Mark Borg Jr, PhD spoke to Janeane about his upcoming book, DON’T BE A D*CK: Change Yourself, Change Your World (a Central Recovery Press Paperback, on sale Nov 19, 2019).
In this insightful guide, Borg offers relatable stories of bad behavior, helpful analysis on why we feel justified in acting like jerks, and exercises to help us choose kinder ways of living and responding.
Marks talks about:
· How to avoid conflicts at Thanksgiving with your extended family
· How to tell if your partner/coworker/acquaintance is a jerk (or if it’s actually you)
· What we unknowingly do to invite constant conflict into our lives
· How to handle dickish behavior during the holidays
· The various ways we unknowingly provoke our significant others
· How to break up with your partner without being a dick
The single book therapists everywhere will recommend to all of their patients, because at some point or another, we all behave like dicks.
Why this book? Because you might be a dick: a mean-spirited, self-focused individual who thinks and acts as though everyone else in the world can only be understood―and whose only importance is defined―in terms of their relationship to you. Being a dick might feel powerful in the short term, but it is not helping you in the long term because this flawed character trait is exactly what’s keeping you from attaining what you may want most: personal fulfillment, satisfying work, a loving committed relationship, and lifelong friendships.
Anyone, at any time, can be a dick. Yet Don’t Be a Dick is especially for people who have noticed how their own behavior tends to backfire, leaving them feeling isolated and unsure why their seemingly justified actions consistently yield such poor results. If you’re constantly using the refrain, It’s not me, it’s them whenever something goes wrong, Mark Borg is here to tell you that it is, in fact, you. The good news is there is something you can do to reverse these behaviors and live a happier, more fulfilling life.
About the Author
Mark B. Borg, Jr., PhD, is a community psychologist and psychoanalyst, founding partner of The Community Consulting Group, and a supervisor of psychotherapy at the William Alanson White Institute. He has written extensively about the intersection of psychoanalysis and community crisis intervention. He has been in private practice in New York City since 1998. Dr. Borg attended graduate school at the California School of Professional Psychology, where he earned both his MA and PhD in a dual-track program in clinical and community psychology. While there, Dr. Borg served on a four-year community empowerment project that was developed in South Central Los Angeles in the wake of the 1992 riots. Also at that time, he conducted individual and group psychotherapy at the AIDS Services Foundation in Orange County, California. Dr. Borg is the co-author of Irrelationship: How We Use Dysfunctional Relationships to Hide from Intimacy and its follow-up book, Relationship Sanity: Creating and Maintaining Healthy Relationships.
