Guilt: Letting Go

Shows how to understand and let go of your guilt. The first part deals with the causes of guilt, its manifestations, where it originates, how it works in the family and in personal relationships, and how it is manipulated by advertisers and salesmen. Describes the outlets it finds when it is denied, its relationship to fear and anger, shame and jealousy, and how it differs in men and women. The second part focuses on how to let go of the guilt the reader has been carrying around for years and includes chapters on denial, changing the inner script of the past, what to do when guilt persists, distinguishing between real guilt and imagined guilt, how to lessen it and how to cope with it.

Well known for Fight Against Fears and her many other self-help books, Freeman has collaborated with Strean, a psychotherapist, to produce this Freudian-oriented guide to coping with a nagging conscience. The first part of the text explores the roots of guiltin anxiety about a forbidden wish for sexual satisfaction or aggression. When this wish is frustrated, people feel anxious and then may experience anguish and guilt that can cripple self-esteem and be so paralyzing, the authors claim, that victims are subject to easy manipulation and an irrational sense of unworthiness. The book's second part contains the authors' advice to end the guilt trip by accepting the sexual and aggressive desires within oneself. The material is presented clearly, thanks in part to the book's many examples, culled presumably from Strean's practice. The writing is dense and somewhat dry, however. 25,000 ad/promo.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"Our seeds of guilt are sown in the cradle," assert the authors, for infants experience rage at their helplessness and learn to feel the guilt that inevitably follows anger. Leaning heavily on Freud, Freeman and Strean first discuss thoroughly how guilt feelings develop. Two issues are emphasized: the differences in guilt felt by men and women, and sex and guilt. Interspersed among the theoretical passages are thought-provoking anecdotes describing the development of guilt in life situations. The second half of the book, devoted to letting go of guilt, falters somewhat. Instead of presenting a concrete method of easing guilt, Freeman and Strean provide only simplistic advice such as "stop denying your guilt" and "make wise choices rather than acting compulsively." Recommended for larger public libraries. Mary L. Kirk, Randall Lib., Univ . of North Carolina, Wilmington
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.