Dr. James Hollis

And if your family or your situation imposed itself upon that, to give a quick example, my own family of origin was one in which they were

by the circumstances of decades ago, unable to attain an education.

My father worked in a factory.

My mother was a secretary.

And for them, life was a series of shaming events and overwhelming events.

And the message to me, both overt and covert, is don't go out there.

It's too big.

It's too much.

Stay here and we'll take care of each other.

So one of the first things I did when I was 18 was left.

I went to college and came back for vacations, but I left psychologically at that point.

Something in me knew that I had to have a larger life than that.

And I say that with love and respect and compassion for my parents.

The last conversation I had with my mother before she died of cancer, her ancestor, the father she'd never known was from Sweden.

And I'd had a book translated into Swedish.

And I told her I thought that would be something that would be nice for her.

And she was horrified.

It's like, why have you written it?

What are they saying?

And I thought she meant reviewers at first.