Only therapists who are themselves sex offender specialists could understand the mind of the offender so well and explain how he twists his partner and family to his purposes. Here the partner is treated as a vulnerable human being who has to be understood and supported if she is to learn to protect her children and herself. She might wish she didn't have to lose her partner and her lifestyle. The book helps her to be realistic by first helping the therapist to truly understand the dangers posed by the child molester. The authors introduce and explain the importance of risk assessment and polygraphy. More depth on risk assessment would have been appreciated. Still, it's sensible, readable, thoughtful--a must for anyone working with this population.

I learned more from this book about recent poetry than from any other. I found the insights sharp and the comments to the point; and there was also a lack of the usual 'knowing' tone of academic books. There are many illuminating analyses of poems from 'The Waste Land' to 'V' and this leads to a marvellously full overview of the range of British poetry from Rupert Brooke to Seamus Heaney. I found it enrmously helpful for my essays, but I would have read it anyway!

My husband is currently working through this book. I have just read it - in one sitting. It has helped me understand what he is going through and at the same time, helped me to know how to express my feelings about what he is going through. I was also able to identify various stages of my recovery, which I hadn't noticed before. An excellent book and one I will highly recommend to husbands and partners of those recovering from abuse, especially sexual abuse as a child.

This book is perhaps the most frightening and yet enlightening thing I have experienced in reading a true crime account that I can remember.

The author, in an attempt to help parents gain clear insight into the mind and methods of a child predator, uses the predator himself to tell you what he has in mind for children, literally documenting his life of seeking out, molesting, and even killing children.

I was surprised that it wasn't a story form, there are no embellishments to make it frighten the reader, it did not need any, just to know what was on Westley Dodd's mind will scare you to death!

The author comments from time to time, just enough to make you think about what you are about to encounter, never enough to distract you.

It is chilling and thought provoking. I will never again leave my children unattended for a second after reading this book,even though has Dodd been executed, I now know that there are many more just like him lurking out there.

If that is all the author intended, it is enough for me. I recommend any parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, etc...that love the children in their family to read this book and pass it on. I feel empowered by this book, it has changed my perspective and isn't that the purpose in reading?

This is by far the best book on parenting I've ever read! I stumbled upon it in an old used bookstore and haven't been the same since.

Concise, easy to read and enjoyable, each page is filled with gems. My wife and I were having difficulty with getting the kids to bed. In 3 or 4 sentences we learned why and how to solve the problem.

I have since returned all the books on parenting(100's) and keep this book on my nighttable.

The collaboration of Linda C. Mayes (Arnold Gesell Associate Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Psychology at the Yale Child Study Center) and Donald J. Cohen (Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Psychology at the Yale Child Study Center), The Yale Child Study Center Guide To Understanding Your Child: Healthy Development From Birth To Adolescence is a superbly practical and "reader friendly" guide for parents which compiles the findings and discoveries of the Yale Child Study Center (an organization first founded in 1911) in order to assisting men and women in finding their own parenting style, achieve balance between family and work duties, and acquire ways to strengthen the ties the bind their family relationships and deal with difficult issues arising from new siblings, to school bullies, to divorce and death. The Yale Child Study Center Guide To Understanding Your Child is confidently recommended as being a wide-ranging, eminently readable reference packed with solid information for parents and caretakers of children everywhere.

This book is a good resource for parents of hearing inpaired children. It covers everything from initial reaction after diagnosis to how to cope with these feelings. It also details normal development and how hearing impairment can affect behavior. There is a great section on how to deal with some of these special behavior problems. I recommend this book to parents or anyone who is involved with a young or early school age hearing impaired child.

I can see by the richness of this book, that Dr. Sorrick has put a lot of time and effort into researching information that will offer help to the many couples that are going through the most painful time of their lives. He has offered information that can be understood by nearly everyone on a subject that has what I would consider the greatest impact on a child or children of a broken home. Any couple that would take the time to read this book, would in my opinion show them how to accomplish their divorce (if they can not find a way to stay together) in a civil manner that will by all means "protect and nurture their children" in the best interest of their children. It amazes me that so much information can be packed into 200 pages including chapters such as Litigation or Mediation?, Testing, Testifying, and Documenting, and still chapter six: The Best Interest of the Child. So much information, yet so easy to understand. I can see that Dr. John Sorrick feels the pain and joy of each of his patients as they reveal their deepest heartaches and the greatest healing in their lives. He really shows that understanding with the poems that Noelle had written. It is excellent how he shows both sides of Bitterness Versus Forgiveness. If this chapter is read in the perspective that he has penned it, you can certainly see why forgiveness is so important. All together I feel that this book is needed by anyone that has children and are considering divorce and custody. I give this book 5 stars. Sincerely, DRD

I practiced psychotherapy in New York City for fourteen years. Though I had training as a marriage counselor in addition to my main training as a psychotherapist, I turned away more couples than I accepted. Most years, I didn't take on more than one or two couples, if that.

