69 of 72 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Review by professional life coach, this is simple and powerful, June 27, 2006
This is a simply written book that contains very powerful and useful ideas about managing your inner critic. It focuses on mindfulness of your process and disidentifying with the voices in your head that undermine you on a daily basis.
Some of the keys to this approach are being curious rather than critical about what is happening in the moment. This leads to an awareness that allows one to penetrate old conditioned patterns and achieve a state a heightened state of awareness that leads to conscious choice rather than unconscious acting out. It also encourages a playful and experimental approach to playing with new options which is helpful for people who take themselves seriously and have difficulty trying on new behaviors.
This book is fun to read, but like some of the other reviews, I agree that the metaphor of the "gremlin" is pushed to its limits of usefulness. On the other hand, the book is quite entertaining. I must admit at times I found myself annoyed by the recurring gremlin analogies, but I know other people who have read this found it to be a strong point.
The exercises in this book are very good and like that the author included space in the book to record observations and written answers from exercises. In short, this is a great tool for self inquiry and a good companion to combine with counseling or life coaching.
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210 of 238 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Will work for some, not for others, June 9, 2004
I heard Rick Carson on NPR some time ago and was impressed with that he had to say. I had never heard of his book until then and I immediately wrote down the title so that I could buy it at a later date.
Now that I've read the book I'm trying to figure out why what I heard him say is so different than what I'm reading.
My problem with this book started right at the beginning with his "trademarked" Gremlin-Training Method (all caps, just as he does in the book). This seemed contrived to me, absolutely false. It was like reading a book talk about the author's patented passive solar windows as their own trademarked "Sun Energy Capture Device." In other words, like an infomercial. This intial reaction was confirmed as I continued to read. The tactics and topics Carson raises are extremely simplistic. Practical perhaps, but hardly worthy of a "trademark."
The other problem I had with the book is that Carson uses his metaphor to excess. This is a danger he should have been aware of. A Gremlin is a workable metaphor for most people as long as you make it abstract. That is, that voice in your head which puts you down. As soon as you start describing its supposed physical nature (the minister, the coach, the monster, etc.) the metaphor starts losing its audience. Not everyone wants or needs to describe that nasty voice in such terms.
I wished Carson had backed off the metaphor somewhat, backed off from from the hard sell on his "trademarked" method, and just gave an in-depth analysis of people's internal negative voices, where they come from, how to control them, etc. I don't want to read something that makes me feel like I'm buying a used car or the next TV control clapper.
This book, based on many previous glowing reviews, works for many people. No doubt that is true. Criticizing this book is rather subjective - if it works for you, it works, if it doesn't, it doesn't. You can't debate it. My recommendation is to really look at the text before buying and THEN decide if you want to purchase. You might find that you like it, or you might not.
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37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the tricky devils of the human mind unveiled!, July 27, 2000
This is the best book on the behaviour of the human mind I have ever read. Witty, clever and decidedly wise, it has more relevance for the everyday life of the person on the street than any other modern guide to awakening or personal psychotherapy I have come across. Richard Carson marries the serious with the witty in unprecedentedly simple style, and manages to convey that enjoying yourself as you are now is the real key to positive change. This is just the "medicine" that the overly causeandeffect dualistic mind of the west really needs. Jung called logic the greatest thorn in the side of western thought, and Carson's book is a prime example of this way of thinking.
If you want to enjoy your life ever more each day, and let your own light shine to set others free too, read this book and laugh your way back home.
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