Book Review of "The New Codependency" by Melody Beattie

On the bookshelf of my office I have a half dozen copies of Melody Beattie's original book, "Codependent No More."  I find that this is one of those "entrance level" books that help people deal with a variety of issues include divorce, emotional dependence, workaholism, anger issues, alcoholism, child-rearing challenges, drug abuse and more.  Anyone who is a caregiver needs to understand the issues of the Twelve Step Program and how to minister to self while serving others.  I appreciate her books and give them out freely while warning people that we must add our Christian faith and passages from the Bible to best use what she talks about.

This new book by Melody Beattie (and I believe she has authored more than a dozen books on this issue) brings some of her original thoughts into the 21st Century.  She begins by again trying to define the elusive term "codependency" and explains what it is and isn't.  One of the greatest challenges is breaking free from what she calls "the control trap."  In talking about this she tackles issues such as boundaries, communication, denial, dependency, manipulation and more.

Her book is not always an easy read and I did not find her mental and journaling exercises at the end of each section as being very helpful.  However, if you read the book slowly--perhaps a couple pages at a time--you can learn and grow.  Also, if you would read this book with someone else you could find it even more helpful.

Section Three contains multiple quizzes as she helps the reader to make a "conscious connection with yourself."  Each quiz could probably be a week's worth of self-therapy.  Not bad...but I just couldn't take the time to painstakingly track through each quiz.  I confess that I had to skip through this section.

I appreciate her focus on God though sincere Christians would argue about the absence of Jesus in most of her chapters.  As far as I can tell, she has a very Christian approach but in keeping with her focus on the Twelve Steps she focuses more on "God" (or our "Higher Power") instead of using purely Christian terminology.