This City Is Killing Me, Jonathan Foiles
This City Is Killing Me, Jonathan Foiles
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This City Is Killing Me
Community Trauma and Toxic Stress in Urban America

Author: Jonathan Foiles

Narrator: Kevin Kenerly

Unabridged: 3 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/06/2019

Synopsis

When Jonathan Foiles was a graduate student in social work, he had to choose between a mental health or policy track. But once he began working, he found it impossible to tell the two apart. While helping poor patients from the south side and west side of Chicago, he realized that individual therapy could not take into account the importance of unemployment, poverty, lack of affordable housing, and other policy decisions that impact the well-being of both individuals and communities.It is easy to be depressed if you live in a neighborhood that has few supportive resources available or is marred by gun violence. We are able to diagnose people with depression, but how does one heal a neighborhood?This City Is Killing Me brings policy and psychology together. Through case studies, Foiles opens up his therapy door to allow us to overhear the stories of individual poor Chicagoans. As we listen, Foiles teaches us how he makes diagnoses, explains how therapists before him would analyze these patients, and, through statistics and the example of Chicago, teaches us how policy decisions have contributed to these individuals’ suffering. The result is a remarkable, unique work with an urgent political call to action at its core.

About Jonathan Foiles

Jonathan Foiles, LSCW, is a therapist at an urban community mental health clinic in Chicago. He received his AM degree from the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration and is a member of the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis. His writing has appeared in Slate and Belt Magazine.

About Kevin Kenerly

Kevin Kenerly, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, earned a BA at Olivet College. A longtime member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, he has acted in more than twenty seasons, playing dozens of roles.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Maud

This gives me hope for working with people in a fucked up world. Social work can too often feel like band aids in a shitty system and complicity and burnout. Foiles connects the micro- macro level practice so that we can truly see our clients and use their stories