One Hour in Paris

Book excerpt: A powerful memoir, Karyn L. Freedman’s One Hour in Paris is a harrowing yet inspirational journey through suffering and recovery both personal and global. On a Paris night in 1990 when Karyn L. Freedman was just twenty-two, she was brutally raped. In the wake of the violent encounter, she found herself in a French courtroom, a Toronto trauma center, and a rape clinic in Africa. Her life was forever changed. At a time when as many as one in three women in the world have been victims of sexual assault and when many women are still ashamed to come forward, Freedman’s book is a moving and essential look at how survivors cope and persevere. At once deeply intimate and terrifyingly universal, One Hour in Paris weaves together Freedman’s personal experience with philosophical, neuroscientific, and psychological insights on what it means to live in a traumatized body. Using her philosopher’s background, she studies the history of psychological trauma, drawing on theories of post-traumatic stress disorder and neuroplasticity to show how recovery from horrific experiences is possible. Through frank discussions of sex and intimacy, she explores the consequences of sexual violence for love and relationships, illustrating the steep personal cost and the obstacles faced by individual survivors in its aftermath. Freedman’s book is an urgent call to face this fundamental social problem head-on, arguing that we cannot continue to ignore the fact that sexual violence against women is rooted in gender inequalities that exist worldwide—and must be addressed. One Hour in Paris is essential reading for sexual violence survivors and an invaluable resource for therapists, mental health professionals, and family members and friends of victims.