What is the main message of Read the Face?

Discover how facial features reflect personality traits, emotions, and character in Read the Face .

How long does it take to read Read the Face?

The reading time for Read the Face varies depending on the reader's speed. However, the Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.

Is Read the Face a good book? Is it worth reading?

Read the Face is a fascinating exploration of how to interpret facial features. It offers valuable insights into understanding others and enhancing communication skills.

Who is the author of Read the Face?

The author of Read the Face is Eric Standop with Elisa Petrini.

Read the Face Summary of Key Ideas and Review | Eric Standop with Elisa Petrini

Name: Read the Face
Rating: 3.4 (190 reviews)
Author: Eric Standop with Elisa Petrini

Introduction

What’s in it for me? Learn the basics of face reading.

We read faces from the moment we’re born; it’s a skill that’s essential to our survival. Within hours, we can identify our mothers. After a few months, we can often recognize someone’s gender and emotions.

The author Eric Standop first encountered face reading on a beach in South Africa. The experience transformed him from skeptic to believer and led him to travel the world to understand this ancient art. He studied under masters in Denmark, Colombia, and Hong Kong and holds the title of sifu, which is an accomplished Chinese master reader.

These blinks give you a window into how face reading can help you find clarity in your career, relationships, and health.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how Aristotle’s ideas about physiognomy spread;
what the four most common face shapes can tell you; and
what your face says about your purpose, health, and love life.

Key idea 1 of 8

Face reading has fallen in and out of favor across the millennia.

Face reading has existed for millennia across continents, cultures, and religions. It’s been identified in the ancient hieroglyphics of Egypt and carvings of South America. And in Europe, it traces back to the fifth century BC.

Physiognomonics – often attributed to the Greek philosopher Aristotle – is the oldest surviving book on the practice. It features ideas from Aristotle’s earlier work, History of Animals, which postulates a connection between personality traits and physical features. Thanks to Alexander the Great, these ideas spread across the Middle East and India with every conquest.

The key message here is: Face reading has fallen in and out of favor across the millennia.

In medieval Europe, face reading became associated with fortune-telling and fell from grace. During the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci rejected it as being “without scientific foundation.”

But, thankfully, the seventeenth-century English physician Sir Thomas Browne revived the practice in his works Magia Naturalis and De Humana Physiognomia. During the eighteenth century, Swiss theologian Johann Kaspar Lavater expanded on Browne’s ideas. He produced a four-volume encyclopedia titled Physiognomische Fragmente, which included input from contemporaries like Goethe.

In the nineteenth century, Charles Darwin theorized that humans and animals share universal facial expressions – like raised eyebrows to demarcate surprise. He also concluded that all humans share the same core expressions, including anger, fear, and disgust. These findings were published in his third work on evolution, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.

By the mid-nineteenth century, the Italian Cesare Lombroso was incorporating classical principles and Darwin’s theories into his new field of science: criminology. Among his other dubious claims, he considered left-handedness to be a sure sign of villainy.

In the early twentieth century, new medical technologies gained popularity in the West, and physiognomy once more fell out of favor. But in Asia, it has remained a recognized discipline for thousands of years.

In fact, face reading can be traced back to the Chinese philosopher – and Confucius contemporary – Lao Tzu. Briefly banned during China’s Cultural Revolution in the ’60s and ’70s, face reading has since been revived. Today, the Chinese practice of face reading is the holy grail for many face readers, including the author.

Key idea 2 of 8

There are many face-reading methods, but the same basic principles always apply.

In his own practice, the author combines Chinese face reading methods, or Mien Shiang, with European and South American methods. But, regardless of the method, he always adheres to a few guiding principles.

First, face reading isn’t fortune-telling. Although skilled readers can interpret the past, they only leverage it to understand the here and now.

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Key idea 3 of 8

Every face shape has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Faces come in all shapes and sizes. Thousands of years ago, ten basic face shapes were observed and categorized. But, over the centuries, big shifts throughout history have changed the human character – and face.

In fact, the author estimates that roughly 30 percent of people still have a so-called “pure” face shape, 45 percent have two combined shapes, 15 percent have three, and 5 to 10 percent have four or more shapes.

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Key idea 4 of 8

Your eyes and mouth reveal a lot about you.

Our eyes are the proverbial windows to our soul. We use them to communicate – and it’s usually the eyes that first attract us to another person. Anatomically, the eyes have a direct connection to the brain via the optic nerves, so it’s no wonder that face readers can glean so much from the eyes alone.

Take the sclera – the white part of the eye. If the sclera is visible below the iris, it could mean exhaustion or an overactive imagination. When it’s visible above the iris, it’s a sign of negative emotions, anger, or fear. And when the sclera is visible both above and below the iris, it could suggest hyperactivity or hypersensitivity.

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Key idea 5 of 8

Your hands – or “second face” – provide insight into your personality.

Did you know that each hand contains 27 bones and 33 muscles? This composition makes them very expressive and sensitive. Face readers don’t read palms like fortune-tellers do – but they do use the hand’s shape and movement to glean a lot about personality.

Originating in India, chirology – that is, the study of hands – was temporarily banned by the Catholic church because it was seen as a pagan practice. Apart from that brief period, though, it has been considered a serious science.

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Key idea 6 of 8

Your face can indicate your life purpose and innate talents.

The author believes that everyone is on Earth to fulfill a life purpose. And your face’s shape and features can hint at what your personality is most suited for. Perhaps you need a structured environment to thrive, or you just need clear goals to vanquish life’s challenges.

Using face reading to determine someone’s life purpose is challenging. It requires pinpointing abstract components of a personality, determining how to use innate gifts, and taking into account obstructions that could get in the way. In short, it entails seeing how to maximize a person’s potential.

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Key idea 7 of 8

Diagnostic face-reading techniques take years of study and practice to master.

Face reading has been used to diagnose illnesses throughout the centuries. In the West, it started with Hippocrates. Known as the “Father of Medicine,” he was the first in his field to treat illnesses as biological ailments instead of spiritual influences.

Meanwhile, the Ayurvedic practice of face mapping has been used in India for 5,000 years – and in China, face reading forms a pillar of traditional Chinese medicine.

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Key idea 8 of 8

The way you interact with your partner reveals a lot about your relationship.

Think about your first love – was it their chin, ear size, or forehead wrinkle that stole your heart? Probably not! Those features may mean something to a face reader, but for you, it was probably the eyes and lips that sealed the deal – even if only on a subconscious level.

Of course, once you get beyond the physical aspects, finding the right partner requires compatibility in character. In other words, it’s important to understand each other’s values and be on the same page.

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