Enabling is the process of meeting the needs of another while allowing him or her to relinquish responsibility for destructive actions. Psychologist and substance abuse counselor Mastrich, coauthor with Birnes of The ACQA’s Guide To Raising Healthy Children (Macmillan, 1988), presents case histories of enablers, who, while attempting to help an addicted or abusive parent, partner, or child, silently allow negative behavior to continue and worsen. A five-step program of self-awareness and behavior modification is recommended to help enablers to change. Enabling behavior, also known as “caregiving” or “rescuing,” is discussed in a more readable fashion in other titles, including Melody Beattie’s classic Codependent No More (Harper, 1988) and Beyond Codependency and Getting Better All the Time (LJ 7/89). This is a marginal purchase. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. 🌳
