Women Who Hurt Themselves: A Book Of Hope And Understanding
Women traumatized in childhood hurt themselves more often than men do because men are socialized to act aggressively and fight back, notes psychologist Miller, who is director of Clinical Mentoring at Antioch/New England Graduate School. Here she addresses childhood trauma, to which the individual may react by dissociating, but such fragmentation of the personality becomes the basis of her failure to protect herself as an adult. While integrating various treatment approaches, Miller's program focuses on the "triadic self," which she describes as the victim, abuser and nonprotecting bystander within. In the painful narratives culled from her private practice, Miller establishes that such self-destructive behavior as bulimia and cosmetic surgery "tells the secret story of women's childhood experience over and over again." She describes the behavior of her clients as trauma reenactment syndrome (TRS), which, stresses Miller, explains why they are impervious to treatment in 12-step programs and conventional therapy, often being misdiagnosed and mistreated. The author presents evidence that TRS women can be helped to lasting recovery.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.