How to know a person (overview)

I finished 'How To Know A Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen' by David Brooks a couple weeks ago. Overall I thought it was a good book and I like his writing. If anything, though, it sort of faded at the end, or at least could have been a tad shorter. Still, I'm glad I read it and think it an important topic.

The blurb from Amazon starts out...

As David Brooks observes, “There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization, or society: the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen—to accurately know another person, to let them feel valued, heard, and understood.”

And yet we humans don’t do this well. All around us are people who feel invisible, unseen, misunderstood. In How to Know a Person, Brooks sets out to help us do better, posing questions that are essential for all of us: If you want to know a person, what kind of attention should you cast on them? What kind of conversations should you have? What parts of a person’s story should you pay attention to?

Driven by his trademark sense of curiosity and his determination to grow as a person, Brooks draws from the fields of psychology and neuroscience and from the worlds of theater, philosophy, history, and education to present a welcoming, hopeful, integrated approach to human connection...

 As for the contents...

PART 1: I SEE YOU

Chapter 1: The Power of Being Seen

Chapter 2: How Not to See a Person

Chapter 3: Illumination

Chapter 4: Accompaniment

Chapter 5: What is a Person?

Chapter 6: Good Talks

Chapter 7: The Right Questions

PART 2: I SEE YOU IN YOUR STRUGGLES

Chapter 8: The Epidemic of Blindness

Chapter 9: Hard Conversations

Chapter 10: How Do You Serve a Friend Who is in Despair?

Chapter 11: The Art of Empathy

Chapter 12: How Were You Shaped by Your Sufferings?

PART 3: I SEE YOU WITH YOUR STRENGTHS

Chapter 13: Personality: What Energy Do You Bring Into the Room?

Chapter 14: Life Tasks

Chapter 15: Life Stories

Chapter 16: How Do Your Ancestors Show Up in Your Life?

Chapter 17: What is Wisdom?

 

I have since begun reading Johann Hari's 'Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention - and How To Think Deeply Again.' Based on the introduction I wouldn't be surprised if these two books have quite a bit in common.