There were many reasons for this, but fundamentally it was that marriage counseling rarely works. (About thirty-five to forty percent of the time, and half of those relapse, according to the best research.) I had made a vow when I went into training that I would never take on patients that I did not honestly believe I could help. (I can't say that I kept that vow sterling, being human--but I tried.) Most couples, I believed, could not be helped, so I didn't want to take their money or waste their time.

In hard, cold truth, most of what most marriage counselors teach is just made up. Concocted. Without any sound research base. That's just a fact. When I was in training, I was utterly shocked at this. I was appalled at the simple-minded dogmatism of marriage-counseling orthodoxy.

Most mental health care has a flimsier basis in research than its proponents admit (or even know, often), but in marriage counseling, the paucity of good research was almost total. (This evaluation of the low scientific basis of mental health care is not some private crackpot theory of mine; I wrote it up in my book "Cultures of Healing," which was published by the book-publishing arm of Scientific American in 1995 and will be republished, under a different title--"Health and Suffering in America: The Context and Content of Mental Health Care"--next year by Transaction Publishers/Rutgers. My point here is not to plug my book so much as to tell you that I know whereof I speak, and to encourage you to take my recommendation here seriously.)

If I had known John Gottman's work back then, I would have had an entirely different approach to treating couples, and I would have taken more of them on. (No one in my three years of training ever mentioned Gottman, and I went to a pretty respectable institute. Gottman is just so at odds with conventional wisdom in the field that he wasn't even taken seriously.)

Gottman's opinions--though he denies that they are opinions--are based on admirable, extensive, carefully analyzed research. While there is much to criticize methodologically about this research, and it certainly is nowhere near as conclusive as he says, at least he has done real work--not sat around making stuff up and pawning it off on students and patients. His is the best research of which I (now, many years later) know. Even if it isn't knock-down-drag-out conclusive, it is much better to have opinions based on extensive research and attempts to understand it rigorously than on no research, wild speculation, wishful thinking, and wooly feelings. Gotttman's opinions are very good, for the most part.

This book does a nice job of conveying the gist of his work, in clear, practical form.

In my experience, most marriage counselors do more harm than good and teach more made-up nonsense that practical wisdom. So unless you can find someone who trained with Gottman, I'd say DON'T go to a marriage counselor--buy this book.

If you ARE seeing a marriage counselor, read this book and discuss with your counselor where his or her views differ. Ask for the basis for what your counselor does differently. Maybe it will make sense. But if your counselor is not open to the possibility of modifying his or her approach based on what you find valuable here, at least for your therapy, fire him. Or her. Whatever. Just run.

Why only four stars? Two reasons: (1) Gottman does not allow that for some significant minority, the difficluties in marriage are much more complex and intractable. E.g., while he is right that ordinary neuroses themselves do not kill marriage--so long as you marry someone whose neuroses match up with yours, or who can tolerate yours--it is certainly the case that some mental illnesses, such as paranoia and borderline personality, make marriage extremely hard. (2) A little humility on Gottman's part would make this book much easier to read and leave more room for the intelligent, wise reader to disagree, modify, and make it his or her own. Gottman is much too taken with himself, and while his research is more extensive and careful than most anything else done in the field, marriage counseling ain't physics (or biology or even sociology), and it certainly should not be granted the authority Gottman claims for it.

This isn't the final word on marriage, but it is about the best of the overly-many words that have heretofore been uttered.

Many people have asked me where to turn for advice when relationship problems begin. Many cannot afford the cost of counselling fees, and free services do not always have professional or qualified advisors. The question usually arises, "Are there any self-help books you would recommend?" This one will definitely be added to the list. "The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work" is based on some basic common sense values, yet they are not always practised in everyday life. Communication, honesty, trust and treating your partner with respect still top the list. With so many different types of families today, blended families, some legally married, some not, I would have prefered the authors make an effort to recognize all meaningful relationships with a commitment by titling the book, "the Seven Principles for Making Meaningful Relationships Work," and for this reason I gave the book four starts rather than five.

Schools teach us some very important elements, but two areas where they fall short is failing to teach money management, and failing to teach relationship values and communication. Unless you have zero money or an endless supply of it, everyone needs to manage money and most of us will, at some point in time, develop an intimate relationship with another individual. Schools teach us how to read, write and all that good stuff, but they do not teach us how to survive in the REAL WORLD! With the high divorce rate and relationship failures, there is clear evidence many couples can certainly use some help and advice in both these areas.

"The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work" focuses on developing strong, positive meaningful relationships and how to keep that nurturing love and respect for each other. Regardless of whether your relationship is in deep trouble or you simply want to enhance the wonderful relationship you have, I highly recommend this excellent self-help book. It is one of the best books on this topic in the marketplace - sincere best wishes for your future happiness.

