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EMPATHY UNCHAINED

HEAL YOUR TRAUMA, UPLIFT THE WORLD

A knowledgeable and empathetic manual for dealing with trauma.

Darling offers strategies for trauma resolution in this nonfiction guide.

The author intends her book to help readers “heal past hurt, transcend limiting beliefs about themselves and others, and change behaviors that limit their potential to be present and empathetic in every moment.” Darling cites a 2016 survey indicating that an overwhelming percentage of the world’s nearly 8 billion people would report experiencing some kind of trauma at some point in their lives—the author posits that these traumatic experiences can lead to a broad range of “reactive” behaviors including hating, blaming, criticizing, fixating, and withdrawing. In these pages, Darling advocates “responsive” behaviors, which are more holistic and include actions such as contemplation, reflection, and forgiveness; these practices, the author asserts, will help readers to “rewrite [their] past into a more hopeful present.” Darling uses her own experiences with trauma and healing as a springboard to broader discussions informed by her experience as “a critical consumer of trauma research, a savvy vetter of trauma-healing therapists, and a seasoned explorer of tools to heal my own trauma.” She examines many aspects of trauma and PTSD and their links to habits such as smoking, drinking, or other substance abuse, and she considers the potential benefits of treatments like the trademarked Somatic Experiencing [SE] therapy, which focuses on healing bodily trauma. Darling organically weaves these threads into her discussion about the ways SE can be combined with meditation and reflection to heal both body and mind. The author’s use of stories of people involved in various crises (both her own and those of others) is likewise smoothly and effectively handled. Readers dealing with all manner of stress and trauma might not adopt every approach Darling outlines in her wide-ranging guide, but they’ll find thought-provoking new ways to deal with lingering pain and damage.

A knowledgeable and empathetic manual for dealing with trauma.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 262

Publisher: Empower Press

Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2024

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THINK YOU'LL BE HAPPY

MOVING THROUGH GRIEF WITH GRIT, GRACE, AND GRATITUDE

Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.

Memories and life lessons inspired by the author’s mother, who was murdered in 2021.

“Neither my mother nor I knew that her last text to me would be the words ‘Think you’ll be happy,’ ” Avant writes, "but it is fitting that she left me with a mantra for resiliency.” The author, a filmmaker and former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, begins her first book on the night she learned her mother, Jacqueline Avant, had been fatally shot during a home invasion. “One of my first thoughts,” she writes, “was, ‘Oh God, please don’t let me hate this man. Give me the strength not to hate him.’ ” Daughter of Clarence Avant, known as the “Black Godfather” due to his work as a pioneering music executive, the author describes growing up “in a house that had a revolving door of famous people,” from Ella Fitzgerald to Muhammad Ali. “I don’t take for granted anything I have achieved in my life as a Black American woman,” writes Avant. “And I recognize my unique upbringing…..I was taught to honor our past and pay forward our fruits.” The book, which is occasionally repetitive, includes tributes to her mother from figures like Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton, but the narrative core is the author’s direct, faith-based, unwaveringly positive messages to readers—e.g., “I don’t want to carry the sadness and anger I have toward the man who did this to my mother…so I’m worshiping God amid the worst storm imaginable”; "Success and feeling good are contagious. I’m all about positive contagious vibrations!” Avant frequently quotes Bible verses, and the bulk of the text reflects the spirit of her daily prayer “that everything is in divine order.” Imploring readers to practice proactive behavior, she writes, “We have to always find the blessing, to be the blessing.”

Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.

Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023

ISBN: 9780063304413

Page Count: 288

Publisher: HarperOne

Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023

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THINKING, FAST AND SLOW

Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...

A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.

The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.

Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1

Page Count: 512

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011

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