Customer Reviews

How to Manage Your Dick: Redirect Sexual Energy and Discover Your More Spiritually Enlightened, Evolved Self

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What a let down. I was genuinely intrigued by this book's title and back cover. Finally, I thought, some intelligent philosophical insight on life as a man that doesn't ignore that which most makes you a man. Insead, I encountered little more than a conservative, moralistic diatribe, mixed with some new age vernacular, and delivered in a profoundly arrogant and absolutist style. The book doesn't even really try to build an argument, but is a mere statement of the author's opinions clumsily presented as "fact." His "philosophy" is a scattered, incoherent grab-bag of a little Freud, a little Aristotle, a little Chi, a little Tao. Of course, O'Reilly is "brilliant" enough to see how it all ties together, and even to fill in the gaps that were missed by Freud and the others. In fairness, there are a few potentially interesting chapters on multi-dimensional reality and metacognition. But O'Reilly is so arrogant that he is incapable of making himself clear; he'd much rather impress you with his grandiose new age vocabulary. He also condemns virtually the entire field of psychology as an evil force because it has not unified behind his moral principles. O'Reilly's dick management conclusions? Masturbation is bad, and lusting after beautiful women makes you the moral equivalent of Ted Bundy. No kidding.

When I first saw the title I didn't hold out much hope for it transcending the level of a book-length dirty joke, or that maybe it might actually contain a few bits of food for thought. Boy was I wrong.

The book isn't mere food for thought. It is absolutely profound on a topic that is more significant than almost any other. The title is unfortunate in one sense because it's not an easy book to leave lying on one's desk for others to "discover" and thumb through. I could even see it leading to a sexual harassment action in some office settings, a further indication of how incredibly sexually messed up we are as a people.

On the other hand, the title reflects the brutal honesty with which O'Reilly discusses "the elephant in the room that everyone denies." He writes, "Can anyone pretend that the world's chronic problems from murder and rape, pillage and war, assault and insult, graffiti and torture, child molesting and domestic abuse, are not in the main caused by men?" As an observer of events in Washington, I have seen presidents, statesmen and alleged pillars of the community brought to ruin by what we call the "zipper problem."

The book is not anti-man at all. In fact it celebrates male energy. But it does confront us men in a bold, wise, metaphysical, scientific, spiritual and often humorous way on how our favorite shillelagh affects our thinking about so much of the world

It's a tempting world out there. I have been around it a great deal and have seen how fragile are good intentions and how dangerous are the waters in which fidelity swims. I am convinced, for example, that every hotel in Asia is scientifically designed expressly for the purpose of getting traveling businessmen laid. I know the power of appetites and am no stranger to the cold sweats. Nor is anyone really.

I read the first chapter aloud to my 16-year-old son and he was amazed to find out someone is not afraid to write about the organ that dares not speak its name and to write about exactly what he spends a lot of time thinking about. He asked to borrow my copy, but he'll have to fight my secretary for it. She wants to read it WITH her husband. "Every woman is a dick manager," O'Reilly insists.

Me and my penis go back a long way and I have given serious thought to the spiritual importance of the sexual organs. I think the sexual act is, whether used for good or evil, a portal through which two peoples' spirits connect. It is the one human interaction that fully engages and unites like no other activity, both the physical and spiritual dimensions of two people.

While I scored decently on O'Reilly's Gandhi-Hitler Index and the Pecer Test, I experienced discomfort in recognizing a few things about myself of which I'm not terribly proud. On the whole, these and other opportunities the author presents for self-assessment are a valuable and sobering exercise for any man.

Sean O'Reilly is an amazing individual, one who combines the educational background to bring history's big thinkers appropriately into the fray, coupled with the perception to understand the enormity of the issue and the integrity to face it balls to the wall.

as other reviewers have noted, the author seems to have some very real conflicts with being a sexual human being. that seems reasonable enough, human sexuality is full of conflicts, but people expecting this book to help resolve theirs will be disappointed. it's like the author of some 1950s hygiene manual woke up, read a couple of pop-metaphysics books and spit this little tome out in a coffee-binge weekend. the author equates thinking about someone while masturbating to raping them. (to my 8th grade girlfriend, i apologize, i swear i had no idea!) he also displays a fascinating preoccupation with the acroynms D.I.C.K. and A.S.S. hmm, curious. . .

