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Rating: 
Summary: The Antidote for Surviving Catastrophe
Review: +++++
Based on his over thirty years of experience as a psychiatrist, Frederic Flach reveals the antidote for the destructive effects of stress and change -- resilience. And the good news is that Flach assures us is that the "most encouraging observation I've made over these years is that resilience is a strength most of us can develop through thought and practice."
What is resilience? Flach tells us that it is "the strengths we require to master cycles of disruption [emotional upset caused by stressful events such as a family death, divorce, or job loss] and reintegration [putting the pieces of our life back together] throughout our lives." This book offers simple and practical advice on how to perfect those strengths that we all have within us.
In this book, some of the things you will discover are as follows:
1. Over a dozen traits that will make you more resilient.
2. Why giving into stress and "falling apart" may be the best step to take on the road to resilience.
3. Why the use of prescription drugs may not be the best choice in removing the psychological pain caused by stress.
4. Why creative problem solving is a major part of resilience.
5. The factors in our environment needed to facilitate resilience.
Finally, a remarkable quality of this book is that it is easy to read and thus easy to learn from. There is no confusing technical psychobabble. The most interesting aspect of this book is that Flach uses some of his actual patient studies to illustrate his practical advice. Also, there is a large reference section if the reader wants to learn more.
In conclusion, this book will change the way you think about stress FOREVER.
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Rating:
Summary: The Antidote for Surviving Catastrophe
Review: =====>Based on his over thirty years of experience as a psychiatrist, Frederic Flach reveals the antidote for the destructive effects of stress and change -- resilience. And the good news is that Flach assures us is that the "most encouraging observation I've made over these years is that resilience is a strength most of us can develop through thought and practice." What is resilience? Flach tells us that it is "the strengths we require to master cycles of disruption [emotional upset caused by stressful events such as a family death, divorce, or job loss] and reintegration [putting the pieces of our life back together] throughout our lives." This book offers simple and practical advice on HOW to perfect those strengths that we all have within us. In this book, some of the things you will discover are as follows: ===> over a dozen traits that will make you more resilient
===> why giving into stress and "falling apart" may be the best step to take on the road to resilience
===> why the use of prescription drugs may not be the best choice in removing the psychological pain caused by stress
===> why creative problem solving is a major part of resilience
===> the factors in our environment needed to facilitate resilience A remarkable quality of this book is that it is easy to read and thus easy to learn from. There is no confusing technical psychobabble. The most interesting aspect of this book is that Flach uses some of his actual patient studies to illustrate his practical advice. Also, there is a large reference section if the reader wants to learn more. In conclusion, this book will change the way you think about stress FOREVER. <=====>
Rating:
Summary: Excellent information on resilience
Review: Frederic Flach, M.D., graduated from Cornell University Medical College where he currently serves as Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry. He is an attending psychiatrist at the Payne Whitney Clinic of New York Hospital and of St. Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center. He has written numerous books on resilience and the survivor personality, with a particular emphasis on the management of stress throughout one's life. This 234-page book is clearly written and well laid out, with a table of contents, index and bibliography. Dr. Flach starts the book with an introduction explaining the concept of resilience, which he defines as the "psychological and biological strengths required to successfully master change." In the modern, fragmented, urban world that 95% of us in the U.S. live in today, no topic could be more significant. Dr. Flach has spent years studying how people cope with major catastrophes and terrible hardships, as well as potentially dangerous major turning points in their lives. He has discovered that there are common personality traits of people who are resilient/survivors, including:
--creativity
--a high ability to tolerate pain, emotional and physical
--self-insight
--self-respect
--self-esteem and the ability to restore it when it is diminished or temporarily lost
--a capacity for learning
--the ability to make and keep friends
--the ability to cooperate and inter-depend on others without being dependent
--a vital, evolving perspective on interpreting the events in one's life and giving them meaning
--a willingness to utilize crisis and suffering as an opportunity to heal old wounds, discover new ways to approach life and make themselves over
--a body able to deal with the physical strains of the stress response
--a willingness to "appropriately collapse" in the face of a significant amount of stress and change (take time to experience the extent of the problem on all levels)
--an ability to contain within reasonable limits the amount of disruption in their lives due to the stress and change
--a desire to directly and practically attempt to reassemble the pieces of their lives after collapsing and containing the disruption
--a support network out in the world and a willingness to seek help when they need it, from friends, family or mental health or medical professionals I find Dr. Flach's theoretical framework fascinating, informative and very useful, to wit: that it is a fact of life in nature that the physical world we are all part of is made up of endless cycles of disruption and reintegration. As human beings with physical bodies, living in the physical world, no matter how brilliantly and creatively we have managed to seemingly defy and work against the natural reality, it remains, always, within and around us. Thus we continually face crisis (the end of a cycle in our life, which demands that we change in response to a newly entering, different reality), and stress (the response of the body to any demand made upon it). Dr. Flach provides an clear, easily understandable, compelling discussion of both these issues. I found his remarks on stress an excellent expansion on the huge body of literature on this topic written over the past 30-40 years. And I found extremely profound and useful the way he ties stress and disruption-reintegration together by explaining, very clearly, the concept of homeostasis. This, he states, is the innate drive within all living creatures, including humans, to maintain themselves in states of coherence, that is, to return to the status quo after being disturbed. This self-preserving, adaptive capacity is in all of us, and it is essential that we use it, rather than fighting against it, to maintain physical and mental health. If you were to read only one book on the subject of resilience, this would be a very good choice. It is easy to read, and it makes a logical, concise, clear argument that is consistent throughout. Dr. Flach draws practical, meaningful conclusions, based on his professional experience with thousands of patients and his own professional research, and offers simple, understandable, practical suggestions for ways to survive and grow in the face of the inevitable stress and change we all face constantly.
Rating:
Summary: A unique, powerful approach to mastering personal change!
Review: The New England Journal of Medicine: "Part practical, part inspirational...Written with clarity...contains short, readable examples for all aspects of life...useful to lay persons in times of crises."...Stanley Krippner, Ph.D., Saybrook Institute: "Well written and vital. Flach presents ways of coping with stress, recovering from disruption and creating a process by which one can not only survive catastrophe but can escape with flexibility, faith, and the will to endure."
Rating: 
Summary: Avoid this book
Review: This is a depressing book for people trying to find resilience within themselves. Dr. Flach blames parenting, childrood, peer groups and "the unconscious" - all of which one cannot change. He seems to believe in psychotherapy not self-help, which is disappointing. What a downer.
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