Word Power Made Easy: The Complete Handbook for Building a Superior Vocabulary

PART ONE

GETTING OFF TO A GOOD START

1

HOW TO TEST YOUR PRESENT VOCABULARY

Once—as a child—you were an expert, an accomplished virtuoso, at learning new words.

Today, by comparison, you are a rank and bumbling amateur.

Does this statement sound insulting?

It may be—but if you are the average adult, it is a statement that is, unfortunately, only too true.

Educational testing indicates that children of ten who have grown up in families in which English is the native language have recognition vocabularies of over twenty thousand words—

And that these same ten-year-olds have been learning new words at a rate of many hundreds a year since the age of four.

In astonishing contrast, studies show that adults who are no longer attending school increase their vocabularies at a pace slower than twenty-five to fifty words annually.

How do you assess your own vocabulary?

Is it quantitatively healthy?

Rich in over-all range?

Responsive to any situation in which you may find yourself?

Truly indicative of your intellectual potential?

More important, is it still growing at the same rapid clip as when you were a child?

Or, as with most adults, has your rate of increase dropped drastically since you left school? And if so, do you now feel that your vocabulary is somewhat limited, your verbal skills not as sharp as you would like them to be?

Let us check it out.

I challenge you to a series of tests that will measure your vocabulary range, as well as your verbal speed and responsiveness.

A TEST OF VOCABULARY RANGE

Here are sixty brief phrases, each containing one italicized word; it is up to you to check the closest definition of each such word. To keep your score valid, refrain, as far as possible, from wild guessing. The key will be found at the end of the test.

  1. disheveled appearance:

(a) untidy; (b) fierce, (c) foolish, (d) peculiar, (e) unhappy

  2. a baffling problem:

(a) difficult, (b) simple, (c) puzzling, (d) long, (e) new

  3. lenient parent:

(a) tall, (b) not strict, (c) wise, (d) foolish, (e) severe

  4. repulsive personality:

(a) disgusting, (b) attractive, (c) normal, (d) confused, (e) conceited

  5. audacious attempt:

(a) useless, (b) bold, (c) foolish, (d) crazy, (e) necessary

  6. parry a blow:

(a) ward off, (b) fear, (c) expect, (d) invite, (e) ignore

  7. prevalent disease:

(a) dangerous, (b) catching, (c) childhood, (d) fatal, (e) widespread

  8. ominous report:

(a) loud, (b) threatening, (c) untrue, (d) serious, (e) unpleasant

  9. an incredible story:

(a) true, (b) interesting, (c) well-known, (d) unbelievable, (e) unknown

10. an ophthalmologist:

(a) eye doctor, (b) skin doctor, (c) foot doctor, (d) heart doctor, (e) cancer specialist

11. will supersede the old law:

(a) enforce, (b) specify penalties for, (c) take the place of, (d) repeal, (e) continue

12. an anonymous donor:

(a) generous, (b) stingy, (c) well-known, (d) one whose name is not known, (e) reluctant

13. performed an autopsy: (a) examination of living tissue, (b) examination of a corpse to determine the cause of death, (c) process in the manufacture of optical lenses, (d) operation to cure an organic disease, (e) series of questions to determine the causes of delinquent behavior

14. an indefatigable worker:

(a) well-paid, (b) tired, (c) skillful, (d) tireless, (e) pleasant

15. a confirmed atheist:

(a) bachelor, (b) disbeliever in God, (c) believer in religion, (d) believer in science, (e) priest

16. endless loquacity:

(a) misery, (b) fantasy, (c) repetitiousness, (d) ill health, (e) talkativeness

17. a glib talker:

(a) smooth, (b) awkward, (c) loud, (d) friendly, (e) boring

18. an incorrigible optimist:

(a) happy, (b) beyond correction or reform, (c) foolish, (d) hopeful, (e) unreasonable

19. an ocular problem:

(a) unexpected, (b) insoluble, (c) visual, (d) continual, (e) imaginary

20. a notorious demagogue:

