City Of One Report
Ellen Specht
Critical Review: City of One
Francine Cournos is a medical student that turned to psychiatry after realizing that she identified with people’s stories. In Courno’s biography, “City of One”, she reflects on her past. At an early age, Cournos lost both of her parents, her father at three years old and her mother when she was eleven years old. The loss of two attachment figures at such an early age had a profound affect on Cournos for the rest of her life. Cournos analyzes her experiences as a child, young adult, and womanhood and uses her findings to contribute to explanations of her thoughts and feelings. Cournos aims to provide readers with insight into the various ways children are affected throughout life by the death of a parent. City of One efficiently describes how Cournos’s childhood experiences affected her throughout her life. As she recounts her experiences from early childhood through adulthood, Cournos has several realizations that she details in her writing that have potential to help both professionals and the average reader better understand how childhood trauma follow a child. Cournos has very vivid memories of her childhood. After her father’s death, her mother never talked about him. Cournos, her mother, sister, and brother all lived in the same village as her mother’s family located in the South Bronx. Two years after the death of her father, Cournos’s grandfather passed away. Cournos’s entire childhood revolved around the unexplained disappearances from her family members, making her fearful about her future and her relationships with others were uneasy.
Cournos was given hardly any explanations as to why her mother died and she was the one who had to explain to her little sister, Alexis, that their mother was not going to come back. The two girls continued living with their grandmother after their mother’s passing; however, the grandmother was not able to keep up with the responsibilities of taking care of two young girls.
Critical Review: City of One
Francine Cournos is a medical student that turned to psychiatry after realizing that she identified with people’s stories. In Courno’s biography, “City of One”, she reflects on her past. At an early age, Cournos lost both of her parents, her father at three years old and her mother when she was eleven years old. The loss of two attachment figures at such an early age had a profound affect on Cournos for the rest of her life. Cournos analyzes her experiences as a child, young adult, and womanhood and uses her findings to contribute to explanations of her thoughts and feelings. Cournos aims to provide readers with insight into the various ways children are affected throughout life by the death of a parent. City of One efficiently describes how Cournos’s childhood experiences affected her throughout her life. As she recounts her experiences from early childhood through adulthood, Cournos has several realizations that she details in her writing that have potential to help both professionals and the average reader better understand how childhood trauma follow a child. Cournos has very vivid memories of her childhood. After her father’s death, her mother never talked about him. Cournos, her mother, sister, and brother all lived in the same village as her mother’s family located in the South Bronx. Two years after the death of her father, Cournos’s grandfather passed away. Cournos’s entire childhood revolved around the unexplained disappearances from her family members, making her fearful about her future and her relationships with others were uneasy.
Cournos was given hardly any explanations as to why her mother died and she was the one who had to explain to her little sister, Alexis, that their mother was not going to come back. The two girls continued living with their grandmother after their mother’s passing; however, the grandmother was not able to keep up with the responsibilities of taking care of two young girls.
Cited: Cournos, F. (1999). City of one: A memoir. New York: W.W. Norton. Goldberg, S. (2000). Attachment and development. London: Arnold ;.