Staying Well with the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense

nyone familiar with the work of Suzette Haden Elgin are well aware of the large number of books she has written. They all focus on the common theme of communication and conflict-management - strategies, principles and methods she has penned "Verbal Self-Defense". Amongst those books you will find: "The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense", "Success with the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense", "More on the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense", "Last Word on the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense", and "Mastering the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense".

The successful consultant and former university professor of lingvistics, Ph.D. Haden Elgin uses the platform of NLP (Neuro-Lingvistic-Programming), building upon the works of the world-famous family therapist  Virginia Satir, John Grinder (co-founder of NLP) as well as other well-known figures in the field.

Other books that are mentioned above covers communication, conflicts and conflict management in one-on-one confrontations, business settings, speaking in public, writing and more. Staying Well with the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense is aimed at gaining health through reducing the impact and occurrence of conflicts and verbal attack patterns. Some critics claim that it is too much of her previous methods that are presented again in this book. Personally I find that reassuring, and nothing but a strenght. A good thing can hardly be said too often! And after all we are talking of human behavior and mis-communication here - the same "rules of engagement" (the same broken rules...) and the same principles of communication applies anyhow. No matter which stage we're on, we somehow walk into the same language barriers, the same traps and the same basic patterns of interaction thsough verbal and non-verbal means.

As stated above our individual health is the issue in this book - no small issue if you ask me! The author is pointing out how we can work towards a healthier state of being. This can be done by being aware of, and reducing or eliminate all the stress that some people meet on a daily basis. This stress can take the form of conflicts, harassments, negative comments, threats, bullying, intimidation and other forms of verbal attacks.

As is the case with her other books, Haden Elgin presents practical models to communicate, verbally as well as non-verbally. If you have read any of her previous books you will probably not learn anything "new" here. But you will be presented to a well laid out set of methods that work and that are sound. Hopefully you will also have your "box of tricks" reinforced, by gaining knowledge of how to apply these field-tested tools to various situations.

I was fortunate enough to find this book on EBay, where I purchased it from some really nice American folks from Florida, USA. It is a pleasure to confirm to them that the book is good, it is read, and well taken care of :-)

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