April’s Books, Journals & Audio Interviews

"I was never into 'how to' help books. Never thought they worked. Read yours and it changed my life. Haven't spent money that I shouldn't since I read it."
I.B. Thurmont, Maryland

To Buy or Not to Buy: Why We Overshop and How to Stop

[jaccordion size="xsmall" theme="smoothness" active="0"] Lorrin Koran, M.D.:: "With To Buy or Not to Buy, Dr. Benson has written an extremely helpful book for the millions of Americans afflicted with compulsive buying. She shows compulsive buyers how to uncover the individual psychological and social roots of their disordered behavior. She helps them understand that material goods are masqueraders luring them from the real satisfactions they seek in life. She provides wise means to achieve a fulfilling life instead of experiencing the endless dissatisfaction brought by the mindless, soulless pursuit of possessions. Her book provides a rational, practical, clear, step-by-step method to first recognize, second control and lastly abandon the material and emotional poverty of compulsive buying. I recommend it without hesitation to compulsive buyers and to those who love them."

-Lorrin Koran, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Director Obsessive Compulsive Disorders Clinic, Stanford University Medical School [jacc/] Jerrold Mundis:: "This is a very good book. I highly recommend it. If you are a compulsive or chronic shopper – as millions are – it may well save your sanity, your relationships, your marriage, or even your life."

-Jerrold Mundis, author of How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt and Live Prosperously and Making Peace with Money [jacc/] Olivia Mellan:: "In this warm, wonderful book, Dr. Benson has given overshoppers an eminently readable road map filled with valuable exercises with which to make the journey from overshoppping and overspending to full recovery and life balance. As a money psychology expert for over 25 years, I particularly enjoyed her use of mindfulness techniques, and exploration of spirituality as part of the healing process. Every overshopper needs to buy and use this book!"

-Olivia Mellan, speaker, money coach, author of Overcoming Overspending: A Winning Plan for Spenders and their Partners and Money Harmony [/jaccordion]

I Shop Therefore I Am: Compulsive Buying and the Search For Self

[jaccordion size="xsmall" theme="smoothness" active="0"] Bonnie Kellen Ph.D.:: Dr. Benson was a pioneer in the field of eating disorders, cofounding one of the first clinics and training centers. In this must read collection she again leads the way in tackling the burgeoning epidemic of compulsive shopping and money disorders in general. In fact anyone interested in the psychological issues of money will find this book fascinating.

We all have clients and acquaintances who have problems with shopping, buying and debting but many of us are ill equipped to address these problems because we are not educated in this area. Dr. Benson has gathered the leaders in the field and in her fastidious quest for quality has created an excellent and most readable reference book for all.

The first section gives an overview of the field with such topics as When money is the drug ( Bounty). She then focuses on shopping,buying and selfhood with such interesting topics as Are we what we own? (Belk), Collecting as reparation (Muensterberger) and Giving until it hurts (McGrath). Included is the diagnostic assessment of compulsive shopping with questionnaires and clinical interview techniques. Another section covers psychodynamic theory and technique and includes Compulsive shopping as an addiction (Goldman) and The use of money as an action symptom ( Krueger).

Detailed and instructive coverage of treatment plans and techniques include a detailed curricular for an 8 week Group cognitive behavioral therapy for buying disorders (Burgard and Mitchell) and a Psychoeducational group therapy for money disorders (Brazer). The scope of the collection is apparent from the inclusion of treatment adjuncts such as Debtors Anonymous and Psychotherapy (Levine & Kellen) and Financial Recovery Counseling (McCall.).

This is a truly multidisciplinary book which will illuminate and deepen therapeutic understanding of a growing problem area. Anyone who has struggled with one of the issues discussed in this book will find it helpful in their own personal lives. The book is a fascinating and enjoyable read for all. [jacc/] Maurice Holbrook, Ph.D.:: In her book of collected essays entitled I Shop, Therefore I Am: Compulsive Buying and the Search for Self, April Lane Benson (ed. 2000) has compiled what must surely rank as the definitive volume of work on various aspects of impulse-control disorders in the realm of consumer behavior. Herself a psychoanalyst in the private practice of psychotherapy and a co-founder/director of the Center for the Study of Anorexia and Bulimia in New York City, Benson has assembled contributions by a number of distinguished authorities from such diverse specialties as community social work, sociology, psychiatry-psychoanalysis-psychotherapy-psychology, education, career counseling, self-help group facilitation, and -- quite appropriately -- marketing or consumer research.

I Shop benefits enormously from the exceedingly ambitious yet painstaking way in which Benson has organized a compendious and representative body of material dealing with various compulsive buying disorders. In this connection, the editor has successfully elicited contributions from a truly impressive group of major thinkers in this specialized area. She has structured the resulting essays into a tightly knit set of sections and chapters. And she has minimized repetition or duplication while carefully cross-referencing other chapters that cover issues relevant to various discussions along the way. All this makes for a highly useful, well-synthesized, thoroughly indexed reference work on the state-of-the-art in the study and treatment of shopping and spending pathologies.

-William T. Dillard Professor Emeritus of Business, Columbia Business School [/jaccordion]