This audiobook examines why many of us may have found ourselves believing someone we later wish we hadn't.
The topic is examined by someone who studied electrical engineering and a great deal of mathematics, and benefitted from 150 sessions of psychoanalysis, from two M.D. psychoanalysts, forty years ago.
We can refer to this in a number of ways, depending...
For, we have all heard the phrase, "con artist", or "con", or "scam".
We also may have heard of Frank Abagnale, of "Catch Me if You Can".
Also, there is discussion of "misplaced trust", as per this video: "Misplaced Trust is the #1 reason frauds occur": https://youtu.be/enhuWUeRpMU
Yet more, the ideas of Robert Trivers, as per his book "The Folly of Fools", and more.
Or consider the ideas of Maria Konnikova, in this video: "The Psychology of the Con: How Not to Get Fooled | Maria Konnikova":
https://youtu.be/np24k4dsinI
Consider, also, the ideas of Joe Navarro:Your Hidden Power - Joe Navarro": https://youtu.be/GHwY0htCgzQ
He discusses non-verbal communications.
And surely, confidence - or super-confidence - has a strong non-verbal component.
"For 25 years, Joe Navarro interrogated career criminals, terrorists, and witnesses for the FBI. As a former agent in counterintelligence working with the most deceptive and untrustworthy people on earth, getting to the truth was a matter of life or death."
There is even this phrase, perhaps inaccurately attributed to P.T. Barnum: "There's a sucker born every minute".
Well, this audiobook creator would prefer not to use terms such as "sucker", or to impugn that some are "fools". Derogatory terms. Rather, that we do the best we can, at all times, given what resources we have, and what constraints do exist.
Might it be, that we may have encountered a period in life, an event, that throws us for a spin, that turns us upside down, and so we naturally ask "What can I do to make this situation better?" Or, too, "What did I assume to be the case, that was incorrect?" Who would not find themselves seeking answers?
At this point, we may be "ripe" to believe anyone who seems to have all the answers: who essentially says so, in terms of their confidence level: who says, in essence, "I have no doubts, because I have resolved every conceivable discrepancy in this complex area called "Living Life", and all you need to do is believe me, buy my product, and All Will Be Fine-and-Dandy."
And of course, "I Care".
Well, common sense would say, "Talk is Cheap". But, under duress, or when an entire nation is under duress, individuals or entire nations can believe what they would ordinarily not find themselves believing. Case in point, the citizens of Germany, when under duress, when hyperinflation ensued, after World War I, and there was a loss of dignity amongst citizens, also.
This audiobook creator takes a compassionate position on all of humanity, and again says, "We all do the best we can, given..." However, this "best" may not be very desirable! Therefore, he rules out phrases such as "fools", or "suckers", "naive" or being "conned", or perhaps even "con artist". Still, these phrases do have an underlying concept or more, of great importance.
Indeed, are we "naive" because we did not invent flight, or the telephone, or walk on the moon, or "invent" relativity, such as Einstein did? Or did we simply lack the resources, and have certain constraints in place, also, which prevented us from doing these things?
This audiobook presents a new twist: to become less vulnerable to the "Confidence Artist", we need to examine the motives OF The Confidencer, and this may well go beyond - way beyond - simply acquiring more Money.
This audiobook may thus help us compassionately yet wisely take care of our own selves, and our loved ones, better than before.
