Goleman, Daniel 1946-

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Goleman, Daniel 1946-

PERSONAL:

Born March 7, 1946, in Stockton, CA; son of Irving (a professor) and Fay (a professor) Goleman; married Tara Bennett; children: Hanuman, Gov. Education: Amherst College, A.B. (magna cum laude), 1968; Harvard University, M.A., 1972, Ph.D., 1973.

ADDRESSES:

Home—The Berkshires, MA. Agent—Brockman Inc., 5 E. 59th St., New York, NY 10022. E-mail—Daniel.goleman@verizon.net.

CAREER:

Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, assistant professor of psychology, 1974-75; Psychology Today, New York, NY, associate editor, 1975-79, senior editor, 1979—; author and consultant. Adjunct professor at State University of New York College at Purchase; business consultant.

MEMBER:

American Psychological Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Social Science Research Council fellowship, 1973-74; national media awards from American Psychological Association for articles "1,278 Little Geniuses and How They Grew," 1980, and "Staying Up: The Fight against Sleep's Gentle Tyranny," 1982; grant from National Association for Mental Health, 1980; two Pulitzer Prize nominations.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Varieties of the Meditative Experience, Dutton (New York, NY), 1977, revised edition published as The Meditative Mind, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1988.

(Editor, with Richard Davidson) Consciousness: The Brain and States of Awareness, Harper (New York, NY), 1978.

(With Jonathan Freedman) What Psychology Knows That Everyone Should, Lewis Publishing, 1981.

(With Trugg Engen and Anthony Davids) Introductory Psychology, Random House (New York, NY), 1982.

Frames: Attentional Politics, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1984.

Vital Lies, Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self-Deception, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1985.

(With wife, Tara Bennett-Goleman) The Relaxed Body Book: A High-Energy, Anti-Tension Program, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1986.

(With Paul Kaufman and Michael Ray) The Creative Spirit, Dutton (New York, NY), 1992.

Worlds in Harmony: Dialogues on Compassionate Action: His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Daniel Goleman, Parallax Press (Berkeley, CA), 1992.

(With Jack Engler) The Consumer's Guide to Psychotherapy, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1992.

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, Bantam (New York, NY), 1995, 10th anniversary edition, Bantam (New York, NY), 2005.

Working with Emotional Intelligence, Bantam (New York, NY), 1998.

The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace: How to Select for, Measure, and Improve Emotional Intelligence in Individuals, Groups, and Organizations, Jossey-Bass (San Francisco, CA), 2001.

(With Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee) Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence, Harvard Business School Press (Boston, MA), 2002.

Optimizing Intelligence: Thinking, Emotion, & Creativity (electronic resource), National Professional Resources (Port Chester, NY), 2002.

Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama, Bantam (New York, NY), 2003.

Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships, Bantam (New York, NY), 2006.

Author of foreword for Emotionally Intelligent Parenting, Harmony (New York, NY), 1998, and The Buddha, the Brain, and the Science of Happiness: A Practical Guide for Transforming Your Life, Harmony (New York, NY), 2007. Contributor of articles to psychology journals.

EDITOR

(With Kathleen Riordan Speeth) The Essential Psychotherapies, New American Library (New York, NY), 1982.

(With David Heller) The Pleasures of Psychology, New American Library (New York, NY), 1986.

(With D. Swarkanath Bonner and Ram Dev) Ram Dass, Journey of Awakening: A Meditator's Guidebook, Bantam (New York, NY), 1990.

(With Robert A.F. Thurman) The Dalai Lama, Mind-Science: An East-West Dialogue, Wisdom Publications (Boston, MA), 1991.

(With Joel Gurin) Mind/Body Medicine: How to Use Your Mind for Better Health, Consumer Reports Books (Yonkers, NY), 1993.

Healing Emotions: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on Mindfulness, Emotions, and Health, Shambhala (Boston, MA), 1997; revised edition with new foreword by Daniel Goleman, Shambhala (Boston, MA), 2003.

(Executive editor) Gifts of the Spirit: Living the Wisdom of the Great Religious Traditions, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 1997.

ADAPTATIONS:

Working with Emotional Intelligence was adapted as an audio cassette.

SIDELIGHTS:

A psychologist who has also served as an editor for Psychology Today and a behavioral sciences reporter for the New York Times, Daniel Goleman has utilized his professional knowledge to craft books concerning health and the human mind that have demonstrated a broad popular appeal. A former student of meditation in India and a former visiting professor of psychology at Harvard University, Goleman provides an overview of the meditative traditions of various religions in his 1977 book, Varieties of the Meditative Experience. Goleman also articulates a distinction between the ancient tradition of meditation and the more recent popularization of the activity as a mode of self-help in this volume, which has since been expanded and published as The Meditative Mind. The revised title includes chapters on attempts of the mainstream medical profession to incorporate meditative techniques into patient care.

