to be saddened and confused by this section in Waterstones

[SlightlyUndead]

I know this is going to come out wrong and I will probably get flamed...

There are now so many paperback biographies/ autobigraphies written by adults who were abused as children that it has it's own section on our local Waterstones. I remember seeing David Peltzer interviewed a few years ago when "A Child Called It" was first published. It was one of the first
bestsellers of this kind, the interview was harrowing and deeply upsetting and I understood that writing it down was a kind of therapy for him. If the process of writing a book about such awful experiences helps with the healing process in some way, I'm all for it. But what I don't really understand is the 'popularity' of such books. I did read 'A Child Called It' in the light of all the publicity and obviously found it very upsetting. I am not saying we should 'close our eyes' to such things but surely if you really care, you can donate to/do work for the NSPCC or Childline. I have seen mothers in the playground reading one of these books after another and I just can't help feeling that there is something a bit gratuitous (spelling?) and voyeristic about it. The more 'horrific' the childhood, the better read?

Oh this does seem to have come out a but wrong but what I am trying to say is that it seems that these books are now a reading genre in themeselves now and I just find it disturbing that there is an appetite for it. But then I don't ever read any 'gory details' in the newspaper if it involves children being hurt....

Maybe I am missing something? I am happy to have it explained to me.

I did read Andrea Ashworth's Once In A House on Fire, which is an excellent account of an abusive household. Maybe this makes me a lit-snob, but it was well-written and not gratuitous. It struck me as the kind of book one might not read for titillation but because they may have gone through a similar experience.

I agree with you. It's no doubt healing to write it. But why do people choose to read it?

Milly it is not like all I read is this type of book and only base my understand of abuse on them...and of course I read a lot of information on psychology aimed at professionals but I choose to have lots of information from lots of different sources - including these books.

Does anyone else see a parallel between reading these sorts of books and reading many of the threads/topics on here? The 'relationships' section is, I would wager, read by many more people than post on it, for example...

Yes, a definite parallel TethHearseEnd.

YANBU
Personally, I think the majority of it is kiddie porn without pictures and should be banned. I can just imagine pervs getting off on it.