Rating: 
Summary: Pulling Your Own Strings by Dr. Dyer
Review: This work provides specific guidance on how to take control
of one's life ( to the extent that is possible). For instance,
he describes how to operate from a position of strength by
placing people on an equal plane and addressing them by their
first names. In addition, the author criticizes our tendency
to be governed by past events that we can no longer control
or change. He explains the need to draw boundaries and assert
ourselves in defense of our basic rights. The author
recommends the behavioral approach in order to respond to people
and events that make us uncomfortable. Above all, the author
warns about placing institutions over ourselves and personal
self-worth and satisfaction. Finally, the author asks us to
look around ourselves in an effort to make our daily lives
better for everyone. He even quotes the Declaration
of Independence (July 4, 1776):
"All experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to
suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."The book is an excellent behaviorally based reference which
can help us manage our affairs both privately and in the
workplace setting.
Rating: 
Summary: Saint of the "Me Generation"
Review: While many people praise Dr. Dyer, I have a great deal of difficulty with his personal philosophy of life. It is, to me, in a word -- selfish. To be sure, many of us are "victimized" by our socialization and acculturation and we can do things to minimize the degree to which we are victimized. However, Dr. Dyer's neo-individulaist approach can, in its illogical extreem, subborn totally anti-social behavior. In his school of thought, anything I do that satisfies me is okay. Sorry, no cigar from me. We live in society, our frontal lobes (according to the most recent research) evloved to assist us in managing our interpersonal relationships. If one accepts the common ancestor theory, we have also got a lot of social stratification in our genetic code. We are meant to live in society and that means dealing with interpersonal relationships and not all of them are going to go "our way." As other writers in this genre tell us, those relationships are about the day-to-day give-and-take. Once we graduate from infancy we learn that we must serve the needs of others in order to be served by them. Dr. Dyer may be the secular saint of the "Me Generation" I, for one, do not venerate his position. And, to all the "victims" I have two words: Grow up!
Rating:
Summary: Saint of the "Me Generation"
Review: While many people praise Dr. Dyer, I have a great deal of difficulty with his personal philosophy of life. It is, to me, in a word -- selfish. To be sure, many of us are "victimized" by our socialization and acculturation and we can do things to minimize the degree to which we are victimized. However, Dr. Dyer's neo-individulaist approach can, in its illogical extreem, subborn totally anti-social behavior. In his school of thought, anything I do that satisfies me is okay. Sorry, no cigar from me. We live in society, our frontal lobes (according to the most recent research) evloved to assist us in managing our interpersonal relationships. If one accepts the common ancestor theory, we have also got a lot of social stratification in our genetic code. We are meant to live in society and that means dealing with interpersonal relationships and not all of them are going to go "our way." As other writers in this genre tell us, those relationships are about the day-to-day give-and-take. Once we graduate from infancy we learn that we must serve the needs of others in order to be served by them. Dr. Dyer may be the secular saint of the "Me Generation" I, for one, do not venerate his position. And, to all the "victims" I have two words: Grow up!
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