Category: Psychological

Posted on

The NO Limits Enterprise

The NO-LIMITS Enterprise ISBN 9781946633279 ForbesBooks Copyright and written by Doug Kirkpatrick.

After an unusually large number of strongly supportive statements by individuals of prominence, the author’s book subtitled Organizational Self-Management in the New World of Work, the author’s introduction, Life is a Concert (or it should be), presents overall tenets with respect to self-management and the importance thereof. He quotes Kahlil Gibran: “Work is love made visible”; presents Buurtzorg, a highly prosperous Netherlands-based health care company (initiated by Jos de Blok) where 9000 health care nurses work remotely delivering care. They work for the company but make decisions as they see them; he explains that people (most prominently the millenniums) want their creative, innovative and passion about their work to be appreciated and understood; briefly speaks of Morning Star, a Tomato products distributor company (where he initially became involved in the business) which probably is the most well-known for self-management company success. The book’s content is presented in 2 Parts. Part 1, the promise of self- management consisting of 4 chapters covering the breakdown of bureaucracy; 15 unavoidable challenges found within; the power of self-management; before you plan: self-management considerations. Part II, the self-management roadmap, consisting of 6 chapters covering new ways of working; determining where your organization fits in the self-management continuum; establishing your self-management philosophy and principles; self-management implications (or what to expect); making the case for self-management; bringing self-management to life: 12 real-world components; A conclusion – making “no limits” your reality; About the Author; A passion for freedom and accountability at work; Our services. Extensive Acknowledgements follow immediately, leading to an explanatory Forward and ultimately, the Introduction as briefly summarized above.

Discussion: The business of running a business gradually has been changing since those establishing such organizations with advent of the Industrial Revolution. They had only the Army, its chain of command and its organizational abilities as a template. Humans became increasingly dissatisfied with their need to ‘slave’ for many hours a day to receive pay for their labor which they did not enjoy. Chapter 2 provides a list of 15 unavoidable challenges provided by bureaucracy employed by most businesses – Genetic engineering, nanotechnology, virtual reality, increasing information, and communication moving at speed of light, Robots, AI, all of this additional knowledge when much of business is still at the level employed when we moved into the Industrial Revolution. Thus the required Bureaucracy is wasteful of human life; simply stated, 8 hours/day of doing something not desired is just that, a waste of life.

Thus, gradual change has evolved and has gained increasing momentum with advent of new generations who are unwilling to spend long hours performing tasks which have no relationship to their personal thought patterns and desires. The increased level of interest has been initiated by a few future thinking entrepreneurial individuals and aided immensely by the arrival into the workforce of the millennials, a generation that seeks a work/life balance and have no fear of job loss, plus, a driving need to be engaged as part of a group (company) with a purpose and meaning that is part of the larger world. Repeatedly, the suggestion is made that to best run a business, it is best first to become a philosopher with the other necessities added as needed. Names of numerous prominently successful owners of self-managed companies are provided. Chris Rufer, a single truck owner fascinated by philosophy as well as an MBA was fascinated with human principles and management practices, established Morning star, one of the premiere successful self-management companies, by believing people worked best when they were free to manage themselves at work as they did in their daily life. He also believed they were happiest and most successful. Jaipur Rugs in India is another entrepreneurial self-management phenomenal success story as are Vagas, a Brazilian software company and numerous others blossoming throughout the world as well as here in the United States. In all, the book provides extensive coverage of every aspect of how “Strength of a self-managed organization, where every individual is part of a human network of accountability, responsible to everyone else in the enterprise itself” actually functions. These basic tenets, and philosophies serve to undergird the human network.

Summary: The author, partner in the full-spectrum international consulting firm, NuFocus Strategic Group, consults, lectures on self-management around the world and appears to be the present-day spokesman for a large group of advanced-thinking individuals in the rapidly growing movement toward self-managed business. His book covers every aspect of the subject and certainly is a must read for any person desiring to enter a business and become a success in this era of constant change and regeneration. For this reader, the redundancy and repetition typically exhibited here emulates the tendencies of all lecturers and would benefit from judicious editing for readers. However, the material, to reiterate is a must read.

