Rating: 
Summary: From bitterness to sweetness of life
Review: About a year ago, I had a big fight with my best friend since childhood. He told me that I have lost my real self and become so bitter about the world. He told me that I was being extremely defensive and have become critical, sarcastic, and angry with every move I make. He asked me, "Where is the upbeat exciting positive Sam I knew twenty years ago? Where is the Sam that loves the beauty of nature? Where is the Sam the wonders about the mystery of life? Where is the Sam that gave a ______ about others? Where the heck is he? You are nothing but a shell of that person I knew! You just look the same on the outside but inside you have become a totally different person!" I still have not admitted it to him but I knew that what he was saying was right... I drank for a few days like I did so often back then but something told me that this isn't going away that easily. So I started my search. "Healing the Child Within" was a book that helped me find some of the things I was looking for. I looked back at my life and realized that I have had many little misfortunes pile up from when I was a little kid. If you allow it to happen, these little things keep chipping away at you until your self-esteem is smaller than a grain of sand. Your heart shrivels up until it is like a dried raisin. Like a fearful little dog barking its ears off, you even learn be aggressive to protect yourself from any further pain. Even though I still have lots of psychological work to do, I have been learning to nourish my heart again. It is scary but I can assure you that it is worthwhile. I started with this book, which is a wonderful place to start. I now have another fantastic book that is helping me in the next steps I am taking. It is called the "Ever-Transcending Spirit" by Toru Sato. It explains all of these things in a more simple way and places this process in the larger context of human relationships, development and evolution. It is absolutely awesome! I would highly recommend the "Ever-Transcending Spirit" by Toru Sato as well. The road to recovery is long but as Lao-Tzu says, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." I'd like to send a warm "Thank you" to these psychologists/authors.
Rating:
Summary: A Turning Point in My Life
Review: After a tumultuous adolescence and early adulthood I found myself in therapy. My therapist recommended that I attend a self-help group for adult children of dysfunctional families. The therapist also suggested that I read "Healing the Child Within". I didn't think I needed any self help group -at least not badly enough to go through the trouble of actually finding such a group in my area. After being in therapy for one year I read "Healing the Child Within". I was not physically or sexually abused as a child. What I did not understand was how pervasive and harmful the emotional NEGLECT was and how it still affected me as an adult. What I learned from this book was how much I had been deprived of as a child. How feelings of fear and anxiety as an adult could be the result of childhood experience. After reading this book I was left with a very strong desire to attend a self help group. I attended my first ACoA group in October 1988 and my life has gotten better in ways I cannot put into words. This book for me was not the answer but a trigger to seek further help. But if I had not had this trigger I would not be where I am today. In the context of a trigger, I can honestly say that this book changed my life in a very profound way.
Rating: 
Summary: This healed the CHILD IN ME
Review: After the war with the Iraqi's, I reverted to my old self: I was sucking my thumb and wetting the bed at night. I was really messed up from the war and the torpedo accident. This book healed my inner child, and now I can shoot my guns again, and I dont wet the bed anymore. I re-enlisted in the marines, and I'm going back to the war and back to my former glory. Thanks Amazon.com.
Rating:
Summary: Thank you!
Review: Despite the number of times that anyone insists that one is worthy of the praise, or the special adoration they receive from someone else, it does little for the truly emotionally damaged child who must impress not others, but himself, first, in the choices made, the perseverence to make commitments and stand up to defend those, in essence, making his own true groove with which he is comfortable, and growing. External admiration does little except divert the process of coming to grips with the inner voices by which we define our own existence, and how well it is working for us. Because harm lingers, it is always a necessity to do that personal work oneself, to get beyond the need to rely upon others, and pursue the priorities we feel are important to our lives, to ourselves, and to the interests and principles we prize over all others. That priority assigning process is well explained by the author to encourage us to identify weaknesses that tend to interfere with our own best self image cultivated by us, that enables others to share the esteem we have for ourselves, the hardest self development work of all, but one worthier than most others. Being true to oneself is the highest protection that one can bestow upon oneself to protect the vulnerability that lies within each of us.
Rating: 
Summary: Right Tittle, Wrong Content
Review: I bought this book four years ago, based on the tittle. Technically, the author probably knows his stuff. The way information is conveyed is so dry and inaccessable that I found it very hard to connect with. Think of a college professor who kills your favorite subject with his sterile personality. This year, I bought "Bradshaw On: The Family" by John Bradshaw. This is the book I needed four years ago! If you are going to invest your time and energy on inner healing, you deserve better than Whitfield's book. I offer this review in the hope that in some small way I can make a positive contribution to someone else's inner journey.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth a look
Review: I did find some of the information in this book useful, but I don't particularly care for the concept of the inner child as something split off or separate, as opposed to looking at people as whole human beings with core issues from our childhood. Although it is a difficult book in terms of reading level, I would reccommend Daniel Stern's The Interpersonal World of the Infan to get another, I believe more useful exploration of core issues. The second issue I have with the book is that because he's trying to write for a general audience, the author uses checklists that I find rather broad. In order to really discover if a person has come from a dysfunctional (an over-used term in itself -- it is too subjective. Read chapter one of Normal Family Processes by Walsh to get a good discussion of this issue) family, work with a therapist is required. That said, the author is a good writer, and the book is easy to follow. Some of his ideas about grief are right on, and I like the fact that he looks at human needs beyond Maslow's five (which he mislabels, by the way).
Rating: 
Summary: good place to start for discovery of your inner self
Review: I found this book to be very helpful in refining ways to bring out my true self. Although the author talks a lot about alcoholics and ACoA it applies to people who came from disfunctional families. I would definately reccomend it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellant, everyone should read this book.
Review: I have now purchased my fourth book as I have given each away even before I finished reading cover to cover myself. Most likely I'll give this copy away to a friend too.
Rating:
Summary: Authoritative
Review: I purchased a glut of books on child abuse and this was by far one of the bright stars. I knew the moment I started reading it that I was reading a book underpinned by a lot of experience. Dr. Whitfield writes qualitatively with practicality and compassion and authority. It's a very helpful sourcebook to quantify feelings, effects, causes, and -- something I haven't seen in the others -- a description of important required stages in healthy child development. It's not one of those stuffy books full of jargon and psyche-speak, but a well-formatted and readable book. It doesn't pretend to provide all the healing and all the answers, but if you want a good starting point in your recovery, this is it. His methodical lists and questionnaires, though not many, are thorough and name the issues in the abuse victim's life, which is as much a healing in itself. Coincidentally, this book is the source for quotes in a good number of the other books that I purchased, suggesting that it carries some authority in this field. It's not a recovery workbook, but does give some useful detail about recovery processes, stages and methods.
Rating:
Summary: Best book I've read on the subject ever!
Review: I read this book in 1989 and it changed my whole life so much I gave copies of it away for two years. Recovering from living with a dysfunctional family doesn't happen overnight. I highly reccommend all of the author's work on the subject and am very grateful that I found this book first.
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