I was recommended this book when I mentioned some very "normal" office behavior. The first few chapters lays a nice foundation on emotional intelligence and where it stems from. I found the later chapters very useful. However, I was not looking for as much depth-this felt more like a text book for a beginner psychologist.Else I would have rated it anywhere between 3 and 4.

This book did explain a lot of nuances I notice in day to day life, stress at work, family interactions and relationship, and yes explains even behavioral patterns in babies- and why baby boys are baby boys and gals..gals.!

Nice read, would recommend this book, but not if you are looking for a light introduction to EQ.

I had read Daniel Goleman's book years ago... and his premise is more relevant now, and continues to be one of the most insightful "leadership" books on the market. How is this so? There are a lot of "management" books but true leadership books are few and far between. Those that truly know the difference between "leadership" and "management" know what I mean. A true leader uses all of his/her skills, experience, insight, empathy, "emotion" to create and lead their teams... and yes showing emotion is what makes a leader human... which is vastly important in today's business climate, as the old stoic, manage from the top floor corner office is now obsolete. "We" all of us are emotional beings... our emotions drive what we do everyday. Daniel Goleman does a great job at illustrating this in his book/s as well as providing a guide to using our emotions to enhance our leadership style and create effective and productive teams. My recommendation is to read this book and decide for yourself.

Dr. Faron Boreham

I did not enjoy reading this book.

While many of the concepts presented are no doubt accurate and often enlightening, there is just far too much use of unecessarily complex and obscure language. You just about need to have a Thesaurus handy to interpret the text along the way.

Unless you are a master of the english language and enjoy the challenge of understanding words you have never heard on a sentence to sentence basis, do yourself a favour and invest in one of the other great texts available with regard to understanding the importance of recognising, controlling and utilising the emotional reactions of the human psyche.

I was the typical all (almost always) A+ grade-getting student, and I thought this would guarantee a successful life... but it wasn't...
once in college, and 5 yrs after, when I saw my classmates (who usually would not get better than B or C's at school) were getting married and started having happy family life, and when i saw myself still majoring a 2nd and even a 3rd studies (and even oversees)... i realized that it was not all about IQ....
so 11yrs after i graduated high school, i run into this great book, I had wished I had read it 15 (or 20) yrs ago~!
I guess that the whole world education system has to switch to this new way of seeing human intelligence... and life...

I enjoyed Emotional Intelligence and am fascinated by the EQ concept. However, I must say that I read another book (bought it after seeing it recommended here in another review) that I got more out of, The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book. I suppose the Quick Book is more recent, more straight to the quick and how to in what it teaches, and it includes an online emotional intelligence test which is really cool and a real bonus for just the price of a book.

I enjoyed Emotional Intelligence and am fascinated by the EQ concept. However, I must say that I read another book (bought it after seeing it recommended here in another review) that I got more out of, The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book. I suppose the Quick Book is more recent, more straight to the quick and how to in what it teaches, and it includes an online emotional intelligence test which is really cool and a real bonus for just the price of a book.

There is a simple reason why most anyone should be interested in emotional intelligence: it plays a big role in what you achieve in life. Everyone has some idea of how smart they are, even if they've never taken an IQ test, but do you know what your EQ is? Who does? It's hard to know but books like Emotional Intelligence help shed some light on it. A must read.

Conventional wisdom suggests that emotions can be stuffed into a little box when we don't want them to take control of our behavior. Experience suggests otherwise and Emotional Intelligence explains why. It also tells you why it's so important to have a grasp of your emotions and know what you're feeling when and why. It also talks about understanding the emotions of other people. A friend told me about this book long ago and I enjoyed reading it.

The take home for me from this book was that regular intellect isn't always enough. It uses the example of a valedictorian that doesn't succeed as much as people who performed average in the class and it shows how emotional mastery is a key component of success in life. It makes sense because I can see the role these emotional competencies play in life. They aren't something that you learn in school, so this is a good book to have.