I think Mr. O'Reilly seems to be little more than a PC prude who thinks male sexuality is evil while female sexuality is all good and noble. Sorry. I make NO apologies for having a penis and make NO apologies for enjoying having it. I do not exploit, manipulate, or coerce ANYONE in this process. It is interesting that on his so called "Character Test" masturbation is considered wrong, placing O'Reilly in the same leagues as the sexually repressed notions that were debunked years ago. No, it WON'T make you go blind. O'Reilly may be ashamed of being a man, but I am not.

I can't say enough about the power and timliness of this book. Although humorous and insightful it is also powerful and as penetrating as its subject matter.

Drawing upon such diverse traditions as quantum physics and Taosim, O'Reilly is able to bridge western and eastern traditions to brilliantly conclude a better behavior for the reader.

The only way I could imagine to improve the book is for it to provide an index. Even without one this book is a treasure and
is uniquely though provoking.

Now is a wonderful time to read this book as O'Reilly is generous monitoring the books related website and answering readers questions. (Just do a google search for the book).

This books seems interesting until you learn (within a few pages) that the author forbids masturbation at any time and basically sees sex as a crude animal instinct.

If you're a big Bill Bennett fan you might enjoy this, but for those inerested in developing a little more restraint while still participating to some small degree in modernity, look elsewhere. BTW, Mr. O'Reilly, the world is NOT a more brutish place than ever before. Sad, to say, it's almost certainly less so.

This is a very odd book that seems to want to mix right wing political and "moral" values with lefty, new age spiritual platitudes. Ultimately all I could get out of this roughly 300 page book is that the entire world would be better off if it subscribed to the rather arrogant mentality conveyed by the author. Attributes such as nuance and subtlety aren't welcome. I can appreciate some of the concerns the author has, but his presentation is a MAJOR turn off.

Just say "NO" doesn't work when it comes to newsgroups containing binary titillating eroticism. This book truly explains the flow of energy involved in seeking sexual relief through porno and masturbation. Well done, and a discovery.

Wow. Brilliant. While there is a great deal of metaphysical detail that may be beyond the ken of those who would most benefit from the core message, a Cliff Notes version should be required reading prior, during and after puberty, child-rearing, and all rites of life passage. Highly recommended for men AND women!

Disclaimer: I'm Sean's brother, and read this book in manuscript.

Sean is truly a remarkable individual, who combines ideas from philosophy, psychology, science and pseudo-science, like a mad chef, then serves them up as food for thought. His book is provocative and often funny, but underneath all the hyperbole, its message is a simple one. Here's my summation:

* With the advent of psychiatry and twentieth century psychology, people threw out thousands of years of previous psychological insight and practice. The insights of various eastern disciplines, such as yoga, zen buddhism, and sufism, have come back into fashion via the New Age psychology movement, but the insights of two thousand five hundred years of Western philosophy have largely been ignored.

* Many problems that seem intractable to modern psychology can be addressed by principles articulated clearly by Aristotle. He pointed out that virtue, which he defined as the control of the appetites by the reason, is a kind of habit. Learning what is good for you, and then developing good habits to practice it -- much as athletes practice for their sport -- and ultimately learning to like what is good for you, is the key to success and happiness.

* As Freud and others pointed out, one of the most difficult appetites to control is the sexual appetite. Sean's work, which he calls "dick management" -- crude, but to the point -- focuses on how the principles of habit formation can be applied to the sexual appetites.

* As a kind of cover story for what most people would consider a boring subject, Sean argues that the principles laid out by Aristotle have been supported by modern science. An understanding of the insights of multi-dimensional physics gives a way of understanding the role of the soul in our lives. We don't need this scientific framework to practice the art of dick management, but it gives us a way to talk about it that will make pop psychologists green with envy.

P.S. When I read Steven Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, I was extraordinarily disappointed by Covey's failure to adequately define and describe the true role of habit formation in success. It is a fundamental idea that has gotten very little attention in the 20th century (at least outside of music and athletics), and we need to rediscover it. The principles in Sean's book can be applied to many different fields of endeavor. So even if you don't struggle with your sexual appetites, there's a lot to learn here.