Achieving Emotional Literacy: A Personal Program to Increase Your Emotional Intelligence

Encouraged by the recent success of Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence, clinical psychologist Steiner (Games Alcoholics Play) offers his own take on mastering ""emotional skills."" Heavily influenced by Eric Berne (Games People Play), Steiner's work is reminiscent of much pop psychology of the 1960s and '70s. Steiner offers a ""transactional analytic study of emotions"" that labels the normal person's ego states as variants of ""Adult, Child and Parent"" and maintains that one can learn much about oneself and others by watching the ego states that get triggered in different interactions. Like Berne, Steiner emphasizes the impact of giving and receiving positive ""strokes,"" or displays of affection (there are negative strokes as well), and of acting out life ""scripts."" Another influence here are the 12 Steps, as Steiner emphasizes the Steps' tenets of forgiveness and ""making amends."" Steiner's own contribution is a three-stage process of ""opening the heart,"" ""surveying the emotional landscape"" and ""taking responsibility."" He teaches how to give, receive and reject strokes; how to perceive and communicate feelings clearly; and how to replace ""power plays"" with ""power literacy."" Although it's questionable whether some of Steiner's approaches, such as a questionnaire designed to give readers a ""good idea of your level of emotional awareness,"" can fulfill their promises, he offers plenty of insightful information about emotional interactions. Random House Audio; author tour; foreign rights sold to England, Germany, Italy, Brazil and Holland. (Nov.)