A Best Selling Classic - Over 250,000 in print Much of who we are, what we do, and how we feel is determined by the past. Did you realize that painful experiences and troubling childhood memories can continue to affect a person’s actions and attitudes throughout his life? The problem of being adversely affected by past experiences happens to all of us. How we deal with our past will determine how we live our present. Blaming parents or others for our actions and feelings is an easy way to rid of ourselves of responsibility. But blaming others doesn’t rid of us the problems. It’s up to us to choose between remaining the way we are or overcoming the things we allow to defeat us. Parental influences that you can overcome are: Constant control, over submission, neglect, excessive punishment, rejection, perfectionism, overindulgence and emotional paralysis.