The basics of talking to crazy. Understanding crazy ; Recognizing how crazy happens ; Spotting an irrational person's M.O. ; Knowing when to talk to crazy and when to walk away
Facing your own crazy first. Pinpointing your own crazy ; Keeping your own crazy at bay when you're under attack ; Regrouping when crazy wins
Fourteen tactics for talking to crazy. The belly roll : putting the irrational person "in charge" to defuse a tense situation ; The A-E-U technique : highly effective
but scary ; Time travel : getting an irrational person to stop dwelling on the past and focus instead on the future ; The eye of the hurricane : finding the sane inside the crazy ; Digging down to disappointment : dealing with emotional people who don't really mean what they're saying ; The fishbowl : bringing an irrational person's mirror neurons into play ; The split second : how to handle an irrational person who's playing you against someone else ; The three L's : helping an irrational person cope with extreme fear ; The butter-up : getting a know-it-all to behave ; Executive order : getting a martyr to accept help ; Coup countrecoup : turning an irrational person's M.O. to your own advantage ; The kiss-off (and the gentle kiss-off) : saying no to a manipulator ; Frenemies : handling a "toxic deflector" at work ; I know what you're hiding : getting a sociopath out of your life
- Eight ways to deal with crazy in your personal life. You've lost that lovin' feeling? : handling your mutual crazy in a relationship ; Shock absorber : getting through to an emotional partner ; Copy cat : getting a strong-and-silent partner to talk ; Child A or child B? : going through a divorce without wrecking your kids for life ; "What's the worst thing for you?" : being there for a parent, partner, or child in pain ; The reconnect : healing a broken relationship with an adult child ; The assumptive close : getting an aging parent to accept help ; The four H's and four R's : rebuilding a personal relationship after an irrational person breaks it
What to do when crazy is actually mental illness. Where to turn when crazy is above your pay grade ; How to get the person to say yes to getting help ; What to do if you think someone may be suicidal ; Woulda, coulda, shoulda : preventing the next Sandy Hook.