Reviewers have consistently praised the breadth and scope of Goleman's works. Vital Lies, Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self-Deception, for example, draws upon several fields, including neurobiology and sociology, in order to support Goleman's thesis that the human mind instinctively seeks to ignore threatening truths. "Goleman's thesis is that the mind protects itself against the pain of anxiety by reducing our awareness of what causes it; this creates ‘lacunas,’ as he calls them—gaps in what we perceive, are conscious of, or can recall," explained Morton Hunt in the New York Times. Goleman explains his position through biological theories of the psyche, as well as Freudian and post-Freudian perspectives on repression, or the storage of memory at an unconscious level. "Goleman does not argue that all truths should be told," noted Zick Rubin in the New York Times Book Review. "Denial can sometimes be not only calming but also life-sustaining…. however, the fatal flaw of repression is that it condemns us to repeat the errors of the past."

Goleman's books often have practical as well as intellectual applications. In The Creative Spirit, for example, which was published as a companion to a PBS television series on creativity, he argues that creativity is possessed by everyone—even those who do not consider themselves particularly talented. Along with examples of creativity in childhood, the workplace, and other realms, Goleman suggests exercises designed to enhance creativity. The connection between the mind and the human body is the subject of Mind/Body Medicine: How to Use Your Mind for Better Health, edited by Goleman and Joel Gurin, which reviewers praised as an informative and helpful source on the subjects of biofeedback and the disease symptoms associated with various types of stress. The volume collects a variety of essays by doctors and other health professionals, each of which relates to the subject of the connection between thoughts, emotions, and disease.

Concerned with the relationship between intelligence and success, Goleman's popular book Emotional Intelligence argues that high I.Q. scores and the capacity for abstract thought have only a minor impact on determining an individual's capacity for high achievement in life. Instead, says Goleman, it is "emotional intelligence"—the ability to perceive the feelings of others and to determine proper behavior in given situations—that ultimately determines the attainment of human potential. As the author elaborated in an Educational Leadership interview with John O'Neil, emotional intelligence—or EQ, as it is otherwise known—is "a different way of being smart. It includes knowing what your feelings are and using your feelings to make good decisions in life. It's being able to manage distressing moods well and control impulses. It's being motivated and remaining hopeful and optimistic when you have setbacks in working toward goals."

Can EQ be determined? In his interview with O'Neil, Goleman cited a case study from Stanford University. A group of preschoolers were welcomed one at a time into a room and given a single marshmallow. The children were told that they could eat the marshmallow right away; however, if they could wait for the researcher to return from an errand, they could have two marshmallows. About a third of the children ate their single treat quickly. Another third held out until the researcher returned with a second marshmallow. Fourteen years later, the marshmallow test "was an amazing predictor of how they did in school," Goleman stated. The toddlers who ate their marshmallow without waiting grew into young adults who were more irritable, more likely to pick fights, and less able to handle stress. The children who were able to delay gratification even at an early age were better liked by their peers and scored an average of two hundred points higher on their SATs.

While goal-setting and focus are part of EQ, social skills are also a vital factor. Social ease—or its opposite, shyness—can also be predicted in childhood; fortunately, Goleman told O'Neil, "the good news about emotional intelligence is that it is virtually all learned. Even though newborn children differ in terms of their temperament, for example, they are highly malleable." The author added that this flexibility is biological in nature: "The brain is enormously malleable during childhood. The brain's regulatory centers for emotional response are among the last parts to become anatomically mature. They continue to grow into adolescence."

While New York Times contributor Michael Gazzaniga deemed Emotional Intelligence "a winner," Lynn Phillips of the Nation faulted Goleman's conclusion that emotional intelligence, or "character," should be taught in schools, as well as his suggestion that interpersonal skills are the key to solving larger social problems which often have to do with exploitation rather than the limitations of individual intelligence. Remarked Phillips: "Goleman depicts emotional idiocy as a strictly apolitical phenomenon…. Well-compensated irrationalists who hook children on nicotine, promote rapists as sports heroes or sell tanks to fanatics never appear on his specimen tray of emotional morons." However, Gazzaniga concluded that Goleman "has the capacity to read a vast literature in detail and to understand the nuances."

