Showing titles in Dysfunctional Families

This powerful and haunting memoir details the years Paula McLain and her two sisters spent as foster children after being abandoned by both parents in California in the early 1970s. As wards of the State, the sisters spent the next 14 years moving from foster home to foster home. The dislocations, confusions, and odd pleasures of an unrooted life form the basis of one of the most compelling memoirs in recent years - a book in the tradition of Jo Ann Beard's The Boys of My Youth and Mary Karr's The Liars' Club.

On March 26, 2018, rescue workers discovered a crumpled SUV and the bodies of two women and several children at the bottom of a cliff beside the Pacific Coast Highway. Investigators soon concluded that the crash was a murder-suicide, but there was more to the story: Jennifer and Sarah Hart, it turned out, were a white married couple who had adopted the six Black children from two different Texas families in 2006 and 2008. Behind the family's loving facade, however, was a pattern of abuse and neglect that went ignored.

The state-run guardianship system, called conservatorship in some states, is largely unregulated, ill-understood, and increasingly populated by financially motivated predators. Just how the secretive world of guardianship works and its real-life effects remained a mystery to most until the very public case of pop star Britney Spears. Currently, there are an estimated 1.5 to 2 million Americans under court control, but precise figures are not known as no government entity keeps track of citizens who have lost the right to determine their own fate.

At the age of five, Megan Phelps-Roper began protesting homosexuality and other alleged vices alongside fellow members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. Founded by her grandfather and consisting almost entirely of her extended family, the tiny group would gain worldwide notoriety for its pickets at military funerals and celebrations of death and tragedy.

La violencia no son solo gritos y golpes. Hay muchas formas de violencia menos espectaculares. Más sutiles y insidiosas. A veces, la violencia invisible es «normal». Es «útil». Permite expresar frustración, o tomar una decisión que nos hace progresar. Sin embargo, en muchas ocasiones, la violencia invisible es «tóxica». Peor aún: hace que quien la sufre se hunda en una profunda sensación de naufragio vital. Jean-Charles Bouchoux quiere visibilizar este fenómeno, desvelar los mecanismos psicológicos que lo desencadenan y ofrecernos herramientas y pautas para superarlo.

You cannot change a narcissist. But you can change how you deal with one. Psychologist Dr Sarah Davies offers this practical guide to understanding and healing from a relationship with a narcissist. With case studies and expert guidance on rebuilding self-confidence, developing emotional regulation skills and learning mindfulness and grounding techniques, How to Leave A Narcissist For Good will help you turn your back on narcissists and look forward to future loving relationships.

Imagine never being able to close your eyes and remember the feel of your mother’s arms wrapped around you. Now imagine closing your eyes and remembering your mother’s tears splashing down on your face as she is on top of you, crying as she is trying to choke you to death. My mother left me these memories and many more during my traumatic childhood. After many years of struggling with trying to understand "Why me?" I took back control of my life and started saying, "It was me, now what am I going to do?" The answer is my book, "Why Me?"

In this remarkable self-help guide, Dr. Susan Forward draws on case histories and the real-life voices of adult children of toxic parents to help you free yourself from the frustrating patterns of your relationship with your parents---and discover a new world of self-confidence, inner strength, and emotional independence.

Raised for vastly different futures, one burdened with the responsibility of becoming the future king and the other destined to live in his shadow, Charles and Andrew have spent their lives on different sides of the same coin. War of the Windsors tells, for the first time, the complete story of Charles and Andrew from their diverging childhoods to their current struggles.

Malignant narcissism is a psychological disorder that's an extreme mix of narcissism, antisocial behavior, aggressiveness, and sadism. It has all of the characteristics of narcissism - but it takes them to the extreme...I wrote this book as a resource for anyone else who is suffering at the hands of a malignant narcissist. I want to offer not only healing words but also guide you through understanding the disorder in order to better help you deal with it.

Gerri was only a young girl when she was first abused by her father. After her mother found out, and believing there was nothing she could do to help her child, nor deal with the stigma attached to it in their small Northern Irish town in the 1960s, she committed suicide. Gerri and her siblings were split up and placed in different foster homes, all knowing they were unlikely to see each other ever again. Told that her mother had committed a grave sin, Gerri was completely alone and abandoned as she confronted even more horrors from her past.

What are you leaving on the table of life because of the negative energy of unforgiveness? Understanding the power of our thoughts and letting go of blame thru forgiveness gives voice to healing words of Peace and healing thru forgiveness. When her husband got his secretary pregnant and her bassinet remained empty, Lee Anna was prepared to break the Fifth Commandment.

In this valuable and revealing anthology, cultural critic and best-selling author Roxane Gay collects original and previously published pieces that address what it means to live in a world where women have to measure the harassment, violence, and aggression they face, and where they are "routinely second-guessed, blown off, discredited, denigrated, besmirched, belittled, patronized, mocked, shamed, gaslit, insulted, bullied" for speaking out. Contributions include essays from established and up-and-coming writers, performers, and critics.

The Close sisters are descended from very prominent and wealthy ancestors. When the Close sisters were very young, their parents joined a cult called the MRA, or Moral Rearmament. The family was suddenly uprooted to a cult school in Switzerland and, ultimately, to the Belgian Congo where their father became a surgeon in the war-ravaged republic, and ultimately the personal physician to President Mobutu.

If you experienced physical or emotional abuse, neglect, or abandonment as a child, you may struggle with unhealthy relationships as an adult. Hurtful attachments with our caregivers in early childhood can lay the foundation for toxic relationships. Those experiences can even affect the way we handle conflict, our feelings toward sex, and our expectations of our partners. But this doesn't mean you can't change. This book will help you gain a greater awareness of the trauma bonds that prevent you from getting the love, safety, and security you desire.

Joe Trohman cofounded Fall Out Boy with Pete Wentz in the early aughts, and he’s been the sticky element of the metaphorical glue-like substance holding the band together ever since, over the course of a couple decades that have included massive success, occasional backlashes, and one infamous four-year hiatus. From the guitarist’s very first glimpses of their popular ascension, to working with his heroes like Anthrax’s Scott Ian, to writing for television with comedian Brian Posehn, Trohman takes listeners backstage, into the studio, and onto his couch.

We Are the Evidence is the first comprehensive resource for survivors of sexual assault. Written with conviction and compassion by Cheyenne Wilson, a registered nurse and survivor of sexual assault, this handbook contains everything victims and advocates need to know to navigate the tumultuous times that follow an assault.

After escaping the trauma of the Umbrella Lady’s home, 13-year-old Saffron Faith Anders is determined to find the father who abandoned her all those years ago. But when she finds him in a nearby town, Saffron is shocked to discover that he has married a woman he clearly had been involved with before her mother’s death. Worse, her father insists Saffron pretend to be his niece so he can continue to con his new wife’s family. Desperate for her father’s love, she goes along with the farce, but it soon becomes clear that perhaps it is better to face the world alone....

After 12 years together, 2 children, 10 pets, and 5 properties, Dawn and her partner decided to call it quits. In the newest installment of her bestselling Sh!t No One Tells You series, Dawn tries to figure out what happened… and what happens next. Dawn takes you on her own bumpy, meandering, and often absurd journey through the destruction of a life exploded by divorce.

Frances Stroh's earliest memories are ones of great privilege: shopping trips to London and New York, lunches served by black-tied waiters at the Regency Hotel, and a house filled with precious antiques, which she was forbidden to touch. Established in Detroit in 1850, by 1984 the Stroh Brewing Company had become the largest private beer fortune in America and a brand emblematic of the American dream itself; while Stroh was coming of age, the Stroh family fortune was estimated to be worth $700 million.