More human communication took place by the use of
gestures,
postures, position and distance than by any other way.
Ray Birdwhistell
For
information regarding this book CLICK HERE
2023
[October] Republished by:
Atlantic Publishers and Distributors (P) Ltd
ISBN: 9788126936861
Pages: 258,
₹
542.00,
PREFACE
[EDITION 3]
Body-language
is a by-word in the world of today. It is the X-factor or the USP (Unique
Selling Proposition) that completes the personalities of professionals,
performers on screen and field, of politicians, celebrities and talk-show hosts,
of models on the ramp or on the road, in public speaking and presentations. The
list goes on.
One shows no
surprise when a new book on body language appears on a publisher’s list or a
shop window. One only hopes to find in it new insights and updated references to
expand ones body language ‘vocabulary’, fluency, and expertise.
Given this
general consciousness in the language of the body, and the thumping success of
the previous edition, the publishers felt it was time to up-grade Body
Language: A Guide for Professionals. The author has painstakingly combed
through the existing text in order to append new insights in several areas of
the book, especially with more practical hints on some topics. It provides, what
in technical terms would be called “soft skills” in communication.
Since the last
edition of this book, a decade ago, the internet and media have brought renewed
interest to non-verbal communication, particularly to Body Language! Institutes
of management, business and human resources have included the study and practice
of body language as a ‘Soft Skill’ in their syllabi and training programmes. The
traditional topics dealing with the different parts of the body remain, but they
have been more widely discussed and made easily accessible through the internet.
The author has
surfed the internet to his heart’s content and has embellished the present
volume with his discoveries. The structure of this new edition has been changed
a great deal; each chapter is replenished with details that make for depth,
clarity and greater comprehensiveness. There are several new dimensions added to
a topic, with the inclusion of modern-day observations of human behaviour and
body-talk. Care has been taken to include typical Indian gestures where
relevant. Each chapter has a set of wide-ranging insights. Perhaps the only
“new” inclusion is “Body Language in Sleep”, research finding of which have
become popular after the previous edition of this book was published.
All in all,
this edition has been expanded so as to make the theories more experiential –
and popular.
Publishers' Note
Body Language comes at a time
when 'market', 'self-salesmanship' and 'personality projection' are commonplace
survival tactics. The book explores the hidden language of the body and the
meaning of body gestures, placing it in the context of the 'new age' society.
'New World New Body Language' is the
mantra for this third edition of Body Language. Soft skill is the most sought
after word today in the field of management. The nurturing of 'soft skills' and
the furthering of individual growth come under one such modern-day demands.
Ever since the last edition of this
book in 1998, there has been dramatic societal changes, owing to the increased
use of the Internet. This edition factors in these changes. With illustrations
depicting body positions, Lewis aims at a systematic, in-depth and comprehensive
approach to non-verbal communication in general and body language in particular.
BROCHURE
A
command over body language has become an important skill in today’s world. It is
the X-factor that completes the personalities of executives, entertainers,
politicians, celebrities, and many more.
After the thumping success of the previous edition of Body Language: A Guide for
Professionals, SAGE has come out with this exciting third edition. Since the
last edition of this book more than a decade ago, Internet and media have
brought renewed interest to non-verbal communication, particularly to body
language. The author has painstakingly combed through the existing text and has
extensively researched online resources to add new insights to this edition,
making it a cutting-edge reference on the subject.
Some of the significant new features of this edition are:
- Latest developments in the field of non-verbal communication
- Extra details that add greater depth, clarity and comprehensiveness to the
text
- Modern-day observations of human behaviour and body-talk
- Coverage of typical Indian gestures where relevant
- A new section on ‘Body Language in Sleep’
- Additional practical tips and suggestions
The reader is also challenged with tests and practice sessions that help develop
special skills to interpret body language. With its various improvements, this
edition presents a systematic, in-depth, and comprehensive approach to body
language.
Table of Contents
The Characteristics of Body
Language
The Face
The Eyes
The Head and Torso
Arms, Hands, and Palms
Postures Zones and Spaces
Traits and Attitudes
Body Language in Practice
Readership
Academics and students of
communication and media studies
Excerpts from Reviews of Previous Editions
Hedwig Lewis has provided the reader with a
well-researched work. The chapters begin with the theoretical aspects of the
subject matter, where the author explains the difference between verbal and
non-verbal communication, which depict the distinction between thoughts and
feelings (cerebral and visceral), He then progresses on to the aspects,
advantages, dimensions and interpretation of body language and finally
elucidates the role of the neuro-linguistic programming. Here, Lewis also
talks of how attires and footwear influence the understanding of
individual's non-verbal communication.
