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The City Of One : A Memoir By Francine Cournos

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Despair sometimes becomes the basis of inspiration in which we live out our lives. The "City of One: A Memoir" by Francine Cournos is a testament to this notion by basing her desire to study medicine and psychoanalytic as a result of her wanting to understand her mother’s death. "City of One: A Memoir" is a story of triumph and inspiration through the notion that while an individual’s life may be difficult there is always something greater to live for. Francine Cournos life gives insight into how vicious separation within the attachment cycle can be and while early attachment theorists may say one thing about how it can affect the way we function later in life there is always a chance to stand against it.

The tragic events of Francine Cournos memoir begins when she was three years old when she lost her father from cerebral hemorrhage. For some children this would be enough to permanently damage the psyche of a child, but when Francine was five she lost her grandfather to hemorrhaging and then when she eleven she also lost her mother after a long battle with breast cancer. This forced her sister and her to live with their grandmother, who was rapidly approaching senility. Francine and her sister, Alexis, being under their grandmothers care lasted until she couldn 't manage it anymore, which was about two years. Afterwards their extended family gave away both of them to the sometimes vicious foster care system. To Francine this was the most traumatic event of them all and

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