The Resilient Self: How Survivors of Troubled Families Rise Above Adversity

Recent media reports on adult children of dysfunctional families have presented them as victims of their pasts, observe the husband-and-wife authors of this useful self-help guide, who call such a presentation the Damage Model. Instead, they propose the Challenge Model, which is based on seven types of ``resiliencies''--aspects of the survivor that provide some measure of strength. These are insight, independence, relationships, initiative, creativity, humor and morality. The Wolins allege that these areas are particularly well developed in people from troubled homes--for example, families headed by alcoholic, abusive, uncommunicative or mentally ill parents. Case studies analyze the various types of resiliency, while the reader is also instructed on how to use them to ``reframe'' and overcome painful experiences. A Damage Inventory helps readers to ``evaluate how badly their self-esteem was hurt by the experience of growing up in a troubled family.'' Steven Wolin is a clinical professor of psychiatry and medicine at the George Washington School of Medicine; Sybil Wolin is an educational specialist who practices in Washington, D.C. Author tour. (Apr.)