Call Me Crazy: How to Heal from Gaslighting, Imposter Syndrome, Toxic Relationships, and Other Feeling Disorders [9780316584654]

Overview

A paradigm-shifting book that introduces the concept of “Feeling Disorders”—a newly defined cluster of psychological diagnoses (from imposter syndrome to gaslighting to so-called toxic relationships)—explaining why they’re interrelated and how to finally get the support necessary to heal. 

Why do otherwise confident, thriving individuals so often report difficulty accessing their emotions—stuffing down their feelings, losing themselves in relationships, and feeling like imposters despite external success? The answer, says award-winning psychoanalyst and Columbia University professor Dr. Gila Ashtor, is NOT low self-esteem, hysteria, or irrationality, as many mental-health professionals have long suggested. There’s nothing “wrong” with these people. Rather, they are dealing with a related set of uniquely modern psychological phenomena she dubs Feeling Disorders. 
 
Feeling Disorders are increasingly common emotional experiences in today’s world—but shockingly, they don’t appear in any psychological textbook. Think: 

• Gaslighting
• Imposter syndrome
• Empty consent
• “Toxic” relationships
• Feeling on autopilot

The common link: those who experience them report losing touch with their true feelings and emotions, often to disastrous effect. Just as the term “eating disorders” collects related food-disorders together in one umbrella term, “feeling disorders” groups these feeling-related behaviors under one integrated diagnosis. And because, like eating disorders, Feeling Disorders disproportionately affect women, Dr. Ashtor believes they have been swept under the rug and ignored for far too long. At last, with Dr. Ashtor’s groundbreaking book, therapists (and patients) have a unified theory and clarifying language to talk about their lives.
 
In the tradition of Amir Levine’s definitive work on attachment (Attached) and Lindsay C. Gibson’s powerful writing on family dynamics (Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents), Call Me Crazy is the first book to identify, legitimize, and heal patients who struggle with Feeling Disorders. Weaving together intimate case studies, psychoanalytic theory, and rich personal narrative, Dr. Ashtor offers a fascinating window into this battle between the heart and the mind—and offers tools for understanding and recovery.