What The Right Kind of Love Can Do

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images-3Check out this unexpectedly lovely story from  The New York Times. It’s the tale of a man, Joe Holt, and his upbringing in an atmosphere of severe abuse and neglect. The story describes how his past tribulations contribute to his psychological fragility as an adult. But mostly it is a tale of triumph, and shows what can happen with some creative self-therapy and when you have a the right kind of loving family. His wife, Patsy, a natural family therapist, refuses to buy into his fragility or the various psychiatric diagnoses he’s accumulated:

“I don’t have any reference for mental illness except for Joe,” she said. “And I tell him it doesn’t matter what you’ve suffered, you’re an adult now, you’ve got to put that aside. You have responsibilities.”

“I tell him everyone struggles with doubts, with fears — that it’s normal,” she went on. “Normal. And I remind him that he has children to help take care of.”

 

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