What Do You Feel At 3 A.M. When The Dog Awakens Suddenly And Stares Intently Down A Dark Hallway?

... The Gift of Fear, of course. Gavin De Becker's tiny book is an excellent pop psychology classic. Why do people commit violence? What is the chain leading to violence? This book is a marvelous read. Much of it (to someone as sensitive as me) is instinctive, but there's a lot of delicious stuff in here about the violence "process". How to spot dangerous psychopaths: "forced teaming", "loansharking", etc. There are no "gut feelings" (save indigestion), these "feelings" are cognitive processes, and they are deliciously explored in this little book. The eerie aspects of "I promise", etc. Quotations: "the smile is the typical disguise used to mask emotions ... 'niceness' is a decision, a social interaction, not a character trait..." (432 pages/read slowly=3 hours, read fast=2 hours, I read twice through this one in 6 slow hrs. I'm reading about 5 books a week now (2 or 3 on Saturday and 2 or 3 on Sunday)). This post is a mess, get the book.