Posted by Caper on July 16, 2004, at 2:57:18
Just wondering if anyone has read the book "You Can Heal Your Life" by Loiuse Hay(s?). It's a self-help book about the power of affirmations. My therapist recommended it to me.
So I started reading and some of it made a little bit of sense at first because I know the power of acting "as if". Act as if you're feeling better than you are and you may end up actually feeling better. Telling yourself you're going to have a good day ups your chances of actually doing so. Things like that made some sense.
But...
Then I got to the later section of the book and became ENRAGED. That section in which the author lists medical conditions and then has the audacity to give a reason why someone became ill, and what affirmation would prevent/heal each illness.
She has the nerve to imply:
my twins were stillborn because I "feared the future"? What pregnant woman doesn't fear the future in some way?
my seriously ill diabetic brothers became diabetic in childhood because they didn't have enough sweetness in their lives? What?!? Where did she get that? Not from any study of medicine or genetics obviously.
my father got prostate cancer because he was "uncomfortable with his masculinity"??!!?? That's when I threw the book across the room.
I could go on with more examples of this woman's ....I don't even know the word to describe the person who'd write such unfounded, victim-blaming drivel, but you get the picture. I hate this book.
Did anyone read this book and like it? Am I taking it the wrong way? Twenty years after publication it's in it's 80th printing or something, so obviously some people liked it and were helped by it. But I just think this woman has one h*** of a nerve blaming people for their illnesses and assuming she knows the words to say to prevent and cure them.
With as many copies as this book has sold I can't help but think I'm missing something or taking something in it the wrong way.
Any thoughts from anyone?
Thanks,
Caper
poster:Caper
thread:366758
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/books/20040616/msgs/366758.html