Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsAnnoyingly smug but some useful ideas
Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2012
I know not many people read 3-star reviews, everyone wants to know the worst and the best, but I am here to say I so far sit squarely in the middle. I am up to Chapter 9 and felt compelled to write this after someone gave this book a 1 star amongst all the rave reviews. This book IS incredibly self congratulatory. "This is the most practical, results-orientated daydreaming possible to a human being, and I am proud to be its inventor" - yikes! Does this guy have tickets on himself, or what? But wait, there's more "I am not a scientist, but if I was, I would most likely be like Albert Einstien" (riiiiight!) and that he felt "knighted" by Albert Einstien. Add to this the superior tone, the explanation he is my "mentor" and the really tiresome "my technique", "my affirmations" "my my my my my"etc etc etc and you get the feel this guy is on a real self trip. That's not to say everyone thing he say is useless or self entred - there are some interesting techniques here - the "enmeshing is what I am most interested in. Yet while Farber writes of compassion, he also writes of people who struggle to lose weight as "you are free to feel isolated from life - just you and your excuses for not plunging in and enjoying life to the full. That doesn't sound like much of a party to me, but each to his or her own". Ouch! It's not the content, it's the smugness of the tone that bugs me throughout. I often feel this way about these self satisfied new agey people who think anyone who hasn't dreamed themselves the perfect life yet is somehow inferior, and it bugs the hell out of me as I really do think affirmations and working with the subconscious can be a powerful tool for healing and growth. So there we have it, yet another imperfect, slightly grating but somewhat useful self help book. Tada!
