ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book is the product of many discussions with many people over many years. I am especially indebted to my wife, Alice, who has encouraged my writing, challenged my thinking, tolerated my intense preoccupation with this book, and generously shared her low-conflict lifestyle with me for over three decades.

I owe a special thanks to my agent, Scott Edelstein, and his wife, Ariella Tilsen. She gets credit for coming up with the premise of this book after a discussion they had about the world situation. Scott gets credit for creating the title and insisting that I was the person who should write this book—and do it quickly.

I would like to thank Megan Hunter, who cofounded the High Conflict Institute with me over ten years ago, as well as the speakers and staff who regularly sharpen my thinking about understanding and managing high-conflict situations and personalities.

I honor the memory of my parents, Margaret and Roland Eddy, and my stepmother, Helen Eddy, who gave me an open-minded upbringing, a sense of service, empathy for others, and excitement about always learning.

The following family and friends gave me very specific and helpful feedback: Cathy Eddy, Alice Fichandler, Dennis Doyle, and Norma Mark. I also appreciate my friends LaRue and Phil Rockhold for providing a wonderful cabin in the woods for writing some key parts of this book, and Bonnie Elias and Stewart Kocivar for adding to the inspiration and discussions.

Last, but not least, I want to thank the team at Berrett-Koehler Publishers—and it really is a team. The key diagram of this book in Chapter 3 (4-Way Voter Split) clicked into place in my mind—and on their whiteboard—when they had me present my book concepts to the entire office. I especially appreciate my editor Anna Leinberger for overall guidance; my copyeditor Rebecca Rider for her very detailed and accurate changes and additions (and tolerance of my occasional resistance); and Jeevan Sivasubramaniam for his always-encouraging editorial supervision. I appreciate the early feedback from these reviewers of my first draft: Mark Annett, Jill Swenson, Jessa Orluk, Deborah Nikkel, and Sarah Modlin. I thank Lasell Whipple and Maureen Forys for their creative (and fun) design, Michael Crowley and Katie Sheehan for their wise marketing advice (and helping me overcome my marketing hesitations), and Chloe Wong and Shabnam Banerjee-McFarland for their work on the endorsements of the book. And finally, I am excited to work again with Kelli Daniels as the publicist in making this another widely read book on this difficult topic of high-conflict personalities.