Be Your Own Shrink

by Kevin Leman

"I believe personality makeovers are just as possible as appearance makeovers," claims birth order guru Dr. Kevin Leman. In Be Your Own Shrink, he describes four personality indicators (birth order, personality types, childhood memories, and love languages) to help readers develop positive habits, use self-talk to work through tough times, marshal their imaginative energy, and more. Once readers understand their strengths, their weaknesses, their predispositions, the forces of nature, and how their family background shaped them into the people they are, they can build on who they are and become their personal best. Dr. Leman will show them how! Previously published as The Real You Revell, 0-8007-5812-9

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 2006

About the author

Dr. Kevin Leman, an internationally known psychologist, radio and television personality, and speaker, has taught and entertained audiences worldwide with his wit and commonsense psychology. The best-selling and award-winning author has made house calls for hundreds of radio and television programs, including The View with Barbara Walters, The Today Show, Oprah, CBS's The Early Show, Live with Regis Philbin, CNN's American Morning, and LIFE Today with James Robison, and he has served as a contributing family psychologist to Good Morning America. He is the founder and president of Couples of Promise, an organization designed and committed to helping couples remain happily married. Dr. Leman is also a charter faculty member of iQuestions.com. He has written over 30 best-selling books about marriage and family issues, including The Birth Order Book and Sheet Music: Uncovering the Secrets of Sexual Intimacy in Marriage. Dr. Leman and his wife, Sande, live in Tucson. They have five children.

Connect with Dr. Leman on:
BirthOrderGuy.com
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Reviews

[Eric Beaty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first heard about Kevin Leman on a broadcast of Focus on the Family promoting his newest book "Have A New Husband By Friday." He related so much to me as a male in relating to females and was such a funny guy that I had to go out and buy something of his to read. "Be Your Own Shrink" is that book.

This book is loaded with useful information about how to figure out where you belong in your family (birth order), what your personality type is, how your childhood memories play an important role in shaping who you are, and how to find out your "love language" (originally the concept of Gary Chapman, to whom Leman gives due credit). There is also a chapter on how to "Be Your Own Shrink" which I thought was the most valuable part in the book.

In this chapter, Leman talks about how to apply all the things learned in the previous chapters to change who you are in terms of what you think about yourself and how you can put all the tools (birth order, personality traits, childhood memories, and love languages) to good use in overcoming the rut you might be stuck in. A lot of this has to do with how you see your self and how you can change that to work for you.

Leman states that he wrote this book to give to people who come to him trying to figure out a way around their problems. He says that instead of them paying $125, he would instead write a book to give to those people and save them some money while giving them the necessary tools to overcome.

This books is great if your in a plateau in your life, having marital problems, having financial problems, or just plain having problems of any kind. It's a doorway to hope that can be open with the turn of the first page.

I recommend this book and the other book of his I've read, "The New Birth Order Book" -- which goes more in depth about birth order -- to anybody. I've read a little of "Have A New Husband By Friday," and I definitely wan to read it next. "Be Your Own Shrink" has great stories, it's fun to read, and just plain funny in parts. Get it; you won't regret it.

[Linnea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty basic book about birth order and how that impacts a person in how they develop as a person. He also focuses on personality type - choleric, sanguine, melancholy and phelgmatic and how those tendencies also help shape individuality. Persoanlly, I thought the best part was the last section that talked about how people feel most loved (love languages), and that it was the most practical part of the book in terms of understanding yourself and others around you. The birth order stuff felt very generic and perscribed. I think that there is a reason that there are stereotypes, but that is really all he focused on. I tend to think that there are a lot of people who would not necessarily fall into the stereotypes and I wished he'd spent a little more time talking about blends, etc.

[Lisa]

This one's on my bookshelf; I look forward to getting into it. Much cheaper than the alternative!