The Essential Guide to Overcoming Avoidant Personality Disorder [Hardcover]

Interesting treatment of an interesting topic which has received very little attention (in the form of works accessible to laypeople). Discusses reasons for this neglect, including the tendency of many professionals to lump AvPD together with Social Phobia (along with the author's reasons why he believes this is a bad idea.)

Uses many case studies to illustrate examples of what he's talking about, although sometimes digresses into using examples from his personal/professional life in what seemed like a slightly strange way to me (if nothing else I thought he could have simply described the incidents as belonging to an anonymous client.) This is something he's done in several of his previous works as well. (I have not read either of his works on Avoidant Personality Disorder so I cannot compare this work to them, or say whether it is simply a case of hardcover "rechauffée".)

Is generally good about not aggressively pathologizing subjects (although it does creep in a little) and not pulling any political punches in how to locate "blame"; also makes the important distinction that having some of the symptoms of AvPD does not by definition mean one has the full-blown "disorder" (the mental health profession is long overdue for dimensional vs. categorical diagnoses IMO).

Makes an admirable attempt unlike many mental health professionals to focus not only on childhood experiences within the context of the parent-child triangle (hangover of Freudianism?) while neglecting peer/sibling relationships and/or larger interpersonal realities. Does not, however, really refer to larger political let alone cross-cultural factors (as when he "diagnoses" a Greek-American man based entirely on a letter without taking into account the family expectations that often exist within that group). Also has the courage to critique the sacred cow of cognitive-behavioral therapy, and make a plea for the integration of (pure) insight-based modes of healing into treatment. (In the context of the former makes the argument that cognitive therapy implicitly blames the patient, since it locates the source of the problems in his/her cognitive processes--I would go one further, however, and say that virtually *all* therapy since Freud has made that implicit judgment about clients since he [Freud] made his fateful decision to declare his patients' descriptions of being molested as subconscious wish-fulfillments [conceptualized thru the Oedipal Complex] rather than literal accounts of sex abuse [or metaphorical representations of extreme boundary violations]).

Also makes the unorthodox (to me) suggestion that in some cases pharmacotherapy is *not* indicated, as well as some interesting suggestions for treatment, as when for example he writes that for many avoidants, the advice to "do your own thing" should be avoided, since it often has a tendency to encourage them to continue pursuing isolating and/or idiosyncratic behavior patterns which contribute to their suffering.

Technicalities:

Would have liked it if he had devoted more than two sentences to passive-aggressive avoidants (especially since he has already written a book on passive-aggression.)

Would have been nice if table of contents had included subchapter titles/listings (perhaps a cost-cutting decision on the part of the publisher?).

Uses the German word "Anlage" oddly, without capitalizing the first letter or italicizing it or putting it in quotes (editors?), which can induce some people probably not to realize it's a foreign word.

The word "lose" is spelled "lyse" several times throughout the text.

Also uses the word Zen seemingly to refer to *all* Buddhist practice(s), in the context of discouraging an overly withdrawn approach to the world (did this in a previous book as well). While the point is well-taken it is perhaps somewhat injudicious to true Buddhist practice, Zen or otherwise, since it (to me) conflates much of what these disciplines offer with their popular (mis)conceptions.

Misuses the word "disinterested" (like most people nowadays) when he means "uninterested" (disinterested means neutral or objective).

As a final note I would love to see this author tackle some other diagnoses, in particular either Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) or PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)-I think his insights and writing styles could be very useful to many people, myself included.

This book isn't what I expected. I will say that there are definitely some helpful insights in here, but the majority of the book is just one long case study after another (after another), and an overview of the different kinds of therapies used to treat AVPD. There really isn't much new information, just elaborations on the same old stuff that anyone who is familiar with the disorder would already know. In some instances it just feels like he's reaching for material. For example, he includes a (negative) Amazon.com customer review of his last book, and spends a page and a half discussing how the reviewer's negative response to his book showed that the reviewer was exhibiting anger-related avoidant behaviors. Maybe this review will make his next book.

The only sections of the book that I found useful were his discussion of the cognitive-behavioral aspects of the disorder (paranoid thinking, over-generalization, and worst-case scenario thinking), and AVPD's co-morbidity with other disorders, but he only offers a few paragraphs of discussion on each one. Also, the case studies get to be pretty tedious. I found myself skimming them after a while.

I would only recommend this book to someone who hasn't already bought and read "Distancing." I don't think many other readers will get much from it, and I'm pretty sure most of them would regret shelling out the 40 bucks.

This book thoroughly describes Avoidant Personality Disorder, goes into its causes, and outlines the various therapeutic approaches currently in use for helping overcome it. Numerous case histories fruitfully unveil the essence of this serious and widespread problem, distinguish it from Social Phobia, and illustrate real-life examples of how individuals triumphed over their relational anxiety through therapy and self-help approaches. There is much new material including an original and excellent chapter on sexual avoidance and a day by day/monthly guide for coping that can help avoidants reduce their anxiety and start down the road to coming out of isolation. Worth every penny.