Читать книгу Faith Born of Seduction - Jennifer L Manlowe - Страница 14

Usually when the term recovery is employed, it is done so in reference to a chemical-addiction therapy based on a disease (medical) model. One who is “recovering” or “in recovery” is thought to be refraining from using her former addictive substance or habit. Such concepts have been psycho-spiritualized and popularized by the human potential movement and, in particular, by Twelve-Step groups of Alcoholics Anonymous and their offspring—Overeaters Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Incest Survivors Anonymous, Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, and the like.²⁷ By actively using such spirituality groups and “working” the steps, one is said to be “on her way to recovery.” Since incest is not a disease or an addiction one might wonder why the term “recovery” would be used at all. The women interviewed frequently referred to their “healing journey” as their “recovery.” For the sake of this project then, I refer to recovery as a self-oriented vocabulary that reveals the wish to move from victim to survivor. Many sexually violated women prefer to see themselves as no longer victimizable, with esteem reclaimed and bodily confidence reaffirmed, or affirmed for the first time. This language of recovery gives them a sense of hope, a sense of self-empowerment. In later chapters, I will explore to what degree such language is pragmatically helpful.