Book reviews

How to Do the Inner Work: A guide to self-discovery, empowerment, and emotional healing, by Susanne Madsen Review by Donna Andersen The key to recovery from the sociopath is healing your heart. I’ve said this many times in my blog articles, videos and to my coaching clients. But how do you do it? A new book by Susanne Madsen, How to Do the Inner Work, is a clear, concise guidebook for exactly that. Sociopaths are evil. They create havoc in our lives. Their behavior is criminal, or it should be. And they often get away with their bad behavior with little to no consequences. We do our best to fight them, or at least save ourselves. In the end, we usually need to come to terms w …

Book Review: How to Do the Inner WorkRead More

UPDATED FOR 2024. The Sociopath Next Door, by Martha Stout, Ph.D., is a classic for describing sociopathic behavior. I read the book when it was first published in early 2005, shortly before Lovefraud launched. Thirteen years later, I read read it again. I've learned a lot about sociopaths during those 13 years, so the second read was certainly a different experience. The first time I read the book, much of what Stout wrote was a revelation. Here are my observations from the second time around: Stout does a good job of describing sociopathic motivation, but her book fails to capture how dangerous and destructive these people are. The reason, I believe, is that this was never a book …

15 valuable lessons from ‘The Sociopath Next Door’Read More

Editor's note: Hera McLeod announces her new book, "Defying Silence: A Memoir of a Mother's Loss and Courage in the Face of Injustice," about the murder of her young son by his father. She previously contributed to Lovefraud under the name, "Cappuccino Queen," as she was in the midst of her concerns about the safety of her son. Read her articles here. By Hera McLeod Two weeks after giving birth to my son Prince, I discovered that everything I knew about my son's father was a lie. After a 12-month custody battle, full of terrifying evidence that I uncovered, Prince's father murdered him during the fourth unsupervised visitation.  Parts of my son's case have been reported …

Why I wrote ‘Defying Silence’Read More

My first book, Love Fraud — how marriage to a sociopath fulfilled my spiritual plan, tells the outrageous true story of my sociopathic ex-husband’s betrayal. But it is also a story of healing. This is the final installment of my Valentine’s Day series of excerpts from my book about finding my true love. To catch up, I invite you to read: Excerpts describing my ex-husband’s lies and cheating. Excerpts describing my healing journey. By Donna Andersen Terry retained his job, but a few years later his employer closed his office and wanted him to work from home. We were happy, he no longer needed to live near the office, so we decided that he would move in with me. We planned a big m …

Love Fraud Book Excerpt: A diamond commitment from my true loveRead More