Next. a detailed analysis of each feature of body language has been
portrayed with finesse... The last contextual part deals with traits and
attitudes, which includes personology... To understand certain common
traits, especially the emotional type, Hedwig makes an attempt to help the
reader by providing information of gestures to be related to various common
traits and attitudes.
This book also contains tests and practice sessions for developing special
skills for interpreting body language...
Management & Change, Vol 5, No 1 (Jan-Jun 2001), New Delhi
Some of the strengths of the book are indicated below:
1. Major strength of the book is its simplicity. The language is simple and
the examples are common occurrence. One does not have to be a professional
to appreciate the book....
2. The pictorial representations add to the meaning. They reinforce the
point and provide the necessary visual...
3. I am impressed by the details. The author has gone into the specific
arguments of the parts of the body what do they convey. ... While other
books have dealt with sub-segments but not exclusively and in such details.
4. Generally, books on body language do not discuss personal space. Chapter
6 is specifically devoted to proxemics...
5. Similarly section on corporate etiquette is of current significance....
6. Finally, practice sessions, summing up at the end of each chapter and
references are helpful tools to assimilate the knowledge and look for extra
information...
ABHIGYAN (details unavailable)
Lewis' book is an aid to judgment in social encounters. The book contains a
sufficient amount of theory, with illustrations that provide the necessary
cues for visual representation... The book is almost a dictionary on human
gestures and messages they convey.
Daily News, Colombo (2001)
Lewis in his book deftly handles the subject and systematically progresses
to explicate the science of body language taking into account the physical
and psychological aspects of non-verbal behaviour... The text is replete
with examples, exercises and graphics.... The examples are concrete even
though they force the reader to visualize images, actions and behaviour...
VISION: The Journal of Business Perspective
(Jan-June 1999)
Hedwig Lewis... has designed his book to serve as a handy and comprehensive
guide for professionals, especially, who are involved in frequent public
dealings... The author has done a hard work to cull out the subject matter
from various reference books with computerised illustrations and use of
models to make the reading interesting and meaningful. He is clear in mind
while setting out the objectives of his work and rightly opines that his
work will serve as a useful tool in the hands of managers, executives,
teachers, parents, social workers, nurses, and so on.
Personnel Today (Apr-June 1998)
Speech has so far been regarded as the only means of knowing the inner man.
Mannerisms added to the information. Body language today has gained as
significant a position as language of the tongue... This book theorises with
illustrations on material necessary to get complete graphic knowledge of
body language. It also explains how gestures or gesture clusters may be
analysed.
The Statesman (May 18, 1998)
As the book puts it, human beings can produce some 650,000 non-verbal
signals, which are roughly half of all human communication.
So this is a book to read and refer to. It will tell you more about the
hidden patterns of your behaviour, and so can help bring about more
transparent communication. It’s something for the bookshelf of every student
of human behaviour.
Jivan (September October 1998)
This study will be useful to professional of various kinds: administrators,
teachers, counsellors, social workers, burses, etc. and make them better
judges of character. The book is written in such an engaging style that it
can be of interest even to the non-professionals who reads it for his
edification.
Daily News ‘Weekender’ (September 19, 1998)
Body language is a critical subtext in any communication. The author’s aim
in the book under review is to help the reader understand and apply it to
enhance the quality of human relationships... The dimensions of body
language have been correctly identified as phylogenetic; ontogenetic
consisting of inherited, congenital and learned aspect; universal and
culture-specific; age and status; and attire. Further analysis of each is
also neat and clear.
The Hindu (December 1, 1998)
Lewis makes his objectives clear at the beginning. They are threefold: to
demonstrate how much non-verbal communication there is; to identify the
sources of non-verbal messages; and to ‘discuss the facts related to an
accurate decoding of non-verbal messages.’ He demonstrates the importance of
non-verbal communication well enough. He quotes research that shows that of
the three important means of face-to-face communication, verbal, vocal and
visual, the visual element is far and away the most important... Each
chapter concludes with a brief and useful summary... Lewis has used examples
set in the Indian context, to that extent, he has taken care of cultural
variations in body language.
Indian Review Of Books (October 16, 1998)
The book is appealing, handy and immensely useful in sharpening one's
perception to make relationships and interactions more useful.
