Returning Home

Regular price €62.99
Quantity:
In stock with our UK publisher. 14-28 days
Delivery/Collection within 10-20 working days
14 days return policy Shipping & Delivery
A01=Jerry M. Burger
Author_Jerry M. Burger
Category=JBSP1
Category=JBSP3
Category=JMC
Category=JMD
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics

Product details

  • ISBN 9781442206809
  • Weight: 363g
  • Dimensions: 162 x 239mm
  • Publication Date: 16 Mar 2011
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
  • Publication City/Country: US
  • Product Form: Hardback
Secure checkout Fast Shipping Easy returns

Each year millions of American adults visit a childhood home. Few can anticipate the effect it will have on them. Often serving several important psychological needs, these trips are not intended as visits with people from their past. Rather, those returning to their homes have a strong desire to visit the places that comprised the landscape of their childhood. Approximately one third of American adults over the age of thirty have visited a childhood home. This book describes some of their experiences and the psychology behind the journeys.

Most people who visit a childhood home are motivated by a desire to connect with their past. Seeing the buildings, schools, parks, and playgrounds from their youth helps to establish the psychological and emotional link between the child in the black-and-white photographs and the person they are today. Many people use the trip to get in touch with the values and principles they were taught as children, often as a means to get their lives back on track. Others use that journey to strengthen emotional bonds between themselves and loved ones. Still others return to former homes to work through psychological issues left over from sad or traumatic childhoods. No matter the reason, there are few experiences in one's life that can move a person as deeply and unpredictably as returning home.

Jerry M. Burger is professor of Psychology at Santa Clara University.

More from this author