Now, here’s a book I can get behind.

The Prince Harming Syndrome is a how-to manual for women who want to stop dating jerks and start attracting worthwhile men. I became a fan of the author, Karen Salmansohn, after reviewing another of her books, Enough, Dammit last year. I’ve never met her or attended one of her seminars, but we’re definitely on the same wavelength.

In The Prince Harming Syndrome, Salmansohn details her own disastrous dating history (in a restaurant, a psychoanalyst who happened to overhear her discuss a boyfriend diagnosed her as a “classic masochist”). Then she describes the very concrete — but managable — steps she took to turn her behavior around.

“You are the common denominator in all your relationship problems,” Salmansohn maintains, and she’s right. I’ve been there myself. Fortunately, she offers tools for women (or men) who want to rise out of the hells of their own making. These tools work. (I used them myself when I decided to stop Mickey Mousing around with fleetingly fun men who’d never make me happy.)

We do disagree on one point, however. Of “sleeping with a man too soon,” Salmansohn writes, “…even in this modern world, you also risk the man respecting you less if you give sex away to quickly.”

My feeling is, if a man would disrespect me for doing something he’d do himself, he’s a hyprocrite, and I don’t want him. That said, I’m a germophobe, so I don’t advocate sleeping with anyone until you’re sure he showers daily and doesn’t pick his nose at stop lights.

As for Salmansohn’s breezy and ebullient writing style, some readers will like the way it propels them along, while others may wish she relied less on her keyboard’s ‘CAPS LOCK’ button. The woman LOVES to USE CAPS FOR EMPHASIS. (The video below should give you a sense of her personality.)

But if you’re a person who wants a happy, lasting relationship but keeps attracting substandard men, The Prince Harming Syndrome can help you reach your very achievable goal.

Be the first US. resident to comment on this post, and I’ll send you a free copy of the book.

I’m a big fan of Karen Salmansohn, author of The Prince Harming Syndrome and Even God is Single So Stop Giving Me a Hard Time, and her method for taking life by the horns and being happy no matter what. (Read my review of her book, Enough Dammit: A Cynic’s Guide to Finally Getting What You Want Out of Life here.)

Salmansohn is no dreamer. She writes:

…my techniques/ theories are a hybrid of modern cognitive psychology, Aristotle’s timeless happiness philosophies, brain science, and energy theories on thought from quantum physics - all delivered with feisty humor.”

For 30 days, Salmansohn will post updates to purposefully strengthen your brain’s positive neural pathways on love, happiness, and achievement, along with free excerpts from her latest release, Prince Harming Syndrome.

Take control of your life with Karen’s free workshop on her blog (starting with yesterday’s post of September 14th). I have used the method she describes in this particular post. I assure you it works.

In my last year of college, I stumbled upon a copy of The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy in a bookstore, and it changed my life (seriously, it did). It also made me a fan of self-help books, a genre some consider the province of losers.

At the time, a friend of mine reported, “I told my shrink about you and your stupid self-help books, and he laughed his head off. He said all you’re doing is making some author rich!”

But my life really did change after reading The Power of Your Subconscious Mind and some other carefully chosen self-help books. For the better. It continues to change for the better. And many years later, this friend of mine is still going to the same shrink. Read more »