Dr. Dimitrius has had involvement in numerous high-profile criminal cases, including that of O.J.Simpson. In this book, she presents what she knows, and she knows plenty it seems to me, about the fine art and subtle science of bringing your senses and intellect to bear on all that there is to discover about a person – no matter who, no matter where – if you care to hone your skills at it. The book tunes you in to the ‘meanings’ of a person’s every nuance of behaviour and being. Nothing is left untouched, because everything is information. There is the to-be-expected attention to body language, voice quality, what you say, and your trail of actions. But there is more: what you eat, who you see, how you spend your free time, how you decorate your home or office, how you treat the lowly and how you treat the most noble, the type of car you drive, the colour of your garbage can, and what bugs you and what fascinates you. These and almost anything else imaginable, are all grist for the interpretive mill. Who you are, and who you care to be, and whether you are happy or but a pretender – it’s all there, ready for the picking by the keen observer. If you’re beginning to feel stripped and naked, that there’s no privacy to be left once you expose yourself and your surroundings to the onlooker, don’t despair. Rarely is there a one-to-one correspondence between a single strand of behaviour and a major revelation about your deeper insides. And, much depends on finding the patterns, the consistencies, between a slew of different behaviours and tendencies, before entertaining any serious conclusions about a person. And even then, one still has to be able to read the pattern and distinguish what it means from a bunch of possibilities. Indeed, for all the deceptive simplicity of what we can come to know about a person purely by observation, it’s not something just anyone can do well or could make a living at. Knowing one’s colours, buying all the right supplies and putting brush to canvas does not an artist make. And Dr. Dimitrius I can assure you did not build her wealth of knowledge and experience overnight. That being said, the book does contain some wonderful insights and offers quite a compilation of what to look for and what it all may mean. It gets you thinking, and prompts added awareness. It offers something to the more serious and even professional people observer, from counsellors to those conducting job interviews. And, anyone engaging in people-reading for the sheer everyday inquisitive fun of it, will have lots to chew on. As well, there is much you can learn about how to package your own image, to create the desired impression, once you know what others look for in determining what to make of you! Personally, I liked the book. It’s an interesting and easy read in the main, although I would not recommend that it be read in one quick sitting – like a truly enriching excursion into mother nature or into oneself, it should be unhurried, slowly absorbed, and explored but parts at a time, if one is to appreciate the layered and full effect. And, I found much in the book that made good sense once explained, and that I could agree with. However, some of the minutiae listings of all that one can look for in and about a person could have been left out without taking away from the book. I also found the final chapter, on super-quick reading, to pander to those who want maximal and accurate information while on the fly; it’s flimsy stuff and I thought a rather poor and disconnected way to end an otherwise well thought out work. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d rate this book an 8; in its field, it’s one of the best that I’ve seen.
