Customer Reviews

Connect: 12 vital ties that open your heart, lengthen your life, and deepen your soul

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When one evaluates the choices in a psychology or "self help" section in a bookstore (or online), the selection is overwhelming. Without a specific recommendation from a trusted source, it is often difficult to determine which authors have real credibility. Because I have gleaned many useful ideas from four of Dr. Hallowell's earlier books, I was pleased to see another. While I found Driven to Distraction, Answers to Distraction, and Worry excellent reading, my favorite to date was an out of-print book, Finding the Heart of the Child. Connect, while having its own distinct purposes, is similar to "Finding the Heart"in that it reveals the gentle and loving "heart" of the author, who openly shares his incredible life story in a manner that enables the reader to better understand the importance of his message. In our frentic "cyber-world", it is not possible to stay adeqately connected to family, friends and institutions without really intentionality. This book offers scientific, thought provoking evidence of the value of being connected. Supporting arguments in Connect are powerful because they are based on moving real-life stories of people who have managed rich and full lives, despite challenges that might have been ruinous for them and their perspectives.

As a psychologist, I have long been a fan of Dr. Edward Hallowell's best-selling books ("Driven to Distraction"; Worry"), and have recommended them to many people. One of Dr. Hallowell's gifts is his ability to connect with readers by approaching them with respect, and by writing in a warm, friendly, jargon-free style. He does it again in his latest and best book yet: "Connect." Reading "Connect" made a three hour plane ride go by as if it were three minutes. Hallowell sees "connectedness" as key to an individual's mental, social, emotional, and physical health -- and he traces many of our personal, interpersonal, and societal problems to the disconnectedness in our lives. The concept is so simple, yet so profound. Once you begin to think about it, you see how true it is. ATM's, virtual offices, and Internet shopping sever human connection; the stress-filled, hurried lives so many people lead have eroded connections with one's spouse or partner, children, extended family, and neighbors. Hallowell points out the importance of feeling connected to one's work, faith, and culture; to the past and the future; to nature and art and music. Hallowell's book includes a lot of autobiographical anecdotes, childhood remembrances, and stories about clients and other people the author knows or has read about. Far more than just a self-help book, "Connect" has the power and suspense of a novel. In a chapter that is destined to become a classic in the literature of psychiatry and psychotherapy, Hallowell writes about one of his patients, a schizophrenic with whom he first communicated by writing a line of poetry. The patient responded, and the two connected over "poem therapy." It is one of the most powerful, touching stories of two human beings connecting you will ever read. Hallowell wisely puts most of his "how-to" advice in one chapter. This not only makes his suggestions for increasing connectedness in one's life readily accessible, but frees the other chapters to be lyrical, philosophical, and moving. The construct of connectedness is one that people need to embrace if they wish to improve the quality of their lives and relationships. This book is destined to become a benchmark in the discourse of our culture.

I was first exposed to Ned Hallowell's writing and his work in the Harvard Business Review article, "The Human Moment". What struck me then and again after reading this latest work is how much of Ned's insight on relationships applies to our business lives and how we manage relationships with associates and customers. There's no question that Dr. Hallowell has hit on one of life's real opportunities -- the chance to make true connections. This book helps us to understand and appreciate the value these relationships bring to ourselves and our families. What the world of business often lacks is a sense of how relationships are the key to our success and that we need a strategy and a process to do it successfully. Ned has uncovered a very compelling message with the evidence to support it! I'll have the opportunity to hear him speak at a conference in Minneapolis next week and can't wait to have a "human moment" with the author of this masterfully written book.

As I reached the last 50 pages I found myself putting the book down, sometimes for a day or two, because I didn't want it to end. It reads easily, but the lessons are profound and the truths are palpable. I plan to give copies to my grown children to add to Man's Search for Meaning and The Art of Loving as essential texts for a well-lived life. Connect invites us to live life in the richest, most complex way...eyes open, head up,demanding of ourselves and compassionate to others. You can't read this and not grow.

