Coping with Rape: Critical Perspectives on Consciousness

Traditional psychological prescriptions for coping with injustice rest on a variety of assumptions which ignore the lived experiences of most women, especially those who are poor or working class, whose lives are embedded in a network of relationships that need be considered in their coping. This article, through a dialogue between the author, a rape counselor, and a woman who has survived rape, provides an analysis of the class, race and gender biases woven into the Taking-Control-Yields-Coping formulations.