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Psychology, Psychiatry, Counseling

Click on the title to read more about each book or to buy it via Amazon.com.  Alice Answers highly recommends each of these books. Unless noted, the descriptions are from Amazon.com

Cline, Foster W. and Jim Fay

Gordon, Dr. Thomas

Gray, John

James, Muriel

Love, Dr. Patricia  with Jo Robinson

Peck, M. Scott

Schlessinger, Dr. Laura C.

Tannen, Deborah

Parenting With Love and Logic : Teaching Children Responsibility
EFFECTIVE PARENTING-WITHOUT THE POWER STRUGGLES.

As parents, you have only a few years to prepare your children for a world that requires responsibility and maturity for survival. That thought alone can send shivers down your parental spine!

So what do you do? Hover over your kids so they never make mistakes? Drill them so they'll remember the important principles when you're on their own? Tear your hair out, wondering if teaching them responsibility is anything but a battle of wills?

P.E.T. - Parent Effectiveness Training
Editorial Reviews
Parent Effectiveness Training is a proven method to bring parents and their children together and to show parents how to help their children become mature, healthy, happy, and loving individuals. Hundreds of thousands of parents have completed Dr. Thomas Gordon's P.E.T. training course with tangible results. The system is designed to work with children of all ages, from the very young up through the rebellious adolescent years. In P.E.T. , Gordon gives examples of families who have succeeded and explains all the steps necessary for less fighting, fewer tantrums, and closer and more trusting relationships.

"The 'no-lose' method that has become a national movement." --The New York Times

Parent Effectiveness Training : The Proven Program for Raising Responsible Children
Book Description
P.E.T., or Parent Effectiveness Training, began almost forty years ago as the first national parent-training program to teach parents how to communicate more effectively with kids and offer step-by-step advice to resolving family conflicts so everybody wins. This beloved classic is the most studied, highly praised, and proven parenting program in the world -- and it will work for you. Now revised for the first time since its initial publication, this groundbreaking guide will show you:

How to avoid being a permissive parent

How to listen so kids will talk to you and talk so kids will listen to you

How to teach your children to "own" their problems and to solve them

How to use the "No-Lose" method to resolve conflicts

Using the timeless methods of P.E.T. will have immediate results: less fighting, fewer tantrums and lies, no need for punishment. Whether you have a toddler striking out for independence or a teenager who has already started rebelling, you'll find P.E.T. a compassionate, effective way to instill responsibility and create a nurturing family environment in which your child will thrive.

Gray, John
[back to top]

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus:
A Practical Guide for Improving Communication and Getting What You Want in Your Relationships

James, Muriel et al
[back to top]

Born to Win :
Transactional Analysis With Gestalt Experiments
Editorial Reviews
Ingram
A national bestseller in 1971, Born to Win still sells thousands of copies each year. The insights in the book are now fundamental to how we see ourselves. It was one of the first self-help books to analyze communication styles and its 50 gestalt exercises are as revealing as ever about the roles people reenact in their Parent and Child ego states. Photos.

Emotional Incest Syndrome : What to Do When a Parent's Love Rules Your Life
Editorial Review: Ingram
From Dr. Patricia Love, a ground-breaking work that identifies, explores and treats the harmful effects that emotionally and psychologically invasive parents have on their children, and provides a program for overcoming the chronic problems that can result.

The Road Less Traveled : A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth

People of the Lie : The Hope for Healing Human Evil
Read the reviews by others on Amazon.  Once you get past the first few (and note that more than one reviewer posted his negative reviews more than once to try to get the score down", most of the 45+ reviews are positive. The first two main sections of the book deal with the psychology of evil and definitely will apply to many people that are "just plain bad".  I'll agree with those who note that Dr. Peck's last section on exorcism may draw too much on certain belief systems to make sense for many.  Never the less, this book is well worth a read. -Alice

A World Waiting to Be Born : Civility Rediscovered

Further Along the Road Less Traveled : The Unending Journey Toward Spiritual Growth

The Road Less Traveled and Beyond : Spiritual Growth in an Age of Anxiety
This book is not recommended unless you have read the other two "Road Less Traveled" first.  New information is presented but the book also makes many references to his previous works. -Alice.

