Family Re-Union

Sharland Trotter, Ed.D., until her death in 1997 was a practicing clinical psychologist and research fellow at Radcliffe College as well as former editor in chief of the American Psychological Association Monitor.

Family Reunions explores the strains in relations between the middle-aged and their adult children, on the one hand, and their elderly parents on the other. Baby boomers in their search for advice on how to negotiate healthy relations at either end usually come up empty-handed. Amid a forest of self-help and pop psychology books, shelves of how-to manuals on parenting, where is the book that addresses the yearning that parents and grown children have for meaningful, authentic, "adult" connection? Now, here is the book that shows how autonomy and connection are not opposites, but complements.A true collaboration between a husband who is a respected journalist, columnist, and author, and a wife who was a practicing psychologist and author. Dr. Trotter died before the book was finished, yet her ideas and therapy experience rise up from these pages. Because of the unusual circumstances of its writing--Sharland Trotter learned she had cancer about a year into the work of the book--and the unusual way the author dealt with her mortal illness, this is a highly personal book.Any adult picking up this book will be able to find it relevant to her own age and circumstance because the narrative follows the entire life course. Wise and informed, the authors examine and propose strategies for the traps that parents and grown children fall into. Ultimately, they offer hope that it is never to late to create loving, respectful family ties.

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