Publication Date:May 30, 2006 Shipping:Eligible for Super Saver Shipping Availability:Usually ships in 24 hours
Editorial Reviews:
Product Description Cult victims and those who have suffered abusive relationships often suffer from fear, confusion, low self-esteem, and post-traumatic stress. Take Back Your Life explains the seductive draw that leads people into such situations, provides guidelines for assessing what happened, and hands-on tools for getting back on track. Written for victims, their families, and professionals, this book leads readers through the healing process.
Practical and Deeply AnalyticalMarch 1, 2008 I keep "Take Back Your Life: Recovering From Cults and Abusive Relationships" on my bedside table, my living room end table, and everywhere I can grab a chance to read it. I keep a pen right in the book, because I am underlining so many passages, and marking others with stars. This book is extremely practical, giving very specific suggestions for recovery, even while it covers material that is incredibly deep and analytical. I could not recommend it more highly! This book will help you help yourself to extricate your emotions and thoughts from the negative past, and build new freedoms into your life. CW
A must have!October 28, 2007 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Incredibly comprehensive and poignant. As a cult survivor, I've read a lot of cult-related materials, and this one just struck a deep nerve, where others didn't quite have the same effect. It's also the only one that my partner is willing to read. He says that this book is a much more relatable piece than any other book I've suggested, and states that it brings cult experiences down to a layman's level to understanding these past experiences and some of its lasting effects.
Outstanding!November 14, 2006 13 out of 14 found this review helpful
As an ex cultic relationship survivor cum exit counselor in training I can attest to this being the most comprehensive and helpful book to date I,ve read. THis book definitely encompasses all facets of what it is to go through the aftermath of a cultic experience. It is a warm and welcome friend as I repair my life. It is a must for not only the survivor but for the support system that helps the survivor repair the damage done. Best to all!
A self-help resource for survivors of harmful relationshipsSeptember 14, 2006 11 out of 11 found this review helpful
Take Back Your Life: Recovering From Cults and Abusive Relationships by co-authors Janja Lalich (Associate Professor of Sociology at California State University, Chico) & Madeleine Tobias (The Clinical Coordinator and a psycho therapist at the Vet Center in White River Junction) is a self-help resource for survivors of harmful relationships, whether with an individual or a group, and their loved ones. Chapters explain in plain terms the siren call abusive relationships have some people, and the confusion, low self-esteem, and post-traumatic stress experienced by the victim, along with suggestions for picking up the pieces of one's life and embracing the healing process. Of special note are the chapters addressing problems with family members and children in cults, and therapeutic concerns. Take Back Your Life is written primarily for lay readers however, and is a very sober, serious, and practical guide.
Sane Advice for Those Leaving CultsAugust 24, 2006 22 out of 23 found this review helpful
We don't hear much these days about the Branch Davidians, Heaven's Gate or even Jim Jones. It's tempting to think that the cult movement has faded and that the world's attention is on more pressing matters -- like suicide bombers. But they are all of a piece, according to Chico State University Associate Professor of Sociology Janja Lalich.
In "Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships" ($19.50 in paperback from Bay Tree Publishing), Lalich and co-author Madeleine Tobias, a Vermont psychotherapist, make clear that modern day cults have not disappeared. "If there is less street recruiting today, it is because many cults now use professional associations, campus organizations, self-help seminars, and the Internet as recruitment tools" to entice the unwary.
Who gets sucked into a cult? "Although the public tends to think, wrongly, that only those who are stupid, weird, crazy and aimless get involved in cults, this is simply untrue. ... We know that many cult members went to the best schools in the country, have advanced academic or professional degrees and had successful careers and lives prior to their involvement in a cult or cultic abusive relationship. But at a vulnerable moment, and we all have plenty of those in our lives (a lost love, a lost job, rejection, a death in the family and so on), a person can fall under the influence of someone who appears to offer answers or a sense of direction."
For the authors, "a group or relationship earns the label 'cult' on the basis of its methods and behaviors -- not on the basis of its beliefs. Often those of us who criticize cults are accused of wanting to deny people their freedoms, religious or otherwise. But what we critique and oppose is precisely the repression and stripping away of individual freedoms that tends to occur in cults. It is not beliefs that we oppose, but the exploitative manipulation of people's faith, commitment, and trust."
Written for those coming out of cults, as well as for family members and professionals, "Take Back Your Life" deals with common characteristics of myriad cult types: Eastern, religious and New Age cults; political, racist and terrorist cults; psychotherapy, human potential, mass transformational cults; commercial, multi-marking cults; occult, satanic or black-magic cults; one-on-one family cults; and cults of personality. Chapters deal with the cult experience, the process of healing, stories of families and children in cults and therapeutic issues.
The book features riveting personal accounts from ex-cult members and offers a wide range of resources for the person who is trying to retrieve his or her "pre-cult" personality. Education looms large, for that can begin to break down the narrow black-and-white thinking cult members often display. Many cults redefine common terms or introduce special vocabulary making it difficult for members to make sense of the world outside of even their own inner aspirations.
The authors are also concerned about those in the education and helping professions who don't see the dangers posed by cults both to the individual and the larger community. Part of the purpose of the book is to make a credible case that any course of therapy needs to take into account a patient's cult associations.
"Take Back Your Life" is a book of hope, an excellent starting point for those thinking of exiting a cult and for those who are taking back their lives, one day at a time.