Emotional Intelligence shows you how emotions work in the brain and what you can do to keep your emotions from getting the better of you. It doesn't have a lot of specifics, other than how it works (not so much how to do it). Overall I liked it and learned:

1) You have to be self aware to understand how your emotions play out daily and how you tend to respond to different people and situations

2) You have to manage how you respond to your emotions

3) You want to "read" other people and pick up on the subtle emotional cues they offer to communicate their emotions

4) You want to manage how you respond to other people just how you manage how you respond to your own emotions

of the inner workings of how people think and what makes them do the things they do. A bit of a heady read, though.

A lot of people don't know this but the original purpose of Goleman's emotional intelligence book and phenomenon was to teach EQ to our children and bring it into the schools. This is a great book that makes a compelling case for both why we need to do this and how emotional intelligence takes an important role in life as we age.

While this sort of book may not be to everyones taste, I found them to be 'intoxicating'. This book has certainly broadened my outlook on life. I would commend this book to anyone who wants have a better understanding of how their life and everybody elses lives fit together.

I enjoyed this book so much because Goleman presents a very excellent perspective on leadership and the need for emotional maturity and sensitivity. The requirement for emotional intelligence in organizational leadership is critical in today's business world. Highly recommend this book.

Another great book on the topic that in addition to being an easier read is more current because it was just published is The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book

Scientific data emerging from studies using new brain imaging technologies have yielded fresh understanding of how emotions work and, argues the author, suggest ways to regulate the more negative emotions responsible for the horrendous acts of violence that are the stuff of daily headlines. The book calls for universal adoption of educational curricula that teach youngsters how to regulate their emotional responses and to resolve conflict peacefully. Along the way Goleman summarizes much of the best psychological work of the last few decades on such topics as the importance of learned optimism, the theory of multiple intelligences, the role of innate temperamental differences, and the importance of emotional intelligence in marriage, management, and medicine.

First, I have to say that it's funny how we don't think about emotions that much. I mean, they hold so much sway over what we do and say each day. This is something I now realize after reading this book. It was interesting to see the brain structures that make our emotions hijack our reason (and hijack our behavior) and the author's writing style was thought provoking. I'm really looking for more how-to and suppose I'll have to find that elsewhere.

to sum up the only point made in the most meaningless 300 pages I've ever read: people who get along well with others are actually more likely to be successful than people who don't.

Most of the reviews of this book claim it gave them new insights. Me too. Only what I "take home" as most important from this book is quite different than what others have said in their reviews.

I spent my working career as a civil servant (now retired), an employee of the Federal government. Firing someone who passes their 2 year probationary period is more difficult in the Federal civil service system than it is in private enterprise. So, greater care is needed when hiring a new person. Consequently, we spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to tell if a prospective employee would be a long term asset, or a long term liability.

What was prefectly clear to us was that the technical knowledge, skills, and abilities we measured against were not always good predictors of how well an employee would do in the long run. Equally important, in the long run, are an employee's abilities to work with other people well, be productive team members, self motivate, work independently without constant supervision, and be honest with themselves and others.

We did not compromise on the technical skills; but those being equal, we tried to select the person most skilled at what Daniel Goleman describes as emotional intelligence. We didn't have a name for it then, but we knew very well what we were looking for.

What is so outstanding about Goleman's book is his very convincing demonstration that emotional intelligence, unlike IQ, is a learned intelligence -- indeed it must be taught, else a person will grow up emotionally in deficit.

Second most outstanding is his demonstrations that the many emotional deficits in neglected children can be partially corrected (nothing is 100 percent) by simple training, in as little as 1 hr. per day for 8 weeks. More training continued to yield more results.

Third most outstanding is his insistence that our public school system needs to begin teaching emotional intelligence. Actually, this may be the most revolutionary part of the book. It is a compelling paradigm shift.

