Why My Inner Child Cries - by David Haviland (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"Why My Inner Child Cries" reveals the hidden truths behind our parents' controlling or neglectful behaviors - and how we can finally free ourselves and our own children from the anxiety, depression and anger that their dysfunction may have caused.

Imagine a world free of war, hatred, and racism, where every child grows up with self-respect, joy, and the hope for a better life.

Why My Inner Child Cries: Breaking the Cycle of Adult Anger, Anxiety and Depression Due to Parental Abuse explores the subtle, hidden weaknesses of parenting and explains why most human dysfunction can be laid at the feet of parents, mothers and fathers who often mean well but cannot resist their unconscious urges to control, manipulate, and neglect their sons and daughters, based on the emotional suffering they themselves experienced as children.

This domino effect of a crippling parent/child relationship has, century after century, been the number one reason for mankind's inability to truly blossom.

In Why My Inner Child Cries, the author seeks to stop the bleeding, drawing on his personal experiences with his own family and the hundreds of patients he has counseled over the years. Exploring the roots of hate beyond simple role modeling, he examines the rage that a child suppresses against intimidating parents, only to have it visited on others later in life. Tracing adult anxiety and depression to a parent's failure to validate a child's dreams, he reveals how this act of making a child feel "less than" is unconsciously calculated to achieve the control the parent themselves never had as a child.

For parents, and for the "grown-up children" still suffering years later from the pain of being emotionally battered, neglected, or controlled by the adults in their lives, this book is a genuine eye-opener. It offers the opportunity not only to break free from crippling emotional pain, but to break the cycle of pain for one's own children and every child within reach.

About the Author

A 1973 graduate of The University of California, Berkeley, David Haviland spent the first 25 years of his professional career as an Advertising Creative Director, writing radio, TV and newspaper ads for major corporate clients. In the early 1980's David awakened to the vital importance of public service when he had the opportunity to promote social programs like The Harlem Children's Zone and St. Patrick's Cathedral's Our Neighbors outreach to Manhattan's elderly. Recognizing his true calling in the faces of the people he helped, and inspired by his mother Muriel's work with New York's AIDS patients, David returned to college to earn his Masters in Social Work at SUNY Albany. From that point he never looked back, working with patients on the psychiatric unit at St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie, and ultimately starting his 5 session anger management program which continues to receive referrals from Courts, attorneys, and social service organizations throughout the Hudson Valley. Committed to making a difference in the lives of others, David lives happily in Cold Spring, NY with his artist wife Debbie, and his daughters Stephanie and Rebecca.