Throw them behind your head
Audiobook
Throw them behind your head
50 toxic phrases and how to respond to them. A restorative guide from a renowned psychiatrist.
Some phrases can cut like a knife, and because a spoken word can't be taken back, it's good to know which ones can hurt others. And not just in the moment they hear them, but long after.
"You don't want to have children? What will become of you? That doesn't suit you at all! How come you can't get anything done? Try harder and hurry up! I told you so! We mean well!" These are just some of the phrases that have a hidden, poisonous sting. We hear them from parents, friends, colleagues, and partners. We take them personally, we don't know how to deal with them, and they can do a lot of damage to our psyche. Psychiatrist Radkin Honzák advises you on how to react to them and handle them so they don't ruin your life. Put them behind you with his help.
Because toxic phrases can literally get under your skin. In his new book, psychiatrist Radkin Honzák explains the problems they can cause in life and advises on how to react to them correctly, so that we don't get the impression that we are clumsy, slow, incompetent, selfish, or even evil because of toxic phrases.
Klára Mandausová
Klára Mandausová is a journalist, literary editor, and writer. Proti srsti (Against the Grain) is her tenth book. She has also published the novel Odměna za nevěru (Reward for Infidelity), the collections of feuilletons My dokonalé (We Perfect Women) and Holky s voctem (Girls with Vinegar), contributed to the book Dobro a zlo 21. století (Good and Evil of the 21st Century), in which she interviewed the theologian Marek Vácha, and provided the texts for a monograph on the botanical painter Pavlína Kourková, Duše květů (The Soul of Flowers). As a child, she could most often be found in the library. Until she was twenty-two, she was convinced she would become a teacher, probably so she could at least write on a blackboard, but there was no place for her in any school. After studying at the University of Economics, Prague, she therefore headed to MF Dnes. While writing about economics, her daughter Kristina was born. She later exchanged her job at the daily newspaper for the lifestyle magazine Marianne and Forbes magazine. Since 2022, she has been working at the Mladá fronta publishing house. Besides her family, witty men, and cheerful friends, she loves forests, mountains, galleries, riverside cafés, historical parts of cities, and animals, especially the golden retriever Arnošt and a group of cats that she and her daughter have gradually adopted from shelters. She likes to say that kindness will get you furthest and that the world is built on love.
Radkin Honzák
For ten years, Radkin Honzák headed the Department of Medical Psychology, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics at the First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University. He still works at IKEM in the outpatient clinic and in the transplant programme. His book Jak žít a vyhnout se syndromu vyhoření (How to Live and Avoid Burnout Syndrome) has been published in several editions by Vyšehrad, and the book-length interview with Renata Červenková, Všichni žijem’ v blázinci (We All Live in a Madhouse), and Psychosomatická prvouka (Psychosomatic Primer) have been a tremendous success. Radkin Honzák aptly comments on current issues on his blog at www.aktualne.cz.
