No comments about Studying Lives Through Time: Personality and Development.

No comments about Psychological Foundations of Moral Education and Character Development: An Integrated Theory of Moral Development (Cultural Heritage and Contemporar).

No comments about Rejuvenezca Y Viva Mas Tiempo/ Grow Younger, Live Younger.

No comments about Bradshaw On: Homecoming, Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child: A 10 Hour Audiobook Intensive Workshop with John Bradshaw.

3 comments about Moon Mother, Moon Daughter: Myths and Rituals That Celebrate a Girl's Coming-of-Age.

1. OK, I cheated. I'm a male and I read a chick book.

   I read a chick book by, for, and about chicks. I know: I'm not supposed to. The cover is pretty damn clear-lots of red and purple (none of it associated with sunsets, gun barrels, or violent bloodshed), loosey goosey fonts and title, women authors, and a foreword by someone that wrote the woman's comfort book!

   This all screams new age chick stuff that by gender, inclination, and cultural boundaries I avoid.

   My excuse? I have a preteen daughter and another coming up in her shadow with all the subtlety of a heat-seeking missile. Everyone around our house is busy. Life is on fire, and right smack in the middle of it all, these girls of mine are growing up.

   So I picked up MoonMoon (as I started calling it) and tried to squelch my private image of women's moon groups as gatherings where they drop their drawers in a semi-circle and moon the moon so to speak.

   Even overlooking my stumbling male entrance, the authors were not prepared for me. They write, as I mentioned above, for and about chicks in the form of mothers and daughters (as if men never had daughters). But without belaboring my own passage into and through the book, I'll just say that I started getting some of my (Dad) needs met as soon as I hit the first chapter.

   The blending of content the authors used was effective. Instead of dragging me through long diatribes on new age coming-of-age theology (if you will), they interlaced their philosophies with cookbook recipes for events and practices, individual and family experiences, and demystifying retellings of pivotal female myths.

   It remains, cover-to-cover, a chick book, but I still gleaned what I wanted for my daughters and myself. I exited at the Moon end with some excellent ideas about what I can do with my daughters and what I can steer them towards and away from as they pass through these years.

   I assume for chicks it's a great read.




2. OK, I cheated. I'm a male and I read a chick book.

   I read a chick book by, for, and about chicks. I know: I'm not supposed to. The cover is pretty damn clear-lots of red and purple (none of it associated with sunsets, gun barrels, or violent bloodshed), loosey goosey fonts and title, women authors, and a foreword by someone that wrote the woman's comfort book!

   This all screams new age chick stuff that by gender, inclination, and cultural boundaries I avoid.

   My excuse? I have a preteen daughter and another coming up in her shadow with all the subtlety of a heat-seeking missile. Everyone around our house is busy. Life is on fire, and right smack in the middle of it all, these girls of mine are growing up.

   So I picked up MoonMoon (as I started calling it) and tried to squelch my private image of women's moon groups as gatherings where they drop their drawers in a semi-circle and moon the moon so to speak.

   Even overlooking my stumbling male entrance, the authors were not prepared for me. They write, as I mentioned above, for and about chicks in the form of mothers and daughters (as if men never had daughters). But without belaboring my own passage into and through the book, I'll just say that I started getting some of my (Dad) needs met as soon as I hit the first chapter.

   The blending of content the authors used was effective. Instead of dragging me through long diatribes on new age coming-of-age theology (if you will), they interlaced their philosophies with cookbook recipes for events and practices, individual and family experiences, and demystifying retellings of pivotal female myths.

   It remains, cover-to-cover, a chick book, but I still gleaned what I wanted for my daughters and myself. I exited at the Moon end with some excellent ideas about what I can do with my daughters, what I can steer them towards and away from as they pass through these years, and a good list of things to tell the little wife to do, as well (yeah, right!).

   I assume for chicks it's a great read.