Emotional Intelligence struck a chord with readers; the book spent seventy-eight weeks as a New York Times bestseller. Its subject was featured as a Time cover story by Nancy Gibbs, who noted that "EQ is not the opposite of IQ. Some people are blessed with a lot of both, some with little of either." In Goleman's analysis, the critic added, "self-awareness is perhaps the most crucial ability because it allows us to exercise some self-control. The idea is not to repress feeling … but rather to do what Aristotle considered the hard work of the will."

As Inc. writer Nancy Lyons observed, a "mini-industry" of EQ training has sprung from Goleman's work. A spin-off volume, Working with Emotional Intelligence, brought the author's thesis from the schoolroom into the boardroom. For the book, Goleman surveyed top companies, "and his conclusions are stunning," according to Terry O'Keefe of Long Island Business News. "His research shows that emotional intelligence … may be up to 25 times as potent as IQ in determining workplace success." Such traits as optimism, empathy, and grace under pressure—once considered "soft skills"—are now being recognized for their value. "Optimistic salespeople consistently outperform those who are less upbeat," O'Keefe noted. "Retail store managers who respond well to pressure run the most profitable and productive stores. Naval officers with the best emotional skills make the best leaders." Conversely, "out-of-control emotions can make smart people stupid," as Goleman was quoted by Lyons. What is more, companies themselves "waste vast sums each year on worker education and training programs that are ineffective because they omit vital interpersonal skills," as Steve Bates stated in Nation's Business.

While Working with Emotional Intelligence sold briskly in North America, some critics have questioned its merits. In a Maclean's review, Ross Laver pointed out that perhaps the most admired and successful CEO of the 1990s, General Electric's Jack Welch, was characterized throughout his career as "a tough and foulmouthed SOB" whose meetings were marked by his scathing personal attacks on his managers. "In short," argued Laver, "Welch does everything [Goleman] insists an effective business leader must not do. That raises an interesting question: either Welch has succeeded in spite of his combative, intimidating nature, or Goleman's highly publicized theories about what makes a successful CEO are … a reflection, perhaps, of wishful thinking rather than reality." But to a Publishers Weekly contributor, the author backs up his argument with "many truly illuminating facts … that show how critically important Goleman's thesis is to today's workplace."

"Every great leader—from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi to civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr.—has had to have emotional intelligence," Goleman told Cosmopolitan interviewer Timothy Dumas. "What made them so persuasive was that they could take the emotional pulse of a group and articulate its unspoken shared feelings, and that's a very powerful thing to be able to do as a leader. It makes you a leader. And it allows you to point the way to what needs to be done." Goleman elaborates on this theme in his 2001 book, Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence. This work, described by Booklist contributor Brad Hooper as "well-written, intelligent, approachable and stimulating," cites biological studies of how leaders combine EQ with IQ, and how, according to a Publishers Weekly writer, "managers with higher ‘EQ’ will be more successful." In an interview with Stephen Bernhut for Ivey Business Journal, Goleman remarked that "a leader's primal task is an emotional one—to articulate a message that resonates with their followers' emotional reality with their sense of purpose—and so to move people in a positive direction. Leadership, after all, is the art of getting work done through other people." Goleman's book explains the different emotional qualities necessary in a good leader, and why those qualities help the leader to be more effective than those who are missing these emotional talents. A successful leader, according to Goleman, is self-aware, able to manage their emotions in order to maintain a positive outlook, empathetic, and also able to bring out the best qualities in others so that they can work at an optimum level. Goleman also addresses the opposite side of the coin: how to deal with a leader who is negative and either lacking in or not realizing their emotional intelligence. He told Bernhut in Ivey Business Journal: "If you can manage your own emotions in a way where even though there's a lot of static from the boss you can still do your own job well, then I think you're winning." William J. Libby, in a review for Modern Casting, remarked that the book "has the potential to be extremely valuable to managers feeling pressure to improve performance." Jeffrey Marshall, writing for Financial Executive, dubbed Goleman's effort "a passionate, idealistic book about human behavior that deserves to be read and debated."

Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships, published in 2006, completes Goleman's trilogy on alternate forms of intelligence that can affect a person's success in life. In this volume, Goleman explains that the ways in which people interact with each other actually have the ability to alter brain function. This "social intelligence" relates to how human beings treat each other, instills the need to make that connection, and also is preset toward kind behavior. Any type of human interaction, from a glance to a discussion to a fight, can change the brain of the individuals participating, and when the people in question are intimately connected, those changes can be more profound. In an interview with Judith Stone for O, The Oprah Magazine, Goleman gave an example of this type of interaction: "Take the deep gaze that precedes a first kiss, when both parties somehow know that this is the moment. The eyes contain nerves that lead directly to a part of the brain that triggers empathy—the orbitofrontal cortex, or OFC. When lovers' eyes meet, their OFCs loop them together, interlinking their brains and stimulating the nerve cells that allow us to intuit each other's emotional states." He goes on to explain the chain reaction in the brain that allows other parts of the body to participate in the kiss—altering facial expressions, tilting the head to match the other person's movements, and so on. The brain then changes, learning how to respond in relation to this particular person in this type of situation. Adrian Furnham, writing for Management Today, had mixed thoughts regarding Goleman's book, which he found less than original, remarking: "It's well-written, an easy and informative read and apparently well-researched. Like his other books, it's a case of old wine in new bottles." However, Lynne F. Maxwell, in a review for Library Journal, called it "a superb and essential corollary to Goleman's important work on emotional intelligence."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Health, April, 1996, Paula Derrow, "Thinking from the Heart," p. 82.

American Journal of Psychotherapy, spring, 1993, Gene Cary, review of The Consumer's Guide to Psychotherapy, p. 310.

Best Sellers, August, 1985, review of Vital Lies, Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self-Deception, p. 181.

Booklist, June 15, 1992, Mary Ellen Sullivan, review of The Consumer's Guide to Psychotherapy, p. 1794; January 15, 1993, William Beatty, review of Mind/Body Medicine: How to Use Your Mind for Better Health, p. 868; September 15, 1995, review of Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, p. 117; August, 1998, David Rouse, review of Working with Emotional Intelligence, p. 1916; January 15, 1992, review of The Creative Spirit, p. 882; December 1, 2001, Brad Hooper, review of Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence, p. 604.

Books, spring, 1998, review of Vital Lies, Simple Truths, p. 19.

Bookwatch, June, 1993, review of Mind/Body Medicine, p. 7.

Canadian Philosophical Review, February, 1996, review of Emotional Intelligence, p. 21.

Choice, October, 1985, review of Vital Lies, Simple Truths, p. 328.

Christian Century, December 6, 1995, Trudy Bush, review of Emotional Intelligence, p. 1187.

Commentary, January, 1996, Joseph Adelson, review of Emotional Intelligence, p. 59.

Contemporary Psychology, August, 1987, review of Vital Lies, Simple Truths, p. 698.

Corporate Counsel, February, 2000, Catherine Aman, "The Importance of Being Emotional," p. 36.

Cosmopolitan, January, 1996, Timothy Dumas, "The Lowdown on High EQ," p. 162.

Educational Leadership, September, 1996, John O'Neil, "On Emotional Intelligence: A Conversation with Daniel Goleman," p. 6.

ETC., spring, 1999, Martin Levinson, review of Working with Emotional Intelligence, p. 103.

Families in Society, January-February, 1997, William Powell, review of Emotional Intelligence, p. 104.

Financial Executive, May, 2002, Jeffrey Marshall, review of Primal Leadership, p. 15.

Futurist, March, 1999, review of Working with Emotional Intelligence, p. 14.

Houston Business Journal, December 15, 2000, review of Working with Emotional Intelligence, p. 39.

Houston Chronicle, September 27, 1996, Lelise Sowers, "EQ vs. IQ," p. 1.

Humanist, November, 1985, review of Vital Lies, Simple Truths, p. 35.

Inc., August, 1999, Nancy Lyons, "Face to Face," p. 60.

Industry Week, August 4, 1986, James Braham, review of The Relaxed Body Book: A High-Energy, Anti-Tension Program, p. 41.

Ivey Business Journal, May, 2002, Stephen Bernhut, "Primal Leadership, with Daniel Goleman," p. 14.

Journal of Career Planning and Employment, spring, 2002, Troy Behrens, review of Primal Leadership, p. 11.

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 1995, review of Emotional Intelligence, p. 1078; August 1, 1998, review of Working with Emotional Intelligence, p. 1084.

Kliatt Young Adult Paperback Book Guide, September, 1997, review of Emotional Intelligence, p. 34.

Library Journal, June 1, 1985, Guy Burneko, review of Vital Lies, Simple Truths, p. 132; September 1, 1985, E. James Lieberman, "It's a Man's World," p. 205; July 16, 1986, Susan Unger, review of The Relaxed Body Book, p. 205; April 1, 1988, review of The Meditative Mind, p. 91; February 15, 1992, Howard Miller, review of The Creative Spirit, p. 186; February 15, 1993, Natalie Kupferberg, review of Mind/Body Medicine, p. 187; July, 1994, review of Mind/Body Medicine, p. 55; September 1, 1995, Mary Ann Hughes, review of Emotional Intelligence, p. 194; December, 2001, Stacey Marien, review of Primal Leadership, p. 140; August 1, 2006, Lynne F. Maxwell, review of Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships, p. 108.