(a) rabble-rouser, (b) gambler, (c) perpetrator of financial frauds, (d) liar, (e) spendthrift

21. a naïve attitude:

(a) unwise, (b) hostile, (c) unsophisticated, (d) friendly, (e) contemptuous

22. living in affluence:

(a) difficult circumstances, (b) countrified surroundings, (c) fear, (d) wealth, (e) poverty

23. in retrospect:

(a) view of the past, (b) artistic balance, (c) anticipation, (d) admiration, (e) second thoughts

24. a gourmet:

(a) seasoned traveler, (b) greedy eater, (c) vegetarian, (d) connoisseur of good food, (e) skillful chef

25. to simulate interest:

(a) pretend, (b) feel, (c) lose, (d) stir up, (e) ask for

26. a magnanimous action:

(a) puzzling, (b) generous, (c) foolish, (d) unnecessary, (e) wise

27. a clandestine meeting:

(a) prearranged, (b) hurried, (c) important, (d) secret, (e) public

28. the apathetic citizens:

(a) made up of separate ethnic groups, (b) keenly vigilant of their rights, (c) politically conservative, (d) indifferent, uninterested, uninvolved, (e) terrified

29. to placate his son:

(a) please, (b) help, (c) find a job for, (d) make arrangements for, (e) change a feeling of hostility to one of friendliness

30. to vacillate continually:

(a) avoid, (b) swing back and forth in indecision, (c) inject, (d) treat, (e) scold

31. a nostalgic feeling:

(a) nauseated, (b) homesick, (c) sharp, (d) painful, (e) delighted

32. feel antipathy:

(a) bashfulness, (b) stage fright, (c) friendliness, (d) hostility, (e) suspense

33. be more circumspect:

(a) restrained, (b) confident, (c) cautious, (d) honest, (e) intelligent

34. an intrepid fighter for human rights:

(a) fearless, (b) eloquent, (c) popular, (d) experienced, (e) famous

35. diaphanous material:

(a) strong, (b) sheer and gauzy, (c) colorful, (d) expensive, (e) synthetic

36. a taciturn host:

(a) stingy, (b) generous, (c) disinclined to conversation, (d) charming, (e) gloomy

37. to malign his friend:

(a) accuse, (b) help, (c) disbelieve, (d) slander, (e) introduce

38. a congenital deformity:

(a) hereditary, (b) crippling, (c) slight, (d) incurable, (e) occurring at or during birth

39. a definite neurosis:

(a) plan, (b) emotional disturbance, (c) physical disease, (d) feeling of fear, (e) allergic reaction

40. made an unequivocal statement:

(a) hard to understand, (b) lengthy, (c) politically motivated, (d) clear and forthright, (e) supporting

41. vicarious enjoyment:

(a) complete, (b) unspoiled, (c) occurring from a feeling of identification with another, (d) long-continuing, (e) temporary

42. psychogenic ailment:

(a) incurable, (b) contagious, (c) originating in the mind, (d) intestinal, (e) imaginary

43. an anachronous attitude:

(a) unexplainable, (b) unreasonable, (c) belonging to a different time, (d) out of place, (e) unusual

44. her iconoclastic phase:

(a) artistic, (b) sneering at tradition, (c) troubled, (d) difficult, (e) religious

45. a tyro:

(a) dominating personality, (b) beginner, (c) accomplished musician, (d) dabbler, (e) serious student

46. a laconic reply:

(a) immediate, (b) assured, (c) terse and meaningful, (d) unintelligible, (e) angry

47. semantic confusion:

(a) relating to the meaning of words, (b) pertaining to money, (c) having to do with the emotions, (d) relating to mathematics, (e) caused by inner turmoil

48. cavalier treatment:

(a) courteous, (b) haughty and highhanded, (c) negligent, (d) affectionate, (e) expensive

49. an anomalous situation:

(a) dangerous, (b) intriguing, (c) unusual, (d) pleasant (e) unhappy

50. posthumous child:

(a) cranky, (b) brilliant, (c) physically weak, (d) illegitimate, (e) born after the death of the father