Our public school administrators have been claiming that parental involvement is the single most important factor in determining a child's success in school. It is very true, but it also an indirect way of them saying, "Emotional training is not our problem." Reading, writing and arithmetic, sports, and the like are their well defined domain, but they feel that emotional deficits belong to parents, as psychological/ behavioral problems instead of learning deficits. (Both claims are, of course, right. But the fact that the psychological/behavioral problems are caused by a learning deficit means one must focus on the learning deficit because it is causative.)

Goleman argues that emotional intelligence is a learned skill; and is a major determinant of whether a child will succeed or fail academically. Inceed, it is predictive.

He argues convincingly that public schools need a paradigm shift; they need to teach emotional skills to all students. He also convincingly addresses potential objections.

I take away these potent arguments as far more important than the idea that emotional intelligence exists, or that EI is important to a person's happiness and success. We knew that, even if we didn't give it the exquisite name that Goleman has. I suspect some of the reviews that claim the book is repetitive did not fully appreciate that Goleman was carefully developed his sequence of argument that lead to his very audacious (but well supported and compelling) call for a paradigm shift in our public education system. Whether my suspicion is correct or not, I did not find this book boring in the least. Page by page it enlightened me. That is all I ask of a book like this.

Goleman has achieved much deserved notoriety for this ground-breaking and thought provoking effort. Ground-breaking because he opens up your mind to thoughts and self-examination that when considered should improve understanding of self, family, work-place, and social relationships. He connects this with enough science to satisfy the skeptical. Finally, the double-edge of emotional and behavioral understanding applies to ourselves as much as to our contemporaries. Read more than once!

This book gets 4-5 stars for content, but 1-2 stars for readability, so an average of a 3.

Books written by academics who are more interested in impressing their peers than communicating clearly really annoy me. So what would otherwise be a fascinating, engaging topic becomes unnecessarily boring. (But not the worst I've ever read).

So, if you have a low tolerance for complex, unreadable, boring, run-on sentences, a better alternative is his other book, Primal Leadership. With the benefit of two co-authors, it's much tighter and more readable. However, because Primal Leadership is focused on adults, it doesn't include many of the discussions of children and developmental learning -- which was valuable -- but only if you can get through it.

Hopefully he'll come out with a second edition, with the help of a professional writer. Since I'd love to be able to give it 5 stars.

I have read many of Goleman's books on EQ. Each holds some gems inside lots of fluff. Goleman's premise is emotional competencies (listening, empathy, etc.) form a separate category of intelligence. I can agree with that. Unfortunately, this has become a business franchise for him, so I think he takes it too far. He asserts it is THE defining intelligence of star performers. The thesis is easy to swallow at first, as the book is written in the standard business best-seller sensational journalist format.

I would counter with the work of Marcus Buckingham which maintains that each of us has our individual strengths and weakness. When we work to our strengths, we excel. Goleman is trying to fit all the characteristics of star performers into an emotional intelligence frame work. I know plenty of respected star performers whom lack high EQ. The business bookshelfs are full of other counter examples as well.

I would recommend reading Primal Leadership by Goleman over this book. In it Goleman discusses the types of leadership problems I have seen at work over, and over again. In some cases, I have committed them myself. With Primal Leadership you get some EQ self-help.

The left hemisphere of the brain is used for logical, analytical, rational, and objective reasoning. The right hemisphere is used for intuitive, subjective and holistic thinking. Using only one side of the brain is denying oneself of the full power of the decision making process.

Most people are fully capable of using both parts of their brains to make sound, rational and logical decisions that they feel good about. The left brain, right brain crossover is worth developing.

People who use only use their left brain and work with facts, data and logic without feelings to make decisions are missing the richness of using their emotions. These individuals deny their feelings because they believe that facts, data, and logic always produce better decisions than feelings and emotions.

Feelings are an integral part of the human condition. Accepting and embracing them during decision making ensures that you will feel good about your decision--now, and later.

On the flip side, those who only "feel" their answers miss the importance of backing up those feelings with information and common sense. Learning the facts and data frequently saves a great deal of money, time, and heartache.

