From The WomanSource Catalog
& Review: Tools for Connecting the Community for Women
Review by Patricia Pettijohn , 02/01/97
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.