51. feels enervated:

(a) full of ambition, (b) full of strength, (c) completely exhausted, (d) troubled, (e) full of renewed energy

52. shows perspicacity:

(a) sincerity, (b) mental keenness, (c) love, (d) faithfulness, (e) longing

53. an unpopular martinet:

(a) candidate, (b) supervisor, (c) strict disciplinarian, (d) military leader, (e) discourteous snob

54. gregarious person:

(a) outwardly calm, (b) very sociable, (c) completely untrustworthy, (d) vicious, (e) self-effacing and timid

55. generally phlegmatic:

(a) smug, self-satisfied, (b) easily pleased, (c) nervous, high-strung, (d) emotionally unresponsive, (e) lacking in social graces

56. an inveterate gambler:

(a) impoverished, (b) successful, (c) habitual, (d) occasional, (e) superstitious

57. an egregious error:

(a) outstandingly bad, (b) slight, (c) irreparable, (d) unnecessary, (e) deliberate

58. cacophony of a large city:

(a) political administration, (b) crowded living conditions, (c) cultural advantages, (d) unpleasant noises, harsh sounds, (e) busy traffic

59. a prurient adolescent:

(a) tall and gangling, (b) sexually longing, (c) clumsy, awkward, (d) sexually attractive, (e) soft-spoken

60. uxorious husband:

(a) henpecked, (b) suspicious, (c) guilty of infidelity, (d) fondly and foolishly doting on his wife, (e) tightfisted, penny-pinching

KEY:  1–a, 2–c, 3–b, 4–a, 5–b, 6–a, 7–e, 8–b, 9–d, 10–a, 11–c, 12–d, 13–b, 14–d, 15–b, 16–e, 17–a, 18–b, 19–c, 20–a, 21–c, 22–d, 23–a, 24–d, 25–a, 26–b, 27–d, 28–d, 29–e, 30–b, 31–b, 32–d, 33–c, 34–a, 35–b, 36–c, 37–d, 38–e, 39–b, 40–d, 41–c, 42–c, 43–c, 44–b, 45–b, 46–c, 47–a, 48–b, 49–c, 50–e, 51–c, 52–b, 53–c, 54–b, 55–d, 56–c, 57–a, 58–d, 59–b, 60–d

Your score (one point for each correct choice): ____________

The Meaning of Your Score:

A TEST OF VERBAL SPEED

PART 1

This is a timed test.

In no more than three minutes (time yourself, or have someone time you), decide whether the word in column B is the same (or approximately the same) in meaning as the word in column A; opposite (or approximately opposite) in meaning; or whether the two words are merely different.

Circle S for same, O for opposite, and D for different.

You will not have time to dawdle or think too long, so go as fast as you can.

PART 2

This is also a timed test.

In no more than three minutes (again, time yourself or have someone time you), write down as many different words as you can think of that start with the letter D.

Do not use various forms of a word, such as do, doing, does, done, doer, etc.

Space is provided for 125 words. You are not expected to reach that number, but write as fast as you can and see how many blanks you can fill in before your time is up.

KEY: Part 1: 1–O, 2–S, 3–S, 4–D, 5–S, 6–O, 7–S, 8–O, 9–S, 10–S, 11–D, 12–O, 13–O, 14–S, 15–O, 16–O, 17–O, 18–D, 19–O, 20–D, 21–S, 22–D, 23–O, 24–S, 25–D, 26–S, 27–S, 28–O, 29–S, 30–S

          Part 2: Any English word starting with D is correct unless it is merely another form of a previous word on the list.

Scoring:

PART 1

If you have up to 10 correct answers, credit your score with 25 points.

If you have 11–20 correct answers, credit your score with 50 points.

21–25 correct answers—75 points.

26–30 correct answers—100 points.

Your Score on Part 1:___

PART 2

Your Score on Part 2: ___

TOTAL SCORE

On Verbal Speed: ___

The meaning of your verbal speed score:

A TEST OF VERBAL RESPONSIVENESS

PART 1

Write in the blank in column B a word starting with the letter P that is the same, or approximately the same, in meaning as the word given in column A.