Posted on

The Price of Safety

The Price of Safety ISBN: 9781950890811 World Castle Publishing copyright and written by Michael C. Bland.

The storyteller opens with his statement that “Igniting a miniature sun was the riskiest thing we’d ever attempted. Yet we were doing it in front of the entire planet” With 45 seconds left in countdown, he was mentally checking all aspects of the project while his onetime best friend and company co-founder CEO Nikolai, was in front of the 200 assembled CEOs bragging about the various accomplishments. The ignition is accomplished, in part, but must be terminated by a structural failure. From this introduction the tale continues as we follow the activity of Dray Quintero, a brilliant scientist who is the inventor of the extensive array of methods employed by the government supposedly to protect and provide a better life for the citizens. He discovers far too late that instead, these features are being employed to control them. Seemingly, the CEO has been able to provide the manner in which they are disseminated and has been completely tied to the government resulting in great wealth for himself, while Dray was involved in the brilliant investigative activity of providing the blueprints. The story is a matter of many twists and turns that involves his wife and three children. Death of the first one having a tremendous effect on him and his wife and directing their attention in an unhealthy manner toward attempts to protect the remaining offspring. But here, we discover that the older daughter has an agenda of her own. There are a large number of twists and turns in the plot with abundant distrust, deception, betrayal and treachery discovered to have been extant for some time and even within his own family.

Discussion: The author has provided a tale that reflects much of the thought and attitudes of much of today’s population set in a sci-fi of a number of years in the future. There is much repetition and some inexplicable thoughtless activity. However, this is a book for individuals who are devotees of sci-fi non-stop action thrillers. Regrettably from this reviewer’s perspective, it may be a little ‘over-the-top’ for even the reader who enjoys sci-fi/thrillers but is a tad more pragmatic.

3* 5* great read for die-hard readers of action-packed sci-fi/thrillers; -2* as explained.

Posted on

Observe to Unmask

Observe to Unmask ISBM: 9798653727696, Kindle Direct Publishing, copyright and written by Pushpendra Mehta.

Subtitled 100 Small things to know people better, Pushpendra Mehta opens his discussion by admonishing individuals “Pursue your passion. Work with your intuition, learn as a child. And adapt as water.” There follow his suggestions for careful observation of individuals, their behavior and preferably from as large a number of situations as possible, to understand the person and how his/her true persona may be used to affect one or more encounters with you as an individual. Thus you must be able to introspectively evaluate yourself and realize how this other person’s traits will actively react with those you contain. He provides copious examples of actions and comments and how they variously may be used to affect their inter-relationship with you. The list of usages and their possible intention are great in number and far too copious to discuss per se. This is a presentation requiring one’s own individual perusal in order to attempt to make one’s personal evaluation. Thus quite simply stated, providing further material from the contents of this book would be a disservice to the prospective reader.

Discussion: Basically, this appears to provide suggestions that individuals should consider when engaging in personal intercourse. Occasionally, this reader believes more details would be helpful when dealing with the discussion about persons mostly discussing news events happening around the world or events they did not witness of experience. The author offers the suggestion that one should know they are more talk and less action oriented and are simply providing their opinion or information of facts already known. This basically, is not necessarily true and there are blatant exceptions to this suggestion. However, the reader must realize the author’s overall attempt to provide simply basic features. His suggestions with respect to Gossip, Social Media, importance of eye contact, actually hearing, not just listening, positioning of feet, primary pursuit in one’s life and the rest provide many suggestions that are relevant, including the old accepted statement that the greater number of friends one has, is better. He provides the most appropriate admonishment that one should reconsider the statement from the perspective of selectivity. Thus basically this is a book that many readers should find noteworthy. A highly amusing aside with respect to the author’s advice, in a very small section he strayed into using a tennis situation for discussion. Unfortunately, he appears to be totally lacking in the rudiments of the sport.

4* Suggestions for understanding unspoken aspects of interpersonal communication.

