Items related to Intimate Worlds: Life Inside the Family
"Scarf knows the intricacies of the family structure and, even better, knows how to write well about them. In Intimate Worlds, as in most of our lives, family is riveting, white-knuckle stuff."
--The Washington Post Book World
In Intimate Worlds, bestselling author Maggie Scarf takes on the most important, and most universal, subject of her distinguished career: the family. As the first social organization that we each encounter, the family is where we learn the most fundamental and enduring lessons of our lives. Yet for too many, those lessons turn out to be painful, perplexing, and emotionally crippling. In this luminous, beautifully written book, Scarf brilliantly examines the complex ways in which families create their own intimate rules and patterns of interaction, and how by understanding these dynamics we can each improve the quality of our own family life.
At the book's core are the stories of four fascinating families and the very different ways they enact the central issues of family life: power and intimacy; conflict and love; individuality and group identification. Spanning the spectrum of family health from dysfunctional through optimal, these families grapple with serious substance abuse, sexual problems, difficulties with attachment and nurturance, eating disorders, and buried resentments that surface generation after generation. As Maggie Scarf probes the motives and meanings of these compelling dramas, she reveals the essential truths of how families shape human identity. Combining lucid analysis with warm human understanding, Intimate Worlds is a major work that both clarifies and deepens our knowledge of family relationships.
"Wrought with care and commitment, it is meticulously researched and will, I think, serve as a valuable resource for families struggling to understand themselves."
--Los Angeles Times
From the Trade Paperback edition.
--The Washington Post Book World
In Intimate Worlds, bestselling author Maggie Scarf takes on the most important, and most universal, subject of her distinguished career: the family. As the first social organization that we each encounter, the family is where we learn the most fundamental and enduring lessons of our lives. Yet for too many, those lessons turn out to be painful, perplexing, and emotionally crippling. In this luminous, beautifully written book, Scarf brilliantly examines the complex ways in which families create their own intimate rules and patterns of interaction, and how by understanding these dynamics we can each improve the quality of our own family life.
At the book's core are the stories of four fascinating families and the very different ways they enact the central issues of family life: power and intimacy; conflict and love; individuality and group identification. Spanning the spectrum of family health from dysfunctional through optimal, these families grapple with serious substance abuse, sexual problems, difficulties with attachment and nurturance, eating disorders, and buried resentments that surface generation after generation. As Maggie Scarf probes the motives and meanings of these compelling dramas, she reveals the essential truths of how families shape human identity. Combining lucid analysis with warm human understanding, Intimate Worlds is a major work that both clarifies and deepens our knowledge of family relationships.
"Wrought with care and commitment, it is meticulously researched and will, I think, serve as a valuable resource for families struggling to understand themselves."
--Los Angeles Times
From the Trade Paperback edition.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Maggie Scarf is a former visiting fellow at the Whitney Humanities Center, Yale University, and a current fellow of Jonathan Edwards College, Yale University. She was for many years a contributing editor to the New Republic and a member of the advisory board of the American Psychiatric Press.
From Booklist:
So many Americans are now worried about family values that this self-help book on family intimacy is sure to find a large audience. What readers will find here is not only a sophisticated typology of family types (chaotic, polarized, rule-bound, adequate, and optional), but also a therapeutic agenda for improving home life. Although Scarf draws extensively from the professional literature, she develops her key points through narrative portrayals of some of the 50 families she interviewed in researching this book. The importance of family history emerges as a primary theme: most of us subconsciously reenact family scripts learned from parents and grandparents. When unrecognized, these scripts can trap us in conflict, abuse, or resentment; yet when consciously identified, they can be edited and rewritten. Scarf explains how, in her case, as in many others, coming to terms with family history means learning to forgive family members, an admittedly difficult task. The author's candor and sensitivity ensure that numerous readers will find her a trustworthy guide to a more rewarding family life. But some readers will detect the deficiencies inherent in the self-help genre. For instance, although Scarf gives readers advice for assessing their own family's weaknesses, she ignores the broader cultural trends making family life more fragile then ever before. Without an analysis of such cultural trends, those who proffer self-help formulas may be setting readers up for failure. Bryce Christensen
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherDiane Pub Co
- ISBN 10 078816371X
- ISBN 13 9780788163715
- BindingHardcover
- Rating
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