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The Laws of Human Nature
A review of

The Laws of Human Nature

Robert GreeneViking • 2018

Learn Yourself

by David Meyer

Master human strategist and bestselling writer Robert Greene takes an uncharacteristic detour into empathy.

Everyone has to deal with destructive personality types. They come in many forms: narcissistic bosses, manipulative friends, envious co-workers and passive-aggressive family members. This study of human nature by bestselling author and modern-day Machiavelli Robert Greene provides a guide to anticipating, understanding and handling negative behaviors, in yourself and others.

Greene suggests that the secret to exerting influence – Greene’s career specialty – is mastering your emotions and cultivating a positive attitude toward others and toward your own work ethic. Given his oeuvre, he shows surprising compassion, and urges you to be kind and empathetic. Greene has always been a superlative mass-market explainer of complex concepts – distilling Machiavelli, for example, in his wildly popular The 48 Laws of Power. In many ways, this is Greene’s more than competent explaining of Jung's writings – or Joseph Campbell's – for an audience who may never have heard of either.


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