I think this book is a necessary to be read by all women not because we are in same situation with women mentioned in this book, but because the nature of all women is to be kind and pleasing others. Then we can understand how much kindness is logical in relationships. For me my mom is the God of kindness but even in our relationship I always ask her to be kind to herself first then others and I think this is the best and healthier way to connect others by a woman.
鈥嶹omen Who Love Too Much: When You Keep Wishing and Hoping He'll Change, Robin Norwood
Women Who Love Too Much is a self-help book by Robin Norwood published in 1985. Its premise, that women who get "mired in obsessive relationships" are to help themselves, was criticized by some feminist scholars.
changed my life.....again. My sister gave this to me, the first time i read it, I got mad. the second time I read it, I cried. the 3rd time I read it, I left my husband......but be warned, unless God changes you inside, if we don't learn from our past, we WILL repest it...in bad relationships...that's why i am single.
Yes, Women Who Love Too Much is the quintessential self-help book. It fits every stereotype given to this genre. That being written, I read this at a time when I needed the help and to understand relationships. It was after a particularly devastating relationship and I was in a dark place. I don't remember if anything impacted me when I read the book, but years later I find myself flashing back to it from time to time, remembering something small from the book and being able to make some sense of things or relate certain issues in the present back to the information that seeped through. There have been many "Ohhhhh...yeah, I remember reading that" moments for me.
It's not going to change your life or save you from falling into your darkest places, but it's a good book for women to read if only to understand certain patterns of behavior that either we, individually or collectively, put into our relationships. While I don't remember it to be preachy, it does a good job of explaining why we may do certain things and why we shouldn't.
Yes, it's kitschy and you might be embarrassed if someone sees that you're reading it, but I'd recommend this for all women.
Honestly, this book allowed me to realize what I personally was(is) doing wrong in relationships. This book states how our childhood can affect our future relationships with partners and friends, stories from women with different traumas they've experienced in their life, the problems they encountered with their destructive partners, and the reasons why they are attracted to them.
I've dog-eared so many pages that I thought had very good key points to keep in mind.
I recommend this to all types of women who have discovered themselves in turbulent relationships with the same pattern of unhealthy, agonizing emotions. This book affirms us of our own self-worth, how to seek help and not be ashamed of loving too much, and how you can continue a healthy lifestyle of trying to make yourself happy first.
I have to be honest that in the span of 12 days of reading this book I have noticed a shift in my attitude -- I became irritable, more critical, maybe intolerant. That's definitely unpleasant, because the book reminded me so much of my sad adolescence.
My story is nowhere near as catastrophic as the incredible, inspirational stories shared in the book; but I'm from a broken family and my childhood/adolescence basically consisted of numerous memories of my parents quarreling and fighting. Reading Women Who Love Too Much has definitely opened my wounds that have already long been healed.
The reason why I bought this book, and why I got astonished and excited when I stumbled upon it, is because I've always thought I AM a woman who loves too much (as evidenced by my past relationship/s, ages ago). Although I fairly think I've gone a long way since and am fully recovered, at a young age I am in this process of loving myself, living life to the fullest. By doing this I know I'm taking baby steps towards preparing myself for the man I'll be with for the rest of my life, constantly thinking and living according to the principle that I am not a half waiting to be made whole.
And that's what this book is all about.
Sure, Robin Norwood's writing has reminded me of my previous painful life, but I closed the book with a smile on my face, because, as she said: "With understanding comes the opportunity for choice, so the greater your understanding, the greater our freedom of choice." I opened myself to whatever new ideas, knowledge and perspective this book has to offer. The more I learned, the more I knew, the more I understood, the more forgiving I had to do, the more I had to let go and accept... and that's the best part of reading the book -- it cracks you open, it compels you to stop, let go, live, love and accept yourself... first.
Thank you, Robin Norwood. Your unparalleled passion, expertise and experience will continue to educate and heal a lot of people, myself included.
This book changed my life. I've never believed in self-help books, but this book is just unbelievable! It makes you feel as if someone just entered your mind, read every word and then put it down in a way that almost makes you shiver.
