I think booming self-help "industry" is definitely an indication of how many people do have pasts which cast a shadow on the present. Yes, Drury, I agree that at some point we must stop "picking," but not at the risk of remaining in denial of the past.

For the last twelve or thirteen years I've considered myself a pretty self-aware person. I'm now at the point where I'm realizing how much the things I've ignored or considered trivial or unimportant about my childhood have indeed affected me. I wasn't aware of how much until fairly recently.

My point is, yes, letting go and forgiving are important, but those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it (excuse my paraphrasing)!

By the way, do you happen to get the San Francisco Sunday paper? The cover article of this week's Image magazine (6/28/92) is entitled "Hooked on Recovery: The Tyranny of the Self-Help Movement." The article is by Wendy Kaminer and is excerpted from her book I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other Self-Help Fashions. While she is critiquing the self-help movement, she makes a point to list the number of copies sold of various books in the genre, alluding to the profits the authors make. I'm sure she will make plenty on her book, too!!