Peoplewatching: The Desmond Morris Guide to Body Language

Love this book! Great for anyone interested in seeing humans a little deeper than before. Gain some facinating insight into body language and the more in ate behaviors of humanity.

I bought this book a while back and found it be one of the most comprehensive of its kind. It has a respected space on my bookshelf. It covers other cultures as well as many human signals that one might not think about, like submissive , cut-off, and displacement signals. There's so many in this book!! Did you know that if a man's face turns red during a confrontation, he's probably less dangerous as a man's face that turns pale, since the blood is being moved to the muscles prepping them for physical action? I didn't read the whole book yet, but I've gotten through many chapters and found it absolutely fascinating! I took an animal behavior course in college and this definitely tops it as it actually has theoretical relevance to humans. Desmond Morris does it again with this brilliant book !

This book is an excellent reference for body language. Morris doesn't claim that it'll give you better social skills or that you'll be able to "read" people; he makes it clear he's only doing it out of the joy of observation. As a result, he surveys a much wider variety of behavior than what you might find in other books, and with more appreciation and objectivity. In a paradoxical kind of I way, I think that actually makes this book even better if you're trying to learn the social skill of body language. The version I'm reviewing is the 2002 paperpack. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that this book is still in print, because its terrible when a really great book goes out of print, but you might want to consider going for an older edition. I've had the luck of finding an old hardcover edition at my local library, and the biggest difference is that the pages are much bigger, of higher quality, and have lots and lots of color photos of the behaviors being described. This paperback version on the other hand, has about one photo per section, and they're all concentrated in glossy pages about 1/3 and 2/3s of the way in. (The black and white drawings, however, keep their places.) For many other books, this wouldn't be too bad of a problem, but for a book about human body language, I can't think of a better way to augment it than with lots of color photos. (Even then, Morris' descriptions are so clear and lucid that this downgrade isn't fatal.) So overall, if you're checking this out, you might want to spring for a good secondhand copy with the photos, if you're okay with missing some of the revised material. (I'm not sure to what extent the text has changed but it doesn't seem like too much.)

Warning: This is literally the same book as Manwatching! It has two new chapters and apparently some revisions but it is literally Manwatching. I still am abliged to give five stars because Manwatching is the definitive book on body Language upon which (in my opinion) all books of this type are forged. If you haven’t read Manwatching then you might as well read this instead.

This book is highly recommended for those who are interested in the human response. Should be text material for psychology students.

Great book for......well, peoplewatching. Dr. Morris has also written books on horse, dog, and cat watching.

A good guideline as to how gestures vary around the word. Even some non-verbal language guidelines. However, if you prefer to be learning about non-verbal communication tools, i suggest Paul Ekman's Umasking the face, or Joe Navarro's What everybody is saying.

I have read more interesting books on body language. This one is like adding extra cheese over an already good pizza.

Best book in the world period.

Good, must read. 👍👍👌👌

Desmond Morris is always an interesting writer. I haven't started to tackle this read yet, but if it's anything like 'Manwatching' then it will be very engrossing. I've no complaints about either this item or its seller. Thanks!

Un buen libro, para leer a ratos. Letra muy pequeña y un poco pasada de moda, pero no obstante es interesante

Book arrived in perfect condition. A must read for everyone too.