Emotional Resilience : Simple Truths for Dealing with the Unfinished Business of Your Past

Rating:
Summary: The only self-help book you'll ever need
Review: This book gets right to the root of depression, addiction, low self-esteem, fear of relationships, fear of change -- any problem that a sane person might suffer from. Whether you're familiar with your issues, or your life just feels stagnant and unfulfilling and you're not sure why, this book is a must-read. And if you have always scoffed at self-help books... this one has your name on it!

Rating:
Summary: Nothing New
Review: Viscott's theme throughout the book is to be truthful. This seems ironic from a man who believed in poltergeist and the paranormal; from a man whos reality testing method was jumping to conclusions. He discusses how events can trigger emotional responses in people because they are getting in touch with the truth. Apparently, Viscott never heard of delusion, exaggeration, or misperception. He uses the terms truth and true feeling interchangeably, even though true feelings can be based on untruths. He talks about forgiveness as though people have a switch they can turn on and off at will. He relates all mental illness to some hidden truth. But, he never provides any supporting data for this. Instead, he just weaves up his ideas without any regard for the real truth. He mentions that his patients would sometimes become depressed after hearing their therapy tapes of sessions with him. He concludes that they are depressed because they hear themselves being untruthful on the tape. It never occurs to him that maybe they become depressed because they hear a harmful therapist. His stressing of the truth gets old fast in the book. Who doesn't know that knowing the truth can be helpful? What a revelation! Furthermore, Viscott was the last person who could ever know the truth because he didn't have a logical, scientific thinking process. He would jump to foregone conclusions and assume that this was the truth.