How to Assess What Other People Think

There are several movements that reveal what the person is thinking. For example, if one is holding one's chest, he or she is evaluating something. This is the position instinctively taken when judging something.

In 1971, Gerard I. Nierenberg and Henri H. Calero explained in their book, "How to Read a Person Like a Book," the typical movements and positions of a person and what they represent, depending on what they are thinking. It was a book for marketers. The book aimed to explain how to interpret their audience's reaction when they try to sell something.

For example, if their audience crosses their hands in front of their breast, it means that they are protecting themselves and are not accepting or believing what they are listening to. You should never insist on trying to sell something to someone who is listening to you with crossed hands-you'll never succeed!

In fact, it was a very interesting book about human behavior, which clearly revealed that human behavior follows pre-existing patterns, even thought the authors didn't care about explaining why our behavior is consistent and why it reveals our thoughts.

Often, children surprise us with their movements: they act like grown ups in a few aspects because their behavior has already been pre-established by patterns. This is why they already "know" how to do many things. This is inherited knowledge that confers the base for more complex achievements.

Therefore, you can understand how other people think about what you are saying if you learn these usual bodily movements depending on what they are thinking.

For example, if someone is holding one's hand with the hands crossed behind one's back, this person believes that they are at the top, controlling the situation. Don't make this gesture when you believe you are correct if you don't want to reveal what you think about your words and your judgment of the situation!

In addition to understanding what other people think depending on their gestures, you can also understand what not to show if you don't want them to understand that you are not accepting their ideas or that you believe you are controlling the situation. Perhaps they know the meaning of your gestures... even if they only know this intuitively, they may be able to understand it.

However, this method can be useful only for a very limited number of movements and only for very specific situations.

The best method to always understand how other people think and feel is through dream interpretation according to my simplified version of Carl Jung's method.

By interpreting your dreams, you will penetrate other people's psyche, like the unconscious that produces their dreams and you'll understand who they really are and why they behave the way they do.

You'll have explanations about them, and not only a brief understanding of what they are thinking for a few moments. You learn their personality and their mistakes and preferences.

In the beginning of your introspection, other people in your dreams appear as facets of your own personality. The unconscious gives you objective information about other people only after curing your psyche while using their example to reveal the components of your personality.

Later, you start seeing dreams that inform you directly about the people you are examining, not only about yourself through their example.

The unique exception is the person you love. You receive objective information about them from the beginning, because they are very important for your psyche. This way you can avoid relationships with those who would only make you suffer because they don't match your psychological type and you can safely discover the ideal person for you.

However, if someone is very important for you for any reason (because you depend on them for your business, they are important members of your family, etc.) the unconscious gives you objective information about them and reveals how you must behave in order to have a successful relationship with them.