The author, Emmy, begins life as an underdog; she is the younger sibling of a five-years-older sister, Leah, who is the first-born of her generation on both sides of the family and who also happens to be remarkably precocious and musically gifted.
Strikes against Emmy add up as her preschool years unfold: the inheritance of a genetic condition which no one recognizes, a closed head injury from a fall down stairs with no medical diagnosis of the concussion, a mother often unable, for months at a time, to be with Emmy and no desire to pay attention to her or to protect her from Leah's bullying when they are together.
In her fourth year, Emmy spends several months with Leah at the home of a wealthy widowed aunt who fills both girls' heads with visions of themselves growing up to become Southern belles. Emmy will have rich, handsome beaus and lofty social status among her peers owing to her "blue blood", good manners, and enviable deportment, she is told. The mandate given the girls by Emmy's aunt Emmy, the family alpha and matriarch, is, "You must make people admire you". Here, in the household of the aunt for whom she is named, Emmy is a princess and Leah is her nanny.
Once back in the poverty-stricken environment of her parents, Emmy's whole world takes an instant about face. She is astounded to see that her mother has a new baby, is preoccupied, withdrawn, and isn't happy at all to have her back. Leah, overnight, transforms from being her interested teacher to becoming her rejecting torturer. Even worse, Emmy sees that Leah is being successful at making people admire her (particularly their mother and her family members), while she herself is consistently failing at that.
From this dismal homecoming onward, Emmy deals with her perception that she never feels good by daydreaming about relationships and accomplishments she is sure will be hers in the future. But, by her teens, she cannot avoid recognizing that that vision of a future with beaus and social success on which she has been counting to free her from her inner torments is happening for Leah but not for her. Coming upon stories of miraculous cures in persons like herself, written by mental health professionals, she is converted to full faith that she, too, can be saved. Forty years later, she begins to write of the results.
Those who have never sought the services of mental health professionals themselves but who are advising others to "get therapy" or who have dependent family members for whom they are planning treatment, should read this book. There could well be something within these pages which will lead a reader to have a more realistic view of the true outcome of therapy - and of the professionals who administer therapy - than has been broadcast so ubiquitously in media.
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