Chapters 7-9 Summary and Analysis

Summary: The second section of the book is called, Broken Bonds, and in it Goleman addresses the myriad of reasons that people have negative social interactions. The first of such reasons Goleman looks at he calls an "I-it" interaction. An "I-It" interactions happens when one person treats the other person they're interacting with as an object. These types of interaction can range from a spouse not paying attention to what their partner is saying, to the extreme of a serial killer taking their victims life. What all "I-It" interactions have in common is a lack of empathy from one party, and whichever party who becomes the "it" feeling a significant amount of rejection.

Next Goleman looks at what psychologists refer to as the "dark triad", a trio of character traits which are aversive to interpersonal relations. The dark triad...