Rating: 
Summary: Great hands-on resource for taking control of depression
Review: Reading Dr. Yapko's "Breaking the Patterns of Depression" felt like coming home to hope. With language readily understandable, Dr. Yapko defines those features which cause depression and leads the reader to insightfully self-analyze individual patterns and to understand what can be done about them. The emphasis on an active and experiential approach to intervention and subsequent prevention is empowering and extremely helpful and sets this book apart from others.
Rating:
Summary: Great hands-on resource for taking control of depression
Review: Reading Dr. Yapko's "Breaking the Patterns of Depression" felt like coming home to hope. With language readily understandable, Dr. Yapko defines those features which cause depression and leads the reader to insightfully self-analyze individual patterns and to understand what can be done about them. The emphasis on an active and experiential approach to intervention and subsequent prevention is empowering and extremely helpful and sets this book apart from others.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Buy
Review: This book is fantastic! Not only does Dr. Yapko spend time discussing the patterns of thinking and/or behavior which make one prone to depression, he goes beyond that to tell the reader how to change that thinking and behavior. He points out that people suffering from depression want to change, but many times lack the knowledge and skills to change. In this fabulous book he provides clear explanations and practical exercises for changing old patterns of thinking and behavior. In other words, he shows you "how" in "how to not be depressed." And he goes beyond trite cliches to do it. This is the best book on depression I have ever read. He clearly put into 330 pages what two years of psychotherapy had made visible only dimly. This is an active book. To get the most out of it, do the exercises in thinking. You won't regret this purchase. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent self-help resource!
Review: This book is one of the rare self-help books that don't just cite facts about depression, but that also help the reader with his problems! First, Yapko distinguishes fact from fiction, then he proceeds to show the reader how to tackle problematic aspects step by step.
The biggest highlight in the books are the numerous exercises that deal with nearly all components and aspects of depression: interpretation, distorted thinking, guilt, relationships ...
It expertly combines all the various proven therapy techniques in one readable book. The exercises are quite revealing and are divided into "pause and reflect" and "learning by doing".
Together with the book "the new mood therapy" by D. Burns this book is one of the best self-help books for depressed people.
As a psychologist I really recommend reading it!
Rating:
Summary: Life is a Rorschach
Review: You've probably heard of the Rorschach Inkblot Test, where people are asked to interpret the meaning of inkblot shapes. The value of this test is in demonstrating how we interpret ambiguous circumstances from our own perspective. Dr. Yapko uses the Rorschach as a metaphor for the ways in which we project our assumptions onto our life experience: "Life is like an inkblot -- an 'experiential Rorschach,' so to speak. Life doesn't have an objective or assigned meaning. We give it meaning by our individual values, beliefs, relationships, careers, hobbies, and other life experiences." Yapko emphasizes that there's not much value in getting caught up in "what I might have done to bring on depression." What works is to identify our patterns of behavior, focus on solutions and on the future, and build the skills that help us cope better with all that life brings. Moreover, while his book is directed toward solutions for depression, these principles apply to how our attitudes affect us in general, and can be an aid in all kinds of physical and emotional circumstances. Here are some suggestions based on exercises from this book: - What are some recent situations where your behavior did not reflect your feelings... how might you express your true feelings more directly? - To make your problem less amorphous, create a symbolic image of your experience of it, using paints, or crayons, or whatever else you have at hand. If your disease had a color, what would it be? Size or shape? Texture? How strong is it -- how might it be eliminated as an adversary? - We learn our values as children, and not all of them work in our favor. Make a list of your values, their source, and how you express them in your life. (For example, did you learn to value emotional expressiveness or emotional containment? taking risks or being safe?) - Do you reject parts of yourself? List your "negative" characteristics, then write out at least three examples of situations where these aspects of yourself can have positive value.
Rating:
Summary: Life is a Rorschach
Review: You've probably heard of the Rorschach Inkblot Test, where people are asked to interpret the meaning of inkblot shapes. The value of this test is in demonstrating how we interpret ambiguous circumstances from our own perspective. Dr. Yapko uses the Rorschach as a metaphor for the ways in which we project our assumptions onto our life experience: "Life is like an inkblot -- an 'experiential Rorschach,' so to speak. Life doesn't have an objective or assigned meaning. We give it meaning by our individual values, beliefs, relationships, careers, hobbies, and other life experiences." Yapko emphasizes that there's not much value in getting caught up in "what I might have done to bring on depression." What works is to identify our patterns of behavior, focus on solutions and on the future, and build the skills that help us cope better with all that life brings. Moreover, while his book is directed toward solutions for depression, these principles apply to how our attitudes affect us in general, and can be an aid in all kinds of physical and emotional circumstances. Here are some suggestions based on exercises from this book: - What are some recent situations where your behavior did not reflect your feelings... how might you express your true feelings more directly? - To make your problem less amorphous, create a symbolic image of your experience of it, using paints, or crayons, or whatever else you have at hand. If your disease had a color, what would it be? Size or shape? Texture? How strong is it -- how might it be eliminated as an adversary? - We learn our values as children, and not all of them work in our favor. Make a list of your values, their source, and how you express them in your life. (For example, did you learn to value emotional expressiveness or emotional containment? taking risks or being safe?) - Do you reject parts of yourself? List your "negative" characteristics, then write out at least three examples of situations where these aspects of yourself can have positive value.
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