Long Island Business News, November 27, 1998, Terry O'Keefe, review of Working with Emotional Intelligence, p. 6C.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, October 19, 1986, review of Vital Lies, Simple Truths, p. 12.

M2 Best Books, March 21, 2002, "New Book Explores the Role of Emotions in Leadership."

Maclean's, December 7, 1998, Ross Laver, "Corporate Charm School," p. 49.

Management Today, November 1, 2006, Adrian Furnham, "Books: Old Vintae in a New Bottle" review of Social Intelligence, p. 24.

Modern Casting, August, 2004, William J. Libby, review of Primal Leadership, p. 46.

Nation, November 13, 1995, Lynn Phillips, review of Emotional Intelligence, p. 585.

National Review, November 27, 1995, Daniel Seligman, review of Emotional Intelligence, p. 69.

Nation's Business, April, 1999, Steve Bates, "Your Emotional Skills Can Make or Break You," p. 17.

Natural Health, May-June, 1993, review of Mind/Body Medicine, p. 141.

Nature, January 4, 1996, Stuart Sutherland, review of Emotional Intelligence, p. 34.

New Age Journal, June, 1993, review of Mind/Body Medicine, p. 100.

New York Times, June 11, 1985, Morton Hunt, review of Vital Lies, Simple Truths, p. C1; September 7, 1995, Michael Gazzaniga, review of Emotional Intelligence, p. C17.

New York Times Book Review, June 16, 1985, Zick Rubin, review of Vital Lies, Simple Truths, p. 9; November 16, 1986, review of Vital Lies, Simple Truths, p. 42; September 17, 1995, review of Emotional Intelligence, p. 23; June 29, 1997, review of Emotional Intelligence, p. 32; October 25, 1998, review of Working with Emotional Intelligence, p. 50.

O, The Oprah Magazine, October, 2006, Judith Stone, "Meeting of the Minds" interview with Daniel Goleman, p. 251.

Outlook, fall, 1999, Laurie Mason, "Lead the Way to Increased Productivity," p. 50.

Parabola, May, 1988, review of The Meditative Mind, p. 112; winter, 1992, review of MindScience: An East-West Dialogue, p. 93.

People, May 13, 1996, Sue Avery Brown, "Talent for Living," p. 85.

Personnel Psychology, autumn, 1996, review of Emotional Intelligence, p. 711; autumn, 1999, Robert Sternberg, review of Working with Emotional Intelligence, p. 780.

Psychology Today, June, 1985, Susan Pollak, review of Vital Lies, Simple Truths, p. 74.

Publishers Weekly, April 19, 1985, review of Vital Lies, Simple Truths, p. 60; April 18, 1986, review of The Relaxed Body Book, p. 57; March 18, 1988, review of The Meditative Mind, p. 78; February 3, 1992, review of The Creative Spirit, p. 73, February 1, 1993, review of Mind/Body Medicine, p. 92, August 14, 1995, review of Emotional Intelligence, p. 65; August 10, 1998, review of Working with Emotional Intelligence, p. 3767; January 28, 2002, review of Primal Leadership, p. 279.

School Library Journal, December, 1995, Barbara Benco, review of Emotional Intelligence, p. 32.

Science Books & Films, November, 1986, review of Vital Lies, Simple Truths, p. 81.

T & D, March, 2002, Deanne Bryce, review of Primal Leadership, p. 81.

Time, October 2, 1995, Nancy Gibbs, "The EQ Factor" (cover story), p. 60.

Times Educational Supplement, February 9, 1996, review of Emotional Intelligence, p. 12.

Times Higher Education Supplement, June 4, 1999, Ayala Ochert, "A Time and Emotion Study," p. 20.

Times Literary Supplement, February 6, 1998, review of Vital Lies, Simple Truths, p. 32.

Training Journal, July, 1999, Martin Delahoussaye, "Training Journal Interviews."

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), November 23, 1986, review of Vital Lies, Simple Truths, p. 9.

Tricycle, fall, 1993, review of Mind/Body Medicine, p. 105; spring, 1996, review of The Meditative Mind, p. 114.

Vogue, June, 1985, Robert Jay Lifton, review of Vital Lies, Simple Truths, p. 150.

Washington Business Journal, February 22, 2002, review of Primal Leadership, p. 40.