Source - Amazon
“We are all people watchers to some extent and occasionally make a note of a particular posture or gesture and wonder how it can have originated, but we seldom do anything about it.” - Desmond Morris
Do you find observing people and everything they do (the way they do it and why they do it), fascinating?. Here’s the go to book for a read on Body Language and one does not need to have studied human behavior science or Psychology to understand the special and simple concepts that this field entails.
This field of human actions is everywhere and wherever people behave the people-watcher has something to learn, study and understand - ultimately learn about himself.
Introduction
Book’s Name - People Watching- the guide to Body Language
Author’s Name - Desmond Morris
Genre - Self-help Book
Language - English
Synopsis - Non-Spoiler Alert!
The book has succeeded in portraying the psychoanalysis of the body language with respect to different cultures in an expounded manner. It is well structured having a good flow to the construct and uses a non-technical approach to understanding how behaviors develop, originate and change.
Note : This book is not a guide to dominate one’s companions by taking advantage of one’s special understanding of human behavior.
About the Author
Source- Wikipedia
Desmond Morris is an English Zoologist and a popular author in human socio- biology (born January, 1928). He was curator of mammals at London Zoo in 1959, a post he held for eight years. He is an author of some fifty scientific papers and seven books before completing The Naked Ape in 1967, which was to sell over 20 million copies throughout the world into almost every known language.
Desmond had made many television programmes and films on human and animal behavior and he is now one of the best-known presenters of natural history programmes. He is also an accomplished surrealist artist.
About the Book
The book is a revised, enlarged and updated version of Desmond’s 1977 publication called ‘Manwatching’. Though the book became well known, some critics had voiced an objection to the use of the word ‘Man’ (the man scientists use for our species) in the title.
They confused this word with ‘Male’ and saw it as an insult to the female gender, implying Desmond was giving preference to males when discussing human behavior. To avoid such confusions and misinterpretations the author has now titled the book as ‘People Watching’.
The book is a culmination of a career of watching people’s habits, behaviors and personalities. Desmond has beautifully in simplified terms explained concepts providing a wealth of information on the conscious and unconscious signals of people’s attitudes, desires and innermost feelings with their bodies and actions that are often more powerful than words.
It is a comprehensive book covering all aspects of behavior from actions and gestures to animal contacts and what lies in store for the human species in future. Desmond has excellently promoted the concept of interpreting body language.
Central Theme Involved
Source- The Engaging Executive
Desmond has posited that our body language is an essential component of our communication. He also detailed in the book, the dependency of body language (e.g., gestures) to a specific culture - body language is not an inherent trait or a part of our biological design, but is learned just like verbal and written language.
For instance, eye contact is a sign of disrespect in Indian culture, but it could mean the opposite in another culture. Likewise, a handshake is a formal greeting to an American, but bowing is the traditional way of greeting to a Korean person.
Famous Quotes
“Just as a bird-watcher watches birds, a people-watcher watches people.”
“Man is pre-programmed to a decisive extent.”
“As a species we may be technologically clever and philosophically brilliant, but we have not lost our animal property of being physically active.”
The Bottom Line
Self-help books have always benefited in learning, applying and taking continuous swift action. They encourage you to make an effort to get into the habit of reading in order to experience the true transforming and life enriching turns that result one to reach their greatest and most fulfilling potential.
In the same way books like these that offer psychological analysis of spoken and unspoken behaviors, not only help understand but are also best at advocating to develop an emotionally stable and complementary relationship with those that matter to us.
My ratings for the book - 5 on 5
Get your copy from Amazon - People Watching
Written By - Umme-Aiman
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