Book Review: "Your Inner Child of the Past" by W. Hugh Missildine, M.D

Essay by kazcozUniversity, Bachelor'sA-, March 2006

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W. Hugh Missildine calls the book I have chosen to review "Your Inner Child of the Past". This is a very interesting book in which Missildine attempts to solve adult problems by understanding the inner child. W. Hugh Missildine is an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Ohio State University of medicine. Through his knowledge of both psychiatry and psychology, Missildine explores factors in childhood that affect adulthood. He implements the view that "children learn what they live". He was the director of a children's mental health centre for nine years and this is where he developed his new approach to adult emotional problems. The nature of this book is to learn to discover ones inner child, how to accept and deal with it in every day life and every day situations. It is also a guide for parents on how to establish a happy childhood for their children.

Although this book could be considered as a self-help book, it is also psychologically grounded. Missildine uses many case studies to illustrate his point and demonstrate his theories. In which one can see that his observations and results are verified by psychologists. For example there is one particular case study which is about Alexander Fleming, while he himself was not a patient of Dr. Missildine, he was aware and had researched Fleming's case history. Alexander Fleming was a bacteriological researcher who found a substance called penicillium, which seemed to treat infections. Fleming believed that this could be a life-saving drug although to prove this he needed to do more research on it. Fleming could not convince his superiors at the research institute that this drug was worth researching. When Dr. Missildine looked at Fleming's childhood the reason, why he could not convince his supervisors was evident. He was...