Soft Souls Living in a Harsh World: How to Strengthen Your Spirit Without Hardening Your Heart

In this sincere but overwrought amalgam of memoir and self-help, siblings Tim and Jamie Ursiny, respectively a business coach and teen counselor, share the painful story of their dysfunctional, abusive upbringing and offer guidance to others recuperating from similarly difficult circumstances. They discuss the merits of “soft souls”—such as compassion, empathy, and the desire for harmony—in a world where softness is often considered a weakness and character defect. Soft souls suffer, the authors write, because they haven’t learned to protect themselves from the pain of the world. Outlining six basic personality types, loosely based on the New Testament beatitudes (the merciful idealist, the persecuted narcissistic charmer, the fighter against injustice, the pleaser who wants peace, the invisible one poor in spirit, and the meek addict), the authors use personality profiles of their parents, siblings, and selves as illustrations and to provide a healing path. Their depictions of various sources of personal trauma—including addiction, adultery, divorce, mental illness, and sexual abuse—are raw and honest, but perhaps also counterproductive to the book’s goal of providing solace. Although clearly written from the heart, this expression of anguish and eventual self-acceptance is undermined by being repetitive and overwritten.[em] (BookLife) [/em]