It can be scary to learn the facts and data for someone accustomed to basing decisions on feelings. However, moving out of one's comfort zone and using the left side of the brain ensures balanced and sound decisions.

Daniel Goleman's book does an excellent job of teaching Emotional Intelligence and how to tap into self-awareness, self-discipline and empathy. This leads to happier, healthier and are more successful personally and professionally. This is one of the most important keys to unlocking our potential as humans!
The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking

The left hemisphere of the brain is used for logical, analytical, rational, and objective reasoning. The right hemisphere is used for intuitive, subjective and holistic thinking. Using only one side of the brain is denying oneself of the full power of the decision making process.

Most people are fully capable of using both parts of their brains to make sound, rational and logical decisions that they feel good about. The left brain, right brain crossover is worth developing.

People who use only use their left brain and work with facts, data and logic without feelings to make decisions are missing the richness of using their emotions. These individuals deny their feelings because they believe that facts, data, and logic always produce better decisions than feelings and emotions.

Feelings are an integral part of the human condition. Accepting and embracing them during decision making ensures that you will feel good about your decision--now, and later.

On the flip side, those who only "feel" their answers miss the importance of backing up those feelings with information and common sense. Learning the facts and data frequently saves a great deal of money, time, and heartache.

It can be scary to learn the facts and data for someone accustomed to basing decisions on feelings. However, moving out of one's comfort zone and using the left side of the brain ensures balanced and sound decisions.

Daniel Goleman's book does an excellent job of teaching Emotional Intelligence and how to tap into self-awareness, self-discipline and empathy. This leads to happier, healthier and are more successful personally and professionally. This is one of the most important keys to unlocking our potential as humans!

The book is easy to read and understand. It is very informative. Its
a contemporary overview of human behavor.

One of the best book to understand what's behind emotions. Anyone from any background will benefit learning from that book.

I have long used Dale Carnegie's, How to Win Friends & Influence People, to advise students about behavior and life success. Now, I am studying, Emotional Intelligence, with the goal of using its content to explain the importance of personal behavior and its effects on life.

Emotional Intelligence is, as Daniel Goleman explains in his book by that name, as important, and in many cases more important, than intellectual intelligence (IQ). Thus this book is a must read for anyone seeking a better self understanding and understanding of others. While it is written in a somewhat academic style, the lay person can easily comprehend and utilize it. I rate it as five stars because everyone can profit from it. The following is a summary of the key points of the book.

Emotional Intelligence can be defined as consisting of five main domains.
1. Knowing one's emotions, self-awareness--recognizing a feeling when it happens is the keystone of emotional intelligence
2. Managing emotions--handling feelings so that they are appropriate
3. Motivating oneself--using your emotions to reach a goal. Emotional self-control--delaying gratification and stifling impulsiveness--underlies accomplishment of any sort.
4. Recognizing emotions in others--empathy--is the fundamental people skill
5. Handling relationships--in large part the ability to handle emotions in others

Delayed gratification--study of children who were able to delay eating candy showed that those who had this ability were much more successful in later life. Also they did better in school and on tests such as the SAT.

Optimism also predicts academic success. Optimism and hope are based on the idea of self-efficacy--the belief that one has mastery over the events in one's life and can meet challenges as they come up.

Interpersonal intelligence has four parts:

1. the ability to organize groups of people
2. the ability to negotiate solutions to problems and conflicts
3. the ability to connect personally with others--empathy
4. the social analysis--the ability to detect and have insights about people's feelings, motives, and concerns.

How to criticize others:

1. Be specific--pick a significant incident or event that illustrates a key problem that needs changing or a pattern of behaviors
2. Offer a solution.
3. Be present--give the critique in a face-to-face manner and in private
4. Be sensitive--have empathy

The most important factor in the success of a group is the degree to which the members are able to create a state of internal harmony. One study showed that there was little individual difference among members of successful and unsuccessful groups.

Emotions can affect your health--pessimism can affect your immune system. Having a social network of family and friends is also important to good health. Now people are living more and more isolated lives.

