Human beings are meant to work together, not to go it alone. We enter
the world reliant on others for shelter, nutrition, and emotional
support, and these core requirements to do not change as we grow older.
Yet somehow, as we move into adulthood, our intrinsic need for emotional
connection (i.e., love) gets discounted. This despite the fact that
people who spend their lives "apart from" rather than "a part of" do not
function as well as those who feel emotionally connected.
Nowhere is this more apparent than when dealing with addiction.
Nevertheless, loved ones of addicts, instead of being encouraged to care
for themselves as well as their addicted loved one, are often encouraged
to care for themselves instead of their addicted loved one.
Prodependence, a new psychological term created by Robert Weiss to
describe healthy interdependence in the modern world, turns this around.
Rather that preaching detachment and distance over continued bonding and
assistance, as so many therapists, self-help books, and 12-step groups
currently do, prodependence celebrates the human need for and pursuit of
intimate connection, viewing this as a positive force for change. Simply
stated, prodependence occurs when attachment relationships are mutually
beneficial - with one person's strengths filling in the weak points of
the other, and vice versa. And this can occur even when an addiction is
present.
In Prodependence, Weiss presents a research-based social and
psychological understanding of human interdependence, accepting and even
celebrating human interdependency in ways that are healthy and
life-affirming for each person. This groundbreaking work presents a new
paradigm for useful and healthy support, offering both the lay person
and professional an evolved prism through which he or she can examine,
evaluate, and improve not just relationships affected by addiction
(though that's the primary focus of this audiobook), but relationships
in general.
