"The book is a dialogue between The Dalai Lama and a group of scientists about how we can better handle our destructive emotions and how to overcome them"
About this Quote
A sales pitch in the softest possible voice, and that’s exactly why it lands. Daniel Goleman is the popularizer of “emotional intelligence,” a writer who made inner life feel like a skillset you can train. So when he frames the book as a “dialogue” between the Dalai Lama and scientists, he’s not just describing a format; he’s building a bridge between two institutions Americans instinctively trust for different reasons: spiritual authority and empirical credibility.
The intent is reassurance. “Destructive emotions” can sound like sin or pathology, but Goleman recasts them as manageable phenomena, something you can “handle” and “overcome” with the right tools. The subtext is a promise of translation: ancient contemplative practices, stripped of sectarian demands, repackaged into methods that can pass a lab test and fit a secular reader’s life. “Dialogue” also flatters the audience’s self-image: you don’t have to convert, you just have to be curious.
Context matters. This sits in the late-20th/early-21st century boom of mindfulness, neuroscience branding, and therapeutic language in mainstream culture. The Dalai Lama becomes less a religious leader than a symbol of calm expertise; “scientists” become less a guild than a stamp of approval. Beneath the benevolence is a cultural negotiation: can compassion be validated without becoming commodified? Goleman’s line suggests yes, but it also reveals the era’s anxieties - that emotion is both the modern problem and the modern project, best solved when wisdom and data agree to share the microphone.
The intent is reassurance. “Destructive emotions” can sound like sin or pathology, but Goleman recasts them as manageable phenomena, something you can “handle” and “overcome” with the right tools. The subtext is a promise of translation: ancient contemplative practices, stripped of sectarian demands, repackaged into methods that can pass a lab test and fit a secular reader’s life. “Dialogue” also flatters the audience’s self-image: you don’t have to convert, you just have to be curious.
Context matters. This sits in the late-20th/early-21st century boom of mindfulness, neuroscience branding, and therapeutic language in mainstream culture. The Dalai Lama becomes less a religious leader than a symbol of calm expertise; “scientists” become less a guild than a stamp of approval. Beneath the benevolence is a cultural negotiation: can compassion be validated without becoming commodified? Goleman’s line suggests yes, but it also reveals the era’s anxieties - that emotion is both the modern problem and the modern project, best solved when wisdom and data agree to share the microphone.
Quote Details
| Topic | Self-Improvement |
|---|---|
| Source | Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama — Daniel Goleman, 2003. Nonfiction book reporting a Mind & Life dialogue between the Dalai Lama and scientists on understanding and overcoming destructive emotions. |
More Quotes by Daniel
Add to List
