THE LAWS OF HUMAN NATURE by Robert Greene

Chapter 1 “Master Your Emotional Self”                                 

Selective Summary:

Robert Greene cites Pericles of ancient Greece as an exemplary politician that had foresight and the ability to control emotions. If only the citizens of Athens had listened to Pericles and heeded his advice, they would have been spared the disastrous results of continually waging wars against Sparta, he notes. Then, Greene mentions the financial crisis of 2008 as a case example of recent herd irrationality of Americans. He further contends that even though people attribute the causes of their failures to outside sources, they fail to recognize that their true causes lie within themselves, i.e., their irrationality. This irrationality is something biologically hardwired in our brain and we cannot do away with it completely. Nevertheless, there are ways to put our emotions under control. Greene provides particular types of biases and suggests that our recognition of these biases will help us avoid becoming the helpless victims of our emotions.

Commentary:

This chapter can be considered to be an extension/elaboration of the following quote from the preface of the 48 LAWS OF POWER (hereinafter, “LOP”):

“Related to mastering your emotions is the ability to distance yourself from the present moment and think objectively about the past and future. Like Janus, the double-faced Roman deity and guardian of all gates and doorways, you must be able to look in both directions at once, the better to handle danger from wherever it comes. Such is the face you must create for yourself-one face looking continuously to the future and the other to the past.”

The 33 STRATEGIES OF WAR (hereinafter, “SOW”) provides a similar principle. In the SOW, Greene encourages his readers to favor Athena, the goddess of wisdom, over Ares, the god of war. This view is in harmony with ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi who argued that a sage should “know the masculine but maintain the feminine.”

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Chapter 2 “Transform Self-love into Empathy”

Selective Summary:

Greene explains the concept of a “functional narcissist” who may be self-absorbed like most of the normal people in the world but can direct their attention outwards based on their inner resiliency.  Then, Greene also introduces the idea of a “healthy narcissist” who takes little offense at insults. They are able to not make too big a deal out of criticisms that may infuriate other types of narcissists. Greene also notes that today’s technologies are making it increasingly difficult for the youth to avoid self-absorption and cultivate empathic attitudes. While discussing the need to develop empathic skills, Greene encourages readers to avoid forming “attribution bias” against others. Greene’s notion is that while it is easy for us to forgive our own mistakes by attributing them to circumstances we hardly do the same for others and instead blame their personality rather than their circumstances. A more empathic person would give the “same benefit of the doubt as you give yourself.” Under the section titled “Four Examples of Narcissistic Types,” Greene mentions Joseph Stalin as an example of a complete control narcissist. Stalin had great emphatic skills and people were naturally attracted to him. On the surface, Stalin was congenial and modest. In fact, Stalin deeply absorbed himself in the attitudes of others because he had to precisely understand what types of people they were – for example, whether they were his potential enemies to be rid of.