Rape, incest, and battery change a woman's life forever. Some women never rise above the pain, the rage, the humiliation, while others seem to transcend the violence and rebuild their lives. What distinguishes those who transcend the violation? Courage--the courage to face their past and, sometimes, to put it into words.
In 1989 Miriam Harris was serving as project coordinator for the Battered Woman's Emergency Intervention Project at Dallas's Parkland Hospital. As part of her duties, she taught a journal-writing class at a women's shelter and found that the women she helped to express...