Catship reviewed Amongst Ourselves by Tracy, Ph.D. Alderman
I wasn't expecting to like it, but I actually dislike it
2 stars
Gosh no. We have a couple of problems with this, here's just a random selection: - very repetitive - explanation of trauma could have been better in 1998, when this was written - the "this has good sides, too!" thing sounds more like expectations to fulfill than like a "hey, maybe you'll also find things you'll like" - it tries to be open to various kinds of (DID) systems, but I don't think it does well at this - it does the "see your system as a company, everyone has different jobs" thing
edit: two positives that we remembered now – it's much more open to queer stuff than the very hetero-/cis-normative "Got Parts?", the authors are a lesbian couple and they draw parallels between the experiences. – there are some good ideas about how to make the temporal distance to trauma experience-able. Like making a paper chain with one …
Gosh no. We have a couple of problems with this, here's just a random selection: - very repetitive - explanation of trauma could have been better in 1998, when this was written - the "this has good sides, too!" thing sounds more like expectations to fulfill than like a "hey, maybe you'll also find things you'll like" - it tries to be open to various kinds of (DID) systems, but I don't think it does well at this - it does the "see your system as a company, everyone has different jobs" thing
edit: two positives that we remembered now – it's much more open to queer stuff than the very hetero-/cis-normative "Got Parts?", the authors are a lesbian couple and they draw parallels between the experiences. – there are some good ideas about how to make the temporal distance to trauma experience-able. Like making a paper chain with one ring for each year of your life, and giving them different colors depending on what kind of a time it was.