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You Will Never Be Normal
One afternoon, during a routine meditation, a strange tingling grips Catherine Klatzker, followed by an explosion of voices crowding out her thoughts. Soon these voices, or "parts," begin to emerge more distinctly in her mind, accompanied by persistent insomnia and bouts of mortifying incontinence.
Fearing for her sanity, Klatzker turns to a meditation teacher and licensed therapist. What follows is one woman's unflinching excavation of years of repressed sexual and emotional abuse, manifested many decades later as Traumatic Dissociative Identity Disorder. A daring and unafraid debut memoir, You Will Never Be Normal delivers an arresting examination of the emotional toil-and toll-required to be made whole again.
Fearing for her sanity, Klatzker turns to a meditation teacher and licensed therapist. What follows is one woman's unflinching excavation of years of repressed sexual and emotional abuse, manifested many decades later as Traumatic Dissociative Identity Disorder. A daring and unafraid debut memoir, You Will Never Be Normal delivers an arresting examination of the emotional toil-and toll-required to be made whole again.
- GenresMemoirNonfiction
358 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 4, 2021
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61 people want to read
About the author
Catherine Klatzker
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 27, 2020
Author Catherine Klatzker has a long complicated family history of trauma, neglect, and sexual abuse. It launches her into marriage, straight out of high school, to someone significantly older. Right away she has a baby. Then her husband suddenly dies and leaves her penniless.
Klatzker, just a teenager, faces the hard road of life, trying to take care of herself and her child. However, life's early traumas catch up with her and cause her personality to fragment.
She discovers, much later in life, she has dissociative identity disorder and spends much of the book going back in time, figuring out exactly when and how it occurred and consulting with a therapist about managing it. This is a frank, compelling memoir about a mental disorder that's rarely discussed--certainly not with such keen insight and candor. This is a thoroughly fascinating read.
Klatzker, just a teenager, faces the hard road of life, trying to take care of herself and her child. However, life's early traumas catch up with her and cause her personality to fragment.
She discovers, much later in life, she has dissociative identity disorder and spends much of the book going back in time, figuring out exactly when and how it occurred and consulting with a therapist about managing it. This is a frank, compelling memoir about a mental disorder that's rarely discussed--certainly not with such keen insight and candor. This is a thoroughly fascinating read.
May 23, 2021
Wonderful book. Great story of survival and healing. Well written and an easy read but frustrating at times because I wanted to hurt the father and mother - how could you not stand up for your kids? The parents obviously had serious issues. I’m curious about the father’s life growing up and what happened to make him the way he was. Also frustrating that the author’s siblings denied stuff that happened. Just goes to show you how brave the author is writing about her life and wanting to heal. Good for her. I guess the siblings are brainwashed and want to sweep everything under the rug. It’s hard to change and face reality. This isn’t the 1960s. Nothing to be ashamed of anymore. Nobody has a perfect family. Really educational read also. Had no idea about DID.
June 10, 2021
I couldn’t put the book down!!!! The frightening topic of incest, molestation, memories and your mind protecting you are overwhelming. Catherine Klatzker writes with amazing clarity and descriptive wordings that draw you into her feelings and thoughts. She has an unbelievable sense of survival and resilience. She overcomes a huge mountain of intense experiences and with guided professional help that is step by step purposeful, she emerges whole. The human spirit is powerful and she shows us how.
Laura
Laura
May 4, 2021
You Will Never Be Normal by Catherine Klatzker takes the reader on a journey of discovery with her as she learns that she has dissociative identity disorder and Parts inside of her have been holding trauma she hadn’t even been aware that she had experienced.
The book opens in 2009 as she’s having a talk with her Parts during the drive to work as a pediatric ICU nurse. It then jumps back in time to 2002, when a distressing experience while meditating prompted her to seek therapy to try to figure out what had brought on such a dramatic response.
The author takes the reader through her growing awareness of the Parts inside of her. She noticed what seemed like other people’s writing in her journal. When her therapist encouraged her to connect with her inner child, the idea of Parts became clearer, although she recognized that what her therapist talking about and what she was referring to were different things.
As therapy work progressed, she became aware that her Parts had protected her from memories of childhood sexual abuse. Rather than regaining knowledge, memories came through feelings in the body as if the past was happening in the present. Meditation played an important role as “my training ground for allowing body memory.”
I thought Catherine did an excellent job of expressing how difficult it was to have this knowledge while the abuser was still alive. Different Parts had very different feelings towards the abuser, and silencing was the norm in her family.
