Boundary Problems Summary and Analysis

Many people experience problems, classified as mental disorders, anxiety, depression, and others, because they lack proper boundaries in their lives. Still others experiences hardship because they fail to respect the boundaries in the lives of others. The authors of this book classify those with boundary problems into four groups: complaints, avoidants, controllers, and nonresponsives.

First, the authors deal with complaints. They define a complaint as a person with fuzzy boundaries. This type of person says yes to circumstances that may harm them. The inability to say no leaves the person defenseless.

The authors introduce Robert, a man who cannot say no to his wife's demands. Robert shares experiences from his childhood in which his older sisters beat him. However, his parents taught him it was wrong to hit a girl. In doing so, they left him without a boundary...