Praeger Publishers Description: This short (150 pages) book deals with Barbara Schave's sense of despair and her need to find a cause for her problems, and how she found the "right" therapist, who validated her recovered repressed memories of sexual abuse by her (now dead) father and brother. The author, a Ph.D. clinical psychologist in private practice, believes that her first psychoanalysist was unfeeling and too concerned with his own daughter's death. She claims that he groomed her to care for his needs and his grief and she equates this with the way she was treated by her parents. Her husband, a psychiatrist, encouraged her to find another therapist as the current one was misusing transference." She then found another male psychoanalysist, who validated her feelings and who suggested her memories of child abuse. The book ends with an afterward by a Marjorie Title Ford, who is not
introduced to the reader, and a short list of references. Discussion: Schave's short book is more of an autobiography than a professional account. She claims she learned to overachieve and live for others as a result of games she played with matches with her twin sister and brother, incest by her father, and being masturbated by her brother to help cure an earache. She reports being enraged when her father died and left her out of his will. She later claims that her mother confirmed the abuse, and admitted not protecting her. But her twin sister said she was not abused. Shave refused to confront her brother and she gives no consideration to the possibility that her recovered memories may not be accurate. Schave does not adequately explain just how her first therapist "distort[ed] my experience and my pain" and why the alleged "betrayal" by this therapist is defined as abuse. Apparently, giving insight in therapy, without sufficient empathy and caring, is viewed as exerting power, i.e., abuse. She does not explain how it came about that she earned a Ph.D. and has now published four books, although she states that writing about her situation made her feel "important to others." This book provides little useful information to professionals. Reviewed by LeRoy G. Schultz, Emeritus Professor of Social Work, West Virginia University.
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