John Bradshaw and the path to goodness

John Bradshaw’s book Reclaiming Virtue: How We Can Develop the Moral Intelligence to Do the Right Thing at the Right Time for the Right Reason is delightful, eye-opening, and infuriating. In the months — and I do mean many months — I’ve dragged myself through its pages, I’ve alternated between shouting for joy and throwing the book against the wall in frustration. For all its faults, however, Reclaiming Virtue provides the clearest vision of goodness I’ve read to date.

Best known for his PBS-TV shows on family dynamics in the 1980s and 1990s, Bradshaw has worked as a psychologist, teacher and addiction counselor. His books include the bestselling Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child, Healing the Shame that Binds You (Recovery Classics), and Creating Love: A New Way of Understanding Our Most Important Relationships.

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