Verbal Judo: Words As a Force Option

by George J. Thompson

This book will help police officers and other contact professionals develop verbal strategies that can transform potentially explosive encounters into positive resolutions. It addresses the most difficult problems of the street encounter where quick thinking and spontaneous verbal response often make the difference between life and death. The author explores all kinds of confrontation rhetoric and offers both a theoretical and practical account of how to handle street situations. Following an introduction to the problems of street communication the author focues on five basic rhetorical elements perspective, audience, voice, purpose and organization. The principles and techniques described can be used in practically every verbal encounter. Each chapter includes case studies that give readers practice in developing rhetorical strategies for handling street encounters and dealing with the public. The final chapter provides a professional model for police officers. It presents a definition of the law enforcement profession that will command respect from the public and offer those in the profession a firm sense of identity. Doc's book broke new ground and created what is now the world's only Tactical Communication course!

158 pages, Hardcover

Published October 1, 1983

About the author

Dr. Thompson ("Doc Rhino") is the Founder of the Verbal Judo Institute. Since 1983 and until he died in 2011, he personally trained more than 700,000 individuals in Tactical Communications -- a program he developed in 1983 for defusing conflict and redirecting behavior with words.

Doc had a B.A. from Colgate University (1963), a Masters and Doctorate in English from the University of Connecticut (1972), and completed post-doctoral work at Princeton University in Rhetoric & Persuasion (1979). He has written and published four books on Tactical Communictions.

Widely published in magazines and periodicals, his training has been highlighted in such national media outlets as NBC, ABC, & CBS News, CNN, 48 Hours, Inside Edition, LETN, In the Line of Duty, and Fox news, as well as in the LA Times, NY Post, Sacramento Bee, and other publications.

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