Appalachia's misery is caused by generations of colonial exploitation

Autorentext

Rayelle Davis is a licensed therapist specialising in generational trauma in rural working-class communities. She started working as a counsellor in 2016, witnessing the personal stories behind the opioid epidemic, and has gone on to run her own private practice. She is currently working towards her doctoral degree in Counsellor Education and Supervision at Duquesne University. She lives in western Maryland.

Klappentext

The United States is in a state of decline-a reality decades in the making. At the thin end of the wedge sits Appalachia, one of the nation's most deprived regions, mythologized by outsiders and misunderstood the world over.

Embedded as a therapist within this community, Rayelle Davis frames the addiction, suicide, and "diseases of despair" that plague the region as a consequence of cultural trauma, exploitation, and systemic neglect. Her work is a searing exploration of generational adversity and a powerful indictment of the psychological abuse of the American Dream.

Davis reveals a profound truth: Appalachian trauma is colonial trauma. As in exploited nations abroad, everything of value-from wealth and health to life itself-is extracted by a distant elite. This courageous book exposes the predatory systems of power and challenges everything we think we know about identity, sovereignty, and the actual cost of inequality in America.

In a time of extreme political polarization, Money in the Mountains is not a requiem for Appalachia, but a manifesto for collective healing.

Inhalt

Introduction 1. Appalachia 2. The Busy Town of Cumberland 3. Coal 4. Therapy and the System 5. Trauma Work 6. Charlie 7. Academia 8. Mike 9. The Clinic Debate 10. Caroline 11. Therapist's Point of View 12. The Pandemic and Telehealth 13. Jason 14. Marcy 15. Social Media and Shifting Culture 16. America the Narcissist 17. Shame 18. Toxic Individualism 19. Healing References