In today’s episode of Healing from Within, your host Sheryl Glick (mailto:Sheryl@SherylGlick.com) welcomes for a second visit on the show, Mark Rubinstein MD, (http://www.markrubinstein-author.com) author of his newest fictional psychological thriller Love Gone Mad (http://www.markrubinstein-author.com)guaranteed to raise goose bumps, but also to show how our early life memories and insecurities influence our choices for good or bad as we mature and how we develop a greater wisdom of our motivations and the deeper view of what is really important in our lives.
Dr. Rubinstein, a physician, forensic psychiatrist, and novelist who has written nonfiction medical advice books and is now focusing on mystery thrillers about people involved in life and death struggles with forces they cannot control, driven by their pasts, will blend his understandings of the mind, body and spirit not only to survive, but to thrive in the most challenging circumstances. He also blogs for the Huffington Post and is a contributor to Psychology Today.
A summary of the storyline starts with Mark’s main characters, a heart surgeon Dr. Adrian Douglas and Megan Haggarty, a pediatric nurse, who meet at the hospital where they are both recently employed. We soon discover they are both recovering from traumatic marriages which have wounded their hearts and altered their hopes for finding a truthful and fulfilling love relationship. Shortly after they begin dating, strange and frightening events begin happening to each of them. A stalker is after them and it soon becomes apparent that he is dangerous and clever. Megan and Adrian fight physically and emotionally for their lives.
The major themes of Love Gone Mad are fear and love, which are indeed the two main emotions we all deal with. All other emotions are but variations of love or fear. The book also explores adoption and its psychological effects on a child, childhood sexual abuse, marriage and divorce, competition in the work field, and the internet and its dangerous implications, also the great advantage that a loving environment has on the development on any child. It is observed that traumatic involvements with emotionally unbalanced or even mentally ill people can create conflict, chaos, and interfere with one’s quality of life. Disengaging from people who are unstable is a very involved procedure as we see in this story. Sometimes it is necessary to bring in police enforcement or medical professionals to support a decision to leave an unsafe relationship. People in your immediate family, workplace and others may be put in jeopardy as well. Other themes in the book include the search for intimate authentic and unconditional love, and how the early loss of parents as well as working with low vibrational people, may contribute to already troubled situations.
Dr. Rubenstein goes on to suggest that adoption, undoubtedly affects a person’s perception of life, themselves and others. Even when placed in a loving family there may be feelings of abandonment and loss of trust experienced by the adopted child. In coming to know the stalker in the book, Conrad Wilson, though described as an intelligent, attractive man with sensory abilities, he is also seen as quite primitive with a violent, angry presence. During the course of the story it is revealed that he was sexually abused repeatedly over a long period of time by his adoptive father. His adoptive mother, while aware of the abuse, did nothing to intercede. This young boy was denied the love and protection of supportive parents and his chances at a healthy, normal family life later on were gravely compromised. As a result of these continuous assaults , he was emotionally stunted and damaged. Even though he married a woman who loved him, it wasn’t long before his paranoid behavior actions came into play. He became violent with his wife and child. The young mother, Megan Haggarty, was lucky to escape the marriage with her life.
