ABSTRACT
The abuse I experienced as a girl reinforced the denial I was already submerged in as a member of a suburban family. A lot of times the only defense I had against oppression was to go completely numb: if I wasn’t “present” or “in my body” when bad things happened to me, it wouldn’t hurt. As an adult, I have begun to question numbness’s validity as a strategy. I have also become interested in its relationship to the capitalist structure in general.
