How to Analyze People on Sight. Elsie Lincoln Benedict
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our environmental problem consists
largely of the other fellow. Only those who learn to adapt themselves to
their fellows can win great or lasting rewards.
Externals Indicate Internal Nature
To do this it is necessary to better understand our neighbors--to
recognize that people differ from each other in their likes and
dislikes, traits, talents, tendencies and capabilities. The combination
of these makes each individual's nature. It is not difficult to
understand others for with each group of these traits there always goes
its corresponding physical makeup--the externals whereby the internal is
invariably indicated. This is true of every species on the globe and of
every subdivision within each species.
Significance of Size, Shape and Structure
All dogs belong to the same species but there is a great difference
between the "nature" of a St. Bernard and that of a terrier, just as
there is a decided difference between the natures of different human
beings. But in both instances the actions, reactions and habits of each
can be accurately anticipated on sight by the shape, size and structure
of the two creatures.
Differences in Breed
When a terrier comes into the room you instinctively draw away unless
you want to be jumped at and greeted effusively. But you make no such
movement to protect yourself from a St. Bernard because you read, on
sight, the different natures of these two from their external
appearance.
You know a rose, a violet, a sunflower and an orchid and what perfume
you are sure to find in each, by the same method. All are flowers and
all belong to the same species, just as all human beings belong to the
same species. But their respective size, shape and structure tell you in
advance and on sight what their respective characteristics are.
The same is true of all human beings. They differ in certain
fundamentals but always and invariably in accordance with their
differences in size, shape and structure.
The Instinct of Self-Preservation
The reason for this is plain. Goaded by the instinct of
self-preservation, man, like all other living things, has made heroic
efforts to meet the demands of his environment. He has been more
successful than any other creature and is, as a result, the most complex
organism on the earth. But his most baffling complexities resolve
themselves into comparatively simple terms once it is recognized that
each internal change brought about by his environment brought with it
the corresponding external mechanism without which he could not have
survived.
Interrelation of Body and Brain
So today we see man a highly evolved creature who not only acts but
thinks and feels. All these thoughts, feelings and emotions are
interrelated.
The body and the mind of man are so closely bound together that whatever
affects one affects the other. An instantaneous change of mind instantly
changes the muscles of the face. A violent thought instantly brings
violent bodily movements.
Movies and Face Muscles
The moving picture industry--said to be the third largest in the
world--is based largely on this interrelation. This industry would
become extinct if something were to happen to sever the connection
between external expressions and the internal nature of men and women.
Tells Fundamentals
How much do external characteristics tell about a man? They tell, with
amazing accuracy, all the basic, fundamental principal traits of his
nature. The size, shape and structure of a man's body tell more
important facts about his real self--what he thinks and what he
does--than the average mother ever knows about her own child.
Learning to Read
If this sounds impossible, if the seeming incongruity, multiplicity
and heterogeneity of human qualities have baffled you, remember that
this is exactly how the print in all books and newspapers baffled you
before you learned to read.
Not long ago I was reading stories aloud to a three-year old. She wanted
to "see the pictures," and when told there were none had to be shown the
book.
"What funny little marks!" she cried, pointing to the print. "How do you
get stories out of them?"
Printing looked to all of us at first just masses of meaningless little
marks.
But after a few days at school how things did begin to clear up! It
wasn't a jumble after all. There was something to it. It straightened
itself out until the funny little marks became significant. Each of them
had a meaning and the same meaning under all conditions. Through them
your whole outlook on life became deepened and broadened--all because
you learned the meaning of twenty-six little letters and their
combinations!
Reading People
Learning to read men and women is a more delightful process than
learning to read books, for every person you see is a true story, more
romantic and absorbing than any ever bound in covers.
Learning to read people is also a simpler process than learning to read
books because there are fewer letters in the human alphabet. Though man
seems to the untrained eye a mystifying mass of "funny little marks," he
is not now difficult to analyze.
Only a Few Feelings
This is because there are after all but a few kinds of human feelings.
Some form of hunger, love, hate, fear, hope or ambition gives rise to
every human emotion and every human thought.
Thoughts Bring Actions
Now our actions follow our thoughts. Every thought, however
transitory, causes muscular action, which leaves its trace in that part
of the physical organism which is most closely allied to it.
Physiology and Psychology Interwoven
Look into the mirror the next time you are angry, happy, surprised,
tired or sorrowful and note the changes wrought by your emotions in your
facial