Emotional competence can help you overcome any difficulty including poverty and mistreatment as a child. Key emotional skills include a winning sociability that draws people to you, self-confidence, an optimistic persistence in the face of failure and frustration, the ability to recover quickly from upsets and an easygoing nature.

Key emotional skills include self-awareness, identifying, expressing and managing feelings, impulse control and delaying gratification, and handling stress and anxiety. Know the difference between feelings and actions and learn to make better emotional decisions by first controlling the impulse to act, the identifying alternative actions and their consequences before acting.

Emotional intelligence also can be called "character".

Emotional families: Anger, sadness, fear, enjoyment, love, surprise, fear, and shame

Hallmarks of an emotional mind:

1. a quick but sloppy response--the emotional mind is much quicker than the rational mind--it springs to action without considering what it is doing. These actions carry a sense of certainty.
2. first feelings, second thoughts. A rational mind does not decide what emotions we "should" have. Our feelings come as an accomplished fact. What the rational mind can control is the course of those feelings--how we act on them.
3. a symbolic, child-like reality. The logic of the emotional mind is associative--it takes elements that symbolize a reality as the same as the reality. What matters to the emotional mind is how things seem, not how they really are. One way the emotional mind is child-like is in categorical thinking--everything is black or white. Another sign is personalized thinking with events centering on the person not the situation. Another aspect is self-confirming, suppressing or ignoring facts that that would undermine the belief and affirming those that support it. By contrast the beliefs of the rational mind are tentative--new evidence can change it--it reasons by objective evidence. The emotional mind, however, takes its beliefs to be absolutely true and discounts any evidence to the contrary--which is why it is so hard to change an emotional mind.
4. the past is imposed on the present. When some aspect of an event seems familiar to the emotional mind it reacts to the present as though it was the past.
5. State specific reality. The working of the emotional mind is to a large degree state specific, dictated by the particular feeling of the moment. Each feeling has its own repertoire of thought, reactions and memories. These memories are often selective

To take an Emotional Intelligence test go to www.tickle.com.

I read the first twenty pages or so and started to feel bored because the author inundated his book with too many so called scientific findings and details on brain. All I want to know is how to deal with emotions of myself and others in a productive way.

This book can be shorter, briefer, and clearer in giving some insight and cure on emotional issues we are facing.

I am happy that I didn't buy this book but borrowed from a local library.

Most of our lives we have been focued on IQ. Schools ranked us according to GPA, the SAT and the ACT determines what schools students get in. We have come to assume that IQ is the most important determinant for success. But as we learn from Goleman, IQ accounts for approximate 20% of ones success in life and business. The major determinants are social and emotional intelligence.

In his own words, the book is "A guide to making sense of the senseless. It is a guide in a journey through these scientific insights into the emotions ..."

The reason you should read the book can be summed up in these words. "People with well-developed emotional skills are also more likely to be content and effective in their lives, mastering the habits of mind that foster their own productivity; people who cannot marshal some control over their emotional life fight inner battles that sabotage their ability for focued work and clear thought."

Stess is one of the major underlying causes of illness. Stress is an emotional disease. We need to understand our emotions and control our emotions, thereby reducing the stress in our lives.

The book is not the easiest to read. It is long and highly complex. However that is no reason not to read the book. There is wonderful insight into why we do the things we do. It is certainly helpful to understand how and why our emotional brain can hijack our rational brain. We need to bring our feelings into our conscious awareness.

The most telling information concerns the direct link between the lack of emotional intelligence and our growing social problems. The link is clear and unquestionable. There is great hope in formal classes in emotional education. The benefits far outweigh the cost. However it is still not clearly understood and has only been implemented on a very smalll scale.

After reading this book, I am convinced that developing our emotional intelligence is at the heart of curing much of our social ills.

Although it is not for leisure reading, it is important and anyone concerned with improving themselves, their ability to manage and improve relationships should read this book.