Stupid Things Parents Do to Mess Up Their Kids:
Don't Have Them If You Won't Raise Them
Book Description
Following her previous New York Times bestsellers, Dr.Laura Schlessinger, the conscience of talk radio, now addresses an issue near and dear to her heart: the stupid things parents do to mess up their children. Never one to shy away from tough truths, Dr. Laura marshals compelling evidence for the widespread neglect of America's children and convincingly condemns the numerous rationalizations to excuse it. These are just a few of her hard-hitting points:Don't Have Them If You Won't Raise Them: "The cavalier manner in which our society treats child care, not as a matter of intimacy and love, but as a matter of convenience and economics, is deeply destructive to our children's sense of attachment, identity, and importance."Dads Need Not Apply: "Single motherhood may be more acceptable to society, but it is not acceptable to children; nor is it in their best interest."Brave New Baby: "In our society, reproductive freedom means anyone can decide to create a life by any means with no, and I mean no, consideration of what is in the best interest of that new human being."Spare the Rod: "Children without discipline often become adults with tempertantrums, defiance, rage, depression, anxiety, poor school and work adjustment, drug and alcohol abuse."Stupid Things Parents Do to Mess Up Their Kids covers all aspects of parenting and also tackles such cultural and societal concerns as abortion, modern sexuality, drug and alcohol use, violence, discipline, and a child's right to privacy.

Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives
Book Description
Dr. Laura Schlessinger is the incredibly popular and controversial psychotherapist who hosts a nationally syndicated, top-rated midday radio talk show. She has strong convictions and doesn't hesitate to voice them to callers. She urges women emphatically to lose a domineering jerk of a lover and pick one of the "good guys," to stay home and parent the babies they've made, and to follow the dream rather than some dreamboat. Above all, she exhorts women not to blame anybody or anything but themselves if they're unhappy and their lives seem a mess.

10 Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives uses real-world examples from Schlessinger's radio show and private practice to drive the message home. And the message is that our reticence to be bold and brave often makes us act like stupid, submissive victims. Once we muster the courage to take responsibility for our own problems and to tolerate the discomforts of risk, the possibilities for personal growth and joy are limitless.

If you're looking for an all-approving hand to hold, you won't find it here. If you're prepared to take a clear-eyed look at your self-diminishing behavior and to make the move to a quality existence, there's no one better than Schlessinger to keep you honest and to cheer you on. One thing's for sure: You'll never look at your relationships, behaviors and decisions the same way after you've finished reading this book.

Ten Stupid Things Men Do to Mess Up Their Lives
Amazon.com
Everything will be okay ... once you admit that Dr. Laura's always right. This companion volume to the radio advice factory's 1994 bestseller (which tackled the stupid things women do) serves up plenty of the no-nonsense, old-fashioned morality that her legions of listeners love. Brutally reductive--but not necessarily wrong--this book chalks up men's problems to trying to save "damsels in distress," refusing to admit to a healthy dependence on others, climbing the career ladder to the detriment of your relationships, denying the duty and pleasure of child-rearing, and many others. Whatever your personal reaction to her brassy, unapologetic style, Dr. Schlessinger is a refreshing antidote to the wishy-washy "everything's relative and everyone's different" trend that held sway for a time. Ten Stupid Things Men Do to Mess up Their Lives contains a lot of good advice--even though it has as much in common with instant soup mix as with therapy. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Book Description
For every woman who wants to know what her man is thinking.

10 Stupid Things Couples Do to Mess Up Their Relationships
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Her broad statements like "the feminist movement has become hostile to heterosexual relationships in general" and her tendency to react to callers in anger may offend, but if you can put aside her ratings-boosting fits of temper, you'll find some solid advice in 10 Stupid Things Couples Do to Mess Up Their Relationships. While Dr. Laura Schlessinger excels at placing blame, her bluntness can be refreshing, and with chapter titles like "stupid priorities," "stupid egotism," and "stupid liaisons," you know right where she stands on issues like career commitment, perceived selfishness, and extramarital relationships.

Much of the book has been created from letters written by listeners of her show. These personal anecdotes are used to illustrate points and provide examples we can all relate to; given their tremendous variety, you're sure to find some that click with you. They make the book an easily absorbed read and provide a welcome break from Schlessinger's angry tirades on premarital sex, addiction, and the general "stupidity" of the human race. Behind her anger, you'll find suggestions on taking time to really listen to each other, ways to respect each other's needs without catering to selfishness, and a firm belief that relationships are nearly always worth saving. --Jill Lightner

You Just Don't Understand : Women and Men in Conversation
Book Description
Women and men live in different worlds...made of different words.

Spending nearly four years on the New York Times bestseller list, including eight months at number one, You Just Don't Understand is a true cultural and intellectual phenomenon. This is the book that brought gender differences in ways of speaking to the forefront of public awareness. With a rare combination of scientific insight and delightful, humorous writing, Tannen shows why women and men can walk away from the same conversation with completely different impressions of what was said.

Studded with lively and entertaining examples of real conversations, this book gives you the tools to understand what went wrong -- and to find a common language in which to strengthen relationships at work and at home. A classic in the field of interpersonal relations, this book will change forever the way you approach conversations.

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