The choice

embrace the possible

by Edith Eva Eger

288 pages

English language

Published Sept. 5, 2017 by Scribner.

ISBN:: 978-1-5011-3078-6
OCLC Number:: 1002089857

(7 reviews)

"A powerful, moving memoir--and a practical guide to healing--written by Dr. Edith Eva Eger, an eminent psychologist whose own experiences as a Holocaust survivor help her treat patients and allow them to escape the prisons of their own minds. Edith Eger was sixteen years old when the Nazis came to her hometown in Hungary and took her Jewish family to an internment center and then to Auschwitz. Her parents were sent to the gas chamber by Joseph Mengele soon after they arrived at the camp. Hours later Mengele demanded that Edie dance a waltz to 'The Blue Danube' and rewarded her with a loaf of bread that she shared with her fellow prisoners. These women later helped save Edie's life. Edie and her sister survived Auschwitz, were transferred to the Mauthausen and Gunskirchen camps in Austria, and managed to live until the American troops liberated the camps in 1945 and found Edie in a pile of dying bodies. One of the few living Holocaust survivors to remember the horrors of the camps, Edie has chosen to forgive her captors and find joy in her life every day. Years after she was liberated from the concentration camps Edie went back to college to study psychology. She combines her clinical knowledge and her own experiences with trauma to help others who have experienced painful events large and small. Dr. Eger has counselled veterans suffering from PTSD, women who were abused, and many others who learned that they too, can choose to forgive, find resilience, and move forward. She lectures frequently on the power of love and healing. The Choice weaves Eger's personal story with case studies from her work as a psychologist. Her patients and their stories illustrate different phases of healing and show how people can choose to escape the prisons they construct in their minds and find freedom, regardless of circumstance. Eger's story is an inspiration for everyone. And her message is powerful and important: 'Your pain matters and is worth healing: you can choose to be joyful and free.' She is eighty-nine years old and still dancing."--

3 editions

Stephanie Jane reviewed The Choice by Edith Eva Eger

Surprisingly uplifting and hopeful

5 stars

I had The Choice downloaded to my Kindle for over a year before I plucked up the courage to read this memoir which is somewhat ironic for a book that focuses on motivating oneself. Having read other Holocaust memoirs not long before the purchase I felt I needed to be in the right frame of mind to appreciate Eger's story and that did prove to partially true. Her memories of her experiences as a young Hungarian Jew is Nazi-occupied Europe are beyond grim and that she physically survived to bear witness to so many atrocities is miraculous. That she also managed to overcome that horrendous year and, eventually, became a psychiatrist helping others to surmount their emotional traumas is truly inspirational.

I was surprised by how uplifting and hopeful The Choice is to read. I felt it was a perfect New Year book and I loved Eger's conversational style. She …

I was surprised by how uplifting and hopeful The Choice is to read. I felt it was a perfect New Year book and I loved Eger's conversational style. She addresses deep psychological concepts, but I appreciated the clarity of her explanations and the way in which she incorporated anecdotes from her professional American practice into her own life story. I remember how eerie my own visit to Auschwitz in the 1990s was and the oppressive atmosphere that still lingers there. I can't begin to imagine how it must have felt to Eger to return to the place where she lost so much. Her practical narration allows us some insight into her emotional strength. I hope that following the advice she gives throughout The Choice will allow me to develop more of her resilience and joy in life.