The Angry Heart. Overcoming Borderline and Addictive Disorders . An Interactive Self Help Guide

Customer Reviews

Help Yourself and Your Therapist

2007-12-30
Every therapist who treats people with borderline personality disorder should use this book. It's an organized way to move through steps necessary for the recovery process. Would also work great in a group therapy setting with an "AA" type approach. I would recommend this to anyone recovering from this disorder.

Real help, practical advise

2007-07-20
This book is an excellent guide for understanding borderline personality disorder and addictive behaviors. It clearly outlines the recovery steps someone with these disorders must take to live their life again. This book is very helpful to read as a family member of someone with bpd, as it gives you insight into how to have a relationship with someone recovering from borderline and other addictive behaviors. The book is well written and easy to read with practical advise.

Straight forward and insightful.

2007-05-05
I read this book to better understand my now ex-boyfriend. It helped me to not take personally his actions and gave me understanding and empathy. It will help a loved one of BPD to listen and react in ways that can help facilitate the journey to recovery. Although the book could not save our relationship, I am hopeful because he is now reading this book. The book offers steps to recovery through detailed exercises. The authors covered every area to guide the person with BPD to recovery. Awesome book!

Wonderful Help!

2007-04-11
I really love this book and it's a huge help for my recovery. I especially like that you can contact the authors and get feedback about your exercises and recovery. The exercises and journal entries are painful, but the authors explain that in order to fully recover, you have to practice "extinction." I highly recommend this book to anyone with Borderline Personality or other similar disorders.

Great Book!

2007-02-28
As a mental health therapist who specializes in treating BPD, I use this book in my BPD Group Therapy. The women may not recognize their own behaviors in themselves, but they can see their behaviors in others. The excerises are great and when done in a group setting, they offer support and validation from other members.

Although other research or treatments are not mentioned, it is a tool that can work well for some BPD people. I have found it helpful and so have the women who have used the book. I do use DBT at times along with the book, but for the most part, the book is the foundation of the Group.

D.B., M.A., LPC, WY

The Angry Heart: Overcomcing Borderline and Addictive Disorders: An Interactive Self Help Guide

2007-01-10
I found this book hit every single nerve in my body. The content just resonated with truth. The content is clear, easy to understand and goes a long way towards enabling me to understand the complexities of this disorder.

This is a terrible book

2006-05-15
This is a terrible book.

This book claims to be a self-help book for people suffering from serious mental illness. However, the authors do not rely on any research to support the methods described in the book. Instead of relying on current research, the book seems to be based on principals of psychology that are outdated by a half a century.

Given the enormous advances in neuroscience in the last twenty years, one has to wonder why anyone would buy a book that ignores recent developments in the science of the brain.

It appears that the intent of this book is to attract the reader to the author's exorbitantly priced residential treatment center, since he suggests that you contact him there at both the beginning and end of the book.

In short, if you are looking for help with mental illness, you would be better served to find a book that discusses methods that have been proven to be effective in scientific studies instead of the nonsense contained in this book.

great information for everyone

2005-09-03
Being BPD myself I found this book revealing so many things, which I felt, yet could not place. I also find it a very good book for non BPD's as it considers both sides and it not a manual for borderline "bystanders" as 'Walking on eggshells" is.
This book can be such a great soother when you feel at your worst and still stay not let you go of the rails. I have not read it from a to z , as it is just too much for me. I've had it for over two years, and it is still revealing.

Best with Seasoning

2005-05-24
This is a very skillfully constructed resource tool for achieving a positive life spin with those afflicted with personality disorders. There is a bit of textbookish quality so it is more palatable if read in combination with other, less point by point texts. I strongly recommend "The Wizard of Oz and Other Narcissist", "Sickened", and "My Fractured Life" as books that will flush out the whole picture with a bit of spice.

Potentially Damaging and NOT Recommended

2005-04-13
I have no doubt the author is well intentioned and may in fact have had some good results with the exercises outlined. HOWEVER, in my years of working with borderlines in clinical settings I think many of the exercises are unnecessary and potentially damaging. Many of the people with BPD I have worked with have astonishingly traumatic abuse histories and to explore self-history without the tools necessary to contain the potentially explosive and RE-traumatizing emotions is foolish and even hurtful.

Furthermore, the author's assertion that the client be able to say that they want to use HIS text in therapy and the recommendation that if the therapist objects that the client move on to another therapist is TOTALLY misguided and naive. I very much agree that it is important for clients to be able to guide their own work, but I am also highly aware of the ways people with BPD can split different providers. There are just too many GENUINELY therapeutic reasons to approach the author's recommendations with caution to allow what he says to interrupt what may very well be extraordinary work between a therapist and client.

I STRONGLY SUGGEST PEOPLE LOOK ELSEWHERE, perhaps to the work of Linehan for more appropriate and helpful interventions.

If I could have, I would have given this book no stars.