Customer Reviews

The Undefended Self: Living the Pathwork

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Now in a newly revised and updated third edition, The Undefended Self: Living The Pathwork by teacher, therapist, lecturer and author Susan Thesenga is a practical and meaningful self-help guide that elaborates highly on the ancient wisdom of Socrates: "Know Thyself." From understanding and transforming the needs and desires of the lower self, mask self, and higher self to following a new spiritual path, The Undefended Self is a journey through the positive and negative sides of human nature toward a plateau of greater acceptance, self-esteem, and happiness. Especially recommended reading for readers aspiring toward their own enduring and personal transformation.

I've worked intensively (BBSH) for two years with the process outlined this book. The most helpful thing from Pathwork was for me to know, or even assume as a given, that behind every piece of anger or sadness or else there is some repressed childhood pain. However, finding my particular story of the wounded child has not been nearly as helpful as working directly without and beyond any story, present or past. Compared to the very direct approaches of The Work (by Byron Katie) and The Sedona Method (by Hale Dwoskin and Lester Levenson), Pathwork involves still a lot of psychological analysis that can be helpful, but also keeps the emotions and the story spinning.

I personally preferred to read the lectures directly as opposed to this book. The Undefended Self is more an account of how people worked with the lectures and contains only short citations. The lectures are very powerful in bringing suppressed things to the surface, one develops a very personal relationship to these texts, they go to the heart immediately as if they were spoken directly to me. They however go very little beyond that "me" that is in the end completely made up - even when it seems very real at times. "God simply is" is mentioned about once. The lectures are a very accurate account of human psychology, if one would like to understand why life is sometimes painful - but understanding the story of "why" isn't the way out, in my experience.

I think it's worth to check out Hale Dwoskin and Byron Katie and Eckhart Tolle and whatever else you may find in addition, if one has a sense that the human psychology is a little strange and there might be something different. However, for dear friends of mine, Pathwork is for them what Sedona Method/Byron Katie are to me. More a personal preference probably, and depending on the way your psyche is knitted and glued together.

This is a wonderful book that allows you to explore the aspects of the self in order to discover the true sense of who we really are as people. A well written book that incorporates transformative personal stories and exercises to work through our "images" or patterns of disharmonious experiences. I highly recommend this book, and would list this as a must-have for all who are in the healing arts.

This is a work book and not a light read but if you are ready and willing to start the important work of finding your true self and you would like some help then this is a good place to start. Drawing on Susan's personal experience and the Pathwork lectures this book asks you the questions that you don't want to know the answers to and questions that you never even thought of before. The answers you give yourself to the exercises at the end of each chapter will help you directly in proportion to the depth of honesty and openness you give them.
The chapters deal with Accepting Ourselves, Choosing to Unify Our Selves, Observer Self, Inner Child, Ego, Soul, Images, Mask Self, Lower Self, Higher Self, Attachments and Transformation.

I have been doing "inner work" for many years and have found this book, used off and on for 4 years, has resulted in a depth of self understanding that I have not found through therapy or any other source. I highly recommend it for those who want to go much deeper in consciousness growth and change.

As several of the other reviewers noted, this book contains a lot of examples of specific individuals. I was hoping more for a book that lays out the Pathwork, with brief notations regarding exercises you can use if you're unsure.

It's not that it's a bad book - it's not. It's just not the book I was looking for. But if you are starting out on the path to self-discovery, the examples in the book will most likely be extremely helpful. For me, they were superfluous.

What a great book. I got it because it was a reading requirement for school. I think that everybody that wants to find more about themselves should read this book. A must for people that are looking to challenge themselves to grow spiritually.

The book arrived in a timely fashion and the condition was just as described.
I was happy to make this purchase.

I don't know how anyone could read this without falling asleep. Psychology 101 with a spiritual facade. Recommended by a trusted friend as an introduction to Pathwork. Further research into Pathwork produced a similar impression - the topic is just boring.