Making Sense of People: Decoding the Mysteries of Personality (FT Press Science)
“This pioneering book does for our mental life what the periodic table did for chemistry; it breaks the mind down into elementary constituents and their interactions--thereby transforming personality research into science. In addition to being a rich treasure-trove of insights into human nature, it can potentially enrich your relationships with people. Barondes has written a masterpiece.”--V.S. Ramachandran,author ofPhantoms in the BrainandThe Tell-Tale Mind “We’re a fantastically social species, constantly taking the measure of everyone’s personality. In this wise, enjoyable book, the esteemed biological psychiatrist Sam Barondes considers ways to build up this vital skill. The book is clear, entertaining, and educational, and will not only make you a more adept social primate, but a more self-reflective one as well.”--Robert Sapolsky,Professor of Biology, Stanford University; author ofA Primate’s MemoirandWhy Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers “Making Sense of Peopleis a marvelous guided tour through the infinitely variable landscape of personality. Barondes truly illuminates how genes and environment shape human behavior, and he tells the story with an engaging armchair style that makes the book hard to put down!”--John Oldham,President, American Psychiatric Association; author ofThe New Personality Self-Portrait “Human beings judge personalities every day, but often in an unconscious muddle. Sam Barondes has taken a daunting research literature on personality and has made it remarkably accessible as well as useful. I suspect that many psychiatrists will find this book as valuable as lay readers will.”--Steven E. Hyman,Professor of Neurobiology and Provost, Harvard University; former Director, National Institute of Mental Health “InMaking Sense of People, Sam Barondes, a superb teacher and writer, creates his own schema to help us better understand each other and make the right decisions about who to share our lives with. A highly readable and enjoyable introduction to the psychology of everyday life.”--Eric Kandel,University Professor, Columbia University; Nobel Laureate; author ofIn Search of Memory What really bothers you about your boss--or your daughter’s boyfriend? Could the person you’re dating really become your life partner? Can you really rely on your intuition about people? This book will help you find out. Drawing on extensive research, renowned psychiatrist and neuroscientist Samuel Barondes gives you powerful, easy-to-use tools for understanding what people are really like and how they got to be the way they are. These tools will provide you with a system for assessing the person’s traits, character, and sense of identity, and then putting these elements together into a unified picture. Learning to think of people in this way will help you choose more satisfying relationships, recognize telltale signs of dysfunction and danger, and savor the complexity and uniqueness of everyone you meet. Supplement your intuition!•  Learn a system for understanding anyone•  Identify character strengths and weaknesses•  Make better decisions about whom to seek out and whom to avoid•  Find out how all personalities are shaped by two great chance events:   the set of genes we happen to be born with, and the particular world    we happen to grow up in