Interpersonal Interaction -- A skill you can learn?

[gavinfox]

So I was watching Sci Fi channel recently, and I saw an episode of Mind Control with Darren Brown. I thought to myself, "He's not psychic? Then.. dear LORD, his personal charisma is amazing!" Then I started looking up some of his tricks and techniques, and I really found something noteworthy

Comments

[writerwench]

I've referred to such material to assist my Aspi daughters in learning the skills of personal interaction over the years. I've found it tremendously useful. However, one must bear in mind that for every ten people who DO interact as the book says, there'll be two or three that DON'T. Nonverbal communication is also influenced strongly by culture, and traditional concepts of Good Manners - eg. a Northern European will maintain eye contact to show friendliness and attentiveness, but an African may avoid eye contact at all, which is a way of showing respect! So 'How-To' books CAN be very useful indeed, but must not be taken as applying 100% to all people.

[les_lenne]

I love that kind of stuff but as I'm not too bad with this (except in some cases where it's hard to guess the emotions anyway because the people take drugs) there's no real longing to learn how it works.

[kisekileia]

I learned some stuff about body language from books like that. I've also learned a lot about normal social behaviour from advice columns.

[precious_muse]

Oooh, I love "Mind Control!" Is it a new season? When does it come on?

As for the topic, I think it would still be difficult for me to accomplish because, for one thing, a lot of these skills DEMAND eye contact.

[naxela]

My girlfriend - who is studying to be a counsellor - rates Darren Brown quite highly. His own skills are quite amazing, but I dont know how well he can train others - particularly people with asperger like characteristics.