Illusion of Control

Wolfgang Linden is a Professor Emeritus in Clinical and Health Psychology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver/Canada. He is a Scientist Practitioner with expertise in the reduction of health risk behaviors, stress management, eating disorders, treatment of hypertension, psychosocial cardiac rehabilitation, and psychological factors in cancer care. Dr. Linden has written over 170 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and six books, three of which were also published in German, Turkish, Chinese, and Korean. For the last four decades he has worked as an advocate for improved mental health care, and has recently focused on trying to minimize the long-term consequences of adverse childhoods.

Mental health care advocate Linden posits that many people believe they have more control over the other people in their lives than they actually do. Therefore, some become frustrated when they’re unable to influence or persuade others to do as they wish. His book indicates that people also tend to neglect or ignore the substantial amount of control they have over what they themselves do. He asserts that one way for people to become less stressed is to stop expecting to have control over others and to instead turn their energies toward controlling their own behavioral patterns. Linden offers readers several practical strategies that will help them rewire their thoughts to create new behavioral patterns. This book also addresses the benefits that come from changing one’s own behavior, using case studies involving married couples, parents and their children, friends, and colleagues to demonstrate how one’s actions can impact interpersonal communication. Recommended for readers interested in gaining tools to improve their behavior and the tendency to want control of everything and everyone.