Goleman's work is scholarly yet thoroughly readable. It bases its arguments on empirical evidence and develops them logically, whilst still being accessible and enjoyable. The reader is left in no doubt of how very important emotional intelligence is to everyday life, and is reassured that one's emotional abilities can be improved with education and training. Potential buyers should note, however, that the book tends to focus more on childrens' development of emotional intelligence rather than improvement in adulthood, so will suit some readers more than others. Nevertheless, Goleman's exposition is thoroughly eye opening and, through its clarity, heightens the awareness of one's own emotional self.

10 years ago , when I read this book I was a very young determined manager, strong willed, and dedicated to work, however in my opinion I was to concentrated on reaching the business objectives loosing sight of the power of people and team, I though I could do it by my own: Wrong!. This book has been stricking, and started to change the perception I had so far of the qualities necessary for a good leader, it has been a continuos challenge for me over the years to put in practice its learnings, and often I have to review it.... a must have for anyone wanting to become a better person in business or in life.

The author presents various competencies as requirements for emotional intelligence. Some of them seem logical to me but others seem to involve relating to others, and can't be achieved without others. I learned a lot of valuable information about how the brain processes information. I recommend Optimal Thinking: How to Be Your Best Self to understand what each troublesome emotion means, how to resolve them, and how to best leverage positive feelings. Another great resource is the Optimal Thinking Emotional Mastery Wallet Cards.

This unique 342 page book gives the reader plenty of data & dissects it very well. It is presented in five parts which go from two to six chapters for each section. The chapter titles are indicative of where the author is leading the reader. Such as "The Emotional Brain, The Nature Of Emotional Intelligence, The Nature Of Emotional Intelligence, Emotional Intelligence Applied, Windows Of Opportunity, & Emotional Literacy." For me the most crucial chapters were, "3-When Smart Is Dumb, 4-Know Thyself, 7-The Roots Of Empathy, 9-Intimate Enemies, 11-Mind & Medicine, 12-The Family Crucible, & 16-Schooling The Emotions." Throughout the book he gives various examples that go over academics, civility, brain & cultural differences between the sexes, communication, genetics, etc to prove his premise that emotional IQ is often far more important in the individuals & groups success than the traditional intelligence exams can possibly measure. The appendixes & notes sections also give plenty of information for further study. The only minus was that I don't see how our schools who are overburdened already with extraneous things that they were never designed to do, can possibly be asked to measure something as complex as EQ? I think these things should be better handled by the family in ideal circumstances. But with the negative statistics he gave about certain predictions for the future{like babies having babies} it does seem unlikely to think that schools can do much more? In conclusion, I think the author largely proved the titles main point. At the very least he deserves credit for exploring a topic that gets little attention. Have not most of us in our daily lives known, or heard of people with high IQ's who behave badly do to their lack of emotional intelligence? Folks who we know in our souls knew the difference between right from wrong? Do presidents Richard Nixon & Bill Clinton sound familiar? The former was dark & paranoid & the latter clearly lacked impulse control.

Being smart does not always involve having a high IQ . . . if you don't
believe that, then read (or listen, as I did) to EMOTIONAL
INTELLIGENCE by Daniel Goleman.

You'll see why some people of modest IQ often do well in life,
largely because they utilize such qualities as self-awareness,
impulse control, persistence, zeal, self-motivation, empathy,
and social deftness--or what Goleman terms emotional intelligence.

The author drives his message home through the use of
lots of excellent examples that make it clear that to excel in life,
you need these qualities . . . if you lack them, then your career
may be ruined . .. and perhaps most significantly, children
need to develop emotional intelligence or they'll fall prey to
depression, eating disorders and crime.

Among the many tidbits I gained from this program were
the following:

* It is important to help others in need. Depressed people, in
particular, need to do this--but they rarely do.

* Emotional intelligence needs to be taught in our schools.

* Another word for emotional intelligence is character.

And my favorite:
* A monk on the best way to handle anger: Don't express it, but
don't act on it.

