Product Description

A superb distillation of the wisdom of one of Britain's most admired writers on the human condition, which gives insights and comfort on some of the most difficult aspects of life-including: identity and self-esteem, fear, depression and unhappiness, coping with people, power, agreed, guilt and selfishness and getting older.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16803 in Books
• Published on: 1996-06-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

About the Author
Dorothy Rowe was born in Australia in 1930, and worked as a teacher and child psychologist before coming to England, where she obtained her PhD at Sheffield University. From 1972 until 1986 she was head of Clinical Psychology. She is now engaged in writing, lecturing and research, and is world-renowned for her work on how we communicate and why we suffer. Her books include "Wanting Everything', "Beyond Fear' and "Time On Our Side'.

Customer Reviews

If you only read one make-sense-of-life book, make it this.
Dorothy Rowe helps us understand ourselves in a way which avoids jargon, cliche and dogma. No one could fail to be uplifted and inspired by her Guide to Life. Because unlike so many "you can live your dream" handbooks, it doesn't offer shallow diagnosis and quick fixes. Quite the reverse. It's inspiring because what she says about the many ways we disable ourselves rings so deeply true and because, in helping us face that truth, she gives us all hope. The mix of wisdom, compassion and humour make it all the more readable. Simply the best self-help book I have read.

A Book Which Could Change Your LIfe
I recently read a book by Victor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning and a couple of weeks later I found this book by Dorothy Rowe - it's a perfect companion because Ms Rowe talks about our 'meaning structure' - how we choose to interpret the world.

This book underlines an absolutely fundamental truth about life - it's what we 'interpret' it to be. Like professional photographers we carry round big lenses with which we view the world - the pictures we choose to see depend on our own feelings and experience.

If a friend chooses not to return a phone call, I can start thinking he's ignoring me - but it might be he didn't get the message, it might be that some big event is happening in his life, it might be he's on holiday, however most of the time we tend to make up a reason and act accordingly.

Although not happy with the concept of 'self-esteem', Dorothy Rowe defines something similar; 'The better you feel about yourself, the better the world and the future look. The worse you feel about yourself, the worse the world and the future look.'

I tried to put these ideas to work today. Instead of nursing a number of my gripes against individuals who I feel have 'let me down', I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. I can see the direct correlation between how I feel, and how I perceive the world to be.

The radical idea behind this book is that things like nervous breakdowns and depression do not have physical or chemical causes. They happen when our 'meaning structure' is seriously challenged.

That would explain why lots of people have a hairy time when they hit 30. It's then that they realise that many of the assumptions of adolescence are plain wrong. Also, Christmas is a bad time because it often throws up a painful scenario between what 'should' be and how things are.

DR has a very interesting chapter on how we use language also affects our perceptions. All in all, this is a super little book which challenges you to look at the world differently. The cartoons are fun, too.

Wisdom, Wit and Understanding
This is a deceptively 'thin' book, and one that, because of Rowe's lucid style, is easy to read quickly. However, it is one that I have found yields more and more with each re-reading! In fact, it is one book I try to re-read once a year, just to remind myself of the life-affirming truths which Rowe so helpfully expounds. A book for giving - and keeping!