Customer Reviews

Taming Your Gremlin

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I have used Carson's book for seven years in my college social psychology course entitled Self and Others. I have been amazed at how many students use the ideas in the book to make real changes in how they think and feel about themselves,and how they interact with others. I laugh, cry and cheer when I read many of their papers. Thank you Richard Carson.

Taming your Gremlin is a great book because it helps us to confront our own demons and overcome them. This book will help people who have self-destructive patterns of behavior. I suggest you read another book, Optimal Thinking: How to Be your Best Self which shows you how to make the best choices in every situation. There is also a chapter that shows you how to identify the core beliefs that stop you from being your best and realistic simple strategies to overcome them. I absolutely recommend each of these books.

This is a book I regularly use in my coaching practice. It's a fun, easy read that has helped my clients (and myself) move past self-limiting thoughts and behaviors. Carson's light-hearted approach and the great illustrations keep the process fun and simple for the everyday reader. Enjoying yourself is key to having a prosperous, abundant life - emotionally, spiritually, and financially. Everybody should have this in their personal library, and it is absolutely a must-read for coaches. Enjoy!

It's clear from reading the wide variety of reviews of this book that the concepts presented work really well for some people, and a whole lot less well for others.

To me, the very simplicity that some reviewers complained about is what makes this really work. In fact, I'd bet that there's a whole lot of complexity and many years of work underneath Carson's surprisingly straightforward presentation (and speaking of "surprisingly," he does say right in the title that it's a "surprisingly simple method"!).

If you are someone who needs to know the theory behind the practice, or if you want your self-help books to be serious rather than playful, then this is not the book for you. However, if you're ready to try out the exercises Carson suggests (which although simple are not at all effortless) and gain some new and very useful insights into ways in which you could be self-sabotaging your goals and denying yourself the right to your own life - well, as I think Carson would say, that would be your choice!

I can't imagine someone being disappointed in this book. Wise, practical, funny, and true, it is far and away the best "self-help" book on the market. I personally know coaches, counselors, teachers and business people who rely on it heavily in their work. If you are a human being over the age of ten "Taming Your Gremlin" will help you live life joyfully.

I can't tell you how many times the brilliant (yet SIMPLE!) concepts in this book have cleared a black cloud from my mind, freeing it up for more POSITIVE things, which, to my surprise, it bounces right back to. The artwork complements the book excellently, giving it 3D clarity. No need to wonder why you can't think straight-- Don't miss this one!

I'm only about half way through this book, and am not a habitual reader of self-help stuff (my sister recommended this), but I'd have to give this one a serious thumbs-up. I made a funny connection to an old novel by Colin Wilson called "The Mind Parasites," which also posits the existence of a hostile voice within us that kills joy and sows self-doubt.

I think it's interesting that the author distinguishes the Gremlin from Freud's superego and Berne's inner Parent -- as one of the reviewers said above, the notion that the Gremlin is really not us is very interesting and potentially liberating.