It's so perceptive, it's almost uncanny. If you are or ever have been in a relationship that's meant more pain than love, more tears than joy and more giving than what you're getting in return, this book is for you. It's the biggest wake up call you'll ever get. I cannot recommend it enough!
I found the first chapter really interesting, but the rest was a series of incredibly repetitive case studies that were incredibly dull. I got the point from the first chapter and there didn't seem to be much reason to keep reading it after that.
Non 猫 un libro facile da leggere e se ci sono delle resistenze nella lettura, questo vuol dire che la probabilit脿 di essere una delle donne che amano troppo 猫 alta. Un libro che richiede di essere letto con calma, che fa riflettere e piangere quando la risonanza delle storie lette 猫 troppo forte. Un libro che non si limita a mostrare i sintomi di questa malattia, perch茅 amare troppo non 猫 altro che questo: una malattia psichica cronica degenerativa, da cui si pu貌 guarire se si riconoscono i sintomi. Un libro che propone un percorso di guarigione. Dall'amare troppo si pu貌 guarire, imparando ad amare davvero, senza difese, senza strategie auto protettive. Perch茅 se l'amore 猫 malsano, negazione del vero amore, pu貌 uccidere; l'amore vero guarisce e libera da ogni paura per aprirsi alla gioia e alla gioia piena.
I am not a fan of self-help books generally speaking, so when a friend who'd been in a situation similar to mine suggested I read this book, I blew it off for almost a year. I was pretty sure I'd be too busy rolling my eyes at it to actually absorb anything written on the page. As it turns out, this book spurred me to take a long look at myself and the choices I'd made- both healthy and un- and to ask myself a lot of questions I hadn't thought to ask myself in a very long time, if ever.
No s茅 como escribir una rese帽a a un libro que alberga demasiada verdad para alguien que no ha escogido a los hombres correctos recientemente 馃槥 Lo que s铆 dir茅 es que es un buen comienzo para empezar a analizar ciertas conductas que nos lleven a personas que no son las indicadas para nosotras.
100% recomiendo (con todo y la ansiedad de que te digan tus verdades)
Ok, no soy fan de los libros de autoayuda. Incluso, me burlo un poco de ellos. Sin embargo, "Las mujeres que aman demasiado" no es el t铆pico libro optimista de marketing. Existe una cr铆tica al modelo amatorio heterosexual y como afecta a las mujeres desde la psicolog铆a y a nivel social. Me gusta que se centre en las mujeres y la escritura del libro sea simple y emp谩tica. Eso genera una cercan铆a especial. Sobre todo cuando agrega relatos e historias de sus propias pacientes. Una deja de sentirse sola y puede encontrarse con otras mujeres aunque sea a trav茅s de las letras.
Lamentablemente, si hay partes muy repetitivas. Adem谩s, a veces tiende a ser un libro muy "heterosexual" y algo conservador. Por lo que no s茅 si catalogarlo como una obra feminista. De todas formas, el objeto de estudio de la escritora son mujeres que se enamoran de hombres y repiten patrones t贸xicos. Por lo que, el libro est谩 muy bien logrado y fundamentado en sus 200 p谩ginas.
Me gustar铆a recomend谩rselo a todas las mujeres que conozco. A las que a煤n no saben que est谩n en relaciones t贸xicas como qui茅nes est谩n en proceso de sanaci贸n. Es un buen libro para entender qu茅 nos sucede o entender a otras mujeres que sufren dependencia emocional y cargan con historias familiares disfuncionales (hermanas, madres, t铆as, amigas, etc). Me sent铆 muy acompa帽ada y entendida. Gracias a este libro retom茅 terapia.
Very insightful book. I appreciated the ideas that you cannot change your partner, you only can change yourself. When you focus on all of your partner's "flaws" and think that if they change you will be happy, you are using that as an excuse not to address your own problems. Also that being "selfless" can be a form of manipulation. There is definitely truth in that if we focus on ourselves and strive to be better and give less focus on our partner's issues by trying to control or change them, that leads to a healthier life and a healthier relationship dynamic.
Wow, this book basically sums up the story of my life and relationships! I had always wondered where I kept going wrong, as to care is to do the right things, right? Well, yes, it is good to care, it is good to love, but how do you know that you are caring in the right way, loving in the right way? Do any of us even know what love is?