3. This book is wonderful! The authors give tips, ideas and suggestions on how to celebrate a girl's coming-of-age. Menstruation is of course discussed, but it is the spiritual and emotional side, not the biological side (there are plenty of other books for that). The authors give their own personal stories with their own daughters as examples also. Chapters include Awakening Inner Wisdom and Intuition, Exploring your Dreams, Expressing your Creativity, Honoring your Body, Celebrating Coming-of-Age, plus much more. The book is full of mother-daughter activities, Goddess myths, practical advice and wisdom, from women who have been there. Though there is a short Goddess myth in each chapter, this book is for women of all faiths, even though it does have an Earth based spirituality slant to it. One of the authors mentions being raised Catholic, and one of the coming-of-age stories involves a young Jewish girl. From the first few pages:
   "This book is a spiritually focused book for mothers whose daughters are coming of age. Although this book is primarily intended to be used with girls ages ten to thirteen, many of these activities, concepts and messages can be shared with girls who are older...this book restores the timeless understanding that the coming-of-age process is one that should be honored and celebrated. This book is intended as a source of wisdom and support throughout the coming-of-age years....each of the twelve chapters introduces a key concept, such as the importance of finding a mentor, creating a supportive and loving community, spending time in nature, understanding natural cycles and rhythms, honoring your body's innate wisdom, using and trusting intuition, and being true to yourself. Each chapter also discusses opportunities for self-discovery and activities for greater awareness....the unique format of this book combines ancient wisdom, practical advice and fun activities designed to lend support to girls as they reach adolescence."
   This is a very important, very well written book. I shall treasure it for many, many years to come. Bottom line: buy this book.

2 comments about Cracks.

1. When, while reading Cracks, it gets so intense that one wants to put the book down for a breather. One can't. It is too gripping a read. One natural disaster after another happens to a group of five boys who are deemed potentially rehabitable, but can they be redeemed? Will they survive the disasters as well as the vengeance they reap upon one another?
   The boys are taken on a spelunking trip deep into the caves of the remote Arkansas Ozarks. The first earthquake hits while the boys and their leaders are still deep in the caves. They escape only to watch their adult leaders killed in another earthquake causing a landslide to fall on them. The boys are on their own, and the only boy who has some survival skills is Bodie McCann whose foster father had previously taken him camping and fishing. Bodie soon learns that the other four boys savagely sabotage his attempts to help them escape and incessantly fight with one another, though they begrudgingly accept the food he finds and hunts for them.
   Matters only get worse as the boys face more earthquakes, forest fires, and then find a cache of marijuana in a hidden mountain cabin. When they ransack another house, Bodie sees his foster parents on the T.V., begging for him to come home. The other boys refuse to let him go, so he has to run for it with them chasing him with guns and knives. Will he escape, get home, and mend his ways? Mike Klaassen has written another adventurous, powerful book. Cracks is a book young boys will relate to, knowing that there is always hope for their future in spite of the direst circumstances. This book is must read for young people and for counselors leading youth rehabilitation groups.



2. Conestoga Courage
   The Lost and Found Colony
   The Brute
   
   How long can you hold your breath? Long enough to survive a torrent of ice-cold water that drags you under when an earthquake hits while you are deep inside an Ozark Mountain cavern?
   
   That's only the beginning of a rough and tumble adventure that has sixteen-year-old Bodie McCann using every ounce of his courage and survival skills to make it back to civilization alive.
   
   Bodie is on a youth rehabilitation outing as he is given a chance to turn his troubled life around. When earthquakes hit over and over again, killing the adult leaders of the expedition, Bodie and the boys set out to find help.
   
   Bodie soon finds himself at odds with the other boys who have no desire to turn their lives around. They begin to leave a trail of vandalism and death as they hold Bodie a virtual hostage of their gang.
   
   While making his frightful way back, Bodie finds a new feeling of self-respect and self-worth, along with the awesome feeling of unconditional love granted to him by his foster parents.
   
