The Courage to Heal - Third Edition - Revised and Expanded: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (Paperback)

by Ellen Bass (Author), Laura Davis (Author) "If you have been sexually abused, you are not alone..." (more)
Key Phrases: sadistic ritual abuse, emergency stage, emotional release work, New York, San Francisco, Anna Salter (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
Based on the premise that "everyone wants to become whole," this book offers help and encouragement to women who were sexually abused in childhood. Through moving firstperson narratives, it illustrates how to come to terms with the past and work constructively towards the future. Along the way it describes the effects of sexual abuse, maps the stages survivors pass through, and offers practical guidance on dealing with self-defeating behaviors and building self-esteem. Supportive strategies are recommended to families, friends, and health-care professionals. The final "Resources for Healing" lists services and self-help programs and a bibliography. Compassionate and supportive. Jodith Janes, Univ. Hospitals of Cleveland
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
The classic and definitive self-help guide for women survivors of sexual abuse, The Courage To Heal is a tool for recovery that works. This is also the book often cited by those who challenge the credibility of incest survivors. Some survivors of childhood abuse recover memories of these traumatic early experiences years after the original events, and it is these recovered memories that are said to be false memories, implanted in the allegedly impressionable minds of survivors. I was curious to see how this revised and expanded third edition would differ from the much maligned first. In addition to an Afterword that carefully analyzes and refutes the false memory syndrome argument, the authors have made revisions throughout the book which offer guidelines for assessing confusing memories. The authors' commitment to survivors is clear throughout the book, beginning with the book's endorsements, which come not from therapists, but from anonymous survivors. This is a comprehensive, supportive, carefully worded and often passionate book, as helpful for those who are the partners, friends or family of survivors, as for survivors themselves. -- From The WomanSource Catalog & Review: Tools for Connecting the Community for Women; review by Patricia Pettijohn

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Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: Collins Living; 3 Rev Upd edition (May 19, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060950668
• ISBN-13: 978-0060950668
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (136 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #64,672 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #20 in	Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Sociology > Abuse
  #30 in	Books > Parenting & Families > Family Relationships > Child Abuse
  #44 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Mental Health > Abuse & Self Defense > Sexual Abuse

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

185 of 212 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderfully supportive and helpful book!, July 28, 1999

By A Customer

This book has gone a long way in helping me to begin the long journey to coming to terms with the sexual abuse I suffered as a pre-teen. For most of my adult life, I've been reluctant to attribute any of my problems (such as depression, self hatred, unhealthy sexual relationships with men, a general disgust about myself, etc.) to being molested by my stepfather. Within the past couple of years, however, I've begun to examine my feelings about it more and more. I bought this book rather hesitantly, but ended up reading the first few chapters in tears as I read so many of my own feelings and experiences echoed by the other abuse survivors. I had thought that I was all alone and that there was something intrinsically wrong with me for feeling the way I did about myself, and it was an overwhelming relief to find others who feel the same after having similar childhood experiences. The reviews offered here referring to the "memory" issue misrepresent the focus and intent of the book. These readers seem to want to keep abuse survivors quiet to save the "sanctity" of the family. So many of us have done this for years; sacrificing of our emotional well being. They belittle the profound hurt and damage caused not only by the abuse, but by the silence as well. At the very least, this book has helped me to feel human and has given me hope that I may one day feel whole. I highly recommend this book as an invaluable resource.

Addedum: It has been 7 years since I wrote the above review... I had forgotten I had written it until I ran across it in amazon's profile section. After reading a couple of the negative reviews below, I feel compelled to add something regarding the "repressed memory" issue. First, this book spends very little time even discussing the idea of repressed memories. Secondly, some people seem to be under the misguided impression that adults who know they were abused have obtained this knowledge through digging up these "repressed memories". Nothing could be further from the truth. Most sexual abuse survivors grow up remembering the abuse... these memories are not somehow buried. We grow and develop emotionally and psychologically with the knowledge that we were molested emblazened upon our psyches. This painful past shapes who we are, how we feel about ourselves, and our ability to have healthy relationships with others.

This book was invaluable in my healing process... almost a decade after having read the book, I can honestly state that I have moved on from those painful memories and I have been able to realize that the abuse was not somehow my fault. If you've never been abused, you will never understand how profound that realization is. If, however, you have been a victim of sexual abuse and are searching for a way to process it and go forward, this book is a great start.

139 of 166 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Helped Me as no Clinical Article or Book Did, June 9, 2000

By	Ann E. Nichols (Sierra Vista, AZ United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

[I was] sexually abused me from ages 8 - 12. Until I took over the medical library at Fort Huachuca, AZ, I had no name for what happened to me. For nearly 9 years I read my library's professional articles and books on child sexual abuse and former abuse. I acknowledged, with intellectual interest, that many of the adult patients' symptoms applied to me. What I learned didn't prompt me to seek treatment for the incest. In fact, I ran away from therapy when my therapist wanted me to deal with the incest instead of just my depression. Then, in 1990, our Community Mental Health Service ordered THE COURAGE TO HEAL. While I was checking to make sure all of pages were there, I started reading the book. Yes, CMHS unknowingly had to wait two or three more days to get their order because I *HAD* to get through this book. Its first-person accounts affected me in a way those clinical reports never had. [After reading the book] I knew I could no longer deny that the abuse was still affecting me. When I got to work the next day, I asked for help. I got it. It wasn't easy. The authors are correct to use the word "courage." Working through the abuse was the hardest thing I ever did. I think I shed 30 years' worth of tears in the second year of therapy. I won't pretend I'm the person I would have been if I'd never been abused, but I am stronger and better than I would have been if I'd gone on pretending it was all in the past. I've learned to fight for myself. If ever I forget how much I've changed, I have only to read my old diaries to know I'm not the whimpering mouse I was. I'm so glad I read this book. I'm also glad that I have such ready access to professional resources on child sexual abuse. That's how I know I don't have to fear that I was mislead by what THE COURAGE TO HEAL showed me.

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Take with a grain of salt, April 30, 2007

By	Catherine A. Burlington "Bookaholic? Visit bo... (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

My therapist recommended this book to me, and it was very helpful. It really gives insight into the ways that sexual abuse affects your whole life, and suggests some good ways to start to overcome it.

However, several things in it made me roll my eyes.

The authors claim that any sexual fantasies involving rape or BDSM or anything, essentially, other than missionary position sex are BAD BAD BAD for you and need to be expunged. This is an absurd claim not supported by any credible sex therapists.

Also, they stated, perfectly seriously, that abuse survivors often gain psychic abilities. *insert eye rolling here*

Even ignoring the "repressed memories" controversy, some of the assertions in this book are kind of loopy and clearly out-of-touch with the facts. Most of the material in it is useful, however, so I would still recommend it to other survivors. Just . . . don't take everything it says as the absolute truth.