Customer Reviews

My Enemy, Myself: Personal Journey through Healing Childhood Sexual Abuse & Borderline Personality Disorder

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Meri Kennedy is a true inspiration to us all. The way she describes her childhood and all the trauma is phenomenal. She is a gifted writer. Each one of her poems was like an introduction to each chapter. Each chapter seemed to be a chapter of her life. Survivors need someone to turn to and this was a great book to turn to. I know many people will benefit from her book and become inspired themselves. I would encourage anyone to read this book.

This is an absolutely phenomenal book. It's as suspenseful as the best of novels on the one hand, and it includes the author's poetry on the other. It is also a crime story told from the victim's perspective, and from that angle it's heartbreaking. The author was sexually assaulted by her own older brother, as sadistic and manipulative a creature as any found in the annals of literature, for many, many years, starting before she even started kindergarten. How the author, Meri Kennedy, was able to emerge from all of this is a triumph, and it makes for great reading too! There is a universality to this story whether the reader has ever experienced abuse or not. I've heard it said that evil can only exist in the darkness whenever someone sheds a light on evil, it's illuminated and stopped in its tracks. The fact that Ms. Kennedy had the guts to shine a light on the evil that she was forced to endure in her own home, while the unpunished perpetrator is still alive, is nothing short of amazing. It reminds me of all the sayings about how lotus flowers only get the chance to bloom after rising above the mud. I highly recommend this incredible book.

I wanted to say just how relieved I was to read this book - if it is possible to be relieved by reading a book concerning the rape of a child - by Meri Kennedy. It was a relief to me, though, because at one time I knew one of Ms. Kennedy's abusers, and he threatened me, too - and later made up all kinds of mindless, ludicrous lies to try to cover himself and his hideous actions. The man is a rampaging sadist. It is with remarkable, stunning courage that Ms. Kennedy has sat down and written this book, and I applaud her efforts wholeheartedly. The more people can read and find out about the minds of the kinds of people like this decent, gutsy woman's abusers, the better. Thank you for writing this, Ms. Kennedy, and I wish all the very best to you.

Well done! "My Enemy, Myself" should be required reading for health care professionals...and...anyone in the human race. Thank you Ms. Kennedy for sharing your story and affirming that good triumphs over evil.

I am 40, a survivor of incest from 6-12. This was the first book to date I have ever read on the subject. I typically have never been able to watch a movie and/or read a book on the subject. I never felt the need to open Pandora's box. However, Meri is an upstanding, well known person in Cranston, and because I knew her I decided to read the book.

The book is just 116 pages and I was taken back at how many parallels I had to her story. Our story's weren't the same but the trauma had unleashed itself similar to her story. What I liked the most is she kept it clean, no details to make be break down crying.

I highly recommend reading this for anyone! Fact, child molestors are 90% of the time known by the assailant. "The average pedophile will victimize 244 children in their lifetime", according to the Massachusetts Children's Trust Fund.

I was at peace when I finished this book and felt a sense of victory, that I too have battled and won. The book actually empowered me, and I am grateful to the author.

As a counselor for women that have experienced abuse, I am always in search of clarity and understanding for the serious problems that are often consequences of trauma. I found that reading this book has helped me approach the subject of borderline personality disorder and trauma due to child abuse with a greater and deeper understanding and by doing so, will help to empower those women that are working so strongly on their own persoanl growth.
I encourage professionals and anyone interested in learning to feel about this subject to read My Enemy, myself.