Making Sense of People: The Science of Personality Differences - Hardcover

Barondes, Samuel

3.7

50 ratings by Goodreads

9780134215006: Making Sense of People: The Science of Personality Differences

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0134215001 ISBN 13: 9780134215006

Publisher: Pearson FT Press, 2015

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THE POPULAR SCIENTIFIC GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING OTHER PEOPLE What really bothers you about your boss-or your daughter's boyfriend? Why are you so attracted to the person you're dating? Can you 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 tools for understanding what people are really like and how they got that way. Now improved with easy, step-by-step "practical summaries," these tools will help you quickly assess anyone's tendencies, patterns, character, and sense of identity. You'll learn how to combine these into a unified picture of who that person is. With these insights, you can choose more satisfying relationships, recognize telltale signs of dysfunction and danger, and savor the complexity and uniqueness of everyone you meet. A quick, easy system for understanding anyone! * Supplement your intuition * 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 world we happen to grow up in

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Review:

“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 of Phantoms in the Brain and The 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 of A Primate’s Memoir and Why 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 of The 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

“In Making 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 of In Search of Memory

About the Author:

Samuel Barondes is the Jeanne and Sanford Robertson Professor and Director of the Center for Neurobiology and Psychiatry at the University of California School of Medicine in San Francisco. He was trained in psychiatry and neuroscience at Columbia, Harvard, and the National Institutes of Health and has been at the University of California since 1970. He is the author of more than 200 research articles and has held many administrative and advisory positions, including Director of UCSF’s Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, President of the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience, and Chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Institute of Mental Health. He has received many honors, including membership in the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition to his research publications, Barondes has written three books about psychiatry for a general audience as well as a children’s poetry book: Before I Sleep: Poems for Children Who Think. He lives in Sausalito, California, with his wife, Louann Brizendine.

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