The Untethered Soul The Journey Beyond Yourself PDF Download Free

Elizabeth “This came highly recommended by my sister and her therapist, so I thought I would get it. I was disappointed because mostly it was the author telling you that if you just see things differently and recognize the reality of things, you’ll be much happier and in fact will never have any problems ever again (?!). Maybe if you’ve never been in therapy or read a self-help book or been ever reflected on life, you might find a few ideas that are somewhat helpful. I mean, some of the ideas are not completely useless, if you decontextualize them from the overall book. But, the book/author does not appear to acknowledge any of the last 10-20 years of research on the ways that childhood trauma and neglect profoundly shape our capacity for self-love, healthy relationships, or psychological well-being, or how people do or should handle loss or grief or trauma.

To me, this book is the equivalent of your well-meaning uncle who tells you over Thanksgiving dinner, when he founds out that you are struggling with profound depression after you had a miscarriage and then your husband left you and you lost your job, that if you would just cheer up and realize things are not as bad as they seem and appreciate the good in your life then you will feel better. I mean, YOU’RE NOT DEAD, right?? Of course, if people could do this, probably they would have and probably would not need a book to tell them just to cheer up and look at things differently.

I think the overall concerns with the book can be summed up in this lovely little piece of wisdom: “It is actually possible to never have another problem for the rest of your life.” It just demonstrates that his take is, “If you just see things differently [as I am explaining them to you] things will be fine.” Which ultimately has really concerning consequences for people who are struggling with depression, grief, loss, or trauma because the implication is that if you are still hurting or miserable, it is because YOU are not looking at things right.

Generally, I think this is an irresponsible book that does not acknowledge what we know about how people operate and how people heal. I am glad that it has worked for some people or helped them, but I think it is important to say that if you haven’t already bought this you might consider other options (Tara Brach comes to mind, who is a therapist and Buddhist teacher), and if you have, you might consider that this is one relatively narrow way of understanding things by someone who does appear to have any training in addressing serious depression, grief, trauma, or loss, issues that are at the heart of what many people struggle with.”