Enemas

Enemas
Saturday April 07, 2007

Dear Alice,

I have been reading “Breaking Down the Wall of Silence”, and felt my heart skip some beats when I read your sentence on the abuse of enemas in childhood. I have memories of the shame and horror of them when maybe I was 6 or 7, and don’t know if they went on before that time or not.
But the thing that sort of shocked me was that in spite of all my reviews of my childhood treatment by a mother who needed to control me severely, I still haven’t been able to see her as an abusive parent. That felt almost more shocking than reading about the enemas, which I guess I always assumed she was doing for a good reason, a necessary thing to do. I’m wondering if we have the need to see our parents as loving us, even if ineptly, as adults. Or else, it just seems to be very hard to call a spade a spade!
Thank you for your work and for speaking up.
And keep up the good work. L.E.

AM: Enemas are not a “necessary thing to do;” they confuse the natural and healthy work of the child’s organs and make a “patient” out of a normal child. Besides, they produce shame and rage that is not allowed to be expressed and may stay inaccessible in later life because the adult thinks that the treatment was “necessary” and well meant. Actually, it is an abuse of power and often also a kind of sexual abuse.