Book Review: Mark Goulston’s “Talking to Crazy”

Reading time ( words)

Talking to Crazy: How to Deal with the Irrational and Impossible People in your Life

By Mark Goulston

Copyright 2016 Amacom

Price: $24.95

Pages: 259 with index

We call know crazy. We all know people who are somewhat irrational or even completely bonkers! But we don’t know how to deal with them, right? Well, put that in the past tense. We did not know how to deal with them until this new book came along.

This is a surprisingly informative and pertinent book. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by Mark Goulston’s new book Talking to Crazy: How to Deal with the Irrational and Impossible People in your Life. I picked it up because I thought it would make me smile. I also thought I might just get something out of it because, like you, I know some pretty crazy people. But I was stunned by how effective the advice in this book is, and how much it pertains to my business life as a consultant.

The author is a psychiatrist as well as business coach, so he can write about both sides of an issue. He explains why people act the way they do and how to deal with them.

I especially liked his case studies that used real-life examples to show us how to act with certain people with specific disorders. There is an example of the older software developer who has to deal with a bunch of young Turks who start working with him and want to change everything he has worked on for 15 years. He finds himself getting madder and madder until he starts using a technique he learned from his wife, who in turn learned it from Dr. Goulston. He levels with the younger employees, explains the way he feels, apologizes, and asks for their help in attaining a middle ground where they all benefit from one another’s cooperation, and in the end producing a better product.

This is just one many examples of how to deal with tough people in tough situations. I strongly recommend that you buy this book, read it and keep it handy because you will find it infinitely useful, no matter what profession or life situation you are in. This is good book to have around

 

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