MTU Library Catalogue

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Family secrets : what you don't know can hurt you / John Bradshaw.

By: Bradshaw, John, 1933-2016 [author].
Material type: materialTypeLabelBookPublisher: London : Piatkus, 1995Description: xix, 296 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. + pbk.ISBN: 0749915218.Subject(s): Families -- Psychological aspects | Secrecy -- Psychological aspects | Mental healthDDC classification: 155.7
Contents:
Part one: Finding home by leaving home -- When silence is golden -- When secrets are dark -- How is it possible not to know what you know? -- Part Two: Traversing the haunted forest -- Beginner's mind: Re-imaging your family -- Drawing your family map: the genogram as rosetta stone -- Your ancestors' dark secrets -- Your father's dark secrets -- Your mother's dark secrets -- Part three: Getting back to Kansas -- Discovering your own dark secrets -- Freeing yourself from the power of dark family secrets -- Staying connected with your family.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This work examines the family's mysterious power to effect our lives. The book explains how secrets are created, how they influence us, and the risks and benefits of exploring them. With the aid of a genogram, the book provides us with a step-by-step guide to uncovering the secrets of the past and present. There are many case studies which illustrate how we can recognize crucial gaps and silences, reconstruct missing information and decipher partial memories. The book provides advice on how to deal with the truths revealed and shows us ways to stay safely and honestly connected with our families.

Bibliography: (pages 293-296).

Part one: Finding home by leaving home -- When silence is golden -- When secrets are dark -- How is it possible not to know what you know? -- Part Two: Traversing the haunted forest -- Beginner's mind: Re-imaging your family -- Drawing your family map: the genogram as rosetta stone -- Your ancestors' dark secrets -- Your father's dark secrets -- Your mother's dark secrets -- Part three: Getting back to Kansas -- Discovering your own dark secrets -- Freeing yourself from the power of dark family secrets -- Staying connected with your family.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

John Elliot Bradshaw was born in Houston, Texas on June 29, 1933. He received a bachelor's degree in sacred theology and a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Toronto. He taught at the University of St. Thomas for a year. In 1964, just days before he was to be ordained, he left the Basilian Order.

He eventually checked himself into an alcohol-treatment program at a state hospital in Austin. On being released, he returned to Houston and attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings daily for the next three years. He soon began teaching adult Sunday school classes at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church and working with addicts in the church's drug-abuse program. He also appeared on local television as the host of a talk show entitled Spotlight and found himself in demand as a lecturer on family psychology.

In the early 1980s, he did a television series on the psychologist Erik Erikson's eight stages of man, which was broadcast on PBS. He also created a 10-part series entitled Bradshaw On: The Family, which also aired on PBS. He wrote numerous books during his lifetime including Bradshaw On: The Family, Bradshaw On: Healing the Shame That Binds You, Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child, Creating Love, Family Secrets: What You Don't Know Can Hurt You, and Post-Romantic Stress Disorder: What to Do When the Honeymoon Is Over. Many of his books were turned into PBS specials. He died of heart failure on May 8, 2016 at the age of 82.

(Bowker Author Biography)