Forgive Your Parents, Heal Yourself: How Understanding Your Painful Family Legacy Can Transform Your Life

by Barry Grosskopf

A uniquely effective guide to parent-forgiveness can aid adults in finding the strength to finally release oppressive anger and begin the personal healing process, showing how to understand a parent's pain and rebuild the capacity for non-recriminatory family relationships. 20,000 first printing.

Genres: Psychology, Self Help, Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published June 18, 1999

Reviews

[Marija Stamenova · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to help myself struggling with feelings that I am not familiar with. I took couple of books but than the librarian recommended the "Barry Grosskopf" book, Forgive Your Parents, Heal Yourself. My background is very complicated not only because of the powerful female figure "MOTHER" in my family but also, because of my alcoholic father and society deprived of services to prevent such issue or define it as a problem. I got this book and started to open myself to the people that I matter to and give them more from my so called life than TAKE. I start to be aware of my Self-center personality and openly speak about it. Thanks to my partner who is also a great listener, I am on my path to heal myself. I recommend this book to EVERYONE, In order to live you'll have to forgive!!!

[Aimee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I generally eschew self-help books, but was inspired to read this after attending a presentation on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder by the author. I was/am in awe of the compassion he clearly felt towards his patients; in fact, he is one of the most humble and compassionate physicians I've personally encountered. Dr. Grosskopf, whose background is that of a psychiatrist and as a child of Holocaust survivors, uses
the wisdom of the Torah (a.k.a. the first five books of the Bible or Old Testament)(with emphasis on the Fifth Commandment)to illustrate how we can transcend childhood wounds and relationships with our parents to find peace. Thought-providing and intense at times, yet insightful thoughout. Highly recommended for the walking wounded, which is more or less all of us.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has two titles. I read Healing the Generations: How Understanding Your Family Legacy Can Transform Your Life. The copy on the back says "originally published as Forgive Your Parents, Heal Yourself."

No clue why. When shopping, look for both I guess.

Anyway, I loved it. I found myself underlying impactful passages on nearly every page. I would recommend it to everyone who experiences anything from pesky annoyances to real trauma with their parents and family. It was beautifully written and very helpful.

[Gabriela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely outstanding. If this book even remotely seems like something you'd be interested in and or may apply to you, you gotta read it.

If I recall correctly there may have been some explicitly Christian/Catholic views incorporated into the author's logic at points. Made the book feel kind of weird at first but eventually that feeling went away. Maybe I've been reconverted.

[Justine · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you don't have enough of yourself figured out...don't have kids!!! My father is an entitled asshole who really did not have that difficult of a life to continue to play the victim and be so abusive into his 70s. My mother (RIP) had MUCH worse of a life than he did, and she's still the most loving and altruistic person I've ever met. Talking with a narcissist does not change anything, oh how much I've tried, and continuing to enable that is absolutely unacceptable.

[Sue Kozlowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Non-fiction. Self-help book.