This offering has mammoth potential to be a great boon to Third Culture Kids (TCKs) and Adult Third Culture Kids (ATCKs). It is so informative with its whys and wherefores and understanding of the life and emotions of the lives of unheaval they have lived, most often since childhood up into adolescence and beyond.
Having read through from cover to cover I felt heard, listened to and empathized with. As one reminisces the happy memories and then negative ones that surface, I was enabled to process some of both ends of the emotions' spectrum of gladness that often had been overridden with anger, loss, pain of loss, and even guilt for having had those negative emotions in the midst of ones parents doing good.
The sum of all the moves, friendships, loss of friendships, learning new cultures and currencies and more all take a toll. David C. Pollack and Ruth E. Van Reken do a great job at exploring and explaining with very constructive helps, how a TCK and an ATCK can navigate through the life time of experiences and feelings they have had and that seek to overwhelm them and the often suppressed and repressed grief of so many losses that perhaps they haven't even begun to realize and/or name in the ATCK's "highly paradoxical experiences" (book's phrase).
There's a helpful survey at book's end as well as writings by two different ATCKs. A reader will also find Resources listed from ATCK associations in various countries; Global Nomad Resources being one of these. There's a list of practical books on ATCK issues, auto and bio-graphical, for both adults and children.
All-in-all, I believe this to be a very helpful read and that so many ATCKs could benefit from this true cultural group grouping.
You are not alone.
~ ERC August 2024 ~
See also:
Good Book - Letters Never Sent by Ruth E. Van Reken.
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