Emotional Intelligence For Dummies

A comprehensive guide to the concept of "emotional intelligence." In this nonfiction work, the author, a clinical psychologist and founder of an international behavior analytics company, elaborates on the concept of "emotional intelligence" first popularized by Daniel Goleman in his 1995 bestseller of the same title. The term refers to a person's emotional rather than intellectual acuity--the way, as Stein puts it, "some people who are so smart in some ways (who have book smarts) can be so dumb in other ways (lacking street smarts)." The author takes readers through the spectrum of emotions, from pleasure to shame to anxiety to anger, and throughout the book he employs the familiar format of the For Dummies book series: multiple short sections, bulleted points, highlighted insets, and a number of visual badges like "Remember," "Activity," and "Technical Stuff" (readers are repeatedly encouraged to track their development in a notebook). Every aspect of emotional life is covered, from family relationships to workplace dynamics. "Think of your relationship as a bank account," Stein writes in his section on relationships. "The more goodwill you deposit, the higher your balance." He frequently supplements his chapters with hypothetical scenarios dramatized like fiction, and his narrative voice is always clear and direct. Readers who've been familiar with the For Dummies series since its debut in 1991 will appreciate this pared-down straightforwardness. ("Anger is a hot emotion," Stein writes in one passage, "it tends to burn out of control.") Some of the author's pop culture references are ill-considered, as when he writes, "Unless you're Spock from Star Trek (and sometimes I have my doubts about him), somewhere within you, you have feelings" (the fact that Mr. Spock has repressed feelings is a defining quality of the character). Readers who reject the idea of emotional intelligence won't be convinced here, but believers will find this a wonderfully inclusive overview. A full and inviting introduction to concept of emotional intelligence.

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