Attitude Reconstruction: A Blueprint for Building a Better Life

It’s all a matter attitude, therapist and author Jude Bijou shows us in Attitude Reconstruction. Key to the author’s approach is the pivotal role of emotions in our lives. Specifically, three pairs of negative and positive emotions—sadness and joy, anger and love, and fear and peace-dominate the human experience. Denying the negative emotions, as people in our culture do, can lead to problems such as addiction. Bijou also shows how negative emotions can be transformed into corresponding positive ones. The book takes an active, practical approach, with worksheets, scenarios, and advice in demonstrating how emotions can be recognized, expressed, and transformed.

It is refreshing that a professional is showing people that they can address emotional problems through positive action, rather than medicating them away. Still, there are concerns with the approach. First, the distinction between an emotion, like sadness, and corresponding behavior or “attitude” is not made explicitly enough for the lay reader. Also, while it is good to see a therapist who is proactive in concrete steps to improve mental health, some problems, such as clinical depression—“sadness” really do require intervention beyond changing attitudes. If the author acknowledges this, I didn’t see it. However, this is overall a valuable, well-written book.