This light and breezy little daily meditation guide would be more aptly called a daily passing thought guide, but often has humorous or insightful little blurbs unlike the stuff seen anywhere else. It makes a nice counterpoint to weightier material, although the brief comments can have loads of mental mass if they catch you at the right moment in your recovery. As a regular user of five daily meditation guides (call me eager in recovery!) I wouldn't want this to be my only food for thought on any given day, but it's a great side-dish. I've bought it as a gift for others who might shirk from more ponderous volumes, and it's been well-received. There's a definite codependency flavor to most of the quotes and commentary. Worth checking out!

I've had this book since it came out. I like it so much and it makes me look at the truth of recovery and our addictions in such a light that I've become my best joke. I like it so much that I've given it away a couple times a year and need to order another one or two. I keep it in the bathroom and even my non-recovering friends comment on it.

'Contemplations of a Primal Mind' by Gabriel Horn was a watershed for me, and complete revelation which I had long been looking for.

As a non-Native American I was looking for a way to understand Native American culture, and particularly the situation Native Americans face living in modern US society.

This book gave me all that, really showing the difficulties being faced to preserve the Native American culture when under the bombardment of modern materialism and 'cultural values'.

It is a brilliant book, coupling those issues in with some of the very enlightening and spiritual aspects of the Native American culture.

I strongly recommend this book to all non-Native Americans (as well as Native Americans). It gives a story of Native American issues in modern society, devoid of any stereotypes or wishful thinking.

As a sequel to this book, I would give an even stronger recommendation to reading Gabriel Horn's first book, 'Native heart, An American Indian Oddyssey' (*****), which goes further into both the Native American spirituality and the struggles they face from the bigotry and sterotypes inherent of modern US society.

Last spring I've got to borrow this book from a friend of mine. I've found it easy to read and to have near for a line or two even whenever I was busy or tired. With other words: tiny pearls to pick up when I most needed it.

Well, my friend moved to Boston and took the book with her and I miss both! And now the book is out of print; thats too bad. But I'll be patience and recall some of the words of wisdom and maybe soon I'll have my own copy!

This is a highly readable deconstruction of the White Male System of power under which we all live. Schaef breaks down the four tenants of the White Male System and how the White Male System is instilled in us from birth and how the mindset affects the attitudes, actions, and lives of everyone who lives in the Unites States. Schaef then goes on to explain how white women have colluded with the system, how the system affects minorities, and the thought processes we all go through as we deny, justify, condemn, divorce ourselves from, and finally accept and begin to change the system. This is a very concise, accurate book and the viewpoints of the author ring true. Although written in the 80's, the truths of the book are still accurate. A good place to start for readings on women in U.S. society, feminism, etc.

This book is full of assumptions and generalizations. Some information is distorted. According to the logic of the writer over 90% of the population should be already dead from "addiction". The writer assumes from the very beggining that any system that is centered around men is addictive and therefore harmful. It is possible, but the writer doesn't make any notes about the men and women centered systems. The only system that is good is the female system.

When Society Becomes an Adict goes beyond the usual books on addiction, to consider why addiction is so common in present society. Ms Schaef's observation is that society as a whole acts like an addicted individual. She also observes that the way to cure society is for the individuals in it to cure themselves.

I must point out that the negative review by an ethics student must have been written after skimming the book. Had the student read more carefully, s/he would have seen that Ms Schaef admits that in an earlier book she had written that the flaws in society were basically the fault of the males in it. Since then, however, she has realized that addiction, not men, are to blame.

This is a top book. It analyses the addiction patterns of individuals from the perspective of the addictive patterns in society as a whole. Ann Wilson Schaef goes beyond analysis of the "problem" of addiction to a very encouraging vision of another way of being alive, one that is mostly forgotten in our numb modern society. If you are looking for some ways out of the cycle of addiction, this may be an important roadmap for you.

Readers of this book consistently report to me that they find this book unintelligible. This is no surprize. The author gives us an endless array of jargon cobbled together in a way that obviously makes sense to her. To others better acquainted with her meanderings it is not only poorly written, but what is presented as fact is fiction, and what is fiction is frightful. One reader repeatedly copied and recopied a phraze from the book, over and over, as if by doing so she could make sense of it. Sadly enough, there was no sense to be found. But people are unreasonably trusting and that trust is egregiously exploited by anyone who promotes this book as something of quality and worth reading. It is unintelligible. When no longer looking for the sense in nonsense, it becomes humorous and pathetic.

Anne Wilson Schaef presents her reflections on how to live a soulful existence. The ideas are sound and the voice engaging. Yet as an introduction to her "Living in Process" workshops, the book does not give any techniques to explore, so the outsider cannot gauge whether it is something to pursue further. Her viewpoint is very holistic, but does not stand out from a very crowded bookshelf. Read this as support for your own work, not as a guide to exercises to perform.

Living in Process is a deep jewelry box of ideas. Slowly, you must sort thru the anecdotes and stories to find glittering meaning. I found some other reviews of the book amusing, "where are the exercises?" other readers demand. This is a gentle book that invites you to change your world. Change your viewpoint. Open your mind. It invites you to change your entire view on how you live your life, not a chance to scurry through a set of exercises or mantras. I adored it. "You are what you read" I've heard. If you are a seeker on a path of enlightenment, I recommend this book as a companion.