Imperfect Control: Our Lifelong Struggles With Power And Surrender
Books / Hardcover
Books › Psychology › Interpersonal Relations
ISBN: 0684801396 / Publisher: Simon & Schuster, January 1998
Addresses the issue of control--with its associated feelings of power, helplessness, freedom, and limitations--and how it affects every area of our lives
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Judith Viorst, in her new book, Imperfect Control, shows us how our sense of self and all our important relationships are colored by our struggles over control: over wanting it and taking it, loving it and fearing it, and figuring out when the time has come to surrender it.Drawing on the work of biological and social scientists, psychoanalysis, and philosophers, and interweaving fiction and poetry and personal stories, including some of her own, Viorst compellingly argues that we are constantly dealing with issues of control: As children and parents. As lovers and workers. As victims and survivors. As moral - and mortal - human beings.Viorst again provides a fresh way of thinking about a familiar concept, showing how issues of control explain why we remain in hopeless relationships, how an offer of help can be a power play, when compliance is a virtue and when it's an evil, how easily we will quit and how hard we will try.Writing with compassion, acute psychological insight, and a touch of her trademark humor, Viorst invites us to contemplate the limits and possibilities of our control. She shows us how our lives can be shaped by our actions and our choices. She reminds us, too, that we sometimes should choose to let go. And she encourages us to find our own best balance between power and surrender.
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