INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced frommicrofilm the master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from aity type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and in^roper alignment can adversely afreet reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note wiH indicate the deletioiL Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overl^s. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for aity photographs or illustrations sqypearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 USA 313.'761-4700 800.'521-0600 FEMINIST RECONSTRUCTIONS OF IDENTITY IN A SELF-HELP PROGRAM: A STUDY OF TWO SOCIAL MOVEMENT ORGANIZATIONS FOR INCEST SURVIVORS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Andre' Arianrhodd Levi, B.A., M.A. The Ohio State University 1995 Dissertation Committee: Approved by V. Taylor J.C. Jenkins Advise] G. Hinkle Department of Sociology UMI Number; 9620033 Copyright 1996 by Levi, Andre' Arianrhodd All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9620033 Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Copyright by Andre' Arianrhodd Levi 1996 To My Respondents 11 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my utmost appreciation to Dr. Verta Taylor lor her guidance and support throughout the research. Thanks also go to the other members of my advisory committee, Drs. Cisela Hinkle and J. Craig Jenkins, for their suggestions and comments. Gratitude is expressed to Drs. Denise Deschenes and Margo Ellis for their support. The technical assistance at various points along the way of Debra Seltzer Regina Sewell, and Kim Sanders is gratefully acknowledged. I offer my sincere thanks to my respondents, without whose courage to speak this study would not have been possible. Finally I gratefully thank the following for their support and encouragement; if I have omitted any others it was inadvertent. My thanks thus go to: my Higher Power, Selena, Holly, Suzanne, Libby, John, Mark, Betsy, Sean, Robert, Phil T., Phil, Joan, Karen, Marti, Chuck, Alison, Josh, Catita, Scott, Louise, Alex, Amy, Astarte, Fran, and Natasha. Ill VITA September 4, 1959 .................... Born - Des Moines, Iowa 1986.................................. B.A.., College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 1986-1987 ............................ University Fellow, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1987-1988 ............................ Graduate Research Associate, Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1988 .................................. M.A., Sociology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Sociology Studies in: Gender, Social Movements IV TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION............................................................ il ACKNOWLEDGMENTS....................................................... ill VITA ...................................................................iv CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION................................................... I THEORETICAL OVERVIEW..................................... 3 Resource Mobilization Theory ...................... 3 New Social Movements Theory..........................12 The Changing Nature of Cultural Analysis Within Sociology .............................. 16 The Culture of the Self-Help Movement and Its Relation to Feminism........................27 Social Movement Culture, Collective Identity And Culture of Resistance........................36 Conclusion: Integrating Studies of Structure And Culture...................................... 44 SUMMARY OF RESEARCH QUESTIONS ........................ 45 CHAPTER OUTLINE ....................................... 47 END N O T E S .............................................. 49 II. METHODS ...................................................... 50 INTRODUCTION............................................ 50 POSITIVISM AND POSTMODERNISM............................ 51 FEMINIST METHODOLOGY.................................... 56 FEMINIST POSTMODERNIST METHODOLOGY......................65 THE DATA AND S A M P L E .................................... 85 DATA ANALYSIS.......................................... 93 SUMMARY AND LIMITATIONS .............................. 93 END N O T E S ............................................. 106 III. THE SOCIAL MOVEMENT ORGANIZATIONS STUDIED...................107 INTRODUCTION........................................... 107 RESOURCE MOBILIZATION AND SELF-HELP SOCIAL MOVEMENT ORGANIZATIONS............................. 108 Self-Help Groups As Social Movement Organizations................................... 113 V Solution of Organizational Problems in This Self-Help Movement.............................117 OTHER TWELVE-STEP SMOs AS PRE-EXISTING ORGANIZATIONAL BASES FOR THESE TWO S M O s ...........................137 PROBLEM RESOLUTION IN COLLECTIVIST SELF-HELP ORGANIZATIONS....................................... 142 THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT'S FMOs' INFLUENCE ON THIS MOVEMENT ORGANIZATIONALLY.....................165 RELATIONSHIP OF THE MOVEMENT TO DOMINANT SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS................................. 177 END N O T E S ............................................. 186 IV. SURVIVORS' RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SELF AND IDENTITY.......... 192 INTRODUCTION........................................... 192 CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF SELF AND IDENTITY...............193 FRAGMENTATION OF SELF IN INCEST SURVIVORS.............196 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SELF AS A SURVIVOR: STRATEGIES......................................... 207 Defining One's Experiences As Actually Constituting Incest.............................209 Defining Oneself As Undeserving of A b u s e .......... 214 Attributing Blame to Structural Forces and Perpetrators Rather Than Oneself...........218 Defining Oneself As A Survivor Rather Than Victim..................................... 219 Finding and Integrating One's Adult and Child S e l v e s ................................... 225 Establishing Safety Through A Focus on Community Support/Fictive Kin...................229 Engaging in an Emotion Culture Involving Shared Experiential Processes...................230 Receiving Support for One's Lived Reality As A Survivor From Other Survivors.............231 INFLUENCE OF FEMINIST SELF-HELP ON SURVIVORS' NOTION OF THE PHYSICAL, EMOTIONAL, SEXUAL, AND SPIRITUAL ASPECTS OF SELF.......................233 Physical Self....................................... 234 Emotional S e l f ..................................... 236 Sexual Self......................................... 237 Spiritual S e l f ..................................... 242 END N O T E S ............................................. 248 VI V. SURVIVORS' STRATEGIES OF RESISTANCE TO DOMINATION...........252 INTRODUCTION........................................... 252 IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION STRATEGIES AS SYMBOLIC STRATEGIES OF RESISTANCE...........................253 Identity As "Survivor".............................256 Identity As "Recovering Survivor".................. 260 STRATEGIES OF RESISTANCE AGAINST FAMILIAL DOMINATION, .264 Changed Consciousness About the Nuclear Family And Family of Origin.....................265 Refusing Support and Symbolic Tokens of Affection As A Means of Affirming One's Own Construction of the Reality of the Abuse . .268 Developing One's Own Traditions/Celebrations Among the Recovery Community.................. 269 Developing Alternative Support Networks............ 270 Taking Responsibility for Ending the Cycle of Abuse, With Ones e l f .........................272 Creating New Definitions of the F a m i l y ............ 276 CREATION OF ALTERNATIVE MODES OF SPIRITUALITY AS A STRATEGY OF RESISTANCE.........................280 CREATING SYMBOLIC WAYS OF EXPRESSING THE EMERGENT NEW S E L F ........................................... 290 END N O T E S ............................................. 293 VI. CONCLUSIONS: IMPLICATIONS OF THE MOVEMENT FOR SOCIAL CHANGE .296 INTRODUCTION........................................... 296 FEMINIST POSTMODERNISM AND LEARNING FROM SURVIVORS' NARRATIVES......................................... 297 Recognizing Societal Silencing Processes But Refusing To Be Silenced.........................300 Listening To and Believing Ourselves And Other Survivors Who Tell Their Stories...............303 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS...................................305 INFLUENCE OF THE SELF-HELP MOVEMENT FOR INCEST SURVIVORS