Women survivors, psychological trauma, and the politics of resistance / Norma Jean Profitt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Profitt, Norma Jean.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Abused wives--Canada--Interviews.

Abused wives.

Abused women--Canada--Interviews.

Abused women.

Feminism--Canada.

Feminism.

Canada.

Genre:

Interviews.

Physical Description:

ix, 232 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Haworth Press, [2000]

Summary:

This one-of-a-kind book explores the processes through which women survivors of abuse transform psychological trauma into a politics of resistance and become involved in collective action for social change. Women Survivors, Psychological Trauma, and the Politics of Resistance uses the powerful testimony of survivors to reveal the processes, factors, insights, and conditions that prompted these women to join in the collective struggle opposing violence against women and children.

Women Survivors, Psychological Trauma, and the Politics of Resistance is a unique, in depth exploration of the social and psychological processes of survivors' empowerment. This book traces how these processes unfold, showing how women made sense of their lives and became involved in action for social change.

Contents:

Chapter 2. Shaping the Practices of the Transition House Movement: From a Discourse of Agency Toward a Discourse of Self-Esteem 21

Brief Overview of the Battered Women's Movement 21

The Struggle Over Definition of the Needs of Battered Women 23

The Professionalization and Repoliticization of Shelters 24

Dominant Discourse and the Positioning of Abused Women As Clients 27

Chapter 3. June's Story 31

Chapter 4. Rewriting a Survivor's Life: Revisiting the Past to Form the Future 59

Chapter 5. "Rediscovering What These Bones Are About, What This Flesh Is About" 71

Shifting the Grounds of Consciousness: Naming and Challenging Hegemonic Constructions of Violence Against Women 71

The Process of Making Sense: Recognizing Contradiction and Conflict and Making Conscious the Invisible and the Unconscious 85

Tensions, Transgressions, and Threats: Pain and Promise 93

Liberatory Discourses and Spaces: Self-Recovery, Social Analysis, and Collective Action 102

Changes in Subjectivity: Self-Acceptance and Shifting Structures of Identity 111

Women's Collective Action: Knowledge, Consciousness, and Transformations of Identity 125

Chapter 6. Finding the Self in Other: Reflections on a Researcher's Life 137

Reflexivity in Feminist Research 137

My Journey Through the Research Process 139

Confrontation with the Unnamed and Reflections on the Self 142

Critical Analysis of the Process of Uncovering the Repressed 143

Directions for Feminist Social Work Research 146

Chapter 7. Silences, Gaps, and Absences: Understanding How Differences Matter 149

Spaces for Collective Analysis of Experience and Opportunities for Collective Action 150

Political and Ethical Commitments and Healing 153

Barriers to Building Communities of Healing, Action, and Change 156

Constructing Avenues of Action for Survivors 158

Class Relations 164

Conceptualizations of and Attitudes Toward Survivors 167

Investments in Identities As Workers/Feminists/Professionals 170

Work Structures and Processes 173

Future Directions and Challenges 178

Chapter 8. Implications and Directions for Feminist Social Work Practice 181

Reradicalizing Our Movement and Our Work with Survivors 181

Reenvisioning Our Movement and Working Together Across Differences 187

The Many Voices of Survivors: Speaking About Our Lives 191

Turning the Gaze on Ourselves As Workers, Feminists, Survivors, and Professionals in the Movement 194.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-221) and index.

ISBN:

0789008904

0789011131

OCLC:

43227641