A review by eleneariel
Good Morning, Monster: A Therapist Shares Five Heroic Stories of Emotional Recovery by Catherine Gildiner

4.0

I keep trying to decipher what the lesson of this book is, and I think it boils down to this: if you have been horribly emotionally damaged, you may never be able to repair yourself completely, but don't let that discount the progress it IS possible to make.

This is being billed as an "inspiring" book, but I'm not sure inspired is the emotion I felt after reading it. It's good - it's really good. I was interested in each patient profiled, I couldn't have stopped reading their stories even if I'd wanted to. I was intrigued by Dr. Gildiner, and appreciated that she was transparent about the mistakes she made in each case. I loved learning more about how therapy works from the therapist's side of the room.

But inspired? Mostly I just felt sad at the capacity humans have for hurting other humans, for the ways that hurt can easily get passed on generations down the line, and for all the times the people who are SUPPOSED to notice and follow up on suspected neglect or abuse just ... don't. In every case, the patient who was abused as a child could have been saved a world of hurt had other adults stepped in and said, "no, something isn't right here."

Thanks to Netgalley for this advance copy!