Posted on

Eastbound from Flagstaff

Eastbound from Flagstaff ISBN: 9781642793369 Morgan James Publishing copyright written by Annette Valentine.

The story introduces Simon Hagan, a man in his late twenties, in his small apartment in Albuquerque. His present activities include washing dishes at the hotel, classes in acting and first year pre-med college courses at the university. He is waiting excitedly for the love-of-his-life’s arrival from Flagstaff in an hour. Thus he leaves a little early to drive his typical crank Model T. Ford. At the bus station he learns that there has been a disastrous accident. The story moves from here to follow Simon’s life from its beginning on a rather successful farm outside of Elkton, Kentucky. He is the oldest son of a growing family – God devoted father who is a mentally, as well as physically, a strong man – a loving mother, a two-year younger brother Alain and several other siblings. Although never quite happy with the life of a farmer, he functioned well while dreaming of some other path in life. When he was eighteen, his mother was mauled to death by a bear which he had slowed but not stopped with the family shotgun. Unnecessarily blaming himself for her death and stimulated by his desire not to be a farmer. He leaves for Detroit, Michigan where Ford Motor Company was hiring workers for the very excellent pay of $5.00/day. The tale continues with his ability to equate easily with new people, and his activity on an assembly line. Through a chance remark by one of his new friends, he is given a job as a rookie on the Detroit Police Force. Here he rises very rapidly, becoming a Police Captain within a very few years. Regrettably, he acquires tuberculosis and must resign to move to a sanatorium in Albuquerque. The entire sequence of episodes covers a 9 year period during which he encounters many devastatingly crushing personal blows. Many of which, as with his mother’s death, he blames himself and continues a struggle with attempting to accept the fact pounded into him as a child, that God was in control. All of this mental stress is exacerbated by the constant presence in his bedroom of his mother’s bible that his father insisted he take with him and read the numerous notes he and his mother had entered on various pages. His continuation to do so adds immensely to his tension. Specific details and their chronological order really need to be read to understand the deep feelings and emotional turmoil dealt with in this tale.

Discussion: The author, a well-recognized figure in other endeavors, has presented here a debut novel depicting a period in the early life of her father. An Endorsement recounted before beginning the story points out quite accurately, that this “powerful story of resilience and recovery is a quest filled with brutal tragedies that explores the depths one endures and the path that ultimately leads to redemption”. This reviewer heartily concurs with the summation quoted by the endorser. But most regrettably, as a novel, several features require a greater degree of attention. The protagonist has a self-accusatory problem initiated by his mother’s death, but employed to strengthen his desire to leave the life of a farmer. Subsequent catastrophic occurrences strengthen the belief as his life continues. Furthermore, he fails to recognize the importance of the good matters that so easily come his way – his easy arrival at a pleasant boarding house resulting from his enquiry at the wrong address; similarly his hiring as a rookie police officer; his rapid advancement; and more all are serendipitous. Seemingly he makes a number of wrong decisions, especially with respect to his love life. But then again, his character is so sketchily developed as are those of his loves that it is impossible to even conjecture adequately. Therefore, and most regrettably, from this reader’s perspective the author has set forth a story with all of the elements of a fine fictional biography providing a powerful message, but it does require considerable character enrichment to reach the powerful story latently existent.

3* 5* powerful tale of a tormented trail attempting to reach redemption.

Posted on

Management Practices of Successful CEOs

Management Practices of Successful CEO’S 9781734641417 Desert Haven Publishing copyright and written by James O. Armatas.

This is a Memoir of a Psychological Consultant to Management and consists of the usual dedication, preface, Introduction, The Genesis of Psychological Consultation including Background of Training, the Assessment Procedure and 8 Chapters. Number 1 presents three entrepreneurs; #2, Conglomerates (IBM Corporation and Colt Industries; #3 CEO’s of several Multidivisional Companies; #4, some CEO’s of Legal Monopolies; #5, Service Companies; #6, Restaurants; #7, Manufacturing Companies; #8, Final Comments (a summary – each group having its own pertinent comments); My Memoir; Postscript; Appendix that includes a variety of relatively pertinent material; About the Author” and endnotes.

