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Material Type | Library | Call Number | Item Barcode | Location |
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Book | Searching... Andover - Memorial Hall Library | BIOGRAPHY ROUSSO, HA. | 31330007475217 | Searching... Unknown |
Book | Searching... Burlington Public Library | 362.4092 ROU | 32116003043029 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
For psychotherapist, painter, feminist, filmmaker, writer, and disability activist Harilyn Rousso, hearing well-intentioned people tell her, "You're so inspirational!" is patronizing, not complimentary.
In her empowering and at times confrontational memoir, Don't Call Me Inspirational , Rousso, who has cerebral palsy, describes overcoming the prejudice against disability--not overcoming disability. She addresses the often absurd and ignorant attitudes of strangers, friends, and family.Rousso also examines her own prejudice toward her disabled body, and portrays the healing effects of intimacy and creativity, as well as her involvement with the disability rights community. She intimately reveals herself with honesty and humor and measures her personal growth as she goes from "passing" to embracing and claiming her disability as a source of pride, positive identity, and rebellion.
A collage of images about her life, rather than a formal portrait, Don't Call Me Inspirational celebrates Rousso's wise, witty, productive, outrageous life, disability and all.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
This collection of 52 short essays and meditative fragments is aptly described by the author, a psychotherapist, disabilities activist, and artist, as "a collage or a series of images" rather than a more formal memoir. Rousso (Disabled, Female and Proud!) was born with cerebral palsy, the result of oxygen deprivation at her birth. She describes an off-balance walk, involuntary movement in her arms and hands, speech which can become garbled, and a face that often makes weird grimaces in her efforts to speak. From early childhood, Rousso struggled to find her place in the world. She writes of her need to achieve independence from her loving family; her longing for a relationship with a man; her overcompensation, which throws her into a world of academic achievement; her loneliness and her need to be alone. When she writes of the psychotherapy institute where she was training asking her to leave, believing that a person with her disability would "distress [her] psychotherapy clients, causing them to flee-or at least to ask for another, more normal' therapist," she, and her reader, recognize the prejudice she has faced. Now identifying as disabled, she is propelled into the fight for the rights of women with disabilities. Though this is a slight book, its painful honesty is affecting. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A psychotherapist and leading advocate for women with disabilities chronicles her struggles to overcome prejudice and discrimination. As someone with cerebral palsy, Rousso (Gender Matters: Training for Educators Working with Students with Disabilities, 2002, etc.) had to cope with physical limitations (controlling her motions, blurred speech, an ungainly appearance and contorted facial expressions) and the response of others to them. She describes her own shock at seeing her image in a mirror, and she forced herself to confront the reality of her "loopy, lopsided walk; those darting, dancing shoulders; those wandering, wiggly fingers; that goofy, gimpy smile." The author credits her mother with nurturing her sense of independence and self-worth, despite her insistence that it was necessary to try to disguise her disabilities in order to make herself more acceptable to "the normalcy brigade." Growing up in the 1950s, Rousso faced "[i]gnorance, fear, nastiness, and prejudice" against the disabled and the expectation that a woman's destiny was shaped by her ability to attract a husband. Her father told her that he would not have married someone with her disabilities. Nonetheless, Rousso credits her disability with giving her the freedom to pursue a career outside the home--where she also experienced prejudice. After receiving her master's degree, she was expelled from the psychotherapeutic training institute where she was enrolled because the staff feared that her appearance would upset clients. Rousso writes that the feminist movement of the 1970s gave her the strength to free herself from internalizing such cultural stereotypes. She became a successful psychotherapist and mentor for disabled young women. Two decades later, the author formed an enduring love relationship. Now, writes Rousso, she is able to accept her body and sense its uncontrolled motions "as signs of life, not limits." An inspirational affirmation of the unique worth of every individual.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Rousso confronts her disability head-on in this engaging memoir. Sometimes emotional, often blunt, Rousso (economics, Brandeis Univ.; Gender Matters: Training for Educators Working with Students with Disabilities) recounts what it was like growing up with cerebral palsy in New York City, while denying that she had a disability. Not until her activist years in college, when she began working in the feminist movement and meeting other disabled women, did she came to terms with her condition and the need to advocate for disability rights. The book also chronicles her efforts to juggle her career with difficulties in her personal life, including a complicated relationship with her parents and her desire for an adult social life. This memoir is comprised of essays, poems, and personal memories, the combination making for an unusual, compelling read. Rousso highlights her struggles but also reminds readers that she is still disabled, not a tool for the inspiration of others. -VERDICT Recommended for those interested in personal growth memoirs that cover disability issues, such as John Elder Robison's Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's.-Caitlin Kenney, Niagara Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Sanborn, NY (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.