Fatherless Sons: Healing the Legacy of Loss - Hardcover

Diamond Ph.D., Jonathan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 047121969X ISBN 13: 9780471219699

Publisher: Wiley, 2006

Synopsis

Praise for Fatherless Sons
"Research shows that most men now are better fathers than their own fathers were to them. A generation of men are 'making it up,' giving to their children more than they received. No one describes the poignancy--and hope--of contemporary fatherhood better than Jonathan Diamond's heartfelt and insightful new book. For every man who had a father--and who wants to be one."
--Terrence Real, author of I Don't Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression and How Can I Get Through to You?: Closing the Intimacy Gap Between Men and Women

"Diamond's moving account of his relationship with his father is a nuanced exploration of mourning and its aftermath."
--Publishers Weekly

"This is a powerful and beautiful book, written with warmth, humor, and generosity of spirit. Fatherless Sons guides us through the complex journey of grief, helping to transform pain and anguish into hope and healing."
--Dr. Dusty Miller, author of Your Surviving Spirit and Women Who Hurt Themselves

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Years of training and a successful psychotherapy practice taught Jonathan Diamond how to guide others through the grieving process. Then he learned his own father, with whom he shared a tumultuous relationship, was dying. Suddenly, Diamond found himself ambushed by the intensity of his own feelings. The son of a popular Princeton professor, Diamond alone knew what his father's adoring students and admiring colleagues did not: the explosive rage, the outbursts of violence, the unbearable anxiety—and the equally fierce love that father and son felt for each other nonetheless.

For men whose relationship with their fathers has been marred by conflict, abuse, or indifference, death extinguishes any hope of really knowing the man. Even before their fathers die, these men's grief is more about the loss of what could have been than the loss of what was. Many try to escape their feelings with anger or avoidance only to find that neither brings relief.

While navigating his own emotions, Diamond discovered that mourning a violent and abusive father becomes an attempt to take back what was stolen—an act of defiance and hope. In Fatherless Sons, the author shares with great candor his personal journey through this largely uncharted territory. Drawing upon his own experiences and those shared by his clients, Diamond provides tools for untangling the confusion in the father-son relationship, releasing the past, and celebrating the good. On this road, many men will discover for the first time an opportunity to make peace with their deceased fathers, interrupt the cycle of violence, and free their own children from a legacy of unfinished grieving and unacknowledged pain.

Whether it is yourself you see in these pages or someone you love, here you will find many moving, illuminating, and ultimately redemptive stories framed by Diamond's vivid analysis and reflections. Men and those who love them will find Fatherless Sons a powerful celebration of healing and a path to reconciliation and acceptance.

About the Author

JONATHAN DIAMOND, Ph.D., is the author of the critically acclaimed Narrative Means to Sober Ends: Treating Addiction and Its Aftermath. A practicing psychotherapist, he is also a popular speaker and presenter of workshops throughout the United States and Canada. Dr. Diamond is a contributing editor for Janus Head, an interdisciplinary journal of continental philosophy, phenomenological psychology, literature, and the arts. He lives with his wife and sons in Heath, Massachusetts. Visit his Web site at jonathandiamondphd.com.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 047121969X
• ISBN 13: 9780471219699
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272