Description
If you grew up with an emotionally immature, unavailable, or selfish parent, you may have lingering feelings of anger, loneliness, betrayal, or abandonment. You may recall your childhood as a time when your emotional needs were not met, when your feelings were dismissed, or when you took on adult levels of responsibility in an effort to compensate for your parent’s behavior. These wounds can be healed, and you can move forward in your life.
In this breakthrough book, clinical psychologist Lindsay Gibson exposes the destructive nature of parents who are emotionally immature or unavailable. You will see how these parents create a sense of neglect, and discover ways to heal from the pain and confusion caused by your childhood. By freeing yourself from your parents’ emotional immaturity, you can recover your true nature, control how you react to them, and avoid disappointment. Finally, you’ll learn how to create positive, new relationships so you can build a better life.
Discover the four types of difficult parents:
The emotional parent instills feelings of instability and anxiety
The driven parent stays busy trying to perfect everything and everyone
The passive parent avoids dealing with anything upsetting
The rejecting parent is withdrawn, dismissive, and derogatory
I'm half way through and finding it useful, it's clear, not too 'hippy speak', and it's helping put some thoughts in order.
Obviously it won't be perfect for everyone, but I'm happy with it. It's aimed at adults.
Bear in mind there are some Americanisms, but I think the bulk of the book so far is readable.
Thanks for reading, I hope you find this review helpful.
- a lot of head nodding and delight to have the right language for my experiences;
- a lot of gasping due to hyper-specific instances that I could relate to, way too clearly;
- an incurable itch to share snippets with a few people in my life who would benefit from this 'enlightenment' (I did end up passing this one to a few friends already);
-the strongest desire to go back in time and read this as a teenager.
I wish I had read this book sooner!
Finally, some validation to my family's repeated claim that I am "too sensitive" and guess what: its more a reflection of their own emotional deficiencies than my own!
This book filled a much-needed role of showing what healthy behaviors I should expect in relationships and what healthy behaviors I do need to work on my own. Still a work in progress.
Either way I call this a win.