The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Breaking Up: Let Go of the Past—and Get Back in the Game

by Laurie A. Helgoe

A wise guide to handling the end of a relationship. A breakup doesn't mean everything has to fall apart. Laurie Helgoe uses her years of experience as a clinical psychologist to show those who are coping with a breakup to pick up the pieces and move on with their lives. This guide provides sage advice on how to handle every aspect of separating from a partner, from knowing when to stop communicating, dealing with the blues, and when to start dating again. • Edgy and humorous, yet full of practical advice • The first book to deal with being the dumper, as well as the dumpee • Tips that will get readers through lonely nights and days of “retail therapy”-without insulting their intelligence or getting involved in 12-step therapy speak

170 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Laurie Anne Helgoe is an American psychologist and author specializing in personality development and the psychology of desire. Helgoe has a private practice in clinical psychology and serves as an assistant clinical professor at the West Virginia University School of Medicine, Charleston Division, supervising and lecturing psychiatric residents.

Raised as the ninth of ten children, she was surrounded by gregarious siblings and sought out solitude, reflection and writing to replenish her energy. This early discovery of the power of solitude had a profound influence on her later work.

In 2008, her writing revealed that scholarly and popular accounts regarding humans who display the personality traits of introversion and extroversion were flawed, and that, instead of representing a 25-30% of the population, introverts make up 57% of the population. The identified flaw was a dated reliance on the early work of Isabel Briggs Myers, and the failure to note the latest comprehensive results of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a questionnaire used by psychologists to classify human personality traits.