ABSTRACT
Each segment of a person's conduct and experience bears a twofold meaning: it revolves about its own center, contains as much breadth and depth, joy and suffering, as the immediate experience, and at the same time is a segment of a course of life. By naming and claiming the experience of abuse and survival as their own story, survivors reconstruct the story of abuse rather than accepting it as the shameful bequest of parental violation. The survivor narrative names the violation as an act of cruelty, control, or hubris, not as justified punishment visited upon a recalcitrant inferior or 'sidekick'. This act of naming and narrating seizes the story from the violator and gives witness to the struggle of the survivor and to her multidimensional self. Although silence may serve as a refuge, it is also a place of bondage. In speaking out, the victim-survivor finds her own voice through which she can tell her story.
