Product Description

The author of the bestselling Minding the Body, Mending the Mind, offers a compassionate, healing guide for overcoming the devastating effects of guilt.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #207008 in Books
• Published on: 1991-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Library Journal
Postulating that guilt is the root cause of many physical and emotional ailments, the author presents a mind/body system intended to eradicate guilt and promote well-being. Rejecting both formal religions and science, she develops a psycho-spiritual program that focuses inward on the human psyche; indeed, many of her good pointers for overcoming guilt are embedded in mystical and visionary experience. Borysenko affirms the reality of visions and relates instances of her patients' seeing the light--literally--and recovering from physical pain. The book is replete with New Age-type jargon: "Can you remember times when you were spontaneously centered and in touch with the Self?" The author's strange amalgam of pseudo-scientific concepts, extraneous elements of Eastern religions, and strands of mysticism will undoubtedly have great appeal to many troubled, confused people trying to "find themselves." Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/89.
- Carol R. Glatt, Northeastern Hosp. of Philadelphia
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap
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Read by the Author

From the bestselling author of Minding the Body, Mending the Mind: an accessible guide to healing the destructive effects of guilt.

The reaction by parents, teachers and peers to our own actions often determines our sense of self - how confident we feel and how secure we are about our place in the world. When self-blame and pessimism begin to overtake self-esteem and optimism, the rest may be emotional, physical and spiritual distress.

In Guilt is the Teacher, Love is the Answer, Dr. Joan Borysenko, a Harvard Ph.D., explores this mind/body connection as she offers personal and professional advice for journeying toward recovery and self-love.

Here at last is an insightful and uplifting approach for turning the teachings of guilt into the lessons of love.

Customer Reviews

Balanced and very helpful
Joan Borysenko is often dismissed as a New Age airhead, and her recent books are mostly a rehash of her earlier ones. But I think this is her strongest book, for several reasons. Guilt is a powerful component in many people's psychological makeup (especially women's). While pop psychologists tend to dismiss guilt as simply an unhealthy vestige of an overly strict religious upbringing, this does justice to neither the force of the emotion nor its positive components, compassion and responsibility. Borysenko avoids oversimplifying these issues, distinguishes the healthy from the unproductive aspects of guilt (her discussion of "New Age Guilt" is worth the price of the book), and offers positive guidance on how to learn the lessons guilt can teach us. A major contribution to Western philosophy it's not, but I found this book the most balanced, sane, and practical discussion of guilt that I've ever read.

Anyone who suffers from obsessive guilt . .
. . should read this book. Joan Borysenko, PhD., appears to be highly versed in the knowledge of guilt, as she suffered from this disease herself.

This book is rich in different forms of psychology, both past and present, but it also mixes the spiritual with that psychology. I think, with most psychologists, that is the factor that is missing. There's the physical, the mental, and the spiritual. Too often, doctors leave the latter out of their practice, and I believe, as Joan Borysenko illustrates, it is a mistake.

This is not just merely a self-help book, but a book that gives you a lot of detail and insight on unhealthy guilt. The aurthor uses examples from her own life, as well as from some of the people she has come across in her practice, to give the reader further understanding. There's exercises for the reader to try, as well as meditations.

If you've EVER suffered from obsessive, unhealty guilt and low self-esteem, this book is MUST.

Having coffee with Joan
That's what this book will feel like to you: surely you must be sitting in your favorite coffeeshop across from Joan Borysenko, bending heads over a couple of Cafe Mochas! Joan tells it like it is, but with compassion, and a relation to what happened to her. I've had suspicions about the source of guilt in my life, but Joan's stories were the push to clarity. Years of talk therapy coalesced for me with this book. I had the good fortune to meet Joan once. Her energy is so friendly; you'll swear you've known her all her life. Thank the Source for inspiring this woman to teach us!