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ngrigoryan's review against another edition
Wasn’t interested in the self-help strategies, found them to be a bit woo-woo
thogek's review against another edition
3.0
Disclaimer: I obtained my copy of The Handbook for Highly Sensitive People from NetGalley as a preview PDF ebook (which failed to display usably on my Kobo ereader; I read it using the Kindle app on iPad). I'm presuming the text won't change much between that and its final release.
First, be aware that this is not a citation- and study-laden analysis of the high-sensitivity trait, but more the author's life experiences in relation to her realization and sense of her own high sensitivity and a compilation of her strategies for navigating her world as an HSP. So if you're looking for a in-depth study of HSPness, this isn't it; try Elaine Aron's solid and accessible work. But if you're interested in one HSPs long-reflected perspective and "handbook" approach to life as an HSP, or even just a sympathetic validation that HSP is a thing and that it's Not Just You, this might work for you.
The first two chapters—basically Collins's introduction of herself and her perspective on HSP—desperately need extensive proofreading. I lost count of how many times I had to reread a sentence multiple times to tease out its likely meaning, or stumbled across odd word or grammar choices. Bits of this crop up as occasional reading speed-bumps throughout the book, although not nearly as much. Perhaps some of that will have smoothed out between my preview copy and the final.
OTOH, for anyone unsure after the first chapter or two, give Chapter 4 a chance. Collins's "Top Ten Challenges Faced by HSPs" may be her own unscientifically compiled observations, but they are well described and likely to resonate with any HSP, should serve as a fair description of HSP life to non-HSPs, and provide brief hints of where and how other parts of the book will relate to each challenge. This chapter may be the best sampler for toe-in-the-water gauging the value of book as a whole.
The next few chapters explore the types of roles that people, especially HSPs, tend to present in order to more safely interface with the world, six core human needs that tend to drive human behaviors and decisions, etc.
Section Two (Chapters 9-14) covers Collins's "self-help strategies" for HSPs. Her description of emotional filtering and processing is pretty good; not necessarily specific to HSPs, but may be experienced more commonly or deeply by HSPs than by others. And her coverage of strategies for coping with over-arousal include a wide range of options. Not everyone will necessarily buy into some of these options (such as acupressure "tapping" or chakra-based techniques), but think of it more as a menu of potential available tools than a single instruction guide, and it mostly works.
Section 3 (Chap 15-22) explores a more "spiritual" interpretation of HSPness, with connections to reincarnating souls and past lives and the like. This is where I started to skim more, as much of this I found difficult to swallow, especially as it presumes a lot of detailed "knowledge" about how divine structures supporting reincarnation work and feed into successive lives, a degree of trust in Divine Providence to place each of us into the lives that we need to learn and resolve and complete our soul selves, etc. If this doesn't interest you, the good news is that it's concentrated into the back third of the book where it can be skimmed or skipped without interfering much with the rest.
Overall, if you're looking for some life-perspective from an HSP and a broadly inclusive review of potential "handbook" strategies for navigating life as an HSP, this might fit that bill. Personally, I might suggest starting with some foundational understandings of HSPness itself from Elaine Aron's works before reading this for the added "handbook" perspective, but... that's me; even amongst HSPs, not everyone is the same.
First, be aware that this is not a citation- and study-laden analysis of the high-sensitivity trait, but more the author's life experiences in relation to her realization and sense of her own high sensitivity and a compilation of her strategies for navigating her world as an HSP. So if you're looking for a in-depth study of HSPness, this isn't it; try Elaine Aron's solid and accessible work. But if you're interested in one HSPs long-reflected perspective and "handbook" approach to life as an HSP, or even just a sympathetic validation that HSP is a thing and that it's Not Just You, this might work for you.
The first two chapters—basically Collins's introduction of herself and her perspective on HSP—desperately need extensive proofreading. I lost count of how many times I had to reread a sentence multiple times to tease out its likely meaning, or stumbled across odd word or grammar choices. Bits of this crop up as occasional reading speed-bumps throughout the book, although not nearly as much. Perhaps some of that will have smoothed out between my preview copy and the final.
OTOH, for anyone unsure after the first chapter or two, give Chapter 4 a chance. Collins's "Top Ten Challenges Faced by HSPs" may be her own unscientifically compiled observations, but they are well described and likely to resonate with any HSP, should serve as a fair description of HSP life to non-HSPs, and provide brief hints of where and how other parts of the book will relate to each challenge. This chapter may be the best sampler for toe-in-the-water gauging the value of book as a whole.
The next few chapters explore the types of roles that people, especially HSPs, tend to present in order to more safely interface with the world, six core human needs that tend to drive human behaviors and decisions, etc.
Section Two (Chapters 9-14) covers Collins's "self-help strategies" for HSPs. Her description of emotional filtering and processing is pretty good; not necessarily specific to HSPs, but may be experienced more commonly or deeply by HSPs than by others. And her coverage of strategies for coping with over-arousal include a wide range of options. Not everyone will necessarily buy into some of these options (such as acupressure "tapping" or chakra-based techniques), but think of it more as a menu of potential available tools than a single instruction guide, and it mostly works.
Section 3 (Chap 15-22) explores a more "spiritual" interpretation of HSPness, with connections to reincarnating souls and past lives and the like. This is where I started to skim more, as much of this I found difficult to swallow, especially as it presumes a lot of detailed "knowledge" about how divine structures supporting reincarnation work and feed into successive lives, a degree of trust in Divine Providence to place each of us into the lives that we need to learn and resolve and complete our soul selves, etc. If this doesn't interest you, the good news is that it's concentrated into the back third of the book where it can be skimmed or skipped without interfering much with the rest.
Overall, if you're looking for some life-perspective from an HSP and a broadly inclusive review of potential "handbook" strategies for navigating life as an HSP, this might fit that bill. Personally, I might suggest starting with some foundational understandings of HSPness itself from Elaine Aron's works before reading this for the added "handbook" perspective, but... that's me; even amongst HSPs, not everyone is the same.
thehutonfowlslegs's review against another edition
had some good and helpful bits, started skipping thru towards end
shubheksha's review against another edition
Really boring and general life advice.
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