What are the consequences of keeping a family secret? When is it appropriate to tell the truth? This text explores the power of secrets to shape our lives. Through dozens of personal stories it illuminates the dilemmas at the heart of family relationships and offers a fresh and often surprising critique of our tell-all society. It challenges the pop-psych doctrine that full disclosure is best and shows how new secrets (like artificial insemination) are being created as old taboos are broken, and how thoughtless truth-telling can create years of dangerous fallout. This guide offers covers such topics as: how family secrets create an ever expanding zone of silence; the distinction between healthy privacy and toxic secrecy; what to tell and not to tell young children.