Constructive Thinking: The Key to Emotional Intelligence

by Seymour Epstein

This is a book on how to gain control of one's emotions. It is a serious book that contains a theory of automatic processing it presents and its implications for controlling emotions. Epstein is a professor of personality psychology and a highly regarded research psychologist who has supported his theory with extensive research published in the most demanding professional journals. He was motivated to write the book by the success of a course he taught based on his theory. Students reported obtaining an understanding and control of their emotions that they never thought possible and that they said changed the course of their lives.

According to the theory, people operate by two minds, a rational-analytical mind and an intuitive-experiential mind, the latter being intimately associated with emotions. Each mind operates by its own principles and each has its own form of intelligence. The intelligence of the rational-analytical mind is measured by IQ tests and the intelligence of the intuitive-experiential mind (which is related to emotional intelligence) by the Constructive Thinking Inventory (CTI), a test developed by Epstein that is included in the book. By understanding the principles of operation of the intuitive-experiential mind, it is possible to train it as well as to learn from it, and thereby to improve one's emotional intelligence. The book provides exercises for applying the principles in everyday life and a review of a variety of other procedures for improving emotional intelligence. It is suited for use as a primary or supplementary text in courses on improving emotional intelligence or coping with stress as well as for individual reading.

Genres: Psychology, Leadership

304 pages, Hardcover

First published August 27, 1998

Reviews

[Elari · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book isn't reaallly groundbreaking or innovative. It describes one of the many variants of cognitive theory/therapy: Epstein proposes that, while conscious thoughts and behavior follow, and are partially determined by emotion, preconscious thoughts (interpretations of events) precede and partially determine emotion. By becoming more attentive to our automatic thought processes (let's say pre-affective), we can learn to control not only the expression, but the very production, of certain maladaptive feelings, and of the destructive conscious thoughts that follow. Alright. I don't think this is a theory as much as a widely accepted fact today.

I thought the book was a helpful read, but it wasn't as deep and thorough as I'd have liked it to be. Epstein doesn't take the time to clearly define many terms he uses (e.g. emotional or behavioral coping), and doesn't explain how to improve these when the thought processes themselves are justified by external events. Some theoretical parts of the book are interesting, but many instructive parts amount to long lists of maladaptive thought processes to look out for and correct, without much information on how to actually go about and do that. I'm left a little puzzled. But well, reading the book was better than not reading it.

[David Moss · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has more in-depth answers about the two minds than was in Thinking, Fast and Slow by Kahneman. So in that sense it was quite useful. Sadly it was not well-written, hence why I would have heard of Kahneman's well-written book long before. Epstein spends a lot of time explaining how you need to access the experiential mind (System 1) and how it responds to concrete, visual references. He even explains that that was why Reagan was considered a great communicator, because of his ability to speak to the experiential mind. And then Epstein just doesn't. He spends so much time on rational thinking (System 2), sprinkled with some anecdotes, occasionally relating the deep experience of others like his wife during her cancer struggle. But the book fails to speak to your experiential mind.

[Servabo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ugh, another one of these self help books.