Synopsis
In her first major work in decades, the follow-up to the national bestseller Codependent No More, Melody Beattie identifies how codependent behavior has changed and shows listeners how to get back their lives by choosing behaviors that work for them.
In Codependent No More, Melody Beattie introduced the world to the term codependency. Now a modern classic, this book established Beattie as a pioneer in self-help literature and endeared her to millions of people who longed for healthier relationships. Twenty-five years later, concepts such as "self-care" and "setting boundaries" have become entrenched in mainstream culture. Now Beattie has written a follow-up volume, The New Codependency, which clears up misconceptions about codependency, identifies how codependent behavior has changed, and provides a new generation with a road map to wellness.
The question remains: What is and what isn't codependency? Beattie here reminds us that much of...
Publishers Weekly
Bestseller Beattie, of Codependent No More fame, revisits the topic she helped introduce more than 15 years ago, armed with more insight and a good deal of new scholarship, revising several old opinions and offering new perspectives on emotional awareness, damaging relationships, and finding genuine mental health in a society so "in touch" that it's run screaming for the pharmaceuticals. Through analogy, quizzes, anecdote and reflective exercises, Beattie promotes careful self-examination, problem-identification and a strategy of surrender, acceptance and processing. Beattie's obvious efforts to improve on her earlier work and wholehearted investment-not to mention timely reminders to seek outside help if needed-illustrate better than any anecdote how she walks the walk, and has important insight for members of the "entitled" generation (lavished with attention by overcompensating parents who were themselves love-starved children of codependency) already used to talking about their feelings, who need a different process to find genuine emotional connection. Though it can be scholarly and repetitive, Beattie's principles and methodology should prove accessible and insightful for most.
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