The Laws of Human Nature

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.