[PDF]The Laws Of Human Nature By Robert Greene 2018

#1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of

THE 48 LAWS OF POWER


THE

LAWS

OF

HUMAN

NATURE


ROBERT GREENE







Also by Robert Greene


Mastery

The 50th Law (with 50 Cent)

The 33 Strategies of War (a Joost Elffers Production)
The Art of Seduction (a Joost Elffers Production)
The 48 Laws of Power (a Joost Elffers Production)



The Laws
of Human Nature

-< 0 >-

Robert Greene


VIKING




VIKING

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
375 Hudson Street
New York, New York 10014
penguinrandomhouse.com
Copyright © 2018 by Robert Greene

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes
free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this
book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any
part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to

continue to publish books for every reader.

ISBN 9780525428145 (hardcover)

ISBN 9780698184541 (ebook)

ISBN 9780525561804 (international edition)

Version_l



To my mother



Contents


Also bv Robert Greene

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Introduction

1 Master Your Emotional Self

The Law of Irrationality

The Inner Athena

Step One: Recognize the Biases

Step Two: Beware the Inflaming Factors

Step Three: Strategies Toward Bringing Out the Rational Self

2 Transform Self-love into Empathy

The Law of Narcissism

The Narcissistic Spectrum
Examples of Narcissistic Types
a See Through People’s Masks

The Law of Role-plavina

The Second Language

Observational Skills

Decoding Keys

The Art of Impression Management
4 Determine the Strength of People’s Character

The Law of Compulsive Behavior

The Pattern
Character Signs

Toxic Types
The Superior Character
a Become an Elusive Object of Desire

The Law of Covetousness

The Object of Desire
































Strategies for Stimulating Desire

The Supreme Desire

6 Elevate Your Perspective

The Law of Shortsightedness

Moments of Madness

Four Signs of Shortsightedness and Strategies to Overcome Them

The Farsighted Human

7 Soften People’s Resistance bv Confirming Their Self-opinion

The Law of Defensiveness

The Influence Game

Five Strategies for Becoming a Master Persuader

The Flexible Mind—Self-strategies

8 Change Your Circumstances bv Changing Your Attitude

The Law of Self-sabotaae

The Ultimate Freedom

The Constricted fNegative) Attitude

The Expansive f Positive 1 Attitude
Q Confront Your Dark Side

The Law of Repression

The Dark Side

Deciphering the Shadow: Contradictory Behavior

The Integrated Human

10 Beware the Fragile Ego

The Law of Envy

Fatal Friends

Signs of Envy

Envier Types

Envy Triggers

Beyond Envy

11 Know Your Limits

The Law of Grandiosity

The Success Delusion

The Grandiose Leader

Practical Grandiosity

12 Reconnect to the Masculine or Feminine Within You

The Law of Gender Rigidity

The Authentic Gender
Gender Projection—Types








































The Original Man/Woman
13 Advance with a Sense of Purpose

The Law of Aimlessness

The Voice

Strategies for Developing a High Sense of Purpose

The Lure of False Purposes
14 . Resist the Downward Pull of the Group

The Law of Conformity

An Experiment in Human Nature

The Court and Its Courtiers

The Reality Group

15 Make Them Want to Follow You

The Law of Fickleness
The Entitlement Curse
Strategies for Establishing Authority

The Inner Authority

16 See the Hostility Behind the Friendly Facade

The Law of Aggression

The Sophisticated Aggressor
The Source of Human Aggression

Passive Aggression—Its Strategies and How to Counter Them

Controlled Aggression

17 Seize the Historical Moment

The Law of Generational Myopia

The Rising Tide

The Generational Phenomenon

Generational Patterns

Strategies for Exploiting the Spirit of the Times

The Human Beyond Time and Death

18 Meditate on Our Common Mortality

The Law of Death Denial

The Bullet in the Side
A Philosophy of Life Through Death

Acknowledgments
Selected Bibliography

Index


About the Author







































Introduction


If you come across any special trait of meanness or stupidity... you must be
careful not to let it annoy or distress you, but to look upon it merely as an
addition to your knowledge—a new fact to be considered in studying the
character of humanity. Your attitude towards it will be that of the
mineralogist who stumbles upon a very characteristic specimen of a mineral.

