Jackins doesn't write the most eloquent prose in the world, but he rates a ten in content explaining his well-thought out theories on the simple components of emotional and personal distress. This volume offers a clear explanation for why it's so hard to pay attention to what's going on right now - where distraction, distress and misinterpretation of others come from.

I've done the face to face work Jackins describes in this book. As a process, co-counseling is magnitudes more powerful than reading about it. Nevertheless, all new co-counselors read this book first to learn the underlying theory behind the work.

The objective of the co-counseling work Jackins developed over 48 years is to produce human beings that can live in present time with clear, undistresssed attention. Which, of course, ultimately depends on work done face to face with real human beings, not reading.

Still I can vouch that whatever sense the book makes or does not make to you as you read it, the work it supports can produce tremendously spontaneous, highly attentive human beings capable of feeling or dealing wih any emotion without avoidance, denial or suppression. And wouldn't we all like to be there? Highly recommended for those seeking to understand and jettison the burdens of the past effectively.

This book has an amazing wealth of information and insights packed within it. A list of all the knowledge that has accumulated from the practice of Re-Evaluation Counselling, it contains a huge range of useful insights.

Find out both how to counsel more effectivley, how to make things go better in your life and how to start to change the world. Its not cheap but its worth every penny.

This theory, at first, seemed to wrap up too neatly the complexity of human emotional distress and its relation to irrational thinking and acting. It's a small book and I've re-read it a few times, and I have a very, very hard time coming up with specific criticisms.

This book was recommended to me by a practicing re-evaluation counselor and very likely the most intelligent AND most genuinely happy person I've ever known--as well as a dear and trusted friend. My limited experience with co-counseling in my own life and his decades of positive, life changing experience with the theory have grown on me and turned me into a supporter.

Another reviewer mentioned similarities to L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics/Scientology. Not coincidentally, Jackins and Hubbard worked together on this theory (allegedly), and Hubbard saw an opportunity to spice the theory up at the expense of its integrity and package it for the marketplace.

In short, the book is a 30-minute read that offers an interesting theory on the human mind and what separates us from other living creatures. It promotes tolerance, listening, the building of strong interpersonal relationships, and offers hope for drastically improving your life by making reasonable efforts and self-bettering sacrifices. And unlike Hubbard's theory, it doesn't claim to be able to remedy all of your current and potential psychological and emotional problems.

Come into reading it with an intelligent, critical, and open mind and it can only help. Needless to say, this is only my own humble, yet genuine and informed, opinion.

I happened upon this book about 25 years ago, after reading lots and lots of psychology books. The ideas presented here are simple, but profound. I've used the idea that rigid behavior results from moments of distress, and that the emotional damage done to people can be healed by listening to them, in a wide range of ways since then. Jackins takes a refreshing departure from psychobabble, and I use his perspective daily in my work with parents and children, to explain why we parents have to make such an effort not to repeat the behavior of our parents when we're under stress, and why children seem to get upset over the smallest things over and over again. Overall, it's a generous attitude toward human nature that is taken, one that offers hope and simple things one can do to help oneself and to help others in a practical yet significant way. It's worth a read!

Jackins's book gives a sound basic description of the conditioning process. He contrasts conditioned behaviors versus intelligent behaviors. He correctly notes that conditioned behaviors are installed during experiences of what the behaviorists call "aversive stimulus". That is, people are vulnerable to being conditioned when being hurt. Jackins says that our best selves are reflected via our intelligence. Conditioned behaviors result in rigid behaviors or "stimulus-response" sets. In contrast, intelligent thought and response is defined as behavior that responds to the specific demands of each new moment in time. Intelligence attempts to create a flexible response that continually improves upon past efforts made in similar situations. This is the essence of all skill building. Go ahead. Ask Michael Jordan or any top athelete about how he or she refine their skills. Watch a baby learn how to talk or walk.

Jackins' book is sound basic psychology. He did not need to cite past research or create verifible studies. His main audience are the people learning the theory and practice of Re-Evaluation Counseling. Not the general public. Proof of the theory's validity comes with succesfull practice of co-counseling.