TATWA (The Supreme Truth), (July-September
1998), Shegaon, Buldhana Dt., Maharashtra, 444
203
Both the success of the first edition (1998) and the wish to clarify and
update some sections, as well as to add new drawings and special blocks of
information, justified this new edition so soon after the publication of the
first, in the author’s view (p. 7). After stressing the importance of body
language in communication and that verbal communication would not only be
flat, shallow, and unexciting but even “inaccurate” without accompanying
body language, Lewis states the objectives of the work: It will serve as a
working manual in our personal encounters with people – individuals as well
as groups. It will be a useful tool in the hands of managers and
subordinates in an office set-up, marketing executives on their rounds,
teachers, parents, and especially those who are in the “helping professions”
– nurses, counselors, social workers, and so on. (p.10)
Acknowledging that “every signal will not mean the same thing all the time,”
the author nevertheless feels that “when the same signs appear in similar
situations, time after time, we can rather safely interpret their meaning”
(p. 14). Drawing heavily on the scientific literature on body language that
psychologists, sociologists, and others have built up over the past half
century during which the topic has been of special interest to empirical
researchers, he describes the general characteristics of body language in
Chapter 1. Chapters are then devoted to the face, “the most significant –
and the most photographed – part of the human body” (p. 62), the eyes, the
hands, and the legs. Chapter6 is devoted to “territorial zones and spaces,”
spatial relationships, and proxemics – the ways people appreciate, use and
interpret space in their interactions. Chapter 7 singles out certain traits
and attitudes and studies “what form of gestures or gesture clusters
communicate them” (p. 165). Each chapter is followed by a “Summing Up”
section that suggests how material covered in that chapter can be used “to
project the power of our personality through body language” (p. 188). The
concluding chapter outlines a practice session containing “exercises that
will help you test how accurately and quickly you can interpret the gestures
discussed in this book” (p. 189). A list of references and an index are
provided, and the book is illustrated with numerous line drawings.
[By WEB, in Communication Research and Trends,
A Quarterly Review of Communication Trends, Vol 21 (2002) No. 3, p 28,
Centre for the Study of Communication and Culture, Los Gatos, California]
Designed as a guide for the interpretation of body language, this book
starts with the premise that, like other languages, body language entails
levels of proficiency. It explains the script of body language in a
systematic and graded manner, highlighting the physical and physiological
aspects of non-behavior. It specifically discusses individual gestures of
the face, eyes, hands, and legs, as well as gesture clusters. Tests and
practice sessions are included. Lewis is Principal Emeritus at St Xavier's
College, Ahmedabad.
Editorial Reviews, Book News, Inc.®, Portland,
OR. [amazon.com, 2005]
Special Announcement
SAGE INDIA have decided to make their popular
books available to a larger readership. They will enter into co-publication
partnerships with reputed publishers in a number of Indian languages “to
publish and disseminate quality translations…” At present they are
negotiating with publishers in Marathi, Tamil, Bengali, Hindu and Malayalam,
“but hope to expand the list in the near future.” “Body Language: A Guide
for Professionals”, has been included in this venture.
[Letter of Mr Rajam Dhameja, Deputy Managing Director, 26 October 2007]
Both the success of the first
edition (1998) and the wish to clarify and update some sections, as well as to
add new drawings and special blocks of information, justified this new edition
so soon after the publication of the first, in the author's view (p. 7). After
stressing the importance of body language in communication and that verbal
communication would not only be flat, shallow, and unexciting but even
"inaccurate" without accompanying body language, Lewis states the objectives of
the work…
Acknowledging that "every signal will not mean the same thing all the time," the
author nevertheless feels that "when the same signs appear in similar
situations, time after time, we can rather safely interpret their meaning" (p.
14). Drawing heavily on the scientific literature on body language that
psychologists, sociologists, and others have built up over the past half century
during which the topic has been of special interest to empirical researchers, he
describes the general characteristics of body language in Chapter 1. Chapters
are then devoted to the face, "the most significant--and the most
photographed--part of the human body" (p. 62), the eyes, the hands, and the
legs. Chapter 6 is devoted to "territorial zones and spaces," spatial
relationships, and proxemics--the ways people appreciate, use and interpret
space in their interactions. Chapter 7 singles out certain traits and attitudes
and studies "what form of gestures or gesture clusters communicate them" (p.
165).
Each chapter is followed by a "Summing Up" section that suggests how material
covered in that chapter can be used "to project the power of our personality
through body language" (p. 188). The concluding chapter outlines a practice
session containing "exercises that will help you test how accurately and quickly
you can interpret the gestures discussed in this book" (p. 189). A list of
references and an index are provided, and the book is illustrated with numerous
line drawings.
William E. Biernatzki, Centre
for the Study of Communication and Culture, Gale, Cengage Learning.
Communication Research Trends.
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