—Arthur Schopenhauer

T hroughout the course of our lives, we inevitably have to deal with a
variety of individuals who stir up trouble and make our lives
difficult and unpleasant. Some of these individuals are leaders or
bosses, some are colleagues, and some are friends. They can be
aggressive or passive-aggressive, but they are generally masters at
playing on our emotions. They often appear charming and refreshingly
confident, brimming with ideas and enthusiasm, and we fall under
their spell. Only when it is too late do we discover that their confidence
is irrational and their ideas ill-conceived. Among colleagues, they can
be those who sabotage our work or careers out of secret envy, excited
to bring us down. Or they could be colleagues or hires who reveal, to
our dismay, that they are completely out for themselves, using us as
stepping-stones.

What inevitably happens in these situations is that we are caught off
guard, not expecting such behavior. Often these types will hit us with
elaborate cover stories to justify their actions, or blame handy
scapegoats. They know how to confuse us and draw us into a drama
they control. We might protest or become angry, but in the end we feel
rather helpless—the damage is done. Then another such type enters
our life, and the same story repeats itself.

We often notice a similar sensation of confusion and helplessness
when it comes to ourselves and our own behavior. For instance, we
suddenly say something that offends our boss or colleague or friend—
we are not quite sure where it came from, but we are frustrated to find
that some anger and tension from within has leaked out in a way that
we regret. Or perhaps we enthusiastically throw our weight into some
project or scheme, only to realize it was quite foolish and a terrible



waste of time. Or perhaps we fall in love with a person who is precisely
the wrong type for us and we know it, but we cannot help ourselves.
What has come over us, we wonder?

In these situations, we catch ourselves falling into self-destructive
patterns of behavior that we cannot seem to control. It is as if we
harbor a stranger within us, a little demon who operates independently
of our willpower and pushes us into doing the wrong things. And this
stranger within us is rather weird, or at least weirder than how we
imagine ourselves.

What we can say about these two things—people’s ugly actions and
our own occasionally surprising behavior—is that we usually have no
clue as to what causes them. We might latch onto some simple
explanations: “That person is evil, a sociopath” or “Something came
over me; I wasn’t myself.” But such pat descriptions do not lead to any
understanding or prevent the same patterns from recurring. The truth
is that we humans live on the surface, reacting emotionally to what
people say and do. We form opinions of others and ourselves that are
rather simplified. We settle for the easiest and most convenient story
to tell ourselves.

What if, however, we could dive below the surface and see deep
within, getting closer to the actual roots of what causes human
behavior? What if we could understand why some people turn envious
and try to sabotage our work, or why their misplaced confidence causes
them to imagine themselves as godlike and infallible? What if we could
truly fathom why people suddenly behave irrationally and reveal a
much darker side to their character, or why they are always ready to
provide a rationalization for their behavior, or why we continually turn
to leaders who appeal to the worst in us? What if we could look deep
inside and judge people’s character, avoiding the bad hires and
personal relationships that cause us so much emotional damage?

If we really understood the roots of human behavior, it would be
much harder for the more destructive types to continually get away
with their actions. We would not be so easily charmed and misled. We
would be able to anticipate their nasty and manipulative maneuvers
and see through their cover stories. We would not allow ourselves to
get dragged into their dramas, knowing in advance that our interest is
what they depend on for their control. We would finally rob them of



their power through our ability to look into the depths of their
character.

Similarly, with ourselves, what if we could look within and see the
source of our more troubling emotions and why they drive our
behavior, often against our own wishes? What if we could understand
why we are so compelled to desire what other people have, or to
identify so strongly with a group that we feel contempt for those who
are on the outside? What if we could find out what causes us to he
about who we are, or to inadvertently push people away?

Being able to understand more clearly that stranger within us would
help us to realize that it is not a stranger at all but very much a part of
ourselves, and that we are far more mysterious, complex, and
interesting than we had imagined. And with that awareness we would
be able to break the negative patterns in our lives, stop making excuses
for ourselves, and gain better control of what we do and what happens
to us.

