The Power of Partnership: Seven Relationships that Will Change Your Life

by Riane Eisler

The Power of Partnership is filled with powerful examples and extensive research that shows how a simple shift in perspective can help us break free of domination’s shackles and discover the power and joy of partnership in every life relationship — and the book covers them all, including our relationship with ourselves, our loved ones, our co-workers, our community, our nation, and our world, as well as our relationship with nature and with spirit.

The book is visionary yet practical, providing solutions that go beyond conservative or liberal, religious or secular, communist or capitalist, worker or employer, male or female. The Power of Partnership provides us with the necessary tools to make major changes in our lives, to break free of the old habits and patterns of domination with their tension, fear, and unhappiness, and to grow and thrive in partnership with all.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Feminism, Relationships, Psychology, Spirituality, Philosophy

304 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2002

About the author

Riane Eisler is internationally known for her bestseller The Chalice and The Blade, now in 26 foreign editions and celebrating its 30th anniversary with a new 2017 epilogue in its 57th US printing, as well as for other award-winning books. She keynotes conferences worldwide, with venues including the United Nations General Assembly and the US Department of State. She is President of the Center for Partnership Studies and has received many honors, including honorary Ph.D. degrees, the Alice Paul ERA Education Award, and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation's 2009 Distinguished Peace Leadership Award, and is featured in the award-winning book Great Peacemakers as one of 20 leaders for world peace, along with Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King.

She can be contacted at center@partnershipway.org.
Her websites are http://www.centerfor partnership.org, http://caringeconomy.org,
and http://www.rianeeisler.com

Reviews

[Kaarin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life changing. A study of various soiceties/ mindsets based on a domination model v. a partnership model.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Riane Eisler always makes me rethink! While this book is not the seminal work that is "The Chalice and the Blade", it nevertheless shined a light on some rigid beliefs in my life that I had, unfortunately, taken for granted. We are so much a product of the past no matter how free thinking we believe ourselves to be. Eisler herself boils down her premise: "When you look around our world, it sometimes seems like we need to change everything. Actually, it comes down to one thing: relationships. As we shift our relationships from the domination to the partnership model for our families, communities, and world, as we relate more in partnership to ourselves, others, and our natural habitat, we have better lives and a better wold." She makes an excellent case for it. Certainly, she has changed my mind on ideas of raising children and the benefits of the methods she espouses.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my all-time favorite books. I plan on reading it again. VERY interesting and made me not so closed-minded.

[Ameena Higgins · Rating 5 out of 5]

very relevant right now

[Robin Tobin (On the back porch reading) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was not what I expected! Boy were there a lot of things to ponder! I have a whole new outlook on how much we are manipulated/trained as children to think certain ways and behave certain ways..... Very interesting read....

[Arianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting

[Tamra · Rating 3 out of 5]

She writes that the economic system we have inherited was not designed to take human needs into account...that billions of dollars are being made from an economic system that drives us towards sickness rather than health (producing cigarettes, junk food, pesticides, and other products that damage our environment.) Constant noise and motion are built into other aspects of our high-tech age.

[Elizabeth]

a watered down version of Marija Gimbutas and a reinvented version of George George Lakoff blended together

[Ken Camp · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can only give this book mixed reviews. I found some great ideas and thoughts coupled with some sexist platitudes than in the end just led me to abandon the book after reading most of it.

[Clivemichael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could use an update. Relevant and appropriate encouragement for transformation. Gently presented with supportive questions and suggestions for implementation.
"Community investment in caregiving will pay for itself in less than a generation. It will make a huge profit in the bargain. Consider the enormous community expense of not investing in good childcare— from crime, mental illness, drug abuse, and lost human potential to the economic consequences of lower quality “human capital”."

[Tara Neale · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a much bigger fan of Eisler's The Chalice and The Blade. I prefer its academic style. But I know that not everyone does. For those of my friends, who don't, this is the book I recommend. In it, Eisler has distilled the central themes and ideas of the longer and more complex work. Given as well some very practical steps that the reader can take to address key issues/partnerships.

[Joanne Munro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I selected this book for my internship students for Spring 2018. Excellent description of the Domination model verses the partnership model and it's impact on our relationships, culture, society and the world.

[Jerry Wall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Third book by Eisler with much on implementation of partnership and moving away from
domination.
Goes through 7 relationships from yourself to nature etc.
Day to day -- remember that by not doing anything you're actually doing something that perpetuates cruelty and injustice. p. 206

[Naveen Hanuman · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a must read for everyone.

Especially the decision makers of this world, the world leaders should read this book. This book brings lot of change in way we are thinking now.

[Irene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frustrated with the atmosphere of today, and you want to do something about it? Pick up this book. This is a great read. The author captures the essence of our society very well and shows us where we may make a difference. This is a GREAT book for discussion.

[Brian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Riane Eisler knows a lot about struggle and growth. She's been a Jewish girl in Nazi Europe, an early advocate for women's equality in America, a world-renowned visionary scholar, and not least, a grandmother. Drawing on her experience, plus that of hundreds of other great souls, she presents the spiritual journey as a process of building and deepening relationships. It's a process of reaching over the boundaries between ourselves and others, and turning fear into partnership at each level of our lives. Eisler describes this journey like an elder telling real stories. First we grow to accept and love ourselves, and then to relate as a full partners in ever widening circles of creation -- to our families, communities, nations, to humanity, the planet, and the ultimate spirit underlying it all.

In comparison with other maps of the human adventure, Eisler's goes far beyond the goal of psychological normalcy. And in describing the higher range of human potential she never imposes sectarian ideas or engages in mystical visions. You cannot tell what religious background she comes from, save that for her the quality of relationships is central. This book does more honor to the social dimension of spirituality than any other I've read.