Customer Reviews

Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships: Healing the Wound of the Heart

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Although this book is presented as a book on relationships, it is really about connecting with one's own deepest essence. This will, of course, have a profound effect on all of one's relationships.

This is an essential book for anyone on a genuine spiritual path who seeks to take the leap into the non-conceptual awareness of being. The practices presented here are a tremendous support for meditation and prayer. By bringing the concepts of grievance, longing and absolute love into the realm of the body, the simple exercises in this book, if fully engaged, make the tricky business of opening one's heart easier.

John Welwood has offered the world a tremendous gift. May all beings benefit.

This book will insightful regarding the way the mind works. This book highlight the unawareness of us human beings that it is our habitual thinking patterns and response that is the greatest obstacle in us having fulfilling relationships and happy life.

However, to bring out the gold from this book, one needs to read this book again and again and use it as a personal guide of practice.

I thank the author for his generous sharing and ernest effort in writing this book. He should continue to write. I hope to meet and talk to him one day.

Wow, I wish I had read this about 10 years ago. It really got me to think about and see my relationship patterns in a different light. It hit a couple of bones right to the marrow. I recommend it to anyone who has ever struggled with relationship problems, especially ones with themselves. Thanks for this awesome book, John.

This time Welwood risks labels like "namby pamby" in order to bring home what I suspect he's been suspecting all along. Love is all you need, really.

We're all born, we're all going to die, we all suffer in various ways along the way. How blessed is the child whose world holds her tight with compassion and understanding through hunger and hardship, compared to the child who suffers the pain of judgement, fault-finding and ostracism even in a world of material plenty.

For understanding the biological implications of love a fantastic adjunct to this book are the works about trauma healing by Peter Levine.

In Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships:Healing the Wound of the Heart, John Welwood eloquently guides the reader to live more consciously, enjoy more peace, and find deeper healing. By illuminating the dynamics of love and relationship, Welwood offered me the possibility of a greater understanding of my part in relationships and helped me discover further insights into opening my heart to myself and others. If life is a journey, Welwood is a gracious guide and this book is a manual that would benefit anyone interested in living their best life.

Some writers seem to be able to resonate with a reader, and others don't. I believe it has to do with where the reader is in his/her journey. I have always gotten a lot out of reading Welwood. Others may not. I especially connected with the first few chapters. It makes a lot of sense to me to look at how our individual struggles mirror the struggles in the 'big picture', for example, world conflicts. (and the other way around as well). Ghandi says, 'be the change you wish to see in the world' and I believe Welwood is saying the same thing, only he is giving us suggestions on how to do that in this latest book of his. I recommend it for those who are ready for expanding their individual journey; by looking at the whole world and how each individual can make a difference. In small ways and in big ways. Because we are all one and the same. And in many ways the survival of the planet depends on it.

Pyschotherapist John Welwood's thesis is that discord in relationships stems from an internal doubt, a worry that, at our core, we are an unlovable person. His book is about this "mood of unlove" and practical exercises for healing ourselves to lead to healthier loving relationships. He uses anecdotal sketches to illustrate his principles of healing and transformation in chapters on interpersonal relationships, grievance, self-love, and finding perfect love.

One must have an open mind and be ready for new-age language and exercises to benefit from this book. To me, it seems that healing oneself is key to all relationships, whether romantic, familial, or platonic, so this book offers more than just romantic relationship advice.

An easier read than Welwood's other books, yet as profound or more. I find it reads like the Bible - I can open the book in any place and immediately get into the writing. In my thinking it's THE relationship book of relationship books; not too many books actually open the heart while I read them - this one does.

I've read all of Welwood's books, which I have thoroughly enjoyed, and have been to a workshop with him, based on the material in this book--I think this is the weakest book he has done--his theory is interesting, but I find it overstated, over-applied, to every ill in the world. I think he is generalizing from his own experience (as we all do, to some extent), but has not examined his thesis from a broad enough perspective.

When you're ready for the truth, either Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships... or Journey of the Heart will allow healing and inspire you to raise your standards in all relations. Anything other than the real thing in our Love Relationships is a waste of time and a bad example. These books can help alter any issue, no matter how new or how seasoned. Please enter with an open heart.