Example:   look      peer_____________________________

Warning: Every answer must start with the letter P.

PART 2

Write in the blank in column B a word starting with the letter G that is opposite, approximately opposite, or in contrast to the word given in column A.

Example:   stop      go

Warning: Every answer must start with the letter G.

KEY, Part 1: If more than one answer is given, count as correct any word you have written that is the same as any one of the answers.

1–pail, pan, 2–pants, 3–perhaps, possibly, probably, 4–pardon, 5–part, 6–probable, possible, perhaps, 7–pester, 8–pretty, 9–photograph, painting, 10–pick, 11–plain, 12–proceed, 13–plate, platter, 14–place, 15–pebble, 16–passive, 17–particular, picky, 18–pain, 19–palace, 20–pant, puff, 21–panic, 22–pair, 23–painter, 24–page, 25–pack

        Part 2: If more than one answer is given, count as correct any word you have written that is the same as any one of the answers.

1–gain, get, garner, grab, glean, grasp, grip, 2–giant, gigantic, great, gross, 3–general, 4–gentleman, 5–give, 6–genius, 7–glad, gleeful, gleesome, 8–girl, 9–gloomy, glum, grieving, grumpy, 10–gaudy, grand, grandiose, 11–goodbye, 12–gone, 13–good, 14–good-looking, 15–generous, giving, 16–graceful, 17–great, giant, gigantic, 18–gentle, 19–groom, 20–green, 21–greedy, grasping, 22-guarded, 23–green, 24–glut, gobs, 25–grateful

Scoring:

Score Parts 1 and 2 together. Write in the blank the total number of correct responses you made: ____________

The meaning of your verbal responsiveness score:

VOCABULARY AND SUCCESS

Now you know where you stand. If you are in the below average or average group, you must consider, seriously, whether an inadequate vocabulary may be holding you back. (If you tested out on the above average, excellent, or superior level, you have doubtless already discovered the unique and far-reaching value of a rich vocabulary, and you are eager to add still further to your knowledge of words.)

Let us examine, briefly, some of the evidence that points to the close relationship between vocabulary and personal, professional, and intellectual growth.

The Human Engineering Laboratory found that the only common characteristic of successful people in this country is an unusual grasp of the meanings of words. The Laboratory tested the vocabularies of thousands of people in all age groups and in all walks of life—and discovered that those people drawing down the highest salaries made the highest scores. Consider very thoughtfully the explanation that the director of the Laboratory offered for the relationship between vocabulary and success:

Why do large vocabularies characterize executives and possibly outstanding men and women in other fields? The final answer seems to be that words are the instruments by means of which men and women grasp the thoughts of others and with which they do much of their own thinking. They are the tools of thought.

There is other evidence.

At many universities, groups of freshmen were put into experimental classes for the sole purpose of increasing their knowledge of English words. These groups did better in their sophomore, junior, and senior years than control groups of similarly endowed students who did not receive such training.

And still more evidence:

At the University of Illinois, entering students were given a simple twenty-nine-word vocabulary test. The results of this test could be used, according to Professor William D. Templeman, to make an accurate prediction of future academic success—or lack of success—over the entire four year college course. If a student has a superior vocabulary, states Professor Templeman, it will probably follow that he will do better work academically.

And finally:

Educational research has discovered that your I.Q. is intimately related to your vocabulary. Take a standard vocabulary test and then an intelligence test—the results in both will be substantially the same.

YOU CAN INCREASE YOUR VOCABULARY

The more extensive your vocabulary, the better your chances for success, other things being equal—success in attaining your educational goals, success in moving ahead in your business or professional career, success in achieving your intellectual potential.

And you can increase your vocabulary—faster and easier than you may realize.

You can, in fact, accomplish a tremendous gain in less than two to three months of concentrated effort, even if you do only one session a day—in less time if you do two or more sessions a day.

