Emotionally Free : Letting Go of the Past to Live in the Moment

It took me a few chapters to get into it, but once I did, I loved it and found it very helpful.I was a bit turned off during the first few chapters due to the names of the three stages of childhood development...dependent, controlling, competitive. It wasn't what he said about these stages, simply the names of them...I don't think of myself as dependent or controlling or competitive, and found it off-putting to be told I was. But once I got what he was really saying about these phases, rather than concentrate on what he called these stages, it was eye opening.I especially liked how he went back to our childhood and showed us how/why we got to where we are now....put child in situation A and he'll react to it in way B which will cause him as adult to be C...it made so much sense to me, it explained so much more than other books. Other books seem to say, for example, 'your angry now do this to rid yourself of it.' This book says "this is what happened to you at this stage of your development which caused anger for this reason which you've carried into your adult life and now lets work at getting rid of it." It explains it and makes it seem so understandable, and it's easier for me to work on things I understand more than those I don't.I underlined so much you can barely read some pages...and this is a book I will definitely read again.My only complaint is not with the content of the book, but the typesetting and font used. It's horrible. There are places where the size changes from word to word in a sentence, and in other places you can see differences between one sentence and the next. Weird.

I've been a self-help junkie most of my sixty-three years and didn't really expect much from this book. It turned out to be life-changingly freeing! I won't rehash what everyone else has said, but I'd like to add that three years ago I wrote an autobiography of my years as a rock groupie in the sixties ... it's here at Amazon and other places and although most of my friends liked it, some got angry that I'd told the truth. In short, it brought a lot of people to me and, whereas in the past I would have been gracious to all of them, thanks to Emotionally Free, I was able to actually ignore some of them, be absolutely straight with others, and write those recommended letters to others. But I actually mailed them. I figured that at my age, I don't have to please everybody anymore, and if somebody wants to get mad, let them! It's okay! While writing those letters, I listened to a CD I'd burned that contained one song: Somebody That I Used To Know by Goyte. That song alone allowed me to delete e-mail addresses of people who had been draining me dry (and change my e-mail address), throw out old Rolodex cards of long-lost "friends," have a long talk with my adult daughter about the way she talked down to me, and otherwise kick some butt. But I couldn't have done any of that without this book. It's truly a gem. I just really wish it was available on Kindle, so more people could access it.Note: I couldn't have done things the way I did if I'd read this book at thirty, or forty, or even fifty. And I had plenty of baggage early on. I'm glad I came across Emotionally Free in my sixties. So if you're "older," take into account that you've probably spent your entire life pleasing others and swallowing your anger/disappointment/etc. and just let it go.

I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I cracked open this book. I only purchased it at the recommendation of a professor who promoted this book in an "Effective Communications" class. I wouldn't label this book as an interpersonal communications book, but rather an INTRApersonal communications book.For the longest time I've had a very, very short temper. I never realized I had this issue until I was 23 years old. After I realized I had the problem and noticed the stress it was causing me and others around me, I wanted to know why I was this way. Some examples of my bad temper: getting upset or angry at the dumbest, pettiest issues; interpreting things in a negative light instead of a postive light, thus, leading to miscommunication; being at the mercy of my emotions; the words that others speak influence my emotions more than I'm able to influence it--in other words, I couldn't seem to calm myself down when other people said rude things, even though I didn't want to get upset--I guess that's what you'd call an uncontrollable temper.I just wanted to get rid of the bad habit, but didn't know how. After reading this book, I realize why I felt the way I felt and he gave some methods on how to fix this issue. I don't know if this book is for you, since everybody has different issues, but if you have a bad temper and you want to know why and how to get rid of it, this book will probably help you as it has helped me. I'd pay $100 for this book now that I know what it has done for me!

It took me a couple months to get to this book. I read of lot of self help books on varied topics and I just didn't feel this would help me at the time I ordered it. Anyway they say when the student appears the teacher will come. lol something like that. Dr. Viscott. does a very good job of helping me to identify why i've chosen the path of thinking that I have and helped me understand that I am not alone and that this path was not something I choose but what has happened in order to cope with what was going on around me. He explains in detail that as a human being and a young child not knowing a healthy way towards emotional wellness. My mind protects itself by developing systems learned to rather imperfect people. he goes on to describe how as an adult I can choose to learn how to live in the moment instead of dreaming up an alternative reality that pacifys my ego. I have an anylitical mind, there fore i need to know why a something has happened and understand it so that i can come up with a solution. Dr. viscott helped me to see that I can positively explore that side of me and go on and be healthy.

Read some of the book.So far very informative.

This has been vital in my work

This book is really very good. A must read if you feel things are getting you down and you want to release them. I'm amazed at how many things I overlooked.

excellent, thank you