Review on Goleman's Emotional Intelligence

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Why it can matter more than IQ
DANIEL GOLEMAN




INTRODUCTION:
In Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman describes the physiological processes that drive and are driven by emotion and their purpose, the ability of emotions to hijack rational thought and the short- and long-term physiological and psychological effects, and the personal and social benefits of teaching and learning how to manage the emotions.
People rate intelligence as the top attribute which they look for in other people and want to develop in them, but MR.Goleman argues that it is not so. In the whole book, he argues that intelligence is not all that important in practical life.Instead, he lays emphasis on a relatively newer concept of emotional intelligence.
Mr.Goleman argues that whenever a problem arises in our personal life,often we stop consulting from our minds.At this stage,our heart,our feelings take control of our actions and we do as they guide us. In my opinion,this is the beauty of life because if we did everything according to our mind and in our senses,our lives will become mechanical and sort of boring.The unexpected and surprising happens when our emotions overshadow everything else in our body specially our brains.





REVIEW CHAPTER BY CHAPTER

CHAPTER Ist
WHAT ARE EMOTIONS FOR?
In this first chapter Goleman discusses the sad event where Mr. and Mrs.Chauncey gave their lives to save their beloved paralysed daughter.This shows human love.This is contrary to the name “homo-sapiens” which means thinking species.It is true that while taking important decisions in our lives,our mind takes a back seat and our heart takes the front seat.Infact we can say that intelligence is nothing where emotions hold sway.
PASSION OVERWHELM REASONS
Goleman says that automatic reactions have become etched in our nervous systems and they come out un-consciously when an urgent need arises.He quotes an event where a poor girl matilda crabtrea was killed by her father who took her as a thief in dark.Goleman says that his father did this in fear of saving his family from danger.
IMPULSES TO ACTION
Here he narrates an incident where his life was saved when he stopped his car in snowy conditions.He says that he did that because of a fear which aroused in him automatically. He says that each emotion plays a specific role for example in fear blood goes into legs,body freezes and it feels better to flee.Thus he says that emotions are effected by our culture and life history.
TWO MINDS
Goleman argues that every human has two minds.One is a mind which thinks and the other one feels.There is a natural balance between the two but in dire situations the feeling mind dominates the thinking one.




CHAPTER 2ND
ANATOMY OF AN EMOTIONAL HIJACKING
In this chapter ,the writer narrates the incident of a burglar Robles who decided to do a last robbery for his girlfriend and son.During the robbery,the two ladies being robbed instilled fear in him that he would be caught by police.This fear overcame him so much that his mind stopped working and he brutally killed the two ladies.Goleman states that Robles mind was hijacked with fear due to neural hijacking.

CHAPTER 3rd
WHEN SMART IS DUMB
In this chapter,Goleman tells us about Mr.David Pologruto,a teacher was brutally stabbed by his most genius student,Jason because he gave Jason lesser grades.However ,in front of court it was proved that at the time of stabbing,Jason was psychotic.

CHAPTER 4th
KNOW THYSELF
In this chapter,writer states that one may be good in poetry, similes and fables.Hence one should try luck in that field and not worry much about IQ test results.He is discussing the concept of self-awareness which means that one should know one’s self well.

CHAPTER 5th
PASSION’S SLAVES
Here he says that people who are in depression should try hard to shift their minds and attentions towards some joyful activities.Hence they need to make more effort as compared to a person in normal mood.They should be specially conscious of the fact that the not see something which is sad as it will again lead them to depression.

CHAPTER 6th
THE MASTER APTITUDE
Here he says that top people are different from the others in that respect that they learn the art of persistence and are more excited from a very early age as compared to others.However it can be said that this is not correct as intellectual abilities of one cannot be totally ignored.

CHAPTER 7th
THE ROOTS OF EMPATHY
Goleman says that we should not ignore our emotions.Infact we shall try to bring intelligence to our emotions.He says that if one uses mind with emotions,it will help them to be in better moods and can help in coming out of desperate situations.

CHAPTER 8th
THE SOCIAL ARTS
The concept of attunement is discussed in this chapter by Daniel Goleman.He acknowledges that there is more to attunement than emotional element.Here he is describing the observations of some children who are good enough to go upto a group of youngsters and be a match for them.Whereas those who have a low level of emotional intelligence,they fail to understand the feelings of others and as a result get excluded from the group.

CHAPTER 9th
INTIMATE ENEMIES
Here the writer is talking about the relationship between males and females.He talks of a survey which shows that as both sexes grow,their friendship with opposite sex grows on increases which is totally absurd as there are various surveys which show contrary results.He also says that men and women handle emotions and emotional situations very differently from one another which is due to their different training by parents.

CHAPTER 10th
MANAGING WITH HEART
In this chapter,Goleman is talking about another test where he shows that top guys are better than others not because of their intelligence but because of their emotional intelligence.As a result of this they motivate themselves in a better way than the others.

CHAPTER 11th
MIND AND MEDICINE
In this chapter,Goleman shows the relationship between emotions and health and describes it in a perfect manner.This concept of his has also been testified and supported by scientific research.

CHAPTER 12th
THE FAMILY CRUCIBLE
In this chapter,Goleman tells us about an incident which took place in a baby-care centre where a small boy Martin beat up a small mate of his.He gave her a pat when she cried and when she didn’t stop crying,she was beaten.The writer argues that this shows that the same happens with Martin at home.First his parents try to stop his crying by patting him but when he doesn’t stop,he is beaten up by them.

CHAPTER 13th
TRAUMA AND EMOTIONAL RELEARNING
In this chapter,he argues that people who suffer from a tragic trauma may never be the same again for rest of their lives.Even if it happened once with them such as death of son,it will leave its after effects in their mind and body and they will not even be able to realise that.


CHAPTER 14th
TEMPERAMENT IS NOT DESTINY
This chapter quotes the results of a study where the people having good left & right frontal activities were tested.The first group showed a different behavior. They were moody & worried about small problems but the second group showed a distinctive trend.They were low in depression & also more confident & rewardingly engaged in life.

CHAPTER 15th
THE COST OF EMOTIONAL ILLITERACY
Here he says that people who live a lonely life and have lesser people to share their feelings with are the people who are at a greater risk of depression.He also states that it so happens that creative students are faced with a situation where their creative abilities go to a waste which is a sad failure for the society.


CHAPTER 16th
SCHOOLING THE EMOTIONS
In the last chapter,Daniel Goleman gives a ray of hope to people.He says that current generation is very poor at controlling emotions so they should be taught at schools at an early stage to do so.He suggests various emotional training programs such as “Resolving conflict creatively program’’.He also says that some students should be trained as mediators.Towards the end he is sad to say that conflicts between teenagers which a few years ago might have ended in fist-fighting now end up in killings due to easy availability of weapons to the current generation.