Furthermore—

You can start improving your vocabulary immediately—and within a few days you can be cruising along at such a rapid rate that there will be an actual change in your thinking, in your ability to express your thoughts, and in your powers of understanding.

Does this sound as if I am promising you the whole world in a neat package with a pretty pink ribbon tied around it? I am. And I am willing to make such an unqualified promise because I have seen what happens to those of my students at New York University and at Rio Hondo College in Whittier, California, who make sincere, methodical efforts to learn more, many more, words.

2

HOW TO START BUILDING YOUR VOCABULARY

When you have finished working with this book, you will no longer be the same person.

You can’t be.

If you honestly read every page, if you do every exercise, if you take every test, if you follow every principle, you will go through an intellectual experience that will effect a radical change in you.

For if you systematically increase your vocabulary, you will also sharpen and enrich your thinking; push back your intellectual horizons; build your self-assurance; improve your facility in handling the English language and thereby your ability to express your thoughts effectively; and acquire a deeper understanding of the world in general and of yourself in particular.

Increasing your vocabulary does not mean merely learning the definitions of large numbers of obscure words; it does not mean memorizing scores of unrelated terms. What it means—what it can only mean—is becoming acquainted with the multitudinous and fascinating phenomena of human existence for which words are, obviously, only the verbal descriptions.

Increasing your vocabulary—properly, intelligently, and systematically—means treating yourself to an all-round, liberal education.

And surely you cannot deny that such an experience will change you intellectually—

Will have a discernible effect on your methods of thinking—on your store of information—on your ability to express your ideas—on your understanding of human problems.

HOW CHILDREN INCREASE THEIR VOCABULARIES

The typical ten-year-old, you will recall, has a recognition vocabulary of over twenty thousand words—and has been learning many hundreds of new words every year since the age of four.

You were once that typical child.

You were once an accomplished virtuoso at vocabulary building.

What was your secret?

Did you spend hours every day poring over a dictionary?

Did you lull yourself to sleep at night with Webster’s Unabridged?

Did you keep notebooks full of all the new words you ever heard or read?

Did you immediately look up the meaning of any new word that your parents or older members of your family used?

Such procedures would have struck you as absurd then, as absurd as they would be for you today.

You had a much better, much more effective, and considerably less self-conscious method.

Your method was the essence of simplicity: day in and day out you kept learning; you kept squeezing every possible ounce of learning out of every waking moment; you were an eternal question box, for you had a constant and insatiable desire to know and understand.

HOW ADULTS STOP BUILDING THEIR VOCABULARIES

Then, eventually, at some point in your adult life (unless you are the rare exception), you gradually lost your compulsive drive to discover, to figure out, to understand, to know.

Eventually, therefore, you gradually lost your need to increase your vocabulary—your need to learn the words that could verbalize your new discoveries, your new understanding, your new knowledge.

Roland Gelatt, in a review of Caroline Pratt’s book I Learn from Children, describes this phenomenon as follows:

All normal human beings are born with a powerful urge to learn. Almost all of them lose this urge, even before they have reached maturity. It is only the few … who are so constituted that lack of learning becomes a nuisance. This is perhaps the most insidious of human tragedies.

Children are wonders at increasing their vocabularies because of their powerful urge to learn. They do not learn solely by means of words, but as their knowledge increases, so does their vocabulary—for words are the symbols of ideas and understanding.

(If you are a parent, you perhaps remember that crucial and trying period in which your child constantly asked Why? The Why? is the child’s method of finding out. How many adults that you know go about asking and thinking Why? How often do you yourself do it?)

The adults who lose this urge, who no longer feel that lack of learning becomes a nuisance, stop building their vocabularies. They stop learning, they stop growing intellectually, they stop changing. When and if such a time comes, then, as Mr. Gelatt so truly says, This is perhaps the most insidious of human tragedies. But fortunately the process is far from irreversible.

If you have lost the powerful urge to learn, you can regain it—you can regain your need to discover, to figure out, to understand, to know.

And thus you can start increasing your vocabulary at the same rate as when you were a child.