It's generally poor form to move one's lips while reading. But, how about head-nodding? There's a lot of that going on with Ned Hallowell's new release, CONNECT. Psychiatrist Hallowell serves up "required reading" that is both pleasureful and powerful for today's warp speed, beeper-toting virtual society. A return to basics, by recalling our primordial need to establish and maintain meaningful connections in our lives. This is not a "touchy-feely" book; but, rather, a compendium of 20+ years of psychiatric case studies, including Hallowell's own disturbed childhood, from which emerges the irrefutable conclusion that connection...with family, friends, ideals, past, ourselves...will restore balance in our all too often out-of-round lives. With his Harvard English major background, Hallowell seasons his prescription with apt quotes from Conrad to Shakespeare, and makes his point time after time with true life stories both poignant and relevant. CONNECT is an eaay and enjoyable read...a spoonful of honey with the elixir of life. Clinically tested, hopefully addictive, and available everywhere.

Hallowell's Connect does just that-it connects us back to the reality of life and to its simplicity. His clarity and straightforward honesty are appealing and make one realize that life is what we make it. This man speaks from experience and from authority within his field. He is sensitive, honest, and optimistic-all qualities that are redeeming in today's society. I found his lines to jump off the page at times and to seem achingly familiar. He deserves an A for his honesty, his wit and his desire to ease our pain.

I loved Dr. Hallowell's book, "Connect", and I want to recommend it strongly. Like most excellent ideas, it seems deceptively simple at first, i.e. people feel better when they are connected to other people and to institutions and ideas, than they do when they isolate themselves. But as a counselor who has worked with runaway, homeless, and delinquent youth for the past 17 years, I can attest to the fact that this simple idea is not necessarily an obvious one. I have seen countless angry and despairing families who feel that their problems are so shameful that they have isolated themselves from all who might have helped them...extended family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and their religious leaders. Children who have been abused within their families feel alienated from all adults, and therefore seek support in gangs or drugs. What helps these youth and families is when they begin to reach out and tell their problems to others, and if they had followed Dr. Hallowell's guidance, their connections with friends and families might have helped them long before the problems became serious. When Dr. Hallowell talks about his own childhood problems and relationships he reveals that he knows that relationships can be painful as well as rewarding. I appreciate his courage in talking about his own childhood instead of staying safe and intellectual. It is this courage of his, far more than his degrees, that helps me understand and believe what he says. "Connect" is readable and wise. The world would be a better place if everyone read the book and followed its precepts.

I'm fortunate--just how lucky hadn't occurred to me until I attended a graveside service for a memober of our religios community. As I looked around at the scores of people gathered there, I realized I had a personal bond with each one. In CONNECT, Hallowell affirms the necessity of connected relationships for every individual: to onself, lGod, work, others, and community to mention a few. The latest research shows that connected people live longer and have healthier lives. Ah hah! That explains why nuns age so gracefully. I'm lucky--I'm one of them and this book affirms what I've known all along--how good my connected life really is.

A well written and very personal testimony to this vital ingredient--in danger of extention in this electronic age. Also great reading for a monastic!

Sr Clare Community of Jesus

This book is sensitive to the needs of real people, and well written. Reading it opened my eyes to many things I was taking for granted. When life gets hectic its easy to lose touch with the things that really matter -- family, friends, nature, community, our creative and spiritual sides, and the little things that we enjoy in life that make us uniquely US! Dr. Hallowell does a good job of describing how we become disconnected from others and even from ourselves. I liked his book WORRY and I also like this book very much. Few writers can write about people as well as Edward Hallowell, in a gentle but insightful manner which reminds us that we're only human and that we need to respect, cherish, and nurture that.

Having read Driven to Distraction and Answers to Distraction, I was curious about Connect. It is a very personal book, and Dr. Hallowell shows us more about his own life and committment to what he does than in his other books. He says it from the heart. If we connect with other human beings, life improves. It seems so obvious, but it takes someone like Dr. Hallowell to make connecting imperative. It changed my life. Thanks, Dr. Hallowell!