3 out of 4 stars
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Engaging the Ineffable is a self-help book written by David Krueger. Krueger is a doctor, an Executive Mentor Coach, and also a CEO of a wellness firm. His goal is to help readers create their new successful life stories. If someone doesn’t like their old story, it is possible to start a new and better one. We create our stories based on what we feel, think, and experience. According to the book, it is through careful examination of ourselves and by engaging key ineffable issues that we can create our best possible life stories. There are twenty-one ineffable topics that are discussed in the book. Some of these topics are: desire, time, memory, nostalgia, hope, story, synchronicity, self, attachment, empathy, psychoanalysis, and joy. Two of the issues that I liked reading about the most were nostalgia and attachment. Krueger explains that we are nostalgic about our pasts because we often remember an ideal version of events and not what actually happened. Attachment is about our connections to important people in our lives. An attachment relationship starts when we are infants bonding with our primary caregiver. Similarly, we have attachment styles in our adult lives that help form our romantic and work relationships. The author wants the readers to correctly engage all of these issues to help them create new successful stories of life, health, relationships, and career.
I really enjoyed the fact that the author included examples and personal stories from his real-life experiences with his patients and even his children. It made the book more relatable and gave it credibility. The real-life stories were very impactful and gave me a better understanding of the issues. I wished that there were more personal experiences included in the book.
I also liked that the author clearly had a wealth of knowledge because he had twenty-five years worth of experience of practicing and teaching psychiatry and psychoanalysis. He had also spent the last decade being a Mentor Coach for different professionals and his colleagues. The twenty-one topics that Krueger discussed were all issues that he had repeatedly dealt with himself while working with patients and clients. The book was also thoroughly researched and referenced many other psychiatrists.
One problem that I had with the book was that it was sometimes hard to grasp. It could have been written in a simpler and friendlier language. These were seemingly straightforward concepts, but even Krueger had stated that the way that people understood them was based on their own unique life experiences. I did think that a more easygoing writing style could have helped. Another negative part of the book was that some information was being repeated over again after it was already discussed. This could have been intentional, but it definitely slowed me down while reading.
I’m rating this book 3 out of 4 stars. I liked that the book was carefully researched and the fact that the author clearly had a lot of experience helping people with these issues. I especially liked all of the personal stories and examples included in the book. I found a lot of the information useful, but there were certainly some chapters that I enjoyed more than others. I couldn’t find any errors in the text at all, so the book was also very professionally edited. I took a star away because some sections of the book were complex and kind of difficult to understand. I also didn’t like that some parts of the book were repetitive. This book is definitely not for everyone. The author mentioned mentoring his colleagues, and the book would certainly be better understood by other psychiatrists and psychoanalysts. Still, I do think that many different people may find at least a part of this book useful and helpful. It definitely makes you think. I would recommend this book for people that would like to make some changes in their lives and are ready to do some inner reflection. If people are interested in creating better life stories for themselves, reading about these issues can certainly help them.
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Engaging the Ineffable
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