   Mike Klaassen has written a powerful adventure novel for young adults, one that will keep them glued to the book from beginning to end.
   
   By Faith Reese Martin - Author of Lost and Found Colony and Conestoga Courage for Young Adults

5 comments about Grow Up!: How Taking Responsibility Can Make You A Happy Adult.

1. Finally a self help book written by a therapist who thinks that we should focus on being grown ups and not self indulgent children with little regard for others. A witty and entertaining book about becoming a grown up and being responsible for your actions and emotions. Novel concepts in our current society, I know. Women will love this book because the author does a great job of trying to point men in directions that will allow them to have deeper and more fulfilling relationships with women. The anecdotes about his patients (he as been a therapist for a long time) and his family really add to the flavor of this easy read. I think that you will find this an enjoyable and enlightening book. I know that I did.



2. If my enemy's enemy is my friend, I should have loved this book. Like Pittman, I abhor the effect of pop psychology and much psychotherapy, valorizing as it does self-absorption, hedonism, and immaturity. But this book offended me deeply.

   Consider this example: Of Black people who believe that their current difficulties have something to do with being the descendants of slaves in a racist country, Pittman says that attitude is "not helpful" because "that was then; this is now." (p. 33) Unfortunately for Pittman's pompous pronouncing, a fair body of very, very solid research--represented by, say, Dalton Conley's "Being Black, Living in the Red"--shows that he is just flat wrong. And if Pittman had spent some of his career teaching at a historically Black college that serves mostly poor students, rather than treating individuals affluent enough to pay private practice fees, or reviewing the effectiveness of social welfare and remedial education programs instead of reviewing movies, he would have a greater appreciation of how ludicrous attitudes like his are.

   The same attitude shows itself in his condescension toward a woman whose economic woes probably do, in fact--despite Pittman's preachments--reflect the fact that when she was of an age to undertake professional education, sexism kept her out of medical school.

   It would be nice if Pittman helped us understand how to deal with the real and dire effects of legacies of oppression, instead of blaming victims for the inevitable disadvantages they suffer. Of course, if he did that, and really had some experience and knowledge of what it's like to try to help overcome such baleful and ugly effects, he might not be so happy as he so proudly and frequently tells us he is. He might sometimes suffer despair that, in fact, horrible things are simply beyond the power of anyone to change quickly enough. (I'm a white guy, by the way--who has enjoyed all the cultural advantages thereof. I just have some sensitivity to, and experience with, and knowledge of the research on, what oppression does to communities and their members.)

   Here's another Pittman pronouncement; "The rules of appropriate ways to act and treat other people aren't very different from culture to culture, century to century, or even millenium to millenium" Wow. What have all those cultural anthropologists and cultural historians been wasting their time on? Why have policy makers been in such a tizzy about what to do over female gential mutilation among certain minorities in ths country? Why have so many philosophers wasted so much time trying to figure out we can even justify any notion of objective, imperative morals in the face of the extreme differences between moral codes in diverse times and places? Why do we in America consider infanticide evil, if rules haven't changed much? Why, in some cultures (even some subcultures within America) is incest considered no big deal, and certainly no one's business but the family, while elsewhere we see it as an absolutely horrid issue that calls for social intervention. Why do we no longer hold slaves? Why is it no longer honorable for men to take teen-aged boys as lovers? If Pittman were right, I guess I could go get a harem and some slaves, and some teen-age boy friends, and I could kill off any inconvenient children--since rules of how to treat each other allegedly haven't changed much.

   Well, these examples reflect the level of scholarship and careful thought contained in Pittman's book. This book is just dogmatic. It suggests that Pittman lacks respect for serious scholars and analysts--who are quite grown up--whose views do not agree with his.

   I'm not quite sure why Pittman thinks people who live other ways than he suggests aren't grown ups, or why he thinks he has, from his therapy room and pop psych advice columnist chair, divined the essence of maturity. His views just won't hold water, when compared to responsible research.

