monagustafsonaffinito   CHATS AND RANTS — PSYCHOLOGY AND LIFE

If I know my followers as I think I do, you’ll like this book as much as I did. So many things to ring our personal bells.

ONE STOP WEST OF HINSDALE, by Valerie Kuhn Reid

I absolutely loved this book. I loved the total honesty of the content and I loved the author’s style. If I were still wearing my psychology-professor-hat I’d be suggesting it as supplementary reading. I even love the short chapters that made it easier to set it down when necessary even though I wanted to keep on turning pages. There are so many things that vibed with me, and I’ll mention some. But I ‘m careful not to give away important things that are more effectively discovered with an element of surprise. Here goes with just a few. There’s the importance of caring fathers in a girl/woman’s life, and the influence of the first few years of life in sealing some lifelong characteristics. I know too well the potentially confining superego of a Lutheran atmosphere and the related stoicism. (I’m personally happy for friends and therapy that helped relieve me of that restrictive tightness.) I know – and eventually taught – the depressing “Problem That Has No Name” that stunted the lives of women of our mothers’ generation for which the treatment varied from horrifying to stupid. I recognize the role-reversing protection of one’s mother. I have also seen the crazy-making of alcohol addiction in reaction to situational stress. I felt the intense sadness of a family torn apart and the relief of forgiveness. And I certainly identified with the salvation of owning a brain that needs feeding and activity. I feel that I really “know” the author now, and I can’t imagine that wouldn’t be true for anyone who chooses to read this book, which obviously I highly recommend.