Taming Your Inner Brat: A Guide for Transforming Self-Defeating Behavior (Paperback)

by Pauline Wallin (Author) "Deep within the recesses of our psyches there resides a brat..." (more)
Key Phrases: inner brat, bratty thoughts, bratty child, United States, Sesame Street, Cookie Monster (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"…shows its readers how they needlessly upset themselves …and how they can choose to curb their brattishness and self-defeating behavior." -- Albert Ellis, Ph.D., co-author of A Guide to Rational Living

Product Description
Taming Your Inner Brat is an exploration of that part of people’s personalities that gets them into trouble, be it lashing out at others, falling into addictive patterns of eating or drinking, or ending up in self-destructive cycles. Readers learn how to recognize their inner brat and what specific strategies will bring it under control. Clinical psychologist Pauline Wallin has spent 26 years helping people deal with self-defeating behavior.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Beyond Words Publishing (June 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582700508
• ISBN-13: 978-1582700502
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #595,182 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A valuable tool for the workplace!, February 22, 2004

By	Denise Previti "denisewallin" (Norwalk, CT United States) - See all my reviews

Taming Your Inner Brat is a refreshing change from most self-help books. You won't find any "its all my parents' fault" here. Nor will you find a set of affirmations telling you that just need to love yourself more and everything will be fine.

This book takes a hard look at what is really behind your bad habits, problem tempers and other self-defeating behaviors and thoughts. It's the "inner brat," a remnant of early childhood, the part of you that never grew up. This inner brat wants what it wants when it wants it. It pouts, sulks, gets angry and blames others when it doesn't get its own way - just like a bratty child.

Everyone has an inner brat, including me, I now realize.

While not written specifically for the workplace, Taming Your Inner Brat addresses common personal and interpersonal problems that spill over into the office. Things like procrastination, resentment, jealousy, making mountains out of molehills, and even being on a diet all interfere with our working at our best.

The book has a quiz that helps you estimate the strength of your own inner brat. There is also a chapter illustrating the different "personae" of inner brats, and how they affect the way you perceive and react to situations. Toward the end of the book are several do's and don'ts for taming your inner brat. "Don't always trust your feelings," urges the author, because your inner brat can manipulate the way you feel. Instead, she suggests distracting your inner brat and talking back to it in specific ways. More help is available through a free, monthly email newsletter. Sign up at innerbrat.com

Taming Your Inner Brat is mainly about how to regulate your own feelings and impulses. But it also includes a chapter on how we became such a "bratty" culture that demands instant gratification and blames others when things go wrong. This is an interesting backdrop that shows how we got here, but at the same time, it does not let us off the hook for personal responsibility for our actions.

Besides being informative, Taming Your Inner Brat is entertaining and easy to read. It's written by a clinical psychologist in a straightforward, no-nonsense style reminiscent of Dr. Phil, but with a more gentle and humorous tone. Without scolding, this book shows you a new way to look at your problems and to better manage them. When you're done reading it, you'll probably think of at least half a dozen other people who need to tame their inner brats.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than just a self-help book, October 30, 2001

By	Richard Ievoli, Ph.D. (Norristown, PA) - See all my reviews

Taming Your Inner Brat is an entertaining, yet technically well-grounded
manual for understanding and gaining control of that childlike,
self-centered "brat" that resides within and gets us into trouble: for
example, temper tantrums, road rage and desk rage, addictions and bad
habits, self-absorbed pity and resentment, procrastination and
extra-marital affairs. This "inner brat" embodies the combination of
narcissism and impulsivity which are inherent in these self-defeating
behavior patterns. In this sense, the book is unique, since no other
self-help book of which I am aware addresses this specific combination.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Taming Your Inner Brats, April 7, 2004

By A Customer

The other night I was trying to find a "self-help" book dealing with being on time. I came across this wonderful book, Taming Your Inner Brat.....". It's great! I could never relate to all the reasons that are given elsewhere for why some people are never on time. But there was always something in the back of my head that questioned where was the fine line between being appropriately self-concerned and being self-absorbed. Your book wasn't an eye-opener, it was a JOLT! It affects so many other areas of my life as well. I am going to have to think of a lot of names for each of these brats!