Discussion: The author’s summary notes at the end of each chapter are quite explicit in some, and either general or selective in nature, of traits of others. He describes some of the entrepreneur’s characteristics as demonstrating dominant control and total commitment to their companies. One employed a conservative approach while another was willing to take bold risks. The third personally raised venture capital, spent it wisely on reduced operations functions/salaries to establish competitive contracts. The conglomerates he declares recognized the need for a tightly controlled central organization with proper status maintenance and system/department heads reporting to the proper superior. Many of the leaders in The Conglomerates exhibited supportive developmental training. With respect to The Legal Monopolies he presents most interesting pictures of AT&T and TWA and the different paths taken as a result of regulatory changes affecting their management. Other CEO’s success depends in large part on their social skills especially in acquiring and maintaining clients. Some had an inordinate ability to monitor and remember details, as a ‘turnaround specialist’, or even by employing a dedicated commitment to self-improvement to his advantage. Still other characteristics exhibited as the bases of their success in their particular field of endeavor was honesty and leadership, instilling integrity to an entire workforce as the basis upon which the entire business functioned, ability to meld all facets of a business into predictable, controllable monopolistic enterprise that generated extreme profits with controllable expense.

He has noticed that most of the characteristics of CEO’s have changed greatly as American business structure similarly has been changing substantially because of, and along with, a huge social revolution toward democratization in American and international institutions, Workers feel they have entitlement to greater job and management involvement. Additionally, technical advancement has been huge and entrepreneurs exist both within and outside working industries. Smart CEO’s keep the organization simple and basic with minimum hierarchy and bureaucracy and don’t lose their entrepreneurial perspective. Generally speaking, successful CEO’s are intelligent, conceptual, competitive and ‘managerial’ but flexible, adaptable and quite socially versatile exhibiting no narcissistic or autocratic tendencies. Some positions call for a greater or lesser amount of some characteristics and the author has presented the apparent differences most helpful for CEO’s to have to be able to be successful in each of the types of industries described.

Amusingly, perhaps, he brings forth the statement so often set forth, but frequently ignored (especially by governmental agencies) – “You can’t run a business, or anything else, on a theory”.

This reviewer also found the short discourse on well-known, non-Freudian psychologists Carl Rodgers (nondirective development of the individual’s ‘self-concept’). Abraham Maslow (humanist a requirement to satisfy an ascending group of needs’, Frederick Herzberg, Douglas McGregor and Kurt Lewin, interestingly pertinent.

Conclusion: The material presented here by the author is quite essential for individuals in, or contemplating entrance to, a position in the areas discussed. It also provides interesting material for any reader with eclectic interests.

5* Must read for participants. Fascinating for other eclectic readers.

Posted on

10-day Diet Detox Diet

10-Day Detox Diet ISBN: 9780316229982 Little, Brown Spark Hachette Book Group, First eBook edition 2014 written by Mark Hyman, M.D,

The author has written this book to set forth his plan to “Activate your Body’s Natural Ability to Burn Fat and Lose Weight Fast”. It provides an Introduction, How to use this book and his plan described in 7 Parts; Resources; Acknowledgements; Discover More Mark Hyman: About the Author; Praise for his book. Of the 7 Parts, # 1 About the Program Our Big Fat Problem contains 3 Chapters – Why are we losing the weight loss battle, Finding food problem, and The Solution: The 10-day Detox Diet; Part II About the Program sets forth # 4 and 5 – How the Program Works and The Two Steps to Detox Success; Part III The Prep Phase has #6 Getting Started; Part IV contains 11 chapters beginning with #7 Your Daily Practices and continuing through Day 10; Part V The Transition Phase contains # 18 After the Detox; Part VI It’s Bigger than Us – chapter 19, explains that getting healthy is a team sport; Part VII The 10-day Detox Meal Plan and Recipes consists of chapters 20 – the Meal Plan and #21 – The Recipes.

