upcoming book The Big AHA: Breakthroughs in Resolving and Preventing Workplace Conflict. If you want to put emotional intelligence in proper context, you must read this book.

a book about thinking rather than emotions

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In 1998, when Epstein wanted to update his book "You're Smarter Than You Think: How to Develop Your Practical Intelligence for Successful Living" (1993), he decided to add 2 rather academic chapters discussing Goleman's and others' views on Emotional Intelligence. Epstein's view is that emotions (as opposed to "moods") always occur after thinking, even if the thinking may be "unconcious" at most occasions. This view is the opposite from what others, such as Goleman write: they argue thinking come after emotions. Of course, both parties have "evidence" to back up their claims. My sugestion: the two views are useful!

The previous paragraph indicates that Epstein's book ONLY covers the "constructive thinking" part of developing emotional intelligence, and if you want a book for that, I must say that he did a great job, building on the work of rational-emotive theraphy and cognitive psychology. He includes a very interesting questionnaire which helps you to figure out how constructive your current thinking is and gives you tools to avoid boby traps of automatic thinking and to recognize typical patterns of destructive thoughts. Unfortunately, this book is too limited to be "the" book to increase your EQ in all its aspects.

Developing Emotional Intelligence thro'constructive thinking

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This is one authentic book which shows practical ways to enhance emotional intelligence. The art of controlling emotions so that maximum benefit is derieved in daily happenings is well explained in the book. The book right through stresses the need for implementing the 'understanding' and the strategies explained are practical and implementable. The author has given a questionnaire to test the level of one's constructive thinking called Consructive Thinking Inventory.

I am drawn to the book because of its 'application-value'and to the chapter (VIII) dealing with achieving success in the workplace through constructive thinking - which is the need of the hour for all the executives and workers alike. The book also explains how constructive thinking can reduce stress and increase interpersonal adjustment, thus increasing one's emotional intelligence and control. The book has a wealth of conceptual wisdom on thinking and its effect on emotional well-being of people. One of the very well researched books to go through.

Prof.Dr.B.Janakiram, Mgmt.Dept. MSRIT.Bangalore.India