Unpacking the Damsel in Dis-Stress with author Gem C. Collie
About The Book
The Damsel in Dis-Stress by Gem C. Collie is an unparalleled attempt at understanding the self, the surrounding people, relationships and the culture that she comes from, from a psychological perspective. Rendering the life story of the author, this book explores the world of the African diaspora and the challenges they face. The coming-of-age account of a young girl in Jamaica who travels to America only to return to her native place is filled with innumerable twists and turns, forcing her to evolve amidst a broken family and community, creating an inordinate impact on her personality. The book not only probes into her life, psychology and being but also the people around her.
The author calls this book “greedy”, one that has caused her to lose friends. She calls it “selfish” and yet regards it as a healer. This book has been an attempt at soul-searching, at healing oneself and highlighting the defects in the way most families and communities live in the present times. The Damsel in distress, waiting to be rescued and loved, is only left broken and abandoned by everybody that comes along in her life, including her parents, who too are a product of the same broken culture. This unique account of the author’s life intertwined with the theoretical wisdom of the school of psychology will compel you to think about the self, relationships and society only to drive you to make this world a better place to live.
About The Author
Gem C. Collie is a royal native of the capital of Kingston, Jamaica, and an upcoming Author. She is a student in psychology with an understudy of Holistic Health. Due to her studies and background, she understands the metaphysical concept of Chronic Post Traumatic Slave Disorder and cultural breakdown, which have long-lasting effects. The unaddressed issues were left to fester and rotten and have morphed into a dysfunctional culture and left an extraordinary damaging impact on the cognitive, behavioural, emotional, and psychological development of the people in the African diaspora.
Collie has gone on the mission to correct the internal damage of her childhood trauma and how it has affected her perception of herself and the world. She’s watched through the blurred lens of deception, passed down from generation to generation under the guise of what is deemed to be a culture. Collie’s quest to repair the pieces of her identity made her understand that, while trying to put the pieces together, some might be too broken to be put together. Some might be scattered, some too damaged to be fixed, and some will forever be lost. With this, Collie understands that for changes within one’s mind to begin—or any process of metaphysical healing—there must occur the bitter reality of speaking the truth as it should be spoken. The slave identity is to be overthrown, and the DNA must be reprogrammed.
I pursued what I was told to do and not what I wanted to do and it didn’t work in my favour. It is an unconscious agreement that we made as children with our culture and even with our parents. This agreement allows us to become a character in their world and not in ours.
Gem – C. Collie
The Interview
Question: What was the significant of the title of your book?
Answer: The title of the book is engrossed in my own personal experience. I was in a dysfunctional relationship where my partner and I had cultural clashes because of the way that we grew up. He wanted me to be more passive and dependent on him while I wanted to pursue my own life choices, freely express myself and be independent. My assertive behaviour was offensive to him and deemed as a threat to his manhood because the gender roles seems to be reversed as I was being everything he was suppose to be. One day he said to me “why can’t you just be a damsel in distress”. At the time I did not understand the meaning behind it, so I went to google to get the meaning and realized that a damsel was a woman who always need help, who always needed to be rescued. Coincidentally at this particular time in my life, I was being encouraged by a professor to write a book. I went to my professor and explain my situation and my professor told me that my partner wanted to save me. I didn’t realized that I needed saving but I began to change my ways for my partner, thinking that my changes would allow him to be saviour, but in the end he was not saving me. I realized that this damsel in distress was a product of her own dysfunction. This personal experience was responsible for the name of my book.
The Damsel is a woman constantly in need of saving by the dashing hero. She is portrayed as rather asexual and usually a foil for the assertive but dangerously seductive femme fatale
The Damsel in Dis-Stress – Gem C. Collie
Question: What was your writing process? How did this go about from being an idea to an actual book?
Answer: The idea started from a quote. I was on winter break in 2018 and I gave myself a time line to complete this book. I started writing without knowing what I was doing, with no help or direction. Music became my gateway and I began to hear instructions from the book in my head and I continue to write without thinking. I started to share my ideas with one of my professor who was very impressed and encouraged me to continue. I went to a writers’ conference and began to share my experience with other perspective authors, letting them know that I’ve began to hear my book talk to me. I thought experiencing my book talking to me was a form of abnormality, only to find out that this was the most normal experience for many authors. I poured my heart and soul into this book. I wrote at the gym, in the dark, anywhere and anytime the book was able to speak to me. The words came around and the story took on a life of its own.
Question: How do you categories your book?
Answer: Psychology- Mental Health/ Non-fiction – Memoir
Question: Why did you describe your book as “greedy” and “selfish”, but also a “healer”?
Answer: Greedy and selfish because the book was taking over my existence, not wanting me to go to school or answer the phone. It became a narcissistic relationship, taking up all my time, telling me to cut off friends and family. It was a healer because it was allowing me to go to places that I didn’t know was broken. I had to break my unconscious agreement that was made with my culture and parents. The book allowed me to take a look at how I judge others in comparison to myself
Question: How do you define broken culture?
Answer: In the Caribbean or the African diaspora we come from where a culture was given to us. We develop this mechanism in order to survive and so the trauma that was left with us was normalize and operated upon survival instead of living. The impact of enslavement was so traumatic that it left an indent on our identity.
The impact of enslavement is so traumatic that it left an indent on our identity
Gem C. Collie
Question: What was your goal/intention of this book?
Answer? My intention was to bring about the unspoken truth; the dirt that no one wants to sweep from under the mat. Even though I knew that I was putting my truth out there I knew that it was time to break the generational curse. The goal is to bring about the awareness of what was happening because most time we don’t know what is happening to us until we are able to talk about it. I wanted this book to be an eye opener to the world .It was also an eye opener to myself as a reader as I was also sometimes shocked as to the way the book was written. The generation before me were very uncomfortable with this book as this story brought about topics that are left behind closed doors. This book was intently written to bring awareness to the ugly side of things that often happen to children causing confusing and turning them into secret keepers. This book will break down traditional statement like “do as I say and not as I do” and create understanding that secrets and things that are kept behind closed doors need to be put out there on the forefront for everyone to see, understand and learn from.