"Bernstein provides a field guide to the various types of Emotional Vampires and advises readers how to protect themselves from being victims of these predatory personalities."Boston Globe
From bestselling author Albert J. Bernstein
The author of Dinosaur Brains offers protection from people who seek to destroy the emotional and psychological well-being of others. Like the fabled demons, these vampires:
Think their needs are more important than yours
Believe "the rules" apply only to other people
Use their tempers in the same way terrorists use bombs
Emotional Vampires tells readers how to spot a "vampire" in their lives, which defense strategies to employ to prevent one from striking, and what to do if and when they find themselves under attack.
It explains a lot Good read for the lay person in plain english. You need to read this so you can keep yourself from falling into the Vampire's trap.
wouldn't it be better to do something productive It seems that this book is simply negative. If you are so concerned about these "insane crazy people" then get away from them. Reading a book while imagining these people seems extremely obsessive and histrionic in itself.
Check immediately for missing pages! This review is about an apparent manufacturing or publisher defect: pages 37 to 84 are missing! They are not ripped out of the book, they are simply not there. I did not start reading it and get to page 37 until after the Amazon 30-day return period was over, so I've had to go thru a rigmarole with Customer Service about how to replace the book, ship back the other one, get a refund, etc. Very frustrating. Also, the customer service dept at Amazon classified this as a "damaged in shipment" problem, although I did my best to explain it's a publishing problem. So now how do I know when they send me the replacement book, the pages will not also be missing. I highly recommend the book, but get it at your local bookshop or if you buy from Amazon, check those pages right away.
wish it wasn't focused on work environments Overall, the information about these types of people is great. But the book focuses almost entirely on encountering these types in the work place, not in personal life. I deal with a histrionic cousin, who maintains her blond hair and Jaguar, while crying to me that she doesn't have enough money for food or medicine. Her non-stop need for me to take care of her has drained me. While I was able to get a lot of understanding from the chapter on histrionic vampires, I had to take the workplace solutions offered and try to tailor them to personal life. I would have liked the book better if it dealt with both personal and professional types and offered solutions for both.
And I do agree with the others that he does take the vampire analogy too far. It seems to me he almost felt obligated to talk about vampires when it wasn't appropriate to do so.
Great book I found this book to be very interesting and eye-opening. I was amazed to see some of the most difficult people in my life so perfectly described. I thought that the advice was helpful and the warnings about these folks well worth heeding.
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