Books / Cognitive & behavioural
Reinventing Your Life: The Breakthrough Program to End Negative Behavior and Feel Great Again
Written for clients and general readers by Jeffrey E. Young and Janet S. Klosko (1993), Reinventing Your Life translates Schema Therapy into the accessible concept of "lifetraps", self-defeating emotional and relational patterns rooted in childhood such as Abandonment, Mistrust and Abuse, Emotional Deprivation, Defectiveness, and Unrelenting Standards.
Book details
Author of listed edition: Jeffrey E. Young and Janet S. Klosko
Edition: 1st edition (1993; Plume paperback 1994)
Publisher: Dutton / Plume (Penguin)
Edition year: 1993
Language and origin: English (United States)
ISBN: 9780452272040
Form and genre: Self-Help & Client Workbook
Level: Introductory
Historical era: 1980–2009 · Evidence-Based, Trauma & Integrative Era
Covers: Eleven core "lifetraps" (Early Maladaptive Schemas); Surrender, Escape (Avoidance), and Counterattack (Overcompensation); Childhood origins of relational chemistry; Experiential letters, flashcards, and behavioural pattern-breaking
APA 7th reference: Young, J. E., & Klosko, J. S. (1993). Reinventing your life: The breakthrough program to end negative behavior and feel great again. Dutton.
What it is & historical context
Published a decade before their comprehensive professional textbook Schema Therapy: A Practitioner’s Guide (2003), Reinventing Your Life was written by Jeffrey Young and Janet Klosko (with a foreword by Aaron T. Beck) so that clients undergoing Schema Therapy could read a dedicated chapter on each of their active schemas between sessions.
Core clinical themes & arguments
Young and Klosko coin the everyday term "lifetrap" for an Early Maladaptive Schema and focus on eleven of the most common clinical patterns: Abandonment, Mistrust and Abuse, Emotional Deprivation, Social Exclusion, Dependence, Vulnerability, Defectiveness, Failure, Subjugation, Unrelenting Standards, and Entitlement. For each lifetrap, the book provides a self-assessment questionnaire, explains how childhood temperament interacts with toxic family environments, and illustrates why people repeatedly experience intense romantic "chemistry" with partners who trigger their worst lifetrap (a modern cognitive-relational explanation of Freud’s "repetition compulsion"). It also introduces the everyday terms "Surrender," "Escape," and "Counterattack" for the three schema coping styles.
Clinical practice, reception & legacy
In clinical practice, Schema Therapists routinely assign specific chapters of Reinventing Your Life as bibliotherapy homework during the assessment and education phase, helping clients recognize their lifetraps without shame and prepare for experiential imagery and behavioural change.
Reader level & educational scope
Catalogued at an introductory reading level within cognitive & behavioural (self-help & client workbook). This entry summarises published bibliographic, historical, and peer-reviewed records for educational orientation; it does not provide personal clinical advice, diagnosis, or treatment recommendations.
Paired academic and clinical scholarship
Paired work: Schema Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder (2nd ed.) (Arnoud Arntz and Hannie van Genderen, 2020)
Reference: Arntz, A., & van Genderen, H. (2020). Schema therapy for borderline personality disorder (2nd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell.
Demonstrates how client psychoeducation materials and lifetrap conceptualizations from Reinventing Your Life are integrated into structured clinical Schema Therapy.
Source-mapped claims and evidence notes
Claim 1: Intense romantic "chemistry" frequently signals that a prospective partner activates a core childhood lifetrap (such as Emotional Deprivation or Abandonment), pulling the individual to re-enact familiar childhood pain. (Detailed across Chapters 2, 6, and 8 of Reinventing Your Life (1993/1994).) [Source 1: Young, J. E., & Klosko, J. S. (1994). Reinventing your life: The breakthrough program to end negative behavior and feel great again. Plume / Penguin Books. (Original work published 1993)]
Claim 2: People maintain their lifetraps across adulthood through three self-perpetuating coping mechanisms: Surrendering to the trap, Escaping (avoiding triggers), and Counterattacking (overcompensating). (Formulated in Chapter 3 ("How Do We Surrender, Escape, and Counterattack?").) [Source 1: Young, J. E., & Klosko, J. S. (1994). Reinventing your life: The breakthrough program to end negative behavior and feel great again. Plume / Penguin Books. (Original work published 1993)]
Sources and inspection notes
Supports: Pending verification: All descriptions of the eleven lifetraps, Surrender/Escape/Counterattack, romantic chemistry, and client change steps.
Supports: Pending verification: Professional clinical manual detailing how Reinventing Your Life is assigned as client bibliotherapy in Schema Therapy.