   I don't know how Pittman votes, but this is pretty thoroughly a 1950s-style Republican panegyric, a paean to "culture is nothing, context is nothing, history is irrelevant, anyone can be happy if he or she just quits whining and gets busy" ideology. It is neither well researched nor responsive to mainstream scholarship and research.

   America's current love affair with self-absorption, served by its hirelings in the psychotherapy and self-help industries, should certainly be opposed vehemently. But it should be opposed with careful research, sound analysis, and responsible thought--that is, responsive to the respectable views of others, especially more well-informed, others. With its lack of such attributes, this book strikes me as simply an author's self-indulgence.

   If you are looking for a thoughtful analysis of the ill effects of pop psychology and kindred businsses, if you are looking for a well-informed analysis of how America got so screwy about rights versus responsibilities, if you want to know why it is wrong to put your personal happiness first and foremost in your concerns, if you want a better understanding of how to live as a responsible person in community with others--well, don't buy this book. That's what I was looking for, and this just absolutely is not it.




3. As a layman reading this, I thought there were several concepts of interest;

   Adult Children - some of us are stuck in our adolescent ways, never growing up, even as adults.

   Collapse of Patriarchy - in today's world of social upheaval, where anything goes (and it ususally does), we and our children live in a world where traditional concepts are challenged. This applies to gender, age, etc etc. (Pittman compares this to the decline of Windsor) Our world is increasingly becoming narcisstic, we're trained to consume more and more.

   In this post patriarchy world, we are even more challenged to grow ourselves and that of our children.

   Pittman's message is simply Grow Up! Take responsiblity for yourself, your choices, your relationships, and forgive your parents.

   Still a good read that most people should enjoy, even if they don't agree with everything he says.




4. There's a good reason why I rated this book down despite my own feeling that Frank Pittman is right.

   Dr. Pittman fails to take into account the religious philosophies of his readership. I agree that the trend toward higher and higher numbers of divorces is wrong. I agree that we shouldn't be paying so much attention to cultural gurus such as Martha Stewart (in his chapter on women, he states outright: "Martha Stewart? Who's Martha Stewart?"). I agree with most of what Dr. Pittman (a practicing psychiatrist) says.

   BUT - what is the role of God in Dr. Pittman's philosophy? One of the few things that has helped me cope with the family I was raised in is Jesus' words about "I come not to bring peace, but a sword." In other words, how does one cope if one's moral system comes into direct conflict with the system advocated by a dysfunctional family? What if you're being forced into a life of crime or domestic violence and you know that's just plain wrong? Are we forced to interact with a family like that despite the inherent danger? Dr. Pittman would seem to think that we are, and I wish he wouldn't have been so adamant on that.

   That philosophy - one of following Jesus rather than my family - has been the only thing enabling me to let go and not get all tied up in family disputes. But Dr. Pittman would apparently have me go back into a system like that if only to forgive or let go of the tar baby, not realizing that the tar baby is sticky and will entrap us. And that is why Dr. Pittman gets only three stars from me.




5. I bought this book on the recommendation of a friend whose opinions and attitudes I have long respected. She had cited for me a few paragraphs and I thought it would be something I would enjoy, if not agree with totally--at least it would be stimulating food for thought.

   I was very surprised to open to book and find Dr. Pittman's advice to be really lacking basis. There were many times when I couldn't actually decipher what his point was exactly, or what he suggest we do to go about remedying our lives and our world.

   I agree that we are living in a world that is rapidly being taken over by consumerism, thoughtlessness, and pretense. I agree that many of the attitudes being celebrated are, at their cores, immature. I also agree that all of this is learned, and is thus a choice that we can make, or not make. We are in charge of our lives, and it is our job to own up to that responsibility--if we don't, we live in a world where other people and powers-that-be control us, and that doesn't feel good no matter how we might try to convince ourselves otherwise.

