Tracy M. (tracymar) reviewed An influential and extraordinary insightful self-help self-parenting book on + 408 more book reviews
In the early 1980s, I was in psychotherapy, and eventually decided to receive training as a psychotherapist. In addition to personal growth workshops, I had been devouring self-help books - by the dozens or indeed hundreds. This was one of the best, and in fact one of only two books that influenced me during that time that I kept for over 30 years. It is one of the clearest explanations of how our past influences our present, and how we continue our parents treatment of ourselves from childhood in our present attitudes and behaviors. The book is organized around psychological traits such as perfectionism, submissiveness, overindulgence, rejection, sexual overstimulation - discussing how each is most likely rooted in the past and incorporated into our adult behavior. Although the focus is on the influence of the past in the present, the last chapter, BECOMING A NEW KIND OF PARENT TO YOURSELF is indeed valuable in regard to the task of learning to reparent oneself.
