Dr. Thomas Moore Confronts Issues Around Child Rape, Forgiving - In His Novel: Upland Road

Los Angeles, CA, December 22, 2006 --(PR.com)-- Upland Road: Forgiveness has no damaging side effects, and it comes free. How do we practice forgiveness? Dr. Moore poses the question that our terrorized society doesn't want to hear... With more than 50% of people in today's society affected directly or indirectly by child rape (NSPCC researcher)-- how do we live with the survivors? We cannot readily see the survivor’s disability so survivors hide the lingering pain and become even more dysfunctional. Adults who were abused as children invariably have difficulty in relationships because they can be too compliant, lacking sufficient boundaries to be effective in their relationships... they will seek to meet all the needs of their partner without daring to ask for their own needs to be met. There is greater than 50% probability that, if you and I are not such victims, then we are in a relationship with such a victim. How do we deal with this reality? How do we relate with people who have not been supported after childhood violations? How do we relate with people who were unfortunate partners of such victims and who consequentially have inherited bitterness and confusion? How do we relate with all these innocent but damaged people?  Dr. Thomas Moore confronts issues around forgiving in Upland Road:

“Lil pours herself another drink. "I don't want to be at work, at home, anywhere. My mind is numb. I've forgiven my rapist. I don't hate him. I could kill him, or myself, as easily as not."

...Lillian clenches her fist, walks toward me, closer, eyeball, to eyeball, softening eyes. "Listen to me Dylan. You and I had a real chance at making something work. Damn! Even if I was to admit to the world, on national television, my obsession with self-destruction, what good would that do? You talked about a cure once... learning to forgive our abusers, not for their sake, but for our benefit. You were too far out for me. I lost it, but I have always loved you."

"Me? I just want to know why it happened. Why you killed our baby? Why you have a compulsion to screw strange men?”

Dr. Thomas Moore explores intense trauma and tragedy:

"Lillian awakes from the drugs and just has to tell Dylan, her love, that she has aborted his child. After years of torment from recurrent nightmares in that place, Limbo, haunted by a child she has never met, the nightmares slowly give way to reality: What can she do? Natalie, the Limbo child of her nightmares exists too close to her. And now Natalie is demanding attention." Forgiveness could feel like the reality shift that is required to transform from atheist to priest, from lover to friend. This hard won progress often has an unnecessary shadow of regret... "But, you carry a wrong around with you for years and years, and then one day you look around and find you've put it down somewhere and didn't even notice."

A Boy Survivor of Horrible Rape Ordeal Becoming Country's Advocate for Recovery: Novelist, Dr. Thomas Moore says, “People who suffer child abuse, (or a series of emotionally traumatic events to the stage of Overload), require healing, or some form of relief, in order to be able to function in some tolerable way. NSPCC statistics state that the number of reported cases of child sexual abuse is rising, by as much as 90% in those years when awareness was being promoted by media attention. This is just the tip of an iceberg of human suffering and exploitation. It is estimated that one in ten adults have been assaulted sexually as children. Survivors tend to resort to self-medication, such as alcohol, eating disorders, promiscuity, criminal aggressions, illegal drugs, or memory distorting mental illnesses. Moore’s new novel Upland Road traces many of these pathways. At least 50% of our population, wittingly or not, are impacted in our emotional life by child rape (NSPCC statstics, and Dr. T Moore research).

Contact Alphar Publishing, Sue Hoseit, 646-912-3515, alphar@xtra.co.nz, www.alpharpublish.com

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