It was fascinating to see the process by which Catherine gradually came to know her Parts, communicate with them, and identify each individual part. She described the different physical sensations she experienced when other Parts were coming out. I always find it very cool when people with DID share the architecture of their inner world. Catherine described a house on the inside where the Parts would stay in the playroom for the day while she was at work.
It was also really interesting to see the relationship with her therapist grow. It took years of therapy before she was actually able to connect with her parents, and it really underscores the need for slow trust-building in the therapeutic relationship when there’s been complex trauma. She had the same therapist throughout the book, and she describes how he spoke directly to her Parts and validated them during sessions. Besides her husband, the book is dedicated to “my extraordinary therapist for midwifing courage, and hope, and wholeness with unfailing kindness.”
Eventually, she and her therapist began working on integration. I found that quite interesting, as it’s not something I’ve read about before; I know a number of bloggers with dissociative identity disorder (DID) or other dissociative disorders, but integration hasn’t been the focus of their therapeutic work while I’ve known them.
This book does an excellent job of cutting through stereotypes around DID. It normalizes it as a response to complex trauma, and emphasizes the role that each Part played in keeping Catherine safe. I think that approach is likely to make it understandable and accessible for readers who may have no point of reference to understand dissociation.
At about 350 pages, this book is longer than what I typically read, but it held my interest and attention throughout. The scenes during therapy sessions in particular stood out for me.
This is an excellent book, and a valuable contribution to furthering awareness and understanding of DID.
I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
This review first appeared on https://mentalhealthathome.org/2021/0...
The book opens in 2009 as she’s having a talk with her Parts during the drive to work as a pediatric ICU nurse. It then jumps back in time to 2002, when a distressing experience while meditating prompted her to seek therapy to try to figure out what had brought on such a dramatic response.
The author takes the reader through her growing awareness of the Parts inside of her. She noticed what seemed like other people’s writing in her journal. When her therapist encouraged her to connect with her inner child, the idea of Parts became clearer, although she recognized that what her therapist talking about and what she was referring to were different things.
As therapy work progressed, she became aware that her Parts had protected her from memories of childhood sexual abuse. Rather than regaining knowledge, memories came through feelings in the body as if the past was happening in the present. Meditation played an important role as “my training ground for allowing body memory.”
I thought Catherine did an excellent job of expressing how difficult it was to have this knowledge while the abuser was still alive. Different Parts had very different feelings towards the abuser, and silencing was the norm in her family.
It was fascinating to see the process by which Catherine gradually came to know her Parts, communicate with them, and identify each individual part. She described the different physical sensations she experienced when other Parts were coming out. I always find it very cool when people with DID share the architecture of their inner world. Catherine described a house on the inside where the Parts would stay in the playroom for the day while she was at work.
It was also really interesting to see the relationship with her therapist grow. It took years of therapy before she was actually able to connect with her parents, and it really underscores the need for slow trust-building in the therapeutic relationship when there’s been complex trauma. She had the same therapist throughout the book, and she describes how he spoke directly to her Parts and validated them during sessions. Besides her husband, the book is dedicated to “my extraordinary therapist for midwifing courage, and hope, and wholeness with unfailing kindness.”
Eventually, she and her therapist began working on integration. I found that quite interesting, as it’s not something I’ve read about before; I know a number of bloggers with dissociative identity disorder (DID) or other dissociative disorders, but integration hasn’t been the focus of their therapeutic work while I’ve known them.
This book does an excellent job of cutting through stereotypes around DID. It normalizes it as a response to complex trauma, and emphasizes the role that each Part played in keeping Catherine safe. I think that approach is likely to make it understandable and accessible for readers who may have no point of reference to understand dissociation.
At about 350 pages, this book is longer than what I typically read, but it held my interest and attention throughout. The scenes during therapy sessions in particular stood out for me.
This is an excellent book, and a valuable contribution to furthering awareness and understanding of DID.
I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
This review first appeared on https://mentalhealthathome.org/2021/0...
May 9, 2022
I devoured "You Will Never Be Normal," an emotionally challenging but essential read for anyone living with DID! It has helped me move forward in my own healing in ways I might not have otherwise.
Impressive, important and inspiring! Thank you for this book!!!
-- Ondine R.
Impressive, important and inspiring! Thank you for this book!!!
-- Ondine R.
April 11, 2022
Catherine Klatzker's You Will Never Be Normal is not an easy read, but if you persist, you will be rewarded with a deep understanding of how a woman deals with profound abuse and comes to Wholeness.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews