Adult Children of Alcoholics (Expanded Edition)
“Book on the right started me on a path of healing. Good luck.”
Why it is worth your time
Adult Children of Alcoholics is Janet Woititz's 1983 book on the traits that people raised in alcoholic homes carry into adult life: guessing at what normal is, difficulty trusting, fear of criticism and a need for control. Woititz was a counselor with a doctorate from Rutgers who ran a treatment institute in New Jersey. The 1990 expanded edition adds material on other dysfunctional families, and the book has sold around 1.8 million copies. Chamath posted a photo of it in June 2020 and said it started him on a path of healing. He has spoken publicly about his father's alcoholism, so this is the most personal book on his list. It suits readers who grew up in a similar home and want a short, plain place to start. The caveat is that it is a 1983 counseling text, expanded in 1990, and a 1995 study found Woititz's traits, drawn from her clinic, did not hold up in a general sample.
