– Customer review on 07/01/2009

A very interesting read if you are looking for information on this topic. Would recommend to anyone who would like an insight into how this personality type can impact on children or anyone they relate with. Gives help on how to overcome their bad influence. Very happy with this purchase. Recommend highly.

– Customer review on 18/02/2010

Comprehensive, helpful and practical advice for dealing with narcissistic parents. The book shies away from labelling parents as narcissists and instead talks about Destructive Narcissistic Pattern (DNP), a suite of behaviours that are extremely damaging and difficult to live with. This helpfully focuses attention on the behaviours rather than the person, and as a result the book has relevance for a wide range of people who have experienced some or all of the behaviours.There are useful exercises that go beyond merely identifying the damage and teach sound ways of dealing with them.

Most helpfully, the authors focus in on the ways in which the damaging behaviours of a parent with DNP affect the child and in turn create those self-same behaviours in the child. So the bulk of the book is in fact looking at how, in effect, the child can stop recreating the same beahviours they suffered at the hands of the parent. This is handled with great empathy but also firmness. After all, if the parent's behaviour isn't acceptable, it's not acceptable for the child either, no matter how much the parent is to blame.

This is very much as it says, a guide to getting over self-absorbed parents. It's not about blaming parents, or digging into where their problems originated: it's about moving forward. Highly recommended.