Synopsis "Incest Repressed: Faith and Healing"
Ann B grew up in seeming luxury and privilege. To the outside world, she lived an idyllic life, but at age five, when the family moved to Beverly Hills, her world becomes anything but perfect. Her father and the family butler began to sexually abuse her. Detachment, or mentally separating herself from the shame, emotional turmoil, and abuse, becomes Ann's means of survival. Over time, she becomes so successful at detaching; she fully suppresses the horrific memories. But in her mid-twenties, Ann begins experiencing abhorrent images of herself as a child being subjected to the abuse. Where are these images coming from? Is she making them up? Is something wrong with her? Could they possibly be real? What kind of person could she be to make up these stories about her father, a respected member of their community? Ann is nearly crazy with doubt, self-recrimination, and the horror that what she is experiencing may have a basis in fact. At about the same time the flashbacks begin, Ann starts down a path of spiritual exploration. Raised as an Orthodox Jew, the mere mention of Jesus Christ unnerved her. And yet her journey ultimately leads to her belief in Jesus as the Messiah. In these pages, Ann describes her arduous forty-year path to healing. Ann struggles to accept the truth of her recovered memories as she fails at two marriages before finding her true-life partner in her third husband. And she suffers at the hands of incompetent, even harmful, psychologists before finding the therapeutic approach that ultimately helps her. At the heart of her story is the healing Ann B experiences through faith and her relationship with Jesus Christ.
