Healing the Child Within

Rating:
Summary: excellent book, with helpful pictures and table pages
Review: This small book by Whitfield, M.D. is a great big book for anyone who has disfunctional problems, either in their own lives, or with people that they associate with. For such a "small" book it is exceptional, and has many excellent pages of graphs, pictures, and tables that allow the reader to visually "see" subjects that otherwise would be only mentally understood. Additionally, it is well organized, so the reader quickly grasps in just a few pages what might have taken chapters in other books. The chapters on self esteem, stress, and grieving show to the reader how all the disfunctional topics are inter-related, so that you can see how "one problem" is actually several problems in a persons life. Overall, an small but exceptional book full of information on the dynamics of disfunctionally, and how deeply this impacts all our lives.

Rating:
Summary: Was very helpful to me!
Review: Until a close friend pointed this out to me, I never realized how empty I felt about my life and how bitter I have become toward the world. I noticed that there was defensiveness in everything I did and was spitting out sarcastic, critical, and sometimes even very angry and hurtful remarks at people left, right, and center. Then I realized. Where did it all go? The moments when I truly felt how beautiful some things, music, and people are. The trust and care I had for other people. The utter appreciation of life that I felt when I was little. Where did it all go? "Healing the Child within" was a book that helped me figure this out. I looked back at my life, my history, and my childhood and realized that although I was never abused and never had any serious trauma, life keeps chipping away at us from a very early age. As this happens, our hearts begin to close little by little. It even learns to attack in order to protect itself from potential danger. Even though I still have lots of psychological work to do, I have been learning to open my heart again. It is scary but I can assure you that it is worthwhile. I started with this book and I think it is a great place to start. It is highly recommended. I now have another fantastic book I really like regarding this topic. 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 development and evolution. It is absolutely awesome! I would highly recommend this one by Sato as well.