By Author, Jeanne Malmgren

Good Eye, Bad Eye: A Memoir of Trauma and Truth

“A fresh, open, and inspiring remembrance.”
- Kirkus Reviews

In this luminous memoir, a Buddhist psychotherapist uses her understanding of suffering to confront her own trauma history, as she comes to terms with the truth of what happened to her in childhood. The book asks compelling questions about the aftereffects of injury and living with disability:

Can a childhood accident permanently damage our psyche?
Is it possible to heal from the physical and psychological wounds of trauma?
Is the term “disabled” an indignity, or an identity to be embraced?

At age 2, Jeanne Malmgren suffered an injury that would scar her forever. Her story will inspire anyone who lives with a disability or has endured trauma of any kind. Good Eye, Bad Eye launches readers on an emotional roller coaster of shame, the poignant yearning to be “normal,” and the author’s eventual discovery of a spiritual path that brings her peace and acceptance.

This is also a detective story as Jeanne searches for the truth of what exactly happened to her in childhood—a truth withheld from her by those who loved her most. The answer she finally uncovers is bittersweet.

Good Eye, Bad Eye is a primer on how the human brain struggles to handle overwhelming events, how therapists help their patients heal, and how the truth sets us free.

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My Story

Words have enthralled me from an early age. As a toddler, I would stand in my crib and touch the colorful alphabet letters on the wallpaper. Once I learned to read, many a happy hour was spent in the company of my Little Golden Books.

At age 10, I scored my first published byline: a poem in Scholastic’s Golden Magazine for Boys and Girls. Fast forward to college, where I studied languages and world literature, everything from Shakespeare to Garcia Marquez. My love for words flowered into a passion.

My first job out of college, in the early ’80s, was on the editorial staff of The Mother Earth News. We were a bunch of hippies cranking out a magazine about homesteading, and our circulation was an astounding 1-million. Later I landed at the St. Petersburg Times, Florida’s largest newspaper. I was there for 20 years, writing feature stories that won awards and were syndicated in newspapers nationwide. What a fun job that was.

For the last decade or more, I’ve worn two hats: psychotherapist and author. Still listening to people’s stories, still musing on the human experience, still in love with words.

More about me

Jeanne Malmgren

Author & Psychotherapist

My Books
Released in 2024, it’s an exploration of the aftereffects of trauma and growing up with a disability. An honest and raw look at my own journey, plus how I use that experience to help my psychotherapy clients heal from their traumas.
In 2003, I helped my spiritual teacher compile his autobiography. An expanded edition, with an afterword written by me, came out in 2017. This is the amazing life story of a 97-year-old Buddhist monk, from his childhood in the jungles of Sri Lanka to his founding of the first Theravada monastery/retreat center in America.
A vibrant collection of writings by nature adventurers in the Upstate of South Carolina. Includes my essay, “Spring Ephemeral,” about the mountain wildflower, Oconee Bells.