REVIEW: Recovering the Self: A Journal of Hope and Healing (Vol.1, No. 1, Sept 2009)

Editor: Ernest Dempsey
Publisher: Loving Healing Press
Publication Website: www.recoveringself.com
Also available at Amazon.com**






REVIEW
by me

Recovering the Self: A Journal of Hope and Healing is a new quarterly magazine-sized journal that concerns itself with wide-ranging issues within the realm of health and all of its incarnations, including personal growth, relationships and family, trauma recovery, living with disabilities, addictions of all sorts, veterans’ issues, and bereavement.

In its first ambitious volume, published September 2009, the variety of its contents, depending on the “health” of your mood could exemplify the let’s-fit-as-much-in-as-possible-first-timer-syndrome or an all-inclusiveness that might be appreciated by those on the outside of many of the issue’s themes, or the perfect reading remedy for any health-related ADD or ADHD.

In editor Ernest Dempsey’s introduction to the collection, he speaks to an uninformed, inexperienced reader, rather than a reader that has lived, shared, or stood by watching and feeling the all encompassing hope and healing theme.

Big mistake.

Even a pre-teen could tell you that “pain invades our lives in different guises—illness, trauma, bereavement, accident, crime, and all forms of physical and emotional injury. Littered with hackneyed phrases, such as “the precious gift of life”, “tender as a rose” (gag), “painful experiences” (duh), “recovery is…[fill in blank with obvious and overly simplistic words]”, “the shackles of stress”, and on, and on, and on – so much so, that I almost got sick just from reading it. It’s the sort of crap you expect from self-ordained, self-help gurus that end up in the bargain books pile faster than you can get through the drive-thru at McDonalds.


Unfortunately, what could be a profound and far-reaching magazine that could appeal to poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and/or self-help reader, lacks insight – even from its Ph.D. authors. In the contents section, “Inspiration”, Dr. Barbara Sinor, a therapist and (self-???)* published author of four books, chooses to rely on the easy and obvious in her nonfiction essay that redeems itself by its sincerity and empathy. “You can learn to re-create your own reality,” she writes “by discovering…patterns…which [sic] were accepted I childhood.”

The most informative, interesting, and well-written piece in the entire journal is “Sex, Gender, and Personality Disorders” by Sam Vaknin, who has authored 10 or such books on the subject. And of course this is the most interesting, because who doesn’t like hearing about really screwed up people when you’re looking for self-healing? Instant ego-boost!

Unfortunately, Vaknin makes many assertions that although interesting, such as “Men…mature earlier, die earlier, are more susceptible to infections...cancer…dislexi[a]…and…suicide,” they lack any researchable reference, so we have to assume these are just the opinions of the author. And to be honest, I don’t know many people, especially women and even most men, who would agree that men mature earlier than women. But the big wow of the article for me was the enlightening fact that “the brain structures of homosexual sheep are different to those of straight sheep.” Don’t you love a good brain structure?

It’s hard not to be hackneyed when talking about healing and hope, and that’s the challenge that every writer on this subject needs to overcome to reach its reader – unless they’re looking to speak to cliché-lovers-united, a group that may or may not exist, but with a tiny publication like this, probably wouldn’t find its way into their petal-soft hands in due time.

I applaud Dempsey’s vision, as well as, Love Healing Press, Inc., Recovering the Self’s publisher, and I offer them hope that their work will travel the journey of self-help and recovery, because people interested in healing – from whatever malaise – could find great use of this periodical/journal/mish-mash of everything and anything, even movie reviews.

I just wish it weren’t so, well, to protract the oh-so-familiar spirit of this well-meaning premier volume, run of the mill.



*On further research, I found that the majority of Dr. Spinora's books were "published" by vanity-type publishing houses that include Modern History Press Books AND Loving Healing Press, which seem to be the same entity.

** In my endless link search, I found that this publications received 8 glowing reviews on Amazon.com. Makes ya think. Either I'm a total dumbass, snob missing the beauty between the lines, or they have a lot of friends or a well-placed advertising budget.