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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Transforming ourselves & organizations nonviolently,
By
This review is from: The Heart of Social Change: How to Make a Difference in Your World (Nonviolent Communication Guides) (Kindle Edition)
I can understand the disappointment of other reviews, if they were expecting a book. It is a booklet or pamphlet and the cover clearly states that it is "a transcript of a Nonviolent Communication workshop given by Marshall B. Rosenberg, Ph.D." When one buys a book at a bookstore, you can hold it and see it and know what you are buying. Perhaps it should be labeled a booklet or pamphlet on Amazon, where you can't physically hold the book before you buy it. (If you want to buy a book along these lines by Marshall Rosenberg, get Speak Peace in a World of Conflict.)What this booklet offers is, as it says, TRANSCRIPTS of role plays illustrating in detail the way Marshall Rosenberg engages others on the level of human needs. And I find it highly instructive in that way. I also value the way the author points to ways of transforming structures based on "power over" into creating collaborative relationships with the purpose of serving life,human needs and ultimately all life. Marshall Rosenberg's premise in his writing, his ideas and his personal and social practice is that the deepest need any of us has is to serve life. This pamphlet points to ways of creating connections based on that shared need that will help us find strategies together to create a social world based on fulfilling needs and making everything we do a form of play! I am hopeful that this booklet will not just be read and put on a shelf, but that readers will be inspired by it and by Marshall Rosenberg's other works to try to bring the ideas to fruition by PRACTICING them in the organizations that they are part of.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Dissapointment,
By Heaven's Bliss "elysiumsbliss" (Beach Town central coast) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Heart of Social Change: How to Make a Difference in Your World (Nonviolent Communication Guides) (Paperback)
This book is more like a pamphlet than a book. I was so dissapointed to find that this, "We can work it out" and "Healing the pain between us" are all just pamphlets which are almost exactly the same and even word for word in some parts. The author has one idea that he just repeats continually through all his books or pamphlets. He uses long drawn out stories as an example. The books are poorly written and this book held nothing substantial to use for social change. I have taken classes and workshops on social change and they taught me many things. Do not waste your money on this pamphlet. It is just a pretty cover that does not deliver what it promises.
2 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Read, Felt Disappointed, Need Clarity and Connection,
By Al Gore's Buddy "Green power" (New York, USA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Heart of Social Change: How to Make a Difference in Your World (Nonviolent Communication Guides) (Paperback)
NVC has so much to offer, I know after reading the classic on NVC: LoL.This compact pamphlet is an important attempt to apply NVC to social change, or what many of us call social and environmental justice activism. However, I find that it wallows provincially instead of romping in its larger community. The piece begins with a short discussion by the Honorable Mr. Rosenberg of the spiritual essence of NVC for social change before providing two samples which reflect on militarism and terrorism, and another on the workplace. While containing valuable insights, the discussions also leave much to be desired. The brilliance of NVC on identifying elements of empathy from the discipline of psychology also reveals a selectivity and a technique that makes no reference to other additional elements of self-esteem. Reading William Greider's book, The Soul of Capitalism, for example, dissipates many misconceptions of the economic and financial systems, and introduces much more sound and healthy examples and concepts consistent with the objective need and reality of biological ecological literacy and social justice. Moreover, a major element missing from NVC is the affirmation of real appreciative love and respect. As Congressmen and -women are addressed as "The Honorable" in correspondence and in session, the insight of the benefits of social graces can be observed and derived in diverse sources. Louise Hay has shown how she healed herself of cancer while studying for the ministry in the Church of Religious Science, and helped numerous people through her technique of affirmational therapeutic healing of self and others. John Bradshaw amply discusses in his work how this can be applied to ourselves. Joseph Murphy, from the same tradition, discusses how positive regard can benefit others, and Christian Scientists from Mary Baker Eddy to modern testimonies show how positive regard affects others. Carl, M.D., and Stephanie, M.A., Simonton's Cancer Clinic and Bernie Siegel, M.D.'s cancer support groups develop the same principle. In therapy, Gary Chapman and Jonathan Robinson both discuss the importance of affirming and appreciating others. Use of the term of address, "Sir" and "Maam" come to mind, for ourselves, and then others. Robert Bly's and James Hillman's tradition of the Men's Movement and the Jungian and Joseph Campbell practice of men affirming themselves in healthy terms, and Marion Woodman, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, and Nancy Franklin for women, show similar insights. In the movie "Kingdom of Heaven" Orlando Bloom's character is faced with a looming battle, no knights, and many peasants, and a carping priest. He prepares to knight all the peasants, and the priest protests, as he follows through. "Do you think a man becomes a better fighter because you make him a knight?" the priest cries incredulously. The answer is shown and given in a strong, quiet manner. Affirmational practices are a powerful form of healthy spiritual love, good sir or madam, I think you may sense yourself. The practice also to a major element generated in the Christian religion especially, which can be identified in the connection between Christian prayerful healing and medical mind-body healing as in the work of the Simonton Clinic. More practically, then, the examples of Greenpeace, Amnesty International, Oxfam, Friends of the Earth, and the Rainforest Action Network all give ample extensions of these principles. NVC leaves off with sunshine recommendations of "celebration" instead of delving into the application of NVC analysis to Greenpeace's first victory against the US nuclear tests, until such recent victories as the Brent Spar boycott, which actually involved firebombing. Nevertheless they won, with Shell conceding. NVC can identify compatible empathetic elements like in a boycott which states, "We understand your need to survive, and we relate. So now we boycott you," and affirmational elements missing from its raw empathy, as in the boycott as consumer/non-profit activist affirmation and communication as a form of professional affirmation. Fair Trade certification is another level which could bear fruit under NVC analysis. How does Fair Trade Palestinian Olive Oil marketed through the Religious Society of Friends reflect NVC principles, and its missing elements? For further reading I also recommend Jay Haley's Uncommon Therapy (Milton Erickson, MD's psychotherapy), The Greenpeace Story, Fair Trade studies in literature such as the Journal of Business Ethics, and "Our Story" at the EqualExchange.com website, as well as my website, WakeUPDemocracy.org. Additional works on philosophy and Christian activism make great supplements to the ones he mentions: Michael Lerner and Walter Wink, for example. Loving Nature by John Nash, Shaking the Gates of Hell by Sharon Delgado, Total Truth by Nancy Pearson (?still need to actually read it!), and Caring for Creation by Max Oelschlager also make a powerful series. The Honorable Mr. Rosenberg clearly cares about life, and is concerned about addressing social change "without submitting or rebelling," however, he has so many examples of success in the world without even NVC's essential insights. My recommendation would be that he acknowledge and study these many and diverse efforts. The rest of us have that opportunity ourselves, regardless. As anger can be transformed, so can any essential blind spots in ourselves and resistances to change, acknowledgement, and the historical significance of the non-violent and benevolent religious pioneer and forebear of the community exemplified by St. Francis of Assisi, St. Thomas of Aquinas, St. Clare of Assisi, and Martin Luther and Katherine von Bora. Above all, they spawned the historical community of modern education which above all makes possible the diverse modern community of the United Nations, Fair Trade, and all participant benificiaries. Social change has a much larger context, and NVC can be applied much more fruitfully and insightfully than this book concludes.
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