Healthy Compulsive - by Gary Trosclair (Paperback)

About the Book

People with Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder have a need for control, yet they are also capable, conscientious, and driven. The Healthy Compulsive offers understanding of personality style, inspiring stories of change, and clear steps to cultivate the talents and pass...

Book Synopsis

People with Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder have a need for control, yet they are also capable, conscientious, and driven. The Healthy Compulsive offers understanding of personality style, inspiring stories of change, and clear steps to cultivate the talents and passions that are the truly compelling sources of the driven personality.

Review Quotes

A wonderfully written, deeply researched and yet common sense guide which shows us how the same compulsive attitudes and behaviors that cause us and others much suffering, can be a source of creativity, happiness, and success. Richly illustrated with case studies and backed by psychological research "The Healthy Compulsive" provides a step-by-step guide to transform the darkness of self-defeating compulsive behavior into creative and fulfilling light!

The reader does not have to qualify for the diagnosis to benefit from this rich and rewarding book by Dr. Gary Trosclair. The Author leads us more deeply into our feelings to discover values that give new meaning to our lives; re-framing compulsive tendencies into the freedom to make creative choices.

The Healthy Compulsive is the perfect bibliotherapy for people who are overextended, overscheduled, and overwrought. It guides the reader in a thoughtful exploration of their personal underpinnings of unhealthy compulsion and provides systematic guidance on ways to better channel one's energy. It can be used in conjunction with therapy, or as a stand-alone exploration of how to reengage and enjoy life. Mental health trainees would also benefit from reading this book as it provides insight into the challenging patients who present as high functioning, but suffer debilitating emptiness.

What sets this book apart from other "self-help" books is its sophistication in understanding the nature of human growth. It helps the reader explore deep and often unacknowledged feelings underlying unhealthy compulsion such as fear, anger, and shame. It even recommends self-analysis of dreams which is a refreshing acknowledgement that meaningful behavior change often entails exploring the subconscious. This book is grounded in a dynamic understanding of human nature, but not rigidly so, as it recommends activities consistent with current mindfulness-based therapies and acceptance and commitment therapy models.

The Healthy Compulsive conveys sophisticated psychological truths in a way that is immediately accessible to readers. It provides a broad overview of the concepts underlying compulsive behavior, but then provides specific examples - compulsive behavior around money, work productivity, parenting - to help the reader fully understand how these truths are expressed in everyday struggles that we can all relate to.

About the Author

Gary Trosclair, DMA, LCSW, is a psychotherapist and Jungian analyst in private practice in New York City and Westchester County, New York. He is President of the New York Association for Analytical Psychology and serves on the faculty of the Jung Institute of New York, the Jung Foundation of New York, and the New York Center for Jungian Studies. He is the author of I'm Working On It In Therapy: How To Get The Most Out Of Psychotherapy, and of the blog The Healthy Compulsive Project. He lives in Tuckahoe, New York with his wife and two daughters.