Have you ever been seriously harmed by reading a book?

[fantome profane]

Have you ever been seriously harmed by reading a book?

Or even more specifically, have you been harmed by a book you read as a child? Have you ever had to seek therapy? I want to know if any had to tell a therapist about how they were traumatized as a child from a book they read. Adults go to therapy all the time to work out childhood issues, but I wonder how often is is over a book they found in the library.

Anyone got some good stories about that happening to them, or someone they know?

 

[metis]

Have you ever been seriously harmed by reading a book?

Or even more specifically, have you been harmed by a book you read as a child? Have you ever had to seek therapy? I want to know if any had to tell a therapist about how they were traumatized as a child from a book they read. Adults go to therapy all the time to work out childhood issues, but I wonder how often is is over a book they found in the library.

Anyone got some good stories about that happening to them, or someone they know?

Not in my case at least.

 

[Orbit]

Have you ever been seriously harmed by reading a book?

Or even more specifically, have you been harmed by a book you read as a child? Have you ever had to seek therapy? I want to know if any had to tell a therapist about how they were traumatized as a child from a book they read. Adults go to therapy all the time to work out childhood issues, but I wonder how often is is over a book they found in the library.

Anyone got some good stories about that happening to them, or someone they know?

I read ALL the Judy Blume books when I was in junior high, and they deal with all kinds of uncomfortable issues, but I wasn't traumatized by it I was informed by it, and it increased my empathy for others.

 

[fantome profane]

I read ALL the Judy Blume books when I was in junior high, and they deal with all kinds of uncomfortable issues, but I wasn't traumatized by it I was informed by it, and it increased my empathy for others.

I started reading Stephen King when I was in grade 4. Including the one where the 12 year old kids have an orgy.

And I am still here.

 

[Stevicus]

Have you ever been seriously harmed by reading a book?

Or even more specifically, have you been harmed by a book you read as a child? Have you ever had to seek therapy? I want to know if any had to tell a therapist about how they were traumatized as a child from a book they read. Adults go to therapy all the time to work out childhood issues, but I wonder how often is is over a book they found in the library.

Anyone got some good stories about that happening to them, or someone they know?

Not seriously harmed, but I did slip on some comic books that were scattered on my floor. They're worse than banana peels. My mom said it was my own fault for leaving them on the floor.

 

[SalixIncendium]

Have you ever been seriously harmed by reading a book?

Or even more specifically, have you been harmed by a book you read as a child? Have you ever had to seek therapy? I want to know if any had to tell a therapist about how they were traumatized as a child from a book they read. Adults go to therapy all the time to work out childhood issues, but I wonder how often is is over a book they found in the library.

Anyone got some good stories about that happening to them, or someone they know?

I got a pretty bad paper cut once.

 

[VoidCat]

No. And I read a book that involved a graphic incest scene back when i was in 3rd grade

 

[Guitar's Cry]

I started reading Stephen King when I was in grade 4. Including the one where the 12 year old kids have an orgy.

And I am still here.

I remember finding It (especially the 12 year old orgy) really silly. It didn't make me want to gangbang a girl in order to find my way out of the sewers. It does make me aware of how seriously whacked the current issue of LGBTQ+ books being in schools is.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

I've had to put down books or authors who rely too heavily on sexual assault against women to make their villains horrible, or to give emotional impact to the lead character in a relationship of some kind with said victim. But that's about as close as I've come to being harmed. And in that case, it's not the book harming me, it's my own past wounds.

 

[vulcanlogician]

I got serious chafing after reading a magazine when I was twelve.

 

[fantome profane]

I've had to put down books or authors who rely too heavily on sexual assault against women to make their villains horrible, or to give emotional impact to the lead character in a relationship of some kind with said victim. But that's about as close as I've come to being harmed. And in that case, it's not the book harming me, it's my own past wounds.

Can I ask, has a book ever helped you dealing with this?

 

[ADigitalArtist]

Can I ask, has a book ever helped you dealing with this?

In the sense that there's been books where I have been able to connect to others with similar experiences. But healing for me was more about communication with people and professionals in my life. Still, I'm not sure I'll ever get to a place where I *enjoy* reading that particular trope.

