Escaping Enemy Mode: How Our Brains Unite or Divide Us

About the Author
JIM WILDER (PhD, Clinical Psychology, and M.A. Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary) has been training leaders and counselors for over 27 years on five continents. He is the author of nine books with a strong focus on maturing and relationship skills for leaders. His coauthored book Living From the Heart Jesus Gave You has sold over 100,000 copies in eleven languages. Wilder has published numerous articles and developed four sets of video and relational leadership training called THRIVE. He is currently executive director of Shepherd's House Inc., a nonprofit working at the intersection of brain science and theology, and founder of Life Model Works that is building contagiously healthy Christian communities through equipping existing networks with the skills to thrive. Dr. Wilder has extensive clinical counseling experience and has served as a guest lecturer at Fuller Seminary, Biola, Talbot Seminary, Point Loma University, Montreat College, Tyndale Seminary and elsewhere.
REV. RAY WOOLRIDGE (M.Div., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; Master of Strategic Studies, U.S. Army War College) is the Executive Director of Life Model Works. He is thrilled to serve in a role that combines his pastoral and leadership experience with his calling, giftings, and walk with God. Ray is a skilled public communicator and a leadership coach who enjoys helping leaders discover their uniqueness and unleash their potential. He is a retired U.S. Army Brigadier General with forty-three years of military and civilian service with the Department of Defense.
Ray has been blessed by thirty-five years of marriage to the love of his life, Deborah. They enjoy life in Colorado and their five children and four grandchildren. A disabled veteran, he is a malignant melanoma cancer survivor, avid skier, coffee aficionado, and mentor to young leaders.
Who’s your biggest enemy? Possibly you?
Enemy Mode is an immensely damaging brain state that occurs in everyday life. In enemy mode, a person sees and experiences others as adversaries. Living in this mode poisons family and community bonds. It contributes to social stress, business failure, divorce, alienation, domestic violence, crime, racism, and international violence. Social media magnifies the impact of enemy mode toward almost all topics or persons imaginable.
Longtime author and neuropsychologist Dr. Jim Wilder explains how the brain develops enemy mode and searches for ways to get the brain to “refriend.” Since a brain in enemy mode cannot tell when someone is trying to help, it rejects or attacks its allies, including refrienders. Wilder puts his years of research to the test in assessing the impossible task put forth by the Christian faith: to love one’s enemies.
After being trained in enemy mode through the military, business, and even friendships, retired Brigadier General Ray Woolridge comes alongside Wilder, bringing the reader on his journey of learning to refriend. He interviews leaders in sports, business, the military, law enforcement, politics, health care, and education, assessing the enemy mode impact on lives and culture.
Can Wilder and Woolridge figure out how enemy mode works and craft a solution? And can they get people and institutions to implement those solutions? This book is for all who desire to be better equipped to face the barrage of daily relational stressors that come at them. It’s for all who long for more harmonious relationships at home, in the workplace, and in their communities.