Rating: 
Summary: A Revelation
Review: Honestly, I think it is unlikely anyone will ever write a better book on this topic. This book is simply breathtaking in its simplicity, and everyone should read it. I can't guarantee that it will change your life, but then I can't guarantee that anything will .... Read his other volumes as well. ....
Rating:
Summary: Mindboggling!
Review: I first read this book in 1977 after hearing John Weakland speak at my medical school. I read it because even though I was in residency training to be a psychiatrist, I had no clue as to what he was talking about for over an hour. After reading it, I went to a week long seminar conducted by the three authors in Palo Alto, California. My understanding of what behavioral science should be about (but wasn't) was so profoundly changed that I could not do well at making a living in my chosen profession, because my patients recovered from their problems at such a rate that I could not find enough to treat. I had to go back to more traditional forms of psychiatry which were extremely ineffective, but allowed me to drive a very nice car. The advent of HMOs drove me completely out of practice which is quite paradoxical since they like the idea of short term therapy. I guess the problem may come from the solution they seek which frequently has nothing to do with a positive outcome for anyone but the administrators of the HMO. So unless you want your status quo in upheaval, don't buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Profound insight
Review: I picked up this book from my local public library on the recommendation of a friend about 12 years ago, and forgetting the author's names, have never been able to find it again, despite dilligent searching. I consider it the most important psychological work I have ever read, with huge practical application... Having just located it's details again after several hours of net-searching, I plan to go out and obtain a copy for my bookshelf ASAP. As a foundation for identifying core problems in my own mind, in business, and in inter-personal relationships, the basic tools it provides have been invaluable for more than a decade... Looking for to my second (and third and fourth) reads...
Rating:
Summary: The Secrets of the Universe Unveiled - and Evaporated
Review: I read this book twenty years ago and it profoundly changed my life. It enabled me to move through my life since with an effortlessness and awareness that I only dreamed of before reading the book. I picked it up again recently and am still awed by its relevance and insights. The book continues to convey the most brilliant and essential information that we humans need to fully function consciously.
Rating:
Summary: Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose
Review: Knowing the difference between first-order change, and second-order change can change your life! See if you can figure this out: "It obviously makes as difference whether we consider ourselves as pawns in a game whose rules we call reality or as players of the game who know that rules are 'real' only to the extent that we have created or accepted them, and that we can change them." This is pretty much what this book is about. And this, "When a person enters therapy, he is fully entrenched in a dilemma: what he wishes to attain has become all the more important and urgent ... and because of this urgency it is all the more important that no risk of falure be involved in the eventual action." Complex stuff. I read it once, and now I'm back to read it again. It's hard to absorb it all the first time even though you know you're reading some pretty radical stuff that you probably ought to be acting upon!
Rating:
Summary: Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose
Review: Knowing the difference between first-order change, and second-order change can change your life! See if you can figure this out: "It obviously makes as difference whether we consider ourselves as pawns in a game whose rules we call reality or as players of the game who know that rules are 'real' only to the extent that we have created or accepted them, and that we can change them." This is pretty much what this book is about. And this, "When a person enters therapy, he is fully entrenched in a dilemma: what he wishes to attain has become all the more important and urgent ... and because of this urgency it is all the more important that no risk of falure be involved in the eventual action." Complex stuff. I read it once, and now I'm back to read it again. It's hard to absorb it all the first time even though you know you're reading some pretty radical stuff that you probably ought to be acting upon!
Rating:
Summary: i do not believe it is clear cristal free information about
Review: one of the best on psychology,sociology,hypnosis,therapy, i mean any school of therapy.this is the book which could really opens man mind to real change.there are other from the same watzlawick. all of them 10,000 worth the knowledje.
Rating: 
Summary: What in the world?
Review: Over the last 15 years I have been involved with organizations undergoing major change. For all of those years I have tried to discover why change, that appears so essential to these companies, fails most of the time. I have searched for years for a logical answer. I happend to notice the title of this book at a donated book sale at our local library.... I picked it and others up and proceeded to add it to the pile of books I would some day scan. On a long business flight I started to read this book. I could not stop. As the authors laid out their ideas I covered the pages with notes. Finaly a logical explanation of why change, even obviously necessary change, fails. Even more the begining of a method on how to make it work.
Rating:
Summary: I've wondered why Logical Change fails. - Now I Know
Review: Over the last 15 years I have been involved with organizations undergoing major change. For all of those years I have tried to discover why change, that appears so essential to these companies, fails most of the time. I have searched for years for a logical answer. I happend to notice the title of this book at a donated book sale at our local library.... I picked it and others up and proceeded to add it to the pile of books I would some day scan. On a long business flight I started to read this book. I could not stop. As the authors laid out their ideas I covered the pages with notes. Finaly a logical explanation of why change, even obviously necessary change, fails. Even more the begining of a method on how to make it work.
Rating:
Summary: Mindboggling!
Review: This is a great book on the mind. It shows us that we don't really need to know the mechanisms of things to make it work. Just like we don't have to know how a car works in order to drive it. The mind is the same way. Never mind the mechanisms it involves but if you do this and this, a person will do this and this. And surprisingly, although most of the suggestions are counterintuitive, most of the things discussed in the book actually work when we try it out on others. Try it and you will see! If you want to know why these things work, I'd suggest you read "The Ever-Transcending Spirit" by Toru Sato. It is a very insightful book about relationships and consciousness. If you get the message, you will know why the things suggested in Watzlawick's books actually work. Happy reading!
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