 

[Vinayaka]

When I was a kid I liked to read outside, so I was reading a book lying on the grass. I thought a fly had buzzed into my ear, and being distracted by the book, I brushed at it. The yellowjacket wasp stung me well into my ear. Not seriously injured, but at the time I may have figured I was.

 

[Valjean]

I've read everything from Marx to Rand to de Sade and de Quincey.
No apparent harm.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

I was reading on my own at 3 years old, and I can honestly say I have never been harmed by it. I've read things that made me think. I've read things that confused me, so that I had to read further. I've read things I didn't believe at all, but didn't feel like I was bound to believe them because they were in a book.

When I was in Grade 9, I read Robert Graves' books I Claudius and Claudius the God, which contain some pretty racy stuff (including a contest between Claudius' wife Messalina (who was boffing the most famous actor of the day, Mnester), and a famous Roman prostitute to see who could wear out the most men in a row). Those books were in my school library, freely available for any student who cared to read them. They didn't hurt me a bit.

I've learned an immense amount from reading thoughout my life -- and most importantly how to assess the likely value and truth of what I was reading.

In my view, reading is one of the least harmful things one can do in life, and also one of the most rewarding.

If you know how to read...

 

[Exaltist Ethan]

Once or twice I got a paper cut while turning a page. Does that count?

 

[ChristineM]

Reading the bible destroyed my (already waining) faith in Christianity and God

 

[SomeRandom]

Have you ever been seriously harmed by reading a book?

Or even more specifically, have you been harmed by a book you read as a child? Have you ever had to seek therapy? I want to know if any had to tell a therapist about how they were traumatized as a child from a book they read. Adults go to therapy all the time to work out childhood issues, but I wonder how often is is over a book they found in the library.

Anyone got some good stories about that happening to them, or someone they know?

Yes!
I got a paper cut underneath my nail!! Ow!!!



No but seriously.

I can’t remember the title (damn alcoholic memory) but in Grade 6, which for us is around 10-11 years old, my teacher gave me a book to read. It was about two friends and their trials and tribulations. (One was white and the other Aboriginal, I think.)
Set in the past, so you can imagine the issues they faced. Even as they didn’t seem to fully understand. Being innocent kids all the same.
It just shook me, as a person. Maybe that’s because as a mixed race person but also a millennial, I was always keenly aware of such issues. But at the same time, I was just a kid growing up in a time when that was all seemingly behind us.
How naive I was. So it just, I don’t know. Weirded me out. But I guess in a good way.

Don’t know if this counts but a lot of the classics I read as a teenager freaked me out. Again, arguably in a good way. Challenged me, I guess.
De Profoundis and Ballad of Reading Gaol in particular. Because Oscar Wilde was one of my new favourite authors at the time

 

[Hermit Philosopher]

Have you ever been seriously harmed by reading a book?

Or even more specifically, have you been harmed by a book you read as a child? Have you ever had to seek therapy? I want to know if any had to tell a therapist about how they were traumatized as a child from a book they read. Adults go to therapy all the time to work out childhood issues, but I wonder how often is is over a book they found in the library.

Anyone got some good stories about that happening to them, or someone they know?

I cannot think of a book or story that I’ve directly and seriously been harmed by.

But indirectly, people are harmed by books/stories all the time. Any book that insights hatred for someone, has the potential to indirectly harm that person via the perspectives and actions of others.

Also, there are many books/ stories/ narratives that I feel have helped me throughout life. If they can do that, they have potential to do the opposite as well.

Humbly,
Hermit

 

[SalixIncendium]

Books are a collection of words and phrases intended to instill knowledge. It is one's choice to accept or reject what is written. If one is allowing oneself to be harmed by a book, I feel bad for them. If written words can harm that person, I imagine the spoken word can destroy them.

That said, the only book I've had to set aside briefly is Gerald's Game by Stephen King. The premise is a man and woman are playing handcuff games in bed in a remote cabin and the woman is handcuffed to the headboard. The husband dies and the woman is left to either free herself and or die of malnutrition. Let's just say it gets a bit graphic in how she goes about freeing herself, and the mental images it conjured led me to taking a break from the book for a while. But again, these were words. While Stephen is quite the wordsmith, it was the images I conjured and my tolerance to them, not words written on paper, that led me to se the book aside.