Customer Reviews

How to Be an Adult: A Handbook for Psychological and Spiritual Integration

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am a clinical psychologist and am loathe to recommend self-help books as most of them are just ways for the author to make money by tapping into the reader's anxieties about themselves. Most offer superficial and simplistic solutions that offer little more than false hope but will keep the reader "coming back for more" from the self-help industry. NOT SO THIS LITTLE GEM! It is one of the two most solidly written and thought through books on personal growth I know of (the other is The Road Less Travelled, by Scot Peck). It's the kind of book you will need to read slowly and meditatively, perhaps even only a page at a sitting. It's also the kind of book you can expect to benefit from reading through again after a year or two on your shelf.

I bought two books by this author: How to be an adult, and How to be an adult in relationships. Both are excellent.
Even though their titles begin with How to... these are not self-help books.
This is a little book, but it will take you quite some time to read it - I still haven't finished my copy. You will want to read a single page and contemplate what is said there and how you can implement it in your own life.
UPDATE Feb 19, 2006: Read it 3 times so far. I find something new to work on every time. This book describes exactly the person I want to become. The most important book I have ever read!

Our bookshelf has over fifty self-help genre books I am guessing. I just got this one and it stands out. It's highly readable and offers important principles to live by. Much wisdom in here. Get this book for yourself and pass it around to your friends. We can all learn these lessons.

I have read many books on relationships and I have been disappointed many times. This book, however, is not one of those. It helps us put not only our relationships but also our lives in perspective and provides us with extremely useful advice about life and relationships. I think I can honestly say that I am a more mature person after working with this book. If you are interested in this topic, you will also like "The Ever-Transcending Spirit" by Toru Sato because it is a very fascinating theoretical book on human development and relationships! It provides us with a map of where we are and where we are going in our development and our evolution as living beings. Both of these books are just excellent!

Deceptively short at only 118 pp (my Paulist Press edition, excluding appendices), this book distills universal truths about self-esteem and love into a volume that is profound in its simplicity. Each time I pick it off my shelf to glance though, I am astounded.

This book provides a logical and helpful outline of stages of growth in behavior, relationships, psychology, and spirituality. Every chapter has fresh ideas and insights (really). Written from a Jungian perspective. Neither pop-psychology B.S. nor self-help mush. Practical, articulate, concise, and wise.

Some authors speak too much creating confusion. Others speak too little leaving the audience wanting for more. Here is an author who has spoken the right amount.

The ideal person benefiting from this book is one who has an element of self-awareness, has prior exposure to basic psychology, has made efforts towards emotional well-being and self-development. For such a person, each sentence in this book appears pregnant with meaning.

Any topic such as hurt, guilt, anger or fear can be taken with an attempt to understand its causes and manifestations, followed by ways to resolve it out. "Completing" the book in the traditional sense should therefore not be the objective. Rather, sentences or paragraphs are read and gradually digested like a cow chews the cud. Any part of the book can be read at any time. This book seems like a timeless reference manual.

The author assumes that the word "Adult" in the title means emotionally stable and spiritually growing. Hence the expanded form of the title might be "How to grow into an emotionally stable and spiritually integrated person".

"How to be an Adult" will strengthen your appreciation of the nuances of emotional well-being and increase your commitment for emotional growth.

This is one of the tightest books I've ever read. Each sentence has an idea, or multiple ideas. "Consciousness elicits graces tied to accepted challenges with newfound strength." p.7. I'm a seasoned Marriage and Family Therapist and I've given this book to many a client as a tool that can be used to bring clarity about the journey of life, anger, fear, intimacy and so much more. Richo's list, "Declaration of a Healthy Adulthood," lifts the fog for so many. I gave away multiple copies to everyone in the family, and my closest friends,and I carry a copy with me all the time for those moments when I am led to reflect. Highly recommended.

having read hundreds of psych and spiritual books, this one tops my list. Short, sweet, packed with page after page of nuggets you can contemplate and integrate it offers the best value and wisdom around. read it and re-read it many times. if you truly allow it to sink in and do the work, it will change your life.

I just finished reading this book. Other reviewers are right: this book requires slow reading. I have read quite a few books in this area over the years, and this one is clearly the most concise and most valuable.