Overall this is a decent book. If you can look past all of the evolution junk in the beginning it has some good points (if you agree w/ the theory of evolution you may like this book even more then). Like the title suggests, the book focuses on how emotional intelligence is every bit as important as IQ and maybe even more. It helps you understand where other people may be coming from emotionally and stresses empathy and compassion for other people. It helps you understand how that guy with one semester of college sometimes is more succsessful in his/her career than the person with a master's degree. There is some psychological jargon as to be expected but it is not difficult reading. Overall a decent read on an important subject.

This book does a great job of explaining the interactions between the logical part of the brain and the emotional part of the brain. I studied psychology 20 years ago in college. It is amazing how much more has been learned about the human body since that time. This book includes many case studies about what happened when various parts of the brain were removed or damaged due to cancer or some other malady. Reading this book has helped me to keep a better check on my emotions when in stressful situations.

This is his original classic work. The term "emotional intelligence" has become iconic yet not fully understood. Start discovering the concept with this first in a series of books by Goleman. Emotional intelligence involves the ability to identify and manage our emotions; to recognize our impact on others; to empathize; and to generate and direct emotions in ourselves and others towards a constructive goal. This ability can be measured, and more importantly, it can be improved. I egularly encourage my business and life coaching clients to read it.

I feel like I'm in psychology class all over again. He uses a lot of big words that all pretty much mean the same thing and says them over and over. Most of the things he's saying feel like common sense to me and nothing new. If this book wasn't required reading, I would quit reading it!

I am not one who would volunteerly read a psychology book - so naturally I came across this book in one of my courses. It is a book, though, that I can say I was happy to read. It puts life into perspective with regard to how emotional intelligence - coping, depression, addiction - its all based on our emotional realm. Life does not revolve around the intellect of a person. Even the most intelligent can form addictions. This book was great and offers studies and other proofs for Goldmans point of view.
Emotional Intelligence * * * *.

This enlightening, fact filled book is a confirmation of what most of us have
suspected. We impact our environment & our environment impacts us. Social
Intelligence focuses on how this happens in the realm of human interaction.
Utilizing cutting- edge, clinical research and neural science technology,
Daniel Goleman describes what happens in the human brain when we are engaged
in social situations . Our communications, including, facial expressions, body
language, thoughts and words, send instant neurological messages between
participants - it's a dance which stimulates specific areas of the brain,
releasing any number of proteins & hormones. This chain reaction affects the
state of our physical condition, contributing to well being or discomfort and
dis-ease. This neurological activity is automatic & mechanical, based on the
memory of similar, past experiences stored in our brain.. Not an accurate
account of what is really happening currently. Coleman identifies this
reactive behavior as the "Low Road mode" of brain operation, rooted in
survival. I love what he calls the "High Road" mode, where we are capable of
bypassing past based behaviors. Coleman observes, if we simply see what is
actually in front of us & not get hooked by the brains mechanical referencing,
we make appropriate, more satisfying choices, see a "bigger picture"& are more
in synch with what/who is showing up in our lives.

Another book that rocked my awareness of "being" was How to Create a Magical
Relationship by Ariel & Shya Kane. Their insights into social interactions,
through real life stories was a gentle eye opener for me. I have acquired a
new, nonjudgmental awareness of my particular past based survival mechanisms,
allowing me to make more appropriate choices in any given situation --- Very
freeing, indeed!

This book is filled with useful information. Once you pick this book up, it is difficult to put it down
Really good reading!!!

I am tempted to dismiss all of this as hippy crap, from the opening litany of the terror and dystopia of modern day society to the panacea of emotionally preparing people through a series of classes talking ad nauseam about how puzzles, drugs, and abortion makes teenagers "feel." But it's copiously footnoted, I'm not qualified to judge the sources, and it's only fair to take them as presumptively worthwhile.

