Drive Yourself Sane: Using the Uncommon Sense of General Semantics - Softcover

Kodish, Susan Presby; Kodish, Bruce I.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0970066465 ISBN 13: 9780970066466

Publisher: Extensional Pub, 2000

Synopsis

This thoroughly revised Third Edition of Drive Yourself Sane, first published in 1993, remains the most reliable short introduction to 'general semantics' (GS) now available. A remarkable system of thought founded by Alfred Korzybski (1879-1950), GS is based on a careful study of human behavior and scientific problem-solving, bridging applied psychology and practical philosophy. Drive Yourself Sane provides time-tested methods for critical and creative thinking and constructive communicating with a variety of problem-solving applications for mental hygiene, personal development, education, business, etc. The text and accompanying exercises help readers sharpen the primary tools they were born with: their individual brain-nervous systems with their marvelous capacities to adapt to change and to learn from and build upon their own and other people's experiences. This Third Edition contains fascinating additional biographical material about Alfred Korzybski, based on research for Bruce Kodish's book, Korzybski: A Biography. Includes Notes, Bibliography and Index.

About this title

About the Author

Bruce and Susan Kodish together bring over 40 years of experience in general semantics, psychology, personal coaching, movement therapy/education, and mind-body awareness to their teaching, writing, and individual and group work. They jointly received the 1998 J. Talbot Winchell Award from the Institute of General Semantics for their contributions to the field of general semantics. Bruce's and Susan's goal is to help create a saner, safer world, one person at a time.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

EXPANDED TABLE OF CONTENTS "DRIVE YOURSELF SANE"

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

FOREWORD BY ALBERT ELLIS, PH.D.

ON READING THIS BOOK

1. INTRODUCTIONS
An introduction to the authors and to general semantics.
2. GLASS DOORS AND UNICORNSM
How we acquire and talk about information, and how this relates to how we behave. How we use language to learn from our own and others' experiences and, through this, can improve our lives.

The General Semantics System
How Your Experience Works
What Makes Humans Human?
Applications

3. UNCOMMON SENSE
The role of assumptions in our lives and how to examine and revise them. Doing this, by applying a scientific attitude in our daily lives,leads to uncommon sense.

Examining Assumptions
Logical Fate
Scientific Method
World Views
Lateral Thinking
Applying a Scientific Attitude
Tentative Forever
Applications

4. ENDLESS COMPLEXITIES
Internal and external influences on how we function and create 'meanings'. These influences include our language environments.

Evaluational (Semantic) Transactions
The Organism-as-a-Whole-in-Environments
Landscapes of 'Meaning'
Internal Landscapes
External Landscapes
Applications

5. THE PROCESS OF ABSTRACTING
How we, as observers, construct our observations. The importance of recognizing how perceptions are influenced by expectations, and are more and less reliable.

Our Process World
The Observer-Observed Continuum
Our Nervous Systems
Abstracting
Perceiving
Applications

6. MAPPING STRUCTURES
The role of the maps we create of the territories of our lives. How to usefully increase our awareness of them, and of how things are related.

Structure and Knowledge
Mapping
Functional Functioning
Non-Additivity
Consciousness of Mapping
Applications

7. THE STRUCTURAL DIFFERENTIAL
Becoming more aware of levels involved in forming perceptions and talking about them. Importance of differentiating among these levels, in order to more effectively deal with what's going on.

Levels of Abstracting
Identification
'Natural' Order of Abstracting
Applications

8. NON-VERBAL AWARENESS
How to allow silent contemplation,noting its effects on overall functioning and aesthetic appreciation.Improving communications by developing an ability to get quiet inside.

Turning Down the Volume
Contemplating
Semantic Relaxation
Sensory Awareness
The Means Whereby
Challenging Assumptions Non-Verbally
Applications

9. VERBAL AWARENESS
How to distinguish 'facts' from inferences and determine the degree of 'truth' in a situation. When and how to seek more information in order to make better sense of things.

In the Dark
'Facts' and Inferences
'Fact'-Inference Continuum
Converging Inferences
Observations-Descriptions-'Facts'-Inferences
What We Can Determine: Degrees of Probability
More about Less, Less about More
Applications

10. THE STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE
Some aspects of everyday language which influence our perceptions and understandings. Introducing some ways to use language more effectively.

The Aristotelian Orientation
A Non-Aristotelian Orientation
Non-Identity
Non-Elementalism
The "Ises"
Non-Allness
Either/Or
Causation
Labeling
Applications

11. SELF-REFLEXIVE MAPPING
How to make sense with words that have multiple 'meanings'. Problems involved with our ability to think about our thinking and react to our reactions; ways to solve them.

Multi-'Meaning'
Multiordinality
Reacting to Our Reactions
Open Systems
Applications

12. THE EXTENSIONAL ORIENTATION Distinguishing 'fact'-based approaches, as compared with definition-based approaches. Advantages and methods of a 'fact'-based approach.

Intensional and Extensional 'Meanings'
Intensional and Extensional Orientations
Applications

13. GETTING EXTENSIONAL
Techniques for delaying automatic behavior and increasing the probability of acting appropriately in each situation. Specific language modifications that can improve communications and relationships.

Delayed Evaluating
Extensional Devices
Indexing
Dating
Et Cetera (Etc.)
Quotes and Hyphens
Other Extensional Techniques
Visualization
Non-Allness Terms
Qualifying and Quantifying
One Step at a Time
English without "Ises" (E-Prime)
English Minus Absolutisms (EMA)

Overcoming IFD Disease

Questioning Questions

Applications

14. TIME-BINDING
A review of general semantics, focusing on how to develop a positive future for individuals and society. Special attention to communications and relationships.

Taking Responsibility
Cooperating
Communicating
Personal Time-Binding
Applications

15. ET CETERA
How to continue learning and using general semantics to avoid and solve problems and enjoy life more.

Applications

ON ALFRED KORZYBSKI

ON GENERAL SEMANTICS ORGANIZATIONS

GLOSSARY

NOTES

REFERENCES

INDEX

Edition details

• Publisher: Extensional Pub
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0970066465
• ISBN 13: 9780970066466
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 237