This book details some of the ways a person can overcome problems in finding meaningful relationships. For example, if you are shy, Burns has you do activities that involve you interacting with people. He teaches you how to flirt. His advice is often common sense, for example if you don't bathe or comb your hair very often he tells you to bathe and comb every day. Burns also teaches you ways to set your expectations at realistic levels in order to minimize painful emotional episodes, for example I'm not going to try to date Christie Brinkley, she's "out of my league", so I'm not hurt that she doesn't want to date me. (That's just an example, I do not know her personally, nor have ever asked her out). The only problem with this book is that at times it focuses on shallower aspects of relationships, like flirting, and appearance and gives the reader the impression that he views these aspects as more important. I believe Dr. Burns meant this book to be a basic level guide to relationships, meaning, that he has you concentrate on shallower aspects of relationships in hopes that it will be easier for you to develop more meaningful relationships. The reader should take from this book what he/she needs and drop the rest. For example, I had no problem flirting, so I ignored his pages on that and focused on a couple of other items that he addressed.