In a hundred pages Scaef does something truly remarkable. She confronts the self-serving and dangerous side of co-dependency yet maintains a nonjudgmental perspective. Many, many books, of course, discuss the dangers co-dependents present to themselves. This one goes beyond to look at the less comfortable topics of co-dependents' tendency toward manipulation, promotion of disease in others, martyrdom, dishonesty, and pathological self-centeredness. As a professional who grew up in a seriously alcoholic home, I wish that I had read this book years ago to see the pay-off I was getting from organizing my life around the pretense that I was other people's answers. But despite the harsh realities Schaef points out (and simply and compellingly demonstrates), I was left with a sense that I was not being shamed or judged and that I had the freedom to do better. This book takes more character to digest than most books on the subject, and I suspect that its writing took manifestly more character than one assisting people to continue seeing themselves as victims. I recommend it without qualification.
