Anastasia’s Reflection on the Prologue, Part I
Visitors, as you can see we are having a bit of a challenge presently in getting our formatting set up for this new project. Please be patient with us as we strive to iron out our wrinkles here.
I wrote “Surviving (Adrenalin) Addictions” in the period of 1988 – 1991. Looking back at what you will read below, scrutinizing it piece by piece as I am intending to do for the purposes of this blog, I see my lack of maturity, so much easier to do in hindsight, right?
(See this link for a description of Surviving (Adrenalin) Addictions and the Table of Contents.)
The most frequent criticism I had during the original writing process from Cheryl Woodruff, my editor at Random House, as well as my local editors, was that I seemed to be having a difficult time acknowledging what I, personally, contributed to the growth and expansion of the theory that would eventually become the Groder-Rosen Addiction Development theory or GRAD.
Today, I know that my personal contribution to the theory was not yet clear to me when I wrote this first book. What I added to a theory that was already profound when I came on the scene would take distancing from this book and the two that would follow it that I call my Random House Triology series.
It is true, however, that for many years I did place Marty on a platform above me. As he had an enormous ego – and – I had a learned-in-childhood capacity for being the cheerleader of a personality such as this, the arrangement worked quite well for many years. My father and Marty were similar in this regard.
But much of this was appropriate as Marty was the teacher and myself the student. He was the creator of a magnificent theory that integrated biology, sociology and psychology into a comprehensive understanding of the synergistic relationship of these disciplines. And, I, like his other devoted students, was most appreciative of the opportunity to learn at the feet of such a brilliant master as he.
I do not regret my adoration of him for one moment.
I can, however, in reviewing the piece that follows see that what brought me most pointedly to Marty’s feet was that when I first became his student in 1980 I had already had a compelling drive to unravel a quandary about Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal for six years!
Read “My Prophecy” to begin to get a picture of this piece of the puzzle I was grappling with.
But there were other factors that were also prompting what was to become a life-long quest in me to understand the Dark Side of humankind and to be able to transform it to its highest good. Among these influences were –
My husband’s best friend had recently been arrested for money laundering that played a key part in the scandal behind Vice President Spiro Agnew’s resignation.
My father had died suddenly of a heart attack that I, instantly, knew to be the result of his gambling addiction. And, given how like my father I was in many ways, his unexpected demise also served as a warning to me that my life, too, might, be short-lived, if I did not change some of my ways;
These circumstances alone were compelling enough for me to warrant serious investigation into the cause and effect of certain patterns of behavior. I was to come to know these as that of the survivor/addict personality type through Marty.
Not the least of the significant factors related to these behavioral patterns is that I saw in the interpersonal dynamics surrounding the Watergate scandal a vivid representation of the major sources of dysfunction of my own family of origin. Especially in the areas of power and control abuses, collusions and addictions to money, status and anger.
All of which Marty was identifying as typifying the survivor/addict.
I would not, however, understand for many decades after Watergate how the Break In Scandal was a substitute, in my mind, for the playing field of my family as it had been in my growing up days.
Read on and enjoy my tale, personally, with its interweave with the theoretical.
This is my "adventure of a lifetime," a tale of how I came to know my Dark Side, personally, as I concurrently developed skill at guiding others to do similarly.
I will have more comments and reflections as we go. I hope you will find what I am offering informative, useful and a bit entertaining.
The Prologue, alone, tells an intriguing story, focusing mainly on background material having to do with Marty and his development of his theory before my training began with him. Later this theory would become the GRAD theory with my contributions.
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