BBGMBC Discussion Question #6 for Are You My Mother? By Alison Bechdel

by @thewritermama on June 9, 2012

The Beyond Busy Global Book Club discusses this book from June 4th – June 10th 2012, Join the discussion any time!

Today, June 9th , we continue the discussion questions for the Beyond Busy Global Monthly Book Club. We just finished reading Alison Bechdel’s Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama and now we will spend seven days discussing the book.

Anyone who has read the book can participate by commenting. You can also join our public BBGMBC Facebook group, if you would like to join us in reading one excellent quality book per month and then discussing it here.

Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama is written and illustrated by Alison Bechdel and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2012.

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I felt like this book was like a therapeutic journey for Bechdel, and she took us along with her.

Along the way, and with lots of reading and research she explored what prominent psychologists have to say about parent-child bonding and reflected on her relationship with her mother.

By presenting instances from her childhood alongside psychological theory, the author seems to have learned things about her relationship with her mother that are healing for her.

As a reader, I found myself learning about psychological theories I would probably not have sought out on my own, and yet, I found myself benefiting from reading these insights and witnessing pieces of Bechdel’s relationship with her mother.

Did you feel like you were on a vicarious healing journey in reading this book? Why or why not?

Do you think this opportunity for vicarious healing was intentional on the author’s part?

Is it possible for a reader to benefit psychologically simply by reading, witnessing, and learning about psychological theories?

I am interested in your thoughts on this topic. 🙂

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MLTCG June 11, 2012, 3:20 am

She does express her feelings well and in that way I was drawn in. I felt her pain and need for resolution, but not the same way I would if these were hot topics for me. I have different demons. But I believe that the opportunity for others to heal was intentional on her part and that it is possible to benefit by reading, witnessing and learning about psychological theories. I think all of the issues that have the ability to hurt or upset each of us have some commonality and that we can always find new ways to apply the tools, even healing tools, that are made available to us.

∞
Sue LeBreton June 12, 2012, 12:33 pm

I do think it is possible to benefit psychologically from reading about theories but more so when they are applied to a real experience as the author does. Since many of her issues were not similar to mine I had a more intellectual than emotional reaction, but when I could personally relate I had a few insights.

∞