Survivor Personality

by Al Siebert

Book Overview

The classic guide to what makes people survivors, now in a revised and updated new edition. Who survives? Who thrives? As a psychologist who spent more than forty years studying the phenomenon of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399522301
• ISBN13: 9780399522307
• Release Date: September 1996
• Publisher: Perigee Books
• Length: 293 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.1" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

How to Discover HOPE in Hopelessness.

+++++ The philosopher Nietzsche once said, "That which does not destroy [or kill] me, makes me stronger." Guess what? There is finally a practical book that shows you how to do that and this is the book!! This is not a cookbook of instructions but a book of practical guidelines to help you discover inborn abilities that NO one else can reveal to you. What are some of the features of this book that enable you to do this? They are as follows: (1) TRUE STORIES. The book is punctuated with true stories from those people who were initially knocked down by disruptive change. These people were able to access their will to survive, and even gain strength from their adversity. (2) SELF-DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY INSERTS. These short activities are for helping the reader get the most out of the book. They occur at various places throughout the book. (3) DIAGRAMS AND CHARTS. These also occur at various places throughout the book. These are to help the reader understand important concepts. (4) THE AUTHOR'S WRITING STYLE. All of what the author writes is easy to understand. I could find no technical psychobabble anywhere in the book. (5) OTHER RESOURCES. For those who want more information, other resources are listed at the back of the book. An internet address is also given. I especially liked two chapters. There first one is entitled "Thriving" which reveals how to grow in adversity instead of being a victim. The other one is entitled "The Roots of Resiliency: Your Inner 'Selfs'." This chapter examines and helps the reader understand his/her inner resiliency resources. In conclusion, being a disabled person I can validate what the author says in the final paragraph of his book: "It is...adversity [that] can lead to the discovery of strengths that you did not know you had...and a difficulty that almost breaks your spirit can be turned into one of the best things that ever happened to you." +++++

Resilience is an Emotional Intelligence competency

I coach people in emotional intelligence, including being resilient. This book is like my Bible ... this and all Al Siebert's documented research. He actually looked at resilient seniors to see what traits they had. If you're a survivor, you'll enjoy reading all about yourself in this book, and feeling understood, perhaps for the first time. If you aren't a survivor, read it anyway. The time to build resilience is before the calamity occurs. It can be learned. It's the best antidote to stress there is, and it will make you change-proficient, a trait you need in 2003!

Excellent guide on resilience

This is a wonderfully written book: clear, comprehensive and incredibly insightful. It helps you discover if you are a survivor or not, become one if you are not already, and avoid persecution that sometimes comes your way when you are naturally a survivor personality. I found that last part a fascinating irony: you might think, as I did before reading this book, that it is a 100% great thing to be a survivor. Unfortunately, people in the lives of survivors often criticize and attack them for the very traits that allow them to survive and prosper. To help survivors deal with this, Siebert provides invaluable information on what he calls, "surviving being a survivor." Here is one of my favorites of his many insights on this extremely important issue:He says that resilient people are often mistaken by others, who are not so good at surviving adversity, as being "pessimists." A survivor is very talented at anticipating possible problems at work and at home and planning a response to them. (Much like the old saying, "Prepare for the worst, and hope for the best.") People who hate to look before they leap often accuse survivors of being needlessly fearful, stick-in-the-mud thinkers. Of course, when the inevitable happens, and the ready-or-not-here-I-come types land in trouble, who do they always run to for help digging out of the mess they've failed to anticipate? The survivor, of course.I highly recommend this book to everyone who needs help successfully living through traumas and catastrophes in his/her life (just about all of us!). The stories Siebert tells of survivors, including analysis of what they did to recover from agonizing events and why their approaches worked, are both practical and inspiring.

The story of my life

If you've ever felt that no one knows you, that you have so many contradictory traits, or that you are a little warped because you can find humor in anything: Get this book.So maybe you are a little warped, but what's wrong with that? I've been through hell and I didn't like the cooking, but I am here to testify that Al Siebert knows his stuff. I could have been dead years ago, or a mindless drone now, but I survived. And thrived. You can, too.

This book is a MUST for every library!

For anyone who has ever survived a trauma of ANY kind.... natural disaster, sexual abuse, violence, or a personal disaster of any kind..... this book will help you to understand WHY you survived when others did not -- or help you learn HOW to survive when you thought you never could..... This book had an enormous impact on me.... It explained many of my inherent traits, that others had seen as "weaknesses", as survivor STRENGTHS -- and I realized that I wasn't as crazy as I thought I was! *grin*