Healing through the Dark Emotions: The Wisdom of Grief, Fear, and Despair

Front Cover
Shambhala Publications, May 11, 2004 - Psychology - 336 pages
Nautilus Book Award Gold Winner

A psychotherapist offers “crucial” guidance on how to “alter fundamentally our fearful relationship to deep feelings,” from depression and anxiety to grief and fear (Los Angeles Times)

We are all touched at some point by the dark emotions of grief, fear, or despair. In an age of global threat, these emotions have become widespread and overwhelming. While conventional wisdom warns us of the harmful effects of “negative” emotions, this revolutionary book offers a more hopeful view: there is a redemptive power in our worst feelings. Seasoned psychotherapist Miriam Greenspan argues that it’s the avoidance and denial of the dark emotions that results in the escalating psychological disorders of our time: depression, anxiety, addiction, psychic numbing, and irrational violence. And she shows us how to trust the wisdom of the dark emotions to guide, heal, and transform our lives and our world.

Drawing on inspiring stories from her psychotherapy practice and personal life, and including a complete set of emotional exercises, Greenspan teaches the art of emotional alchemy by which grief turns to gratitude, fear opens the door to joy, and despair becomes the ground of a more resilient faith in life.


“This remarkable book has taught me a whole new way of thinking.” —Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People

“A beautiful piece of work destined to become a perennial classic.” —Martha Beck, author of The Joy Diet
 

Contents

Introduction
1
EmotionPhobia
9
Emotional Alchemy
71
Emotional Ecology
205
A Home Course in Emotional Alchemy
263
Dark Emotions in an Age of Global Terror
295
Notes
301
Bibliography
305
Acknowledgments
311
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About the author (2004)

Miriam Greenspan is an internationally known psychotherapist, writer, and speaker who has helped to establish the field of women’s psychology. She is the acclaimed author of A New Approach to Women and Therapy and lives in Boston with her husband and two daughters.

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