51 pages 1 hour read

Nedra Glover Tawwab

Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2021

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Background

Literary Context: Boundaries and the Self-Help Genre

Tawwab’s work is an addition to the ongoing discourse about mental health and changing attitudes towards therapy. Set Boundaries, Find Peace is a pragmatic guide for boundary setting in a variety of relationships and life situations. As a therapist, Tawwab’s insight and real-life examples about the value of boundaries lend her work authority and model for the reader how to face the discomfort of setting their own boundaries.

Similar works by other psychologists or therapists have helped to set a precedent and develop a language for the topic. Tawwab credits Anne Katherine’s 1991 book Boundaries: Where You End and I Begin with helping her to understand what boundaries are and how to create them. Katherine, a psychologist, later wrote several other books on the topic including Where to Draw the Line: How to Set Boundaries Every Day and Boundaries in an Overconnected World. Her work Boundaries is structured similarly to Tawwab’s work, as it includes anecdotes and real-life examples, instructions directly addressed to the reader, and end-of-chapter reflection exercises and quizzes. Katherine also examines several types of boundaries, which she labels physical, emotional, spiritual, and sexual, which she argues are based in self-awareness and are essential in healthy relationships.