Transactional Analysis Journal

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Book Review: An Action Plan for Your Inner Child: Parenting Each other
Barton W. Knapp
Transactional Analysis Journal 1992 22: 106
DOI: 10.1177/036215379202200208

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 Book Reviews
Barton JoY. Knapp, Editor
An Action Plan for Your Inner Child:
Parenting Each Other
Laurie Weiss, M.A.
Health Communications, 1991
224 pp., $10.95 (paper)
Reviewed by Barton W. Knapp
•'Few families are functional enough to pro-
vide everything needed to help children grow
up to be healthy, functional adults" (p. vii).
Laurie Weiss directly addresses this fact-
that all of us need some parenting, some nur-
turing care-in her most recent book, An Ac-
tion Plan For Your Inner Child. As Weiss
defines it, "Parenting is providing someone
with something they need to live and grow that
they can't yet give themselves" (p. 1). This
book provides a well-eonsidered, well-designed
how-to manual for healthy parenting. It is
designed for a fourteen-session (three hours per
session), structured support group committed
to learning how to provide and to receive, by
explicit mutual agreement, appropriate paren-
ting. The program, Parenting Each Other
(PEO), has been carefully constructed to enable
participants to learn through experience how
to give, to receive, and to care.
Each session is devoted to a specific aspect
of the parenting process and incorporates a
blend of individual activities, group activities,
and activities suggested for the period between
group meetings. These activities, as well as
guidelines for their use, are described. The first
two introductory sessions facilitate the forma-
tion of the group in a supportive and safe man-
ner. In the first session-"Thinking About
Parenting Each Other"-the person designated
as "timekeeper" welcomes participants and
reads a brief introductory statement about the
program's fundamental philosophy, the cir-
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cumstances underlying the appropriateness of
the program, and some information about
parenting. Then someone who has agreed to
reads the section ••What is Healthy Parenting?"
After this, participants complete the questions
on Worksheet l-"Healthy Parenting for
Grown-ups"-and share what they have writ-
ten with other members of the six-person
subgroup they have formed .
The rest of the session follows a similar
format-reading from the workbook by a
volunteer, completionof a worksheet, and shar-
ing exercises. There are five more worksheet
exercises in the first session, including
"Authorities as Parents," "Your Inner
Parent," "Parenting Others," "Care and Safe-
ty," and "Giving and Receiving." At the end
of the session, each person completes a "Self-
Assessment Questionnaire" which is used to
assist people in increasing their competency in
several areas. Support activities, such as
reading and journal keeping, are recommend-
ed between sessions.
At the end of the second introductory session,
participants who wish to continue the remain-
ing twelve sessions are invited to make an ex-
plicit commitment to themselves and the group
about their participation. In contrast to the two
introductory sessions-which were open to
anyone who wished to attend and at which
newcomers were welcomed-the Parenting ses-
sions are open only to those who make a com-
mitment to the group. These sessions are
similar to the introductory sessions.
In each of these 12 additional sessions,
we explore the developmental needs of
our Inner Child at a particular age. We
will do a series of exercises that allow
each participant to have the experience
of receiving healthy parenting for signifi-
cant issues at each stage of development.
(p. viii)
Transactional Analysis Journal

In these sessions many profoundly relevant
issues crucial to appropriate parenting are
discussed in depth and experienced, including
such areas as Creating Boundaries, Learning
to Ask, Holding and Touching, Negotiation
Skills, and Parenting Your Own Inner Child.
For each session, Weiss prepared materials and
structure; throughout there is both an explicit
and an implicit emphasis on safety.
This is an well-prepared and well-designed
book. Weiss provides a program that effectively
establishes a safe context within which many
people can gain skills and personal confidence.
The program seems like a good adjunct to
psychotherapy for some clients, and it can also
serve as an excellent resource in teaching and
training. It might also well be that many pro-
fessionals will find the materials relevant to
their personal lives.
Vietnam: A Case Book
Jacob D. Lindy, M.D., in collaboration with
Bonnie L. Green, Ph.D., Mary C. Grace,
M.Ed., M.S., John A. McLeod, M.D., and
Lois Spitz, M.D.
Brunner/Mazel (Psychosocial Stress Series),
1988
353 pp. (including index and references),
$42.50
Reviewed by Ted Harrison
This book is the tenth in a series written col-
laboratively by Jacob Lindy, M.D., an inter-
nationally known research psychiatrist who has
served as a consultant to survivors of a variety
of traumatic and stressful incidents. He has
published widely and is associated with the
University of Cincinnati Traumatic Stress
Center.
One of Lindy's strong points is his collabora-
tion with other professionals so that his books
draw on many talents and experiences. This
book is the effort of three groups: Vietnam
veterans who are clients, several clinicians, and
a team of researchers. The book is a guide for
both clinicians and researchers in varied aspects
of human services as specifically relates to
trauma and Vietnam War veterans.
Although this book is one in a series on
understanding and managing psychosocial
stress reactions, the specific focus of this
book-as Lindy emphasizes-is the Vietnam
Vol. 22, No.2, April 1992
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BOOK REVIEWS
War as a stressor and a clinical approach to Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with Viet-
nam veterans.
The book has three parts. Part I will be
helpful to clinicians who know little about the
Vietnam experience. It is comprised of a series
of detailed case studies, each of which offers
a portrait of a veteran and focuses on some
specific symptomatic feature ofPTSD, such as
psychic numbing, intrusive thoughts,
psychsomatic illness, survival guilt, dissocia-
tive phenomena, etc. A summary of the treat-
ment process, follow-up data eighteen months
after treatment, and research data relevant to
each case are given.
Part I is organized well, with the case studies
presented according to historical perspective,
from 1950 (when the first American advisors
arrived) to 1972 (when troops were officially
withdrawn). A veteran who served during the
early involvement (up to 1965) had a different
experience than did the veteran who served dur-
ing the height of the conflict when the draft was
a key factor. The veteran who served in 1972
had quite another historical perspective to relate
to and survive.
Part II deals with the clinical aspects of the
therapist-veteran relationship, emphasizing the
importance of the strong bond-the working
alliance-that develops between them. One
veteran described the process oftreatment "as
ifhe [my doctor] were by my side and we were
digging a fox hole together" (p. 213). Lindy
points out how brittle the therapeutic relation-
ship can be and the impact this has on the work.
As a clinician who has worked with veterans,
and as a Vietnam veteran myself, I find ex-
tremely valuable Lindy's emphasis on the rela-
tionship as a major component in therapy. In
many ways the relationship is the therapy rather
than being but a component of it. Lindy also
stresses therapist self-disclosure, a departure
from many more traditional approaches.
Part II also looks at transference issues, for
example, the therapist as a medic, a buddy, a
spy, or an interrogator. Most importantly, it
deals with countertransference issues, such as
the therapist himself or herself experiencing
symptoms of PTSD when working with a
veteran. This section is well done, but I would
like to see it expanded because it provides a
synopsis of the approach Lindy emphasizes.
Part III deals with research issues related to
107