The Balancing Act: Rediscovering Your Feelings

Jane Heath is a psychology instructor at Ryerson Polytechnical
University.

The Balancing Act is essentially a self-help book for workaholics. A
“workaholic” is defined as an individual (usually male) who has lost
a sense of balance between feeling and thinking, and between personal
and professional life. The author uses (simplified) Jungian personality
theory and her professional experience as a clinical psychologist to
describe the symptoms and consequences of such an imbalance. The
workaholic’s addiction to power and control is shown to have dire
ramifications for personal and family life. Various techniques are
outlined for restoring an individual’s feeling–thinking equilibrium.
The resolution of conflict between spouses whose psychic balance
differs—generally, the wife is a “feeler” while the husband a
“thinker”—is explored in some detail.

While this book’s theoretical descriptions are at times somewhat
overdrawn, the practical techniques it outlines for achieving awareness
of personal emotions and motivations, and for developing communication
and problem-solving skills, are clearly described and solidly grounded
in a number of therapeutic orientations (Gestalt, rational-emotive,
psychodynamic). Well-motivated individuals who identify with the issues
Killinger describes will find her book interesting and helpful.