Aftermath: Violence and the Remaking of a Self
4.5/5
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About this ebook
A powerful personal narrative of recovery and an illuminating philosophical exploration of trauma
On July 4, 1990, while on a morning walk in southern France, Susan Brison was attacked from behind, severely beaten, sexually assaulted, strangled to unconsciousness, and left for dead. She survived, but her world was destroyed. Her training as a philosopher could not help her make sense of things, and many of her fundamental assumptions about the nature of the self and the world it inhabits were shattered.
At once a personal narrative of recovery and a philosophical exploration of trauma, this bravely and beautifully written book examines the undoing and remaking of a self in the aftermath of violence. It explores, from an interdisciplinary perspective, memory and truth, identity and self, autonomy and community. It offers imaginative access to the experience of a rape survivor as well as a reflective critique of a society in which women routinely fear and suffer sexual violence.
As Brison observes, trauma disrupts memory, severs past from present, and incapacitates the ability to envision a future. Yet the act of bearing witness, she argues, facilitates recovery by integrating the experience into the survivor's life's story. She also argues for the importance, as well as the hazards, of using first-person narratives in understanding not only trauma, but also larger philosophical questions about what we can know and how we should live.
Susan J. Brison
Susan J. Brison is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Dartmouth College, where she also teaches in the Women's Studies Program. She is the coeditor of Contemporary Perspectives on Constitutional Interpretation and the author of the forthcoming Speech, Harm, and Conflicts of Rights (Princeton).
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Reviews for Aftermath
9 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As much memoir and narrative as psychology or theory, this work (perhaps best called a long essay) presents various sides of surviving trauma and violence through narration, therapy, anti-depressants, political activism, and other avenues entirely. Brison's personal approach to the subject, based in her own survival of a rape and attempted murder, makes the book come across as a dialogue-in-progress, something for readers to interact with and question even as she questions the experience of being made a victim (and understood as a victim).Including careful discussions of memory (and forms thereof) and depression, the book provides a readable overview on what (must?) occur after someone experiences trauma, particularly of personally directed violence (Brison distinguishes between trauma caused by humans, and that caused by other forces such as natural disasters, accidents, etc., and the distinction is important to maintain for much of the psychological material in the essay).Certainly, this is a serious book, and portions of it are difficult to read--however, it is also extremely readable compared to most theory or writing on trauma and personal philosophy, reading more like a personal narrative/memoir than an essay. Also, it is a necessary look at violence, and at the "aftermath" victims of violence end up facing. I can only think that this is a powerful book that might help victims of violence look forward to a path of recovery, and it's a book that I think should be widely circulating, and widely discussed. So, in closing, this is one of those necessary reads--even if you're not interested, this might well be worth your time.