Having such clarity about ourselves and others could change the
course of our lives in so many ways, but first we must clear up a
common misconception: we tend to think of our behavior as largely
conscious and willed. To imagine that we are not always in control of
what we do is a frightening thought, but in fact it is the reality. We are
subject to forces from deep within us that drive our behavior and that
operate below the level of our awareness. We see the results—our
thoughts, moods, and actions—but have little conscious access to what
actually moves our emotions and compels us to behave in certain ways.

Look at our anger, for instance. We usually identify an individual or
a group as the cause of this emotion. But if we were honest and dug
down deeper, we would see that what often triggers our anger or
frustration has deeper roots. It could be something in our childhood or
some particular set of circumstances that triggers the emotion. We can
discern distinct patterns if we look—when this or that happens, we get
angry. But in the moment that we feel anger, we are not reflective or
rational—we merely ride the emotion and point fingers. We could say
something similar about a whole slew of emotions that we feel-
specific types of events trigger sudden confidence, or insecurity, or
anxiety, or attraction to a particular person, or hunger for attention.

Let us call the collection of these forces that push and pull at us
from deep within human nature. Human nature stems from the



particular wiring of our brains, the configuration of our nervous
system, and the way we humans process emotions, all of which
developed and emerged over the course of the five million years or so
of our evolution as a species. We can ascribe many of the details of our
nature to the distinct way we evolved as a social animal to ensure our
survival—learning to cooperate with others, coordinating our actions
with the group on a high level, creating novel forms of communication
and ways of maintaining group discipline. This early development lives
on within us and continues to determine our behavior, even in the
modern, sophisticated world we live in.

To take one example, look at the evolution of human emotion. The
survival of our earliest ancestors depended on their ability to
communicate with one another well before the invention of language.
They evolved new and complex emotions—joy, shame, gratitude,
jealousy, resentment, et cetera. The signs of these emotions could be
read immediately on their faces, communicating their moods quickly
and effectively. They became extremely permeable to the emotions of
others as a way to bind the group more tightly together—to feel joy or
grief as one—or to remain united in the face of danger.

To this day, we humans remain highly susceptible to the moods and
emotions of those around us, compelling all kinds of behavior on our
part—unconsciously imitating others, wanting what they have, getting
swept up in viral feelings of anger or outrage. We imagine we’re acting
of our own free will, unaware of how deeply our susceptibility to the
emotions of others in the group is affecting what we do and how we
respond.

We can point to other such forces that emerged from this deep past
and that similarly mold our everyday behavior—for instance, our need
to continually rank ourselves and measure our self-worth through our
status is a trait that is noticeable among all hunter-gatherer cultures,
and even among chimpanzees, as are our tribal instincts, which cause
us to divide people into insiders or outsiders. We can add to these
primitive qualities our need to wear masks to disguise any behavior
that is frowned upon by the tribe, leading to the formation of a shadow
personality from all the dark desires we have repressed. Our ancestors
understood this shadow and its dangerousness, imagining it originated
from spirits and demons that needed to be exorcised. We rely on a
different myth—“something came over me.”



Once this primal current or force within us reaches the level of
consciousness, we have to react to it, and we do so depending on our
individual spirit and circumstances, usually explaining it away
superficially without really understanding it. Because of the precise
way in which we evolved, there are a limited number of these forces of
human nature, and they lead to the behavior mentioned above—envy,
grandiosity, irrationality, shortsightedness, conformity, aggression,
and passive aggression, to name a few. They also lead to empathy and
other positive forms of human behavior.

For thousands of years, it has been our fate to largely grope in the
shadows when it comes to understanding ourselves and our own
nature. We have labored under so many illusions about the human
animal—imagining we descended magically from a divine source, from
angels instead of primates. We have found any signs of our primitive
nature and our animal roots deeply distressing, something to deny and
repress. We have covered up our darker impulses with all kinds of
excuses and rationalizations, making it easier for some people to get
away with the most unpleasant behavior. But finally we’re at a point
where we can overcome our resistance to the truth about who we are
through the sheer weight of knowledge we have now accumulated
about human nature.

We can exploit the vast literature in psychology amassed over the
last one hundred years, including detailed studies of childhood and the
impact of our early development (Melanie Klein, John Bowlby, Donald
Winnicott), as well as works on the roots of narcissism (Heinz Kohut),
>>>