Customer Reviews

Finding Courage to Speak: Women's Survival of Child Abuse

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

 

 

Finding Courage to Speak by Dr. Paige Alisen is a ground breaking work bridging the fields of psychology, Women's Studies, social science, and "self help." The author writes with tremendous insight and with her own courage about an issue that envelopes our society and is, yet, rarely addressed so openly. Dr. Alisen's work will reach scholars, students, and practioners and is accessible to survivors of childhood abuse. Unlike other work on the issue of child abuse, Dr. Alisen examines the ways in which severe childhood trauma is dealt with by victims through dissociative identity disorder and multiple personality disorders. It contributes greatly to our understanding of the ways in which our society facilitates harms against women and children.

I have read MANY books on child abuse and on long term consequences such as PTSD in children and adults however the Courage to Speak is one of the BEST books I have ever read. I mean, I cannot express just how many books I have read on abuse.. even the Courage to heal which I did not like and found extremely triggering but I loved THis book so much that I'm writing my first review ever here. It was passionate, true, and just beautiful to not feel so alone in the horrible experience of being a 'survivor' of child abuse and also of having a best friend with DID who died as a result of it.. that is.. suicide of one of her parts... that is how I see it as Murder by her abusers .. murder of her mind and body that was repeatedly abused... and in my own lesser abuse, I have found it hard to find books that I could relate with. Most are either too extreme or too basic... and while this book has very severe cases, in those cases, I find myself. I just found myself here and even recently told my therapist about this book and how good it was for me.. how it spoke to me as a feminist, a scholar, a future therapist, a woman and a survivor of child abuse.