Have you read Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus?

Question

What did you think? Did it improve your relationships with the opposite sex?
I'm reading it at the moment and it is really quite interesting, learning a lot of things I never thought about!

Answer 1

Yes, it helped me a lot.

I was especially enlightened by the passage that talks about what women say and what they mean, and how men think and reply.

The example was a woman who says to her husband: "You never take me anywhere anymore!"

The man, thinking with his left-brain (analytical) says something like: "Yes I do...I took you shopping the other day, I took you to our son's play last week and I take you to work every day and pick you up after work and take you home..."

And blah, blah, blah...

If she is self-aware, the woman will reply, "you don't understand: I FEEL lilke you don't take me anywhere anymore".

As the book teaches, I have learned to stop responding with logic.

Instead I say, "I didn't know you FEEL that way...tell me more about how you are FEELING"

More often than not, the woman in my life begins to talk about the real problem.

Once she has been able to express her feelings in safety, she may end up saying something like, "you really aren't as bad as I made it sound".

It sounds like a bit of psyco-babble. I only know it works for me.

Answer 2

I have read the book. I am not sure whether it has "improved" my relationships with members of the opposite sex (women, in this case), but it has gone a long way to explaining a lot of what I used to consider irrational behaviors. I have no doubt that women who have read it have similarly benefitted from the author's insights.

We are a sometimes goofy, often inscrutable species. This book plausibly demystifies a number of those behaviors. As popular psychology books go, I thought it was a cut above most...a worthwhile read.

Answer 3

Yes, I actually read it for a class in college. I don't know that it necessarily improved my relationships, but it did help to explain some of the differences between the way men and women think and deal with things. We really are two different creatures!

Answer 4

Yes, but I found
"You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation" by Deborah Tannen
much more useful.
(the page below gives a good "taster" of it.)

That may be because I'm a very single-channel-processing male.

A different book "Human relationship skills" was more problematic. According to the definition if humanity on page five, I'm an alien.