Breaking Blame

BREAKING BLAME by David Schroeder MD, is the result of forty years of psychiatric practice in which the author was willing to let his patients teach him. After being fully trained in psychiatry in a University of California residency, becoming certified in his specialty by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and being honored with a Distinguished Life Fellowship by the American Psychiatric Association, Dr. Schroeder came to see that what he learned in top-notch academic medicine did not work to help patients as well as what he learned from them during those decades in medical practice.

Eschewing the methods of motivational speakers, psychoanalysts, self-esteem promoters, feel-good therapists, and personal advisors, he gets down to the specific thought patterns that cause blame, shame, depression, guilt, and anxiety and teaches thinking as it would be if we had not been taught in our nascency that we must be better than we are to prevent grief, sadness, and fear.

The book is a combination of memoir about how the author learned what he learned and how-to manual imparting joy and well-being. It is filled with anecdotes, stories, and parables. Though often sarcastic and even salacious, it is always completely serious. It is amusing, although its aim is to better the lives of readers, not entertain them.