Reviews - The Choice: Embrace the Possible

1.65k reviews for:

The Choice: Embrace the Possible

Een indrukwekkend verhaal van een indrukwekkende, maar bovenal menselijke vrouw. Wat ik ervan opgestoken heb: je kunt leed niet met elkaar vergelijken (en dus ook je eigen leed niet relativeren) en het is belangrijk om je emoties toe te laten en niet weg te drukken. Een thema waar ik momenteel mee bezig ben, dus heel verhelderend en inspirerend. Niet alleen voor mij, maar waarschijnlijk ook voor vele anderen.

cmanner's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad

pippa_w's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad

”Just remember, no one can take away from you what you’ve put in your mind.”

One of those books that feels entirely odd to rate, so I won’t.

Why is this night different from all other nights? Before dawn breaks, we’ll know.

This is a harrowing, no-punches-pulled memoir of Dr Edith Edger’s survival of the Holocaust and the concentration camps, yes, but it is predominantly a look into how this experience and her work as a psychologist shaped both her recovery and her more generalised approach to mental health.

Eger and her uncredited co-writer Esmé Schawlow Weigand are together an extraordinary, beautiful storyteller, and this book is gripping and engaging from beginning to end. It definitely runs a little long - there are a few client stories that could easily have been cut - but when there’s this much insight and balance and raw honesty, it’s hard to mind.

Don’t let the introduction, which reeks of toxic positivity and was ill-conceived for the self-help book audience, put you off. This book contains far less cliché and far more depth and nuance and tact than would be suggested by a first chapter that reads, “I would love to help you discover how to escape the concentration camp of your own mind and become the person you were meant to be.”

When we abdicate taking responsibility for ourselves, we are giving up our ability to create and discover meaning. In other words, we give up on life.