The book opens with an invitation that describes a typical woman attempting to maintain her weight but did not realize that many of the foods she was eating actually were producing the opposite effect and that she actually was unknowingly a Type 2 Diabetic. And her problems were not too much food or too little exercise but rather because her manner of eating and living were disrupting her insulin levels. He was able to restore her health simply by following his detoxification program allowing “the magic of biology” to do the rest. He further describes how his six-week plan for preventing, treating, and even reversing diabetes and pre-diabetes described in his previous book “The Blood Sugar Solution” had been proven to be helpful. Now he states that he has “a fast-track plan to shed upwards of ten pounds and radically reboot your entire system in just ten short days.” He is going to “stop your fat-storage hormone in its tracks, cool off the inflammation that contributes to weight gain, and upgrade your detox pathways.” (It will also improve your energy, sleep, mood, chronic problems including joint pain, digestive problem, autoimmune disease, headaches, memory problems and brain fog, sinus and allergy issues, even acne, eczema and psoriasis will get better or disappear). “Your sexual desire and function may even improve.” Why? Because “what makes you sick also makes you fat, and what makes you fat makes you sick” because health is a state of balance and disease imbalance.” The book also includes a test to take before the 10-day diet as a baseline and then after to ascertain the difference.

Part VII, The Meal Plan and Recipes include a Core Plan and Adventure Plan, this latter allows you to experiment, mix and match between as long as you pick all of your meals for any given day from that day’s plans. He also admonishes that you can eat as much as you like of non-starchy vegetables, providing a list of more than fifty.

Discussion: The author probably has written one of the most all-inclusive books on eating to achieve weight loss while correcting a host of other ailments this reviewer ever has read. It is authoritative and presents myriad details of the interrelationship of food and the body’s functional parts as well as a huge number of recipes and their preparation. Additionally he has provided both aspects of the subject in simple terms, easily absorbed by almost any level of intelligence. A truly remarkable book whose only fault is the amount of redundancy and repetition. This is not the least unusual for persons who constantly give lectures and lead discussions to use the repetition/redundancy for emphasis. However, it is annoying for most readers and especially those with any basic knowledge. Knowledgeable editing would greatly enhance reading enjoyment.

4* 5*material; -1* knowledgeable editing to enhance reading pleasure.

Posted on

The Covid Legacy

The COVID Legacy assumed published, copyright and written by Lance Haynes,

The book opens with a description of areas of the country/world completely devastated from “The Dying Time’ when large portions of the world’s inhabitants were wiped out by a pandemic viral infection. It then introduces the reader to Brian, the son of Anders and Melissa Thorson and his wife Desta. He was from the northern section of the inhabited world and she was from Ethiopia. They discovered each other via an internet search and were allowed to get married and assigned to a home previously owned by a deceased billionaire near Jackson Hole by the UN Authority who functioned as the regulatory arm of the shadowy but all-powerful Dominus. They had been living here for 15 years and recently had been permitted to have children, or at least, a child. Brian possessed a brilliant mind and performed requested duties for the administrative body. The house assignment and other ‘favors’ signified their importance to the controlling authority. The story evolves as Brian attempts to learn more about his grandfather, Carl. From notes and other mementos of his grandfather he received and/or discovered from his father, he was able to discern the brilliance of the man and his manipulation by the controlling force of Dominus. Also revealed were the fate of his grandmother, existence of an equally brilliant aunt and more. Ultimately, the entire situation in large part designed and developed by his grandfather is addressed by the unexpected appearance of a believed long dead relative who with Brian, and a small cohesive group attempt to somewhat alter it for the good of all.

Discussion: The author has employed the present viral pandemic in a fictional setting that uses a tentative agenda where such an instrument, coldly but efficiently, was set in motion to solve the constantly discussed world problems of overpopulation, intercountry as well as personal greed and scrambling for dominance, cold and hot wars, global warming and the rest. It is a very readable thoughtful but in some ways ‘uncomfortable’, philosophical discussion brought to mind by China’s seeming culpable involvement. The discussion may be a little heavy for some, but coverage as set forth generally is acceptably comprehensible as pertinent to its placement within the story.

