Gavin De Becker: The gift of fear (1998)
420 pages
English language
Published Nov. 3, 1998
The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence is a nonfiction self-help book (Dell Publishing 1997, republished with new epilogue 1998) written by Gavin de Becker. The book demonstrates how every individual should learn to trust the inherent "gift" of their gut instinct. By learning to recognize various warning signs and precursors to violence, it becomes possible to avoid potential trauma and harm.
The Gift of Fear spent four months on The New York Times Bestseller List, was a #1 National Bestseller, and has been published in 14 languages. The book has been endorsed by a wide variety of celebrities including Marcia Clark, Carolyn Hax, Oprah Winfrey, Meryl Streep, Jodie Foster, David Mamet, and others who have referred to the book in interviews.In 2008, Oprah Winfrey dedicated an hour-long show to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the publication of the book. In the last year of her …
The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence is a nonfiction self-help book (Dell Publishing 1997, republished with new epilogue 1998) written by Gavin de Becker. The book demonstrates how every individual should learn to trust the inherent "gift" of their gut instinct. By learning to recognize various warning signs and precursors to violence, it becomes possible to avoid potential trauma and harm.
The Gift of Fear spent four months on The New York Times Bestseller List, was a #1 National Bestseller, and has been published in 14 languages. The book has been endorsed by a wide variety of celebrities including Marcia Clark, Carolyn Hax, Oprah Winfrey, Meryl Streep, Jodie Foster, David Mamet, and others who have referred to the book in interviews.In 2008, Oprah Winfrey dedicated an hour-long show to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the publication of the book. In the last year of her show, she dedicated two hour-long shows to de Becker's work in domestic violence.For more than a decade, it has regularly been the #1 bestselling book in the English language on Violence in Society, Abuse, and Safety. De Becker is also listed on Amazon's Top 100 Self Help authors. The Gift of Fear was selected for the book, 50 Psychology Classics.
I was not the target market for this book. It seemed focused on how women can avoid being attacked by dangerous men. The main take-away is that when your intuition is telling you that something is wrong, don't ignore it but rather figure out why.
At the beginning of this book, I was afraid this book would disproportionately focus on dangerous but unlikely situations without noting how unlikely many dangerous situations are. But I was pleased that by the end of the book, there was discussion about the irrationality of many statistically unlikely fears and the media's unhealthy obsession with events that cause us anxiety but are not an actual danger to us.
The book was long for what it was, but I found it interesting enough. A summary of the book, including the list of pre-incident indicators, would probably be good enough if you don't have time to read it in full.
This book may contain the highest internal contradiction set, the largest concentration of logical fallacy, and the greatest use of strategies of influence it decries of any book I've read.
Hugest example: We - "Force teaming," Considered bad. Proceeds to use force teaming pretty much non-stop.
Does a fantastic job of creating fear. Fails at citation. Does an excellent job of self advertizement. Fails at ethics.
Presumes men are evil, guns are evil, and women are victims. Presumes that to know a thing, a reader must take the word of the author - That, "If you think about it, X."
In all, an excellent example of how this gentleman, as an advisory on security issues, promoted fear to the nth degree.
Domestic violence chapter: Positively toxic.
In short, male of female, competent familiarity with social patterns, violence, and tracking cause and effect presents as indicator of violent tendencies.
Presumes possession, …
This book may contain the highest internal contradiction set, the largest concentration of logical fallacy, and the greatest use of strategies of influence it decries of any book I've read.
Hugest example: We - "Force teaming," Considered bad. Proceeds to use force teaming pretty much non-stop.
Does a fantastic job of creating fear. Fails at citation. Does an excellent job of self advertizement. Fails at ethics.
Presumes men are evil, guns are evil, and women are victims. Presumes that to know a thing, a reader must take the word of the author - That, "If you think about it, X."
In all, an excellent example of how this gentleman, as an advisory on security issues, promoted fear to the nth degree.
Domestic violence chapter: Positively toxic.
In short, male of female, competent familiarity with social patterns, violence, and tracking cause and effect presents as indicator of violent tendencies.
Presumes possession, familiarity, and condition imply violent action.
