Embitterment is a distinct state of mood known to everyone. It can be seen in the context of exceptional though “normal” negative life events. It is an emotional reaction e.g. to humiliation, to being severely disappointed by others, or to violations of basic values. Embitterment is accompanied by other emotions like feelings of hopelessness and helplessness, poor moods and a lack of drive, and aggression towards oneself and others. It can end in suicide or even murder-suicide and in a distinct pathological state known as “Posttraumatic Embitterment Disorder (PTED)”. But despite the high prevalence rates, the detrimental effects on individuals and its forensic and societal importance, embitterment has yet to receive due scientific attention. In this book pioneers in embitterment research summarize the current knowledge on embitterment, its triggers, phenomenology and consequences. The work is intended to stimulate international debate and to contribute to a better understanding of embitterment and a deeper appreciation of the impact of exceptional but normal negative life events on psychological well-being.

Expert help on overcoming feelings of embitterment Understand how these difficult feelings some about Learn problem-solving skills to reorientate to the future Also ideal reading for anyone living or working with an embittered person More about the book Embitterment is an emotional reaction anyone can have to injustices, humiliation, and breaches of trust. We have probably all encountered embitterment in ourselves or others at some time in our lives. Like other feelings, feelings of embitterment normally subside, but in some cases they can persist and cause a great deal of suffering. When these feelings take control of your life and you can't let go of the past negative events in your life, then support is needed. This book helps you understand what embitterment is and how it can come about. It will also help you detach from these negative feelings and find ways to better deal with the hurtful situations, including learning to look to the future. You will learn about problem-solving strategies that focus on the psychology of wisdom and the development of wisdom, which include identifying facts and problem solutions, changing perspectives, self-relativizing, and emotional empathy. It has been scientifically proven that wisdom is a good remedy for embitterment. This book is ideal support for anyone suffering from embitterment or for family, friends, or colleagues who want to learn how to support someone to not stay stuck in these difficult feelings.

The book explains why Posttraumatic Embitterment Disorder (PTED) is becoming a frequently seen condition during times of psychosocial changes such as job loss, changes in society -- economic, legal, and cultural, as well as divorce, serious illness, and conflicts in the workplace.

Practical expert guidance on embitterment disorders Learn about the evidence-base of PTED and wisdom therapy Teach clients skills to overcome embitterment Tips on social, legal, and medical apsects Includes printable handouts A companion book for clients is available More about the book Feelings of embitterment and posttraumatic embitterment disorder are common in our society and result from reactions to injustices, humiliation, and breaches of trust. They can lead to significant suffering in those affected and to those around them although the clients may be otherwise psychopathologically inconspicuous. The aggressiveness of this client group, as well as their rejection of help, among other factors, is challenging for practitioners and makes treatment complex. Help is hand with this practical evidence-based guide that provides models for the development and continuation of such embitterment states as well as outlines how to diagnose embitterment disorder. The reader is guided through the state-of-the-art treatment approaches for embitterment disorder: cognitive behavior therapy with wisdom strategies. Teach your clients how to process their internalized feelings of hurt and humiliation so that they can create the conditions to reconcile themselves with the events that triggered these difficult and long-lasting states. The book is full of practice-oriented tips to help clients actively gain closure with the past and enable a new orientation towards the future. One method to reach this goal is the reevaluation of the critical events and their consequences. Wisdom therapy provides various tools for this, and these techniques are brought to life with numerous case vignettes. The author also provides tips on the social, medical, and legal aspects associated with this disorder, for example, questions of work incapacity and criminal responsibility. Helpful information for clients is provided in the accompanying book, How to Overcome Embitterment With Wisdom.

Expert help on overcoming feelings of embitterment Understand how these difficult feelings some about Learn problem-solving skills to reorientate to the future Also ideal reading for anyone living or working with an embittered person More about the book Embitterment is an emotional reaction anyone can have to injustices, humiliation, and breaches of trust. We have probably all encountered embitterment in ourselves or others at some time in our lives. Like other feelings, feelings of embitterment normally subside, but in some cases they can persist and cause a great deal of suffering. When these feelings take control of your life and you can't let go of the past negative events in your life, then support is needed. This book helps you understand what embitterment is and how it can come about. It will also help you detach from these negative feelings and find ways to better deal with the hurtful situations, including learning to look to the future. You will learn about problem-solving strategies that focus on the psychology of wisdom and the development of wisdom, which include identifying facts and problem solutions, changing perspectives, self-relativizing, and emotional empathy. It has been scientifically proven that wisdom is a good remedy for embitterment. This book is ideal support for anyone suffering from embitterment or for family, friends, or colleagues who want to learn how to support someone to not stay stuck in these difficult feelings.

Promoting Positive Processes after Trauma merges research and clinical applications pertaining to the common experiences of trauma among clients with many different presentations and diagnoses. The book examines positive processes as they operate within trauma and considers the intentional development by the clinician of these positive processes with individual clients. The book is structured after the cornerstone tenets of positive psychology resilience, hope, forgiveness, post-traumatic growth and benefit-finding, meaning making and spirituality. Covers positive psychology processes, such as growing out of developmental trajectories; cognitive, emotional and intra-personal processes; interpersonal processes; and community- and contextually-defined processes. Integrates positive psychology with trauma treatment Utilizes case vignettes to introduce concepts Includes questions for further discussion in each chapter Selects processes that can be influenced through a range of treatments and treatment components Provides seminal references for each topic and processes to facilitate further reading by the clinician

In 1953, William Golding was a provincial schoolteacher writing books on his breaks, lunch hours and holidays. His work had been rejected by every major publisher—until an editor at Faber and Faber pulled his manuscript off the rejection pile. This was to become Lord of the Flies, a book that would sell in the millions and bring Golding worldwide recognition. Golding went on to become one of the most popular and influential British authors to have emerged since World War II. He received the Booker Prize for the novel Rites of Passage in 1980, and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983. Stephen King has stated that the Castle Rock in Lord of the Flies continues to inspire him, so much so that he named his entertainment company after it and has placed the Golding novel prominently in his novels Hearts in Atlantis and Cujo. Golding has been called a British Vonnegut—disheveled and darkly humorous, perverse when it would have been easier to be bitter, bitter when it would have been easier to be lazy, sometimes more disturbing than he is palatable and above all fascinating beyond measure. Yet despite the fame and acclaim, the renowned author saw himself as a monster—a reclusive depressive ruled by his fears and a man who battled alcoholism throughout his life. In addition to being a schoolteacher, Golding was a scientist, a sailor and a poet before becoming a bestselling author, and his embitterment and alienation, his family, the women in his past, along with his experiences in the war, inform his work. This is the first book to unpack the life and character of a man whose entire oeuvre dealt with the conflict between light and dark in the human soul, tracing the defects of society back to the defects of human nature itself. Drawing almost entirely on materials that have never before been made public, John Carey sheds new light on Golding. Through his exclusive access to Golding’s family, Carey uses hundreds of letters, unpublished works and Golding’s intimate journals to draw a revelatory and definitive portrait. An acclaimed critic, Carey enriches crucially our appreciation of the literary work of Golding, bringing us, as the best literary biographies do, back to the books. And with equal parts lyricism and driving emotion, Carey brings to light a life that is extraordinary to the point of transcendent and a writer who trusted the imagination above all things.