This book teaches that love shouldn't be about suffering, no matter what overly-popular television programmes and movies would like to tell us, but should be about a mutual caring and respect, and one that doesn't leave us feeling forced to smother another in our attempts to "help" them, make them better.
I have always found myself drawn to relationships where I have felt that I have needed to be the "carer". This hasn't, in my mind, been because I've necessarily been drawn to bad people, like some people are, but partly because I don't feel like I'm useful, or needed, if I can't fulfill a role where I can show that I care. Wouldn't I just be abandoned if I can't give everything? What if I'm not good enough?
Of course, a lot of it stems down to self-esteem, which I know I've been lacking in, until recently. It doesn't necessarily mean that my choices have changed as my confidence has grown, but my willingness to put up with certain behaviour has!
I truly do recommend this book for any woman (or man, even) who has found themselves cycling through relationships and never seeming to be able to get it "right". It has helped me a lot in understanding my behaviour, both now and in the past.
I would agree with those who stated they found the book to be repetitive. A sad fact because in my mind the subject at hand is even more current nowadays than it was some 30 years ago when the book was first published. My thought is that perhaps repetitiveness was precisely the point in order to help the reader re-wire their brain structures and form other thoughts and habits about themselves and relationships in general? I could be wrong of course. As virtually the same story was re-told or re-imagined several more times throughout the book it almost read a bit like fiction and boredom settled in, often forcing me to re-read several paragraphs and only then stumbling upon a key sentence or phrase I had needed to comprehend the specific point of this chapter or this person/character in the book.
Although the book carries an important message, it does get lost along the lamentations of the author's patients, as well as her own descriptions and interpretations of what said women had shared with her. Personally I would have wished for shorter chapters, going through cases briefly only and focusing mainly on keywords to remind yourself a) what is happening in the relationship b) how to apply what you learned in this book in real life. And it's strange because the author started that way, with a checklist outlining fifteen recurring issues in this type of relationship and among this type person that "loves too much." Unfortunately that concept was later abandoned though I'm not certain why.
The book was written for the layman, so there aren't clinical terms being used or overused, which I could imagine is part of the book's continued success after about three decades on the market. A chapter focusing on possible neurodiversities making people more prone to develop this syndrome of 鈥渓oving too much,鈥� and explaining the chemical cocktail in the brain whenever one lives through a 鈥渉igh鈥� phase of obsession in a loveless relationship would have been welcome, fun and if you ask me necessary though.
So while I like this book there are a few too many flaws that irk me and that seem like somewhat of an oversight, and paired with the fact that the writing style varies quite drastically in quality, I can only award this one 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3.
Parte benino, finisce male. Si potrebbe dire molto su questo saggio, che mi 猫 parso molto riduttivo e rigido. L'autrice sfrutta casi limite per avvalorare la sua tesi principali, cio猫 che le donne (e qualche uomo) ricercano relazioni abusive perch茅 cresciute in un ambiente familiare tossico. Non sono certo una terapeuta, ed 猫 vero che i rapporti familiari possono distruggerci, ma individuare questa come l'unica causa mi sembra semplicistico. Dove finiscono le persone che hanno avuto un'infanzia normale e si ritrovano comunque in una relazione abusiva? Per non parlare dell'eteronormativit脿, degli orientamenti sessuali indicati come "devianze", dalla libert脿 sessuale giudicata sempre in modo negativo. Insomma, un saggio che 猫 invecchiato proprio male.
If you've ever described yourself or someone you know as a "serial monogamist" or have noticed that most your partners fit into a pattern of 鈥渄ifficult men鈥�, read this book. I had heard about relationship addiction in passing but never took it seriously before reading Robin Norwood's book. It is a serious condition that can have as much potential to negatively affect a person's life as any controlled substance. I appreciated Norwood's analysis of attitudes about love and man-woman relationships often prevent people from getting help because this kind of destructive, painful, dysfunctional love is what "true love" or "being a good wife/girlfriend/daughter/mother" is all about. Most media that we are exposed to reinforce this misperception and have done so for centuries across many cultures. The setting and characters may be different, but the lesson always boils down to, "being a woman in love is being a woman in pain." What was really eye-opening for me was when Norwood explained the connection between caring and control. That women who are addicted to relationships often use their desire to help their significant other to control their behavior. Of course, this is set up for disaster and heart ache, but women keep repeating this sick pattern over and over.
