Freud realized that most of our present troubles and anxieties originate in the home. The way you relate to your parents sets the pattern for all of the relationships in your life.
All too often we find that "Your past becomes your future." If we grew up with an alcoholic father, we marry an alcoholic, or become one ourselves. If we are abused, we marry an abuser, or become one ourselves. We marry a person, and realize one day that he or she is curiously like our father or mother. Why?
Roy Masters, father of five and grandfather of twelve, reveals with unique and penetrating insight the underlying dynamics of family relationships: how they affect us, how they lead to our current problems, and what we can do to become free from the past - so we are free to develop strong and honest relationships with our own children and parents.
"The process of becoming a real good parent is in itself a growing-up experience. As you correct your child, the naughty child in you is loved."
With such hard-hitting chapters as "Parental Injustice: The Cause of Violence," "Fathers: Forgive Them, For They Know Not What They Do," "What Kind Of Woman Marries a Wimp?" and "The Power of Emotionless Love," Masters offers a map of our past so we can find freedom and peace in the present. This is a book every parent should read.
To millions of people, Roy Masters is a daily voice of sanity and conscience.
Born April 2, 1928, by the age of four, young Roy was already aware of the plight of human existence. "I remember looking down upon the street from the window of our apartment, and watching the people walking back and forth from their homes to their work," he recalls. I clearly remember the expressions of unhappiness on their faces and thinking to myself, 'There must be more to life than this.'"
Masters' father died of a heart attack when Roy was fifteen. In 1948, Roy left England for South Africa, where he worked as a diamond cutter for a little over a year. At age 24, Masters married his wife, Ann, and eventually settled down in Houston, Texas, where he established the Institute of Hypnosis. In 1961, Roy had become aware, as a result of his work with hypnosis, that the reason why he was so successsful with his patients was that he was actually DE-hypnotizing them. Needless to say, he was eager to share his discovery with as large an audience as possible.
In 1963, Roy formed the Foundation of Human Understanding, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people resolve their problems using the knowledge Roy had discovered. Soon, he decided to buy a small amount of air time and go on the radio. The program was a success from the very beginning.
Today, Roy continues to spread his message not only to his five children and (at last count) eleven grandchildren, but to millions who listen to his radio show every day.
The Foundation has achieved modest success by worldly standards. But for the thousands whose lives have been changed through their contact with the Foundation, however, the organization has achieved the greatest success possible.
