First there was the “gifted child,” then the “inner child.” Now in an eloquent and inspiring new work, Lillian Rubin, bestselling author or Words of Pain and Intimate Strangers, brings us The Transcendent Child.
She starts with a question few psychologists have asked, yet one that goes to the heart of our beliefs about character, growth, and our ability to learn from experience: How is it that some people manage to transcend even the most harsh and painful past? For the answer, Dr. Rubin turns to the life stories of adults who as children suffered the worst kinds of family and social pathology, yet found the path to rich and satisfying mature lives.
“The Transcendent Child comes as a refreshing antidote to those messages of helpless resignation we hear constantly—that we are ‘victims of circumstance,’ ‘prisoners of childhood,’ trapped in ‘intergenerational cycles of abuse.’ And Lillian Rubin is at the top of her form, carefully rendering these inspirational stories of triumph without sacrificing analytic depth. This is a book both wise and hopeful.”
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“Lillian Rubin’s riveting life histories introduce us to people who transcended childhoods that could have come from the stories of Dickens or the Brothers Grimm. But these are no fairly tales. The Transcendent Child illuminates a new and important understanding in human development research, that hardship early in life need not lead to irreversible psychological damage. These stories offer hope and a new away of thinking to ‘adult children’ of so-called dysfunctional families.”
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“In this age of obsession with childhood’s victims it is refreshing to read the stories of survivors who managed to transcend their seemingly doomed beginnings. There is a great range of humanity in these eight deeply personal narratives. Lillian Rubin has given us a valuable, salutary book.”
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