Citation

Muzak J. Traumatology 2009; 15(4): 24-34.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Green Cross Academy of Traumatology, Publisher APA Journals)

DOI

10.1177/1534765609347547

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article explores second-wave feminist Susan Gordon Lydon’s 1993 memoir, Take the Long Way Home: Memoirs of a Survivor as a historical document whose resonances remain relevant for people working in the multidisciplinary field of trauma studies. Lydon’s memoir illustrates what are arguably the most significant legacies of second-wave feminism’s consciousness-raising and its propagation of the notion that the personal is political: the feminist reconceptualization of trauma to include women’s everyday experiences of interpersonal violence and the emergence of survivor discourse. The article demonstrates that Lydon’s conceptualization of her addiction as a response to trauma reflects three key feminist contributions to trauma theory: the expansion of the conventional concept of trauma to include women’s everyday and ongoing experiences; out of this expansion, the development of the concept of "insidious trauma"; and the depathologization of adaptive, "normal responses" to trauma.