Silently Seduced: When Parents Make Their Children Partners

This book is... difficult to read but very necessary. I was recommended this by my therapist, and needed to understand the background behind such toxic enmeshment between my husband and his mother. I will tell you this... it made things make more sense. It helped me understand a lot. It will aid me in not replicating things like that to my own child(ren). It's just heartbreaking to know that this kind of stuff is REAL and actually does take place. I recommend anyone hurting from being a victim of covert incest OR the spouse of someone who is (even if that person is unaware, which most are!) as it will help clear the lines and put things in a more easily understood explanation. But... you might not enjoy the fact that this covert incest is very hard to break and the victims sometimes do not even know they're a victim, or they may defend their parent.

I'm cautious when it comes to subscribing to things like emotional abuse. It seems like no matter what your childhood was like there is going to be some psycho babble about how dysfunctional and damaging it was. They have a diagnosis for everything from highly sensitive to chap stick addiction. However, so many light bulbs came on for me while reading this book! There were so many memories of my life growing up that were shrouded in confusion and this book made them all crystal clear. I was able to articulate my feelings much better to my therapist, and have the general peace of mind that comes with understanding that maybe I'm not the only one. Maybe I'm not that crazy. I also appreciated how it didn't give the impression that mothers are the root of all evil. It simply provided information without casting blame. All in all, it was interesting, informative, and written in a way that was understandable and easy to relate to. I would definitely recommend it!

Highly recommend. Although heart breaking at times, it’s fair to say that for most of us, the way we were dealing with these traumas was and has not been working. It’s hurtful to acknowledge the traumas and not at all ungrateful to hold people accountable while denouncing their ‘sorry I wasn’t perfect/ I did the best I could’’ style attempt at gaslighting a hurting child. It’s scary to jump into this unknown of therapy and healing but I have never felt more in control of my being as scary as that is. This book dropped serious truth bombs, some of which I wasn’t ready to accept, and started me on my journey to reclaiming my life. Cannot recommend enough.

This book is an eye opener to a topic I didn't know existed. I am amazed at the validation and insight that are in its pages as this topic is "taboo" and not discussed. Being a survivor of Overt and Covert Incest and Sexual Abuse I can say that the majority of what's written hear rings true. The co-addict/codependent model is outdated for those who have Betrayal Trauma. So if you have or are married to someone that shows signs of a sex addiction I would recommend supplementing this with You're Sexually Addicted Spouse by Barbara Steffens and Marsha Means.

Provided amazing insight and was easy to understand. Highly recommend to others!

A lot of information about a topic that is not widely known yet can cause some serious dysfunction in your adult years. This is the book written by the pioneer of this subject that kept getting referenced in all the Internet articles and videos. It's not a how-to guide on how to recover from covert/emotional incest, but if there was a relationship with one of your parents that felt "icky" this could help you identify it.

This book totally blew my mind. I have always carried around feelings of guilt and had no idea where they came from. I've also repeated the same unhealthy patterns in my intimate relationships and this book gave me the insight that was SO helpful to move past it all. My mother made me her best friend/surrogate husband growing up and I always knew this was at the root of some of my problems, but this book so clearly and insightfully articulated exactly what was going on that I feel like the veil was finally lifted and I can really see clearly why I am the way I am.I'm so grateful it was written and that I found it! It's short and to the point too, which is always a plus as far as I'm concerned.

This book is very good, but it's not compete. This book assumes that mother-daughter incest is never sexually charged. Therefore it does not talk about the after effects of what happens to a daughter whose mother hypersexualized her from an early age. As such, I didn't get the answers I needed.This form of incest is quite rare from what I understand. However after reading the whole book only to find that the author(s) assumes it never has an overtly sexual charge was greatly disappointing.If you're interested in other forms of emotional incest, this book might be a God send. For me, I felt more alone and isolated after reading it.