Mystery of Meeting

"Our relationships - with our family, colleagues, friends, lovers, partners - are decisive factors in our lives. More than outer success, wealth or fame, they make the difference between joy and sorrow, development and stagnation, fulfilment and frustration. They both stimulate and require us to reflect on our own initiatives and reactions. They lead us to thresholds of emotion and discovery. If we can navigate these thresholds with our eyes open, relationships can become a path of initiation, taking us beyond our self-centred isolation into new and inspiring worlds of experience." What really happens in relationships? Why do they affect us so deeply? Why do we long for a sense of community yet so aggressively assert our individualism? What are the risks and benefits of genuine human encounter? Drawing on far-reaching perspectives from psychology, philosophy, management and economics, The Mystery of Meeting explores these questions from a unique viewpoint, offering insight and guidance for developing healthy relationships. The author elaborates powerful ways of working with the dynamics of relationships within personal, community and business contexts.Encountering another person, he says, is a "threshold-experience". Each individual is an unknown world, and through meeting we are confronted with developmental challenges as well as opportunities for profound personal development. This stimulating book presents groundbreaking ideas for managers, professionals, educators, communicators, and anyone who wishes to improve everyday relationships.

STEVE BRIAULT is a social development professional who has worked in community care, refugee resettlement and organization development. He has twenty years' international experience of advising and educating managers in major companies, government, and voluntary groups, and his expertise includes negotiation skills, partnership development and service improvement, especially in healthcare. He is the author of Working It Out (Russell House, 2002) and a founding member of the Association for Social Development. He lives in Sussex with his family.