Post #1034139

📗 "Over leven: Moed en groei na kindermishandeling en -misbruik" by Valerie Van Peel, Meredith Van Overloop, Anna Defossez & Peter Adriaenssens This book is only available in Dutch, but I think it's an interesting one to mention. The title means 'About life: courage and growth after child abuse' but it contains a wordplay. 'Over leven' means 'about life', but 'overleven' means 'to survive'. Saying the title out loud in Dutch, you wouldn't know which of these two was being said, and contextually it could be both. It's a fitting title, because this is a book about surviving childhood abuse (whether it's physical, emotional, sexual abuse and/or neglect) and about what that means for your personal life as an adult. It's not a very in-depth book about certain aspects, but it still manages to tell quite a bit. Each chapter gives a very short overview of an aspect of the trauma that comes from growing up like that, and then about ten people talk about their own experience with it in a few paragraphs. I think this title surprised me because it's progressive. Of course I think the contents of this book should be normal to admit, accept and discuss, but it's still quite taboo. There aren't many books around that, like this one, dare to say that maybe going no contact with your family is the right choice, that certain pain can last a lifetime, but also that living with severe symptoms doesn't mean your life can't be worthwhile. Healing isn't simply forgiving, forgetting and being a happy family again. For me, this is the first book in the Dutch language that I've encountered that shows the voices of many survivors without sensationalizing them or falling into ableist pitfalls, and that adds valid critique for how other people and society in general look at (and judge) survivors. It's a low bar to set, I know, but in this world it's a start. Reading it felt quite validating.