The Courage to Heal

The Courage to Heal
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The Courage to Heal


Author Ellen Bass & Laura Davis
Publisher Collins Living
Publication date 1988 (original); 2008 (reissue)

The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (first published in 1988) is an extremely popular[1] book written by Ellen Bass and Laura Davis, aimed at a female audience. The primary thrust of the book is that individuals with a vague set of symptoms have suffered child sexual abuse that has since been forgotten and is currently causing their problems. A variety of techniques are proposed to help these individuals recover these purported memories, become identified as an survivior and overcome the associated trauma.
The book has been criticized for creating false memories of abuse, its authors being unqualified and for creating an industry which has isolated and separated family members on the basis no positive proof. Bass and Davis have also been criticized for leaping to unwarranted, implausible conclusions with significant consequences and failing to correct the scientific errors found in the first edition that were not corrected in subsequent reprintings.[2]
Contents [hide]
1 Authors
2 Overview
3 Critics' view
4 See also
5 References
[edit]Authors

The Courage to Healis written by feminist activists Ellen Bass, a former poet and creative writing teacher, and Laura Davis, an incest survivor. Bass and Davis attributed efforts to confront incest and child sexual abuse to the Women's liberation movement.[3] Neither Bass nor Davis have any training in psychotherapy or science, and they state that nothing in the book is based on any psychological theories.[1]
[edit]Overview

The 2007 edition is divided into the following sections:
Taking Stock
The Healing Process
Changing Patterns
For Supporters of Survivors
Courageous Women
Honoring the Truth: A Response to the Backlash (added in response to negative reactions to the book)
The book was written as a response to the author's frequent encounters with women who were the victims of sexual abuse during their childhood and adolescence. The authors present a path to healing from the trauma of childhood abuse. They additionally suggest that people experiencing dysfunction in their lives, who feel that something traumatic happened in their childhood that they do not currently remember, should investigate these feelings. They say that extreme childhood trauma, of which sexual abuse is one, is often spontaneously repressed to allow the child to continue growing up. The authors outline how the damaging effects of child sexual abuse can be wide-ranging: depression, anxiety, alcoholism, drug addiction, dysfunctional relationships, dissociative identity disorder, self-injury, suicidal thoughts and others. The latest edition features language more inclusive of male sexual abuse victims.
The original edition of the book contained an influential chapter discussing satanic ritual abuse (now considered a moral panic) and the discredited autobiography Michelle Remembers. Subsequent editions renamed the phenomenon "sadistic ritual abuse". The Courage to Heal was part of the vision that childhood sexual abuse could be discovered with no corroborating evidence beyond a vague set of symptoms.[4]
[edit]Critics' view

Critics contend that because Bass and Davis have no formal training in psychiatry or psychology, they are not qualified to write such a book.[5] A report for the Australian branch of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation found the book was linked to nearly 50% of the cases in which a false allegation of child sexual abuse was made based on recovered memories[6] and a 2005 report by the Health Services Commissioner to the Minister for Health of Australia stated that some respondents from families where there were accusations of child sexual abuse called for the book to be banned, believing the book promotes the practice of recovered memory therapy.[7] Frederick C. Crews has criticized the book for appealing not to women who have always remembered abuse, but rather being aimed at those who struggle to convince themselves they were abused as children in the absence of previously-existing memories, and that the author's claim to promote self-esteem are actually based "on a shattering of their readers' prior sense of identity and trust".[8]
The Third Edition of the book, published in 1994, offers a whole chapter titled “Honoring the Truth,” in which the authors respond to the book’s critics.
[edit]See also

Amnesia
Dissociation
False memory
Memory inhibition
[edit]References

^ a b Aronson, Elliot; Tavris, Carol (2007). Mistakes were made (but not by me): why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts. San Diego: Harcourt. pp. 121. ISBN 0-15-101098-6.
^ Aronson & Tavris, 263n40.
^ Showalter, Elaine (1997). Hystories: hysterical epidemics and modern media. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 149-154. ISBN 0-231-10459-6.
^ Jenkins P (1998). Moral panic: changing concepts of the child molester in modern America. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press. pp. 181; 187. ISBN 0-300-07387-9.
^ Gibbs, A. "The reality of recovered memories" (PDF). The Skeptic 17 (2): 21-9.
^ Elson, M (1998). "Accusations of Childhood Sexual Abuse Based on Recovered Memories: A Family Survey". Australian False Memory Syndrome Association. Retrieved on 2009-02-16.
^ "Victoria, Australia Health Services Commissioner: Inquiry into the Practice of Recovered Memory Therapy" (PDF). Australia Health Services Commissioner. 2005.
^ Crews, FC; Bass E & Davis L (1995). "Thanks for the Memories". The New York Review of Books 42 (3). Retrieved on 2009-02-19.
Categories: Child sexual abuse | Health and wellness books | Self-help books

Labels: The Courage to Heal

posted by Robert Heard at 7:31 AM