I am not spouting airy theory. For over thirty-five years I have worked with thousands of adults in my college courses in vocabulary improvement, and I can state as a fact, and without qualification, that:

If you can recapture the powerful urge to learn with which you were born, you can go on increasing your vocabulary at a prodigious rate—

No matter what your present age.

WHY AGE MAKES LITTLE DIFFERENCE IN VOCABULARY BUILDING

I repeat, no matter what your present age.

You may be laboring under a delusion common to many older people.

You may think that after you pass your twenties you rapidly and inevitably lose your ability to learn.

That is simply not true.

There is no doubt that the years up to eighteen or twenty are the best period for learning. Your own experience no doubt bears that out. And of course for most people more learning goes on faster up to the age of eighteen or twenty than ever after, even if they live to be older than Methuselah. (That is why vocabulary increases so rapidly for the first twenty years of life and comparatively at a snail’s pace thereafter.)

But (and follow me closely)—

The fact that most learning is accomplished before the age of twenty does not mean that very little learning can be achieved beyond that age.

What is done by most people and what can be done under proper guidance and motivation are two very, very different things—as scientific experiments have conclusively shown.

Furthermore—

The fact that your learning ability may be best up to age twenty does not mean that it is absolutely useless as soon as your twentieth birthday is passed.

Quite the contrary.

Edward Thorndike, the famous educational psychologist, found in experiments with people of all ages that although the learning curve rises spectacularly up to twenty, it remains steady for at least another five years. After that, ability to learn (according to Professor Thorndike) drops very, very slowly up to the age of thirty-five, and drops a bit more but still slowly beyond that age.

And—

Right up to senility the total decrease in learning ability after age twenty is never more than 15 per cent!

That does not sound, I submit, as if no one can ever learn anything new after the age of twenty.

Believe me, the old saw that claims you cannot teach an old dog new tricks is a baseless, if popular, superstition.

So I repeat: no matter what your age, you can go on learning efficiently, or start learning once again if perhaps you have stopped.

You can be thirty, or forty, or fifty, or sixty, or seventy—or older.

No matter what your age, you can once again increase your vocabulary at a prodigious rate—providing you recapture the powerful urge to learn that is the key to vocabulary improvement.

Not the urge to learn words—words are only symbols of ideas.

But the urge to learn facts, theories, concepts, information, knowledge, understanding—call it what you will.

Words are the symbols of knowledge, the keys to accurate thinking. Is it any wonder then that the most successful and intelligent people in this country have the biggest vocabularies?

It was not their large vocabularies that made these people successful and intelligent, but their knowledge.

Knowledge, however, is gained largely through words.

In the process of increasing their knowledge, these successful people increased their vocabularies.

Just as children increase their vocabulary at a tremendous, phenomenal rate during those years when their knowledge is increasing most rapidly.

Knowledge is chiefly in the form of words, and from now on, in this book, you will be thinking about, and thinking with, new words and new ideas.

WHAT THIS BOOK CAN DO FOR YOU

This book is designed to get you started building your vocabulary—effectively and at jet-propelled speed—by helping you regain the intellectual atmosphere, the keen, insatiable curiosity, the powerful urge to learn of your childhood.

The organization of the book is based on two simple principles: 1) words are the verbal symbols of ideas, and 2) the more ideas you are familiar with, the more words you know.

So, chapter by chapter, we will start with some central idea—personality types, doctors, science, unusual occupations, liars, actions, speech habits, insults, compliments, etc.—and examine ten basic words that express various aspects of the idea. Then, using each word as a springboard, we will explore any others which are related to it in meaning or derivation, so that it is not unlikely that a single chapter may discuss, teach, and test close to one hundred important words.

Always, however, the approach will be from the idea. First there will be a teaser preview in which the ideas are briefly hinted at; then a headline, in which each idea is examined somewhat more closely; next a clear, detailed paragraph or more will analyze the idea in all its ramifications; finally the word itself, which you will meet only after you are completely familiar with the idea.

