When Things Get Personal

“If you’ve ever felt misunderstood, then you already know something about the idea at the center of this book. Schroeder’s powerful insight is that much of interpersonal conflict arises from the ways we read, misread, over-read, or under-read who people are from what they say and do. To bring so much of human conflict under such a simple principle is a great achievement.”—Barry Lam, host of the Hi-Phi Nation podcast

“This is a fascinating take on one of the most important and thorniest of philosophical questions: how do we navigate our identity as both person and thing in interpersonal relationships? Schroeder’s signal/noise distinction provides a key innovation in answering this question.”—C. Thi Nguyen, author of The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game

“When Things Get Personal offers a new way of holding one another responsible. In defending this approach, Mark Schroeder engagingly explores a wide range of phenomena—from neurological and psychiatric disorders to emotional stress, from paternalism to sexism, from significant political disputes to minor spats. What emerges is a compelling guide to how we can minimize, and sometimes even resolve, interpersonal conflict.”—Sarah Buss, coeditor of Rethinking the Value of Humanity