So I'm suspicious, but a kind summary is this: emotional intelligence is important, and does pretty wonderful things for society, and should be concentrated on more. A plausible conclusion and well backed up in the text. Eventually all the chapters seemed to blend together, and I got the feeling I was reading the same sentence over and over again. The language is banal, but not excessively so.

Some of the descriptions of emotional neurological pathways were simply fascinating, and were my favorite parts of the book.

This book gave me so much insight about myself and the people around me. He described the typical fights within a marriage and it reminded me of my parents so much that I made them read this book too.

Also, if you are hesitant about getting this book because you feel like it belongs in the "self help" section, don't be. It's all psychology and science.

When I first read Daniel Goleman's book in 1995 I was fascinated by his treatment of the emotions and how they effect our lives both negatively and positively. His work-bringing intelligence to the emotions and how best to deal with them--is invaluable information to anyone seeking to get control of their lives. It is helpful to people of all ages and it is particularly so for people in the gray society. Those of us with gray in our hair are often subjected to age bias particularly in the workplace and that can be demeaning, often impacting negatively on one's sense of self-worth. EQ puts things into perspective. Daniel Goleman's book gives the readers who are facing unjust discrimination a healthy perspecive on their true worth. FOr many it shows that despite the bias some might experience they may be smarter now than ever before.
This book is not only a great work but it is a most significant contribution to our national culture.

When I first read Daniel Goleman's book in 1995 I was fascinated by his treatment of the emotions and how they effect our lives both negatively and positively. His work-bringing intelligence to the emotions and how best to deal with them--is invaluable information to anyone seeking to get control of their lives. It is helpful to people of all ages and it is particularly so for people in the gray society. Those of us with gray in our hair are often subjected to age bias particularly in the workplace and that can be demeaning, often impacting negatively on one's sense of self-worth. EQ puts things into perspective. Daniel Goleman's book gives the readers who are facing unjust discrimination a healthy perspecive on their true worth. FOr many it shows that despite the bias some might experience they may be smarter now than ever before.
This book is not only a great work but it is a most significant contribution to our national culture.

This is a book I hoped I had read a long long time ago. It will really help handle a lot of problems we create for ourselves and many times despite ourselves. This is an excellent book and a must read for everybody no matter what walk of life he/she comes from.

This is an inspirational and informative book on emotional intelligence; on our rational and emotional minds and why it is very important to our careers, our relationships and our destiny.

This insightful book examines emotional intelligence in an easy to follow and understand format which makes the book useful to a wide readership. The book pragmatically examines what emotional intelligence is all about and what it can achieve for individuals and organisations. The author methodically explains how the rational and emotional minds can effectively work productively together. As I go up the corporate ladder, it is critical to know how to manage my emotions so that I can relate better with others.

Dr Goleman is both a good writer and an original thinker. This is not just an academic book but also one that looks at the whole aspect of emotional intelligence to see how it "fits in" with all aspects of life. The book examines all the relevant issues and provides sound, sensible advice succinctly.

The book changed the way I look at life and relate with people. As an engineer, I used to believe in the power of logic and reasoning in all my dealings with people, be it at work, in the home and in relationships. I considered emotions as irrelevant or for those that are intellectually challenged. How wrong was I. Now that I am a bit more enlightened, from lessons learnt in this wonderful book, I am a better self. I realise that emotional issues affect the way people work, their motivation, satisfaction and productivity and affect the quality of relationships among spouses or friends. I am now a much happier and more effective manager and therefore recommend this book strongly to anyone who wants to live a happier and successful life.

This book was required reading for my Intro to Psychology class. I found it very informative and easy to understand. The author did a great job of writing everything on a beginner's level. I would reccomend this book not only to students, but to anyone who is interested in emotions.

I bought to help me with a leadership class and ended up reading it just for fun. Shows that we need more than a high IQ to succeed. He uses some great examples that help you remmeber what he is talking about. I really enjoyed it

I should thank Dr. Goleman for writing this book. I should remind that he needed to use simpler vocabulary and be more concise. More illustrations needed to convey the message especially in the brain anatomy section.