Facing Codependence
Facing Codependence: What It Is, Where It Comes from, How It Sabotages Our Lives
Author: Pia Mellody and Andrea Wells Miller
Amazon info
Taking a brief journey through some psych books, I started with this one, wondering what co-dependency is all about. Unfortunately, after reading this book, I am not much clearer on the subject. I thought that Pia is best when describing her own battles with co-dependency, and to a lesser degree, when she is describing the clients she worked with at that time. She also freely admits that she is not writing a textbook and that conceptual/theoretical frameworks will not be provided. That approach did not work that well for me. In addition to that, or perhaps because of that, I didn't really accept her premise that co-dependency is generally linked to childhood abuse.
On the other hand, this book was probably a real ground-breaker when it was written in 1989. I am guessing that it was a strong influence on all future books on the topic. However, my sense is also that one of those books would probably be a better choice.