I learned the most from the first and last quarters of the book, but would have appreciated more attention to recovery than the repetitive anecdotes from women who suffer with addiction. This book is a "classic" for sure and the subject is still very relevant, but I thought it still has a very 80's vibe. The anecdotes from women who suffer from relationship addiction were helpful, but after reading so many depressing, cyclical stories I decided I needed to skim, or skip over some of them because they didn't really apply to what I was interested in taking away from this book. I think if the anecdotes were condensed more (it took up over two-thirds of the book in my estimation) I feel like I could have enjoyed it better, some of these stories were very difficult for me to read at one time.
4,5猸� 听听听 Pentru 卯nceput, nu este vorba despre o carte pl芒ngacioas膬 de dragoste, ceea ce pute葲i g芒ndi la prima vederea a denumirii. ,,Femei care iubesc prea mult", e un roman psihologic, ce prezint膬 f膬r膬 fric膬 dramele tuturor femeilor care se plaseaz膬 mereu pe ultimul loc, oferind pozi葲iile din fa葲膬 altora (partenerului, prietenilor, familiei). Anun葲 preventiv c膬 nu am citit听 aceast膬 lucrare pentru c膬 m膬 aflu 葯i eu 卯n aceast膬 ipostaz膬.听 Dimpotriv膬, purul interes pentru a descoperi o latur膬 a g芒ndirii genului femenin m-a 卯ndemnat s膬 o studiez. 听听听听 听听 De men葲ionat este faptul c膬 cartea e alc膬tuit膬 din mai multe studii de caz asupra femeilor 葯i rela葲ion膬rii lor cu al葲i oameni. Autoarea, Robin Norwood,听 卯ncearc膬 s膬 descoase fiecare caz 卯n parte pentru a ajunge la geneza problemelor, care, negre葯it, se g膬se葯te 卯n copil膬ria clientelor sale. Ea pune accent pe faptul c膬 o femeie nu ajunge s膬 iubeasc膬 prea mult 卯nt芒mpl膬tor.听 R膬d膬cinile dependen葲ei rela葲ionale 葯i afective se g膬sesc 卯n familia disfunc葲ional膬 卯n care aceasta a crescut: abuziv膬, cu un p膬rinte, sau ambii alcoolici, dependen葲i fizic, absen葲i,听 frustra葲i, dezinteresa葲i sau cu lips膬 de dragoste 葯i afec葲iune. Aceste condi葲ii nes膬n膬toase se r膬sfr芒ng mai apoi involuntar asupra mentalit膬葲ii 葯i alegerilor luate de copil膬 卯n adolescen葲膬 葯i, mai apoi, pe parcursul 卯ntregii vie葲i, astfel ajung芒nd s膬-葯i aleag膬 parteneri de via葲膬 asem膬n膬tori cu p膬rin葲ii s膬i pentru a nu-葯i schimba mediul familiar. 听听 听听听 Ei bine, aici sunt oferite nu numai situa葲iile propriu zise de dragoste toxic膬 葯i distructiv膬, dar 葯i metodele de solu葲ionare 葯i recuperare emo葲ional膬. Citind, ve葲i 卯nv膬葲a cum s膬 nu mai iubi葲i prea mult 葯i ve葲i deveni o femeie s膬n膬toas膬, 卯ncrezut膬 卯n sine 葯i fericit膬.
E prima carte de acest gen care are un impact asupra mea. Cump膬rat膬 ini葲ial膬 pentru a fi f膬cut膬 cadou (titlul era prea siropos pentru ceva ce as fi citit eu), cartea asta mi a oferit r膬spunsuri (!!!) 葯i mi a schimbat cumva perspectivele, ceea ce mi se pare incredibil. Este scris膬 intr un stil lejer, astfel ca se cite葯te u葯or. Am recomandat o prietenelor mele 葯i o recomand oricui, m膬car pentru a-i 卯n葲elege pe al葲ii, dac膬 nu pe noi 卯n葯ine. :)