   But I don't think this is worth writing a nearly 300-page book about, or worth the reader's money to buy it. It seems to me that these conclusions are rather obvious, if you just keep your eyes and ears open--and I would hope that anyone who is interested in this book has already taken that step, and realizes that something's amiss. I have yet to see what exactly is entailed by "growing up," in Dr. Pittman's opinion. How exactly does one do that? Chances are, the people who are most in need of this statement have not learned this skill, or else they wouldn't need the book. Grow up....how?....by growing up!

   All in all, I was disappointed. The content is not what I thought it would be, and in the midst of that I'm afraid his "witty" writing style was lost on me. I wish I would have perused this in a bookstore before spending the money.

1 comments about Song of the Phoenix: The Hidden Rewards of Failure.

1. As the saying goes the glory is not in never falling but in rising every time you fall. In John Lords Book song of the phoenix he talks of the real purpose of failure and uses real life examples of people who have failed at one or several things in their life but have used the opportunties given by these failures to explore new territory with their selves and their lives. Lord also goes into the westeren attitudes of failure and how it can be destructive or counter productive to growth.He diminishes the myth of failure as being a terrible thing by explaining how often times failure can just be an experiment and opportunity for growth. He even tells of a class at a school where students are encouraged to fail called failure 101. With this fresh new view on failure people can be encouraged to take chances and not let a failure get them down , they can forge ahead and try again with something else. Like Helen Keller once said " Life is either a daring adventure or nothing" Keller also said that security does not exist in nature and the fearful get caught as often as the bold. This book is so enlightening and sheds light on a sore and misunderstood experience in life failure but it is not such a terrible thing. Sometimes it is just lifes' way of redirecting you to something better. With Lords book you will be inspired to try new and different things after you fail at one thing. This book is out of print now but I highly recommend that anyone who has struggled with failures to attain it at a used book shop or see if you can find a friend who has this book. You wont regret it.

No comments about Winning/Overcoming the Pain of Childhood: Take Control of Your Life and Come Out Ahead in Everything You Do./How to Use Your Past to Improve Your Future.

5 comments about Behavior Modification.

1. I found this book to be written in a way that is very easy to comprehend, and expresses the ideas clearly. The chapters are short and concise. This book is a great tool to use not only for classes, but to refer to in the future.



2. This book is a great tool for any professional who works with children or adults using behavioral techniques. The methods are explained clearly with examples for application purposes. Anyone from a parent to a clinic director can benefit from this thorough and well written 'manual' for Behavior Modification.



3. I think it is very difficult to follow. I think it uses too many acronyms.



4. This is a very detailed book about behavior modification. It literally traces the history of behavioral modification from its origins and progresses into actual techniques that can be used in a variety of setting. Some of the chapters are quite dense, yet interesting. There is a comprehensive summary and the authors do a wonderful job with breaking down large units of information into readable points. There is a useful guide for functional analysis provided. The behavior contract is generic, but a decent basis for a individualized one. Finally, many behavioral methods are explained in simple terms and there are numerous examples that illustrate their usefulness.



5. There is a ton of usable information in this book. The problem is getting past the jargon and text book manner in which it is written. It really is more for university students than the lay person. Keep in mind that it is a text book for 2 consecutive psychology semesters. So, if the answers do not jump out at you, then do not get frustrated. I have read it through a few times and still do not grasp some of it. If you have the patience to apply something as simple as the operant conditioning, you can actually make a habit within a month. For instance, I used to reward myself with 15 minutes of fiction reading for every chapter of biology that I read. Result? I went from a D to a B within a couple of months. I have helped some of my clients do the same procedure with quitting smoking and sticking with fitness plans. This book is one of the few university text books that I kept after my degree.
   
   Doug Setter, Bachelor of Human Ecology, author of Stomach Flattening and One Less Victim