In the etymology (derivation of words) section, you will learn what Greek or Latin root gives the word its unique meaning and what other words contain the same, or related, roots. You will thus be continually working in related fields, and there will never be any possibility of confusion from too muchness, despite the great number of words taken up and tested in each chapter.

Successful people have superior vocabularies. People who are intellectually alive and successful in the professional or business worlds are accustomed to dealing with ideas, are constantly on the search for new ideas, build their lives and their careers on the ideas they have learned. And it is to readers whose goal is successful living (in the broadest meaning of the word successful) that this book is addressed.

A NOTE ON TIME SCHEDULES

From my experience over many years in teaching, I have become a firm believer in setting a goal for all learning and a schedule for reaching that goal.

You will discover that each chapter is divided into approximately equal sessions, and that each session will take from thirty to forty-five minutes of your time, depending on how rapidly or slowly you enjoy working—and bear in mind that everyone has an optimum rate of learning.

For best results, do one or two sessions at a time—spaced studying, with time between sessions so that you can assimilate what you have learned, is far more efficient, far more productive, than gobbling up great amounts in indigestible chunks.

Come back to the book every day, or as close to every day as the circumstances of your life permit.

Find a schedule that is comfortable for you, and then stick to it.

Avoid interrupting your work until you have completed a full session, and always decide, before you stop, exactly when you will plan to pick up the book again.

Working at your own comfortable rate, you will likely finish the material in two to three months, give or take a few weeks either way.

However long you take, you will end with a solid feeling of accomplishment, a new understanding of how English words work, and—most important—how to make words work for you.

3

HOW TO TALK ABOUT PERSONALITY TYPES

(Sessions 1–3)

TEASER PREVIEW

What word best describes your personality if you:

• are interested solely in your own welfare?

• constantly talk about yourself?

• dedicate your life to helping others?

• turn your mind inward?

• turn your mind outward?

• hate humanity?

• hate women?

• hate marriage?

• lead a lonely, austere existence?

SESSION 1

Every human being is, in one way or another, unique.

Everyone’s personality is determined by a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

Let us examine ten personality types (one of which might by chance be your very own) that result from the way culture, growth, family background, and environment interact with heredity.

And, of course, we begin not with the words, but with the ideas.

IDEAS

1. me first

Your attitude to life is simple, direct, and aboveboard—every decision you make is based on the answer to one question: What’s in it for me? If your selfishness, greed, and ruthless desire for self-advancement hurt other people, that’s too bad. This is a tough world, pal, dog eat dog and all that, and I, for one, am not going to be left behind!

An egoist

2. the height of conceit

Now, let’s see. Have you heard about all the money I’m making? Did I tell you about my latest amorous conquest? Let me give you my opinion—I know, because I’m an expert at practically everything! You are boastful to the point of being obnoxious—you have only one string to your conversational violin, namely, yourself; and on it you play a number of monotonous variations: what you think, what you have done, how good you are, how you would solve the problems of the world, etc. ad nauseam.

An egotist

3. let me help you

You have discovered the secret of true happiness—concerning yourself with the welfare of others. Never mind your own interests, how’s the next fellow getting along?

An altruist

4. leave me alone

Like a biochemist studying a colony of bacteria under the microscope, you minutely examine your every thought, feeling, and action. Probing, futile questions like What do other people think of me?, How do I look?, and Maybe I shouldn’t have said that? are your constant nagging companions, for you are unable to realize that other people do not spend as much time and energy analyzing you as you think.

You may seem unsocial, yet your greatest desire is to be liked and accepted. You may be shy and quiet, you are often moody and unhappy, and you prefer solitude or at most the company of one person to a crowd. You have an aptitude for creative work and are uncomfortable engaging in activities that require cooperation with other people. You may even be a genius, or eventually turn into one.

An introvert

5. let’s do it together

You would be great as a teacher, counselor, administrator, insurance agent. You can always become interested—sincerely, vitally interested—in other people’s problems. You’re the life of the party, because you never worry about the effect of your actions, never inhibit yourself with doubts about dignity or propriety. You are usually happy, generally full of high spirits; you love to be with people—lots of people.