A very reasonable as well as scientific approach to marriage. Many marriage-oriented books offer logical short-term band-aids (e.g., focusing on perceived Mars/Venus gender differences, communicating better, smoothing over conflicts) that make for a provocative read and/or admirable goals, but by and large fail in the long-run to resuscitate shaky marriages. Gottman creates a path for marital success via theories and exercises with an established track record for success. Many people wouldn't think that a fit marriage has to be exercised regularly, no less than one's body through regular workouts. Gottman's book serves as the ultimate guide to marital fitness, yet is a valuable read even if you are unmarried or have already experienced a failed marriage.

Good marriages don't necessarily have less conflicts than bad ones. Gottman gets under the surface and digs into such deeper issues as the maintaining of HONOR and RESPECT for your partner in the heat of all-too-common battles. Along the way he punches holes in a lot of marriage-counseling paradigms. In short, this book can improve a good marriage (or any similiar commitment between two people), heal a salvagable one, or explain why a bad one got to or beyond the point of no return. Or even serve as a form of CRUCIAL pre-marital counseling.

My question, why isn't there a mandatory course in marriage at the high school level that incorporates Gottman's research? Wouldn't the knowledge gained be of as much or more importance than any other accumulated as teenagers head into adulthood? I consider topics such as those raised by Gottman to be of enormous value for my daughters to read (and discuss!) when they reach their mid-teens...better too early than too late!

I live in Omaha and I well remember when this story broke in the press. It was big news; Lindbergh baby headlines, in fact. When I saw this book was available, I knew I had to read it and find out the information that the press refused to carry. John DeCamp names names and skewers people with little regard for his own personal safety.

I won't go into too much detail on what happened. Read the book to find that out. It is sufficient to say that there were many allegations of child abuse, homosexual encounters, drug abuse and embezzlement of monies involved. The people accused of the abuse were very prominent people in Omaha society, and still are today. DeCamp lays it all out for everyone to see. He cites sources and makes devastating charges against all those involved. He even indicts the federal government as a willing participant in this cover-up. DeCamp is most impressive when he outlines the scandals of Bob Kerrey's tenure as Nebraska governor in the early and mid 1980's. Several bank scandals and questionable loans cast Kerrey in a fairly sinister light. DeCamp says Kerrey used NIFA (Nebraska Investment Finance Authority) to make loans to his buddies and corporate interests. This is the same thing Bill Clinton did in Arkansas with the ADFA while he was governor, around the same time! Those wacky Democrats! What will they come up with next!

Needless to say, some of the revelations in this book are tough to read and pretty shocking. There are explicit descriptions of unnatural acts and violent incidents. There are big drawbacks to this book, however. For one thing, DeCamp has an ego the size of a house. He is constantly patting himself on the back and makes sure everyone knows how much money he could make, how successful his career is, and how many big names he can drop. It gets old real fast and hurts the book, in my opinion. He also gets off on some weird tangents. It's one thing to brag about your involvement in the Gordon Kahl case, or the militia movement. When you start talking about a CIA project called Monarch, in which America's youth are being programmed to kill and maim, you are really stretching credulity. I even roared out loud with derision when I got to the section on Monarch. Attempting to tie one of the Franklin kids into Monarch isn't a good idea, either. It erodes credibility. Despite these parts, the book is a good examination of the entire scandal. No matter what anyone ever says, the death of Gary Caradori is EXTREMELY suspicious. No one can argue that Peter Citron isn't a pedophile, either, as he served time in prison for that crime. These two events alone cast sinister suspicion that something was going on, although whether anyone will ever know the true scope of the scandal is highly unlikely.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, especially for the Kerrey info and the actual discussions of the Franklin cover-up. Just be sure and read this book with caution. Never believe everything you hear, see, or read!

This book only touches on the things that pervert government.
It makes you understand that where there is great wealth
there is great power. The average person in the USA has no idea
what is going on right under their noses.
Open you eyes people. Ours is not a rose colored world.
Those who do not believe in the truth of this book just ask
yourself "Why have their been no lawsuits for slander filed and
won?" Read this and understand that this is real! Sad but true.
You must read this.

This book is quite shocking in many ways. The allegations of child abuse, money laundering, drug running and official governmental cover-ups both big and small. The Iran-Contra affair and CIA mind control. How do they all play in this midwestern state? Read this book to find out.

If it's true it is totally shocking. And how can it not be true? While the allegations many times appear outlandish the writer names names and points fingers at very powerful individuals. Why has no one filed law suits for slander if these allegations are not true? That brings is back around to the unbelievable thought that these allegations are true.

A groundbreaking book that sometimes seems to go off on tangents but all the while is a very important read. Witness the power of the government in ways that most people don't realize exists, the sordid underbelly. Outstanding.