4* 5* story, probably -1 for (really required) lengthy philosophical passages.

Posted on

Boot, A sorta novel of Vietnam

BOOT, A Sorta Novel of Vietnam published, copyright and written by Charles L. Templeton.

Now a Marine Sergeant assigned to the Presidential Helicopter Squadron after completing 150 missions in Vietnam, George Orwell (G. O.) Hill had just completed a flight mission for “one of the many alphabet organizations that crowded Washington, D.C.” He was sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and looking at the Reflective pool while trying to decide “Are you going to look at that damn Wall (Vietnam Memorial) or are you going to di-di (move rapidly) back to Georgetown?” “He squinted into the pool’s reflection. His face was a mask hiding his shadows…. His heart raced and his brain whirred, like a nickelodeon … replaying images from his tour in Vietnam forever camped in his memory. Why would he want to think about that crap anyway? That was then; this is now.” But thoughts came rambling through. His youth and desire to serve as had his father, uncles and grandfathers, his pride reflected in his grandfather’s eyes. But suddenly in the water of the Reflecting pool, he saw the image of a headless North Vietnamese regular. Some creative grunt had pinned a note on his blouse that read, “I just wanted to get ahead in life.” At the time he had lost his lunch. These days he chuckled about the grisly scene.” Such is the reader’s introduction to the ruminations of a man who has lived and experienced the repetitive re-interspersing periods of mind-numbing boredom with those of terror and horrifying activity experienced by any person who ever has participated in combat.

Discussion: Assuming the part of the protagonist, G.O. Hill, the author has examined the highly diversified cultural, religious and racial beliefs existing among the group of Marines involved along with those of the enemy. Additionally, he has injected a perhaps unexpected glimpse of a human tendency that exists even in enemies fighting for survival. His portrayal of characters is most realistically accomplished, the humor included, and the story provides, often unwanted memories for the initiated but is of tremendous educational value for the uninitiated,

5* Educational for the uninitiated; often unwanted recall for participants.

Posted on

The COIN

The COIN assumed published, copyright 2013 and written by Maria Elena Alonzo-Sierra.

A prologue finds a man searching an area in the mountains of the Côte d’Azur looking for a stash of coins and records he previously had hidden there. A recent naturally caused upheaval in this section had caused a re-arrangement of the territory that had eliminated any familiarity with its former formation. With intense frustration, he realized that it was impossible to find any remnants of the material he had secretly stashed away. Unexpectedly, a lost tourist stumbles upon him, thinking he had found someone who could help. Instead, he is slowly and cruelly put to death by the intensely frustrated man. The story then opens to follow the subsequent results of Gabriela Martinez discovering an unusually marked coin while hiking in the same area, La Marbriére, a short time later. Gaby, along with her parents, was a refugee brutally forced out of Cuba when Castro moved in. Quite sheltered while a Cuban resident, she now is happily married to her first love whom she met in college, and the mother of two young children who are visiting their grandparents in the United States for the summer. Her husband, Roberto, an innovative designer of new materials, frustrated by not being able to proceed, had been offered a position in Europe, had found a considerable degree of freedom and had extended his assignment. He loved his wife dearly, but with a totally ‘old-fashioned’ mindset that the husband was the bread-winner, and the wife a mother and housekeeper, was completely involved with his work. Simultaneously, Gaby had developed into an artist of tremendous talent and was being mentored by an enormously wealthy and influential man who was readying her for an exhibition of such importance as to launch her into a career that would make her one of the leading artists in the world. Unfortunately he had further designs on making her his mistress. Now, Richard Harrison, a lead member of an American special operations unit, as a courtesy to the Israelis’ request and favor to his boss is in France on vacation but has consented to interview Gabriela with respect to the special coin she had discovered during here trip to the mountain. Richard is a man typical of such operatives – handsome, pleasant and charmingly accommodating, but calculating, coldly uninvolved and with no compunction against killing when necessary. When meeting her, he is startled with the natural warmth and seeming degree of underlying naiveté – qualities he never had, or expected to, encounter in any woman. A set of circumstances develop, where Gabriela is to be introduced to a collection of world art connoisseurs with the latest of her works on the same night Roberto is to sign an important contract providing all he ever has wanted. Complicating the situation further is that Gabriela’s life has been threatened because of the coin that had been found and Richard has become her 24-hour-per-day bodyguard. The interrelationships that develops among these individuals, aided and abetted by an interesting group of supportive characters, develops into a mysterious, thrilling chase and sex-laced romance about which furnishing further details would be a great disservice to the prospective reader.

Discussion: The author has positioned three individuals in situations of almost insurmountable tension production with adequately supplied supportive personnel. The plot providing a thrilling, fast-paced tale and engaging climax. A number of inadequacies or unusual mental activities are difficult to totally accept, but no doubt are a personal consideration arising from this reader’s pragmatism. If noted at all by other readers, probably they will be observed as an unimportant ‘blip’.

5* Fast paced psychologically oriented mystery/thriller/romance.

Posted on

A Laughing Place

A Laughing Place Berwick Publishing, copyright and written by Christian Hageseth, M.D.

This offering is a relatively short but quite thorough look at the position of humor in the content of an individual’s mindset and the extent of its importance in an individual’s well-being. It includes an introduction that once again reiterates the importance of Hippocrates’ statement “It is far more important to know what person has the disease, than what disease the person has. The difference between patients is the content of their minds.” Twelve chapters follow, opening with a humorous, tenuously embarrassing incident that occurred with the author’s first lecture with respect to the subject. An incident that gave rise to the quote “Life and adversity: You can’t have one without the other” and an opportunity to provide further discussion of the importance of how the individual deals with adversity when encountered. Years of treating patients who were almost impossible to help finally brought this psychiatrist to a realization of the vital importance of Positive Humor. Thus he decided that rather than treat the aftermath of adversity, he wanted to prevent some of the pain that poured out in his consulting room and instruct his patients to learn about humor – what it is, how it constantly is modified, what purpose it serves and when properly couched and utilized, what it can bring to alleviating some of the suffering individual’s most debilitating episodes of despair.

Well aware of present day demand for short, crisp, to-the-point- comments, in the book he first provides what he believes are the ten basic components of humor. And he does so simply, “without detail, without examples, without metaphor”. With these as a basis, he then expands to examine the subject from its very first appearance to its many levels beyond. Many psychologists believe that humor is a function of language and a process involving abstract thought. As such, its first appearance is around the child’s first grade. The author contends that the first humor experience emerges even before with the smiling response which occurs at about eight weeks of life. Regardless, from this initial emergence, he traces it through the stages of mental and physical growth accompanying childhood, adolescence and into the adult. He explains how humor is more than jokes and that three pathways exist to a humor experience; that one’s surroundings, culture and subculture dictate the acceptance or non-acceptance of a humorous statement, with occasional exceptions as noted. And he provides numerous true stories of the effectiveness of humor in certain disastrous situations. Further presented are “the four elements of successful humor” and how they are achieved as well as how it may be used to combat illness as well as depression. The book ends with again a succinctly presented list of twelve affirmations of positive humor.

Discussion: The author has set forth a quite thorough overall discussion of humor. Further, he has provided the material in an easy to read form that the neophyte looking for help will discover to be simple to follow. Amusingly perhaps, is the fact that he most obviously is well aware of the extent of decrease in the general public’s attention span. Whether watching TV, reading or conversing, this activity measured 12 seconds in the year 2000; 8.25 seconds in 2015 and seemingly is dropping even lower in newly acquired data. (Comparatively, that of a goldfish is 9 seconds.). Resultantly, he has provided much material in quite simple to read lists and individual phrases. As an aside, his inclusion of certain humorous incidents/tales are quite hilarious for any reader with a degree of imagination. One word of caution seemingly would be helpful for the self-help reader – no matter how easily comprehensible one discovers the material to be in this book, it would seem wise to find a competent individual with whom to discuss this subject before embarking on any extensive personal change.

5* Thorough presentation of humor and its importance to human health.