Breaking Up with the Patriarchy: Decolonizing Our Lives and Returning to Kinship Worldview Paperback – January 9, 2026
by Susan L. Herrmann (Author), Laura B. Fox (Editor), Four Arrows (Foreword)
Daily writing prompt What books do you want to read? View all responsesMy friend, Susan Herrmann in USA, has just released her first book entitled “Breaking Up with the Patriarchy”! It is NOT a work of fiction. Real life is much more scary! I was lucky enough to be part of an online writer’s workshop with Susan, when she was working on this book. She almost gave up for fear of what the critics might say but thankfully she persevered and this book is so relevant, not just for what is happening in USA but around the world!
Here is what our workshop leader, Laura B. Fox, has to say about Susan’s book:
“My imprint Open Spiral just released Susan L. Herrmann’s new book, Breaking Up with the Patriarchy!
“We planned to launch Susan L. Herrmann’s Breaking Up with the Patriarchy in March. A glitch, ours or Amazon’s, released it on January 9th instead. [As it turned out, with events in Minneapolis, it was perfect timing!]
“The patriarchy is a worldview based on domination and control. In her book, Susan gives much more attention to the alternative, Kinship Worldview, and she gives real-world guidance on how to get back to a way of relating that was always ours.
“Kinship is a way of being that sustained humanity for most of our existence, and it’s still alive in each of us.
Breaking Up wih the Patriarchy is available now on Amazon.”
- Print length 162 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateJanuary 9, 2026
- Dimensions6 x 0.41 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101965101151
this is what Amazon says about the book:
“The anxiety about our children’s future, the grief for our dying planet, the exhausting isolation despite being more “connected” than ever—these aren’t inevitable. They’re symptoms of living under the patriarchy, a worldview that has alienated us from our own wisdom and each other for the last 10,000 years.
In Breaking Up with the Patriarchy, therapist Susan L. Herrmann reveals that the systems causing our collective suffering aren’t just political or economic. They live within us, shaping what we believe is possible. We can return to the Kinship Worldview that sustained humanity for 99% of our existence.
Through unflinching personal stories and practical wisdom drawn from three decades of clinical practice and indigenous teachings, you will explore:
- Why mental health challenges are natural responses to an unnatural system
- How to identify and uproot the patriarchal patterns you’ve internalized
- How to build authentic community when isolation feels safer
- Ways to reconnect with Earth as a living consciousness
- The freedom that comes from radical surrender
This book is an invitation to remember who you were before you learned to see yourself as separate from others and from nature. It’s a guide to reclaiming your ability to trust your inner wisdom, connect with others as sovereign beings, and to respond with intelligence and heart to what life brings.
…Like having a wise elder at your side encouraging you to trust the inner wisdom that is a human heritage. With insights from her lived experience, she conversationally invites you to take the journey to your full humanity. Reading it is a healing experience!
-Darcia Narvaez, co-author of Restoring the Kinship Worldview
A profound guide for those ready to dismantle inherited patterns of domination and reclaim the wisdom of interconnectedness. With clarity, vulnerability, and deep insight, Herrmann leads readers back to a kinship worldview, where both personal and collective healing are not just possible but inevitable… A must-read for anyone longing to restore balance, trust their inner knowing, and participate meaningfully in the dawn of a new way of being.
–David Levine, President, Kinship Intelligence Institute”
If you too want to see our society change from a cut-throat competitive jungle to a more peaceful cooperative kinship society, then go out and buy this book! Even better, please share! thank you!
#AmazonBestSeller #bookReview #BreakingUpWithThePatriarchyBySusanLHerrmann #dailyprompt #dailyprompt1830 #OpenSpiralImprint #SocialChange
