Top Dog/Bottom Dog
All human encounters among family members, sexual partners, friends, business associates, etc., are "microscopic" power struggles of which we are unaware, contends journalist Karen, coauthor of When the Shooting Stops. Using fictional, interrelated, composite characters, he demonstrates strategies designed to avoid confrontations or turn them into re-tionships based on mutual self-respect. Although he teaches psychological self-defense, Karen professes not to promote selfishness and aggression; in power struggles, he notes, each opponent seeks to activate the other's self-doubts, shame, guilt and self-hatred, and the victorious "subject" is often alienated as the price of "winning" over the "objectt." To achieve balanced relationships, the author emphasizes diplomacy, forthrightness and a capacity for intimacy. Index.Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.