Making Peace with Your Past

May 29, 2000
With this intelligent, sensitive work, Bloomfield (Making Peace with Your Parents; Making Peace with Yourself) adds another surefire success to the lengthy list of well-regarded psychology books that he's authored or coauthored. Embracing the view that unprocessed experience causes human suffering, he offers readers a program for examining their pasts that's been successful in his practice with individuals and in his seminars. While some case studies are included, Bloomfield's warmth and wide-ranging advice would be enough to fill this book, unlike many self-help books that rely on anecdotes to enliven them. While Bloomfield offers no quick fixes for emotional pain, he advocates a thorough and kindly, if unflinching, analysis of its causes. He firmly believes that finding inner peace gives one the mooring and strength to explore issues of shame, regret, grief, love and sex, and to view past history in a new light. His techniques for self-exploration include using imagery and meditation (an early proponent of Transcendental Meditation, Bloomfield also wrote the classic TM: Discovering Your Inner Energy and Overcoming Stress), and writing one's life story (he supplies helpful questions to get readers started). He also encourages spiritual pursuits, joining 12-step and other groups, if needed, as well as herbal remedies and other alternative measures. For the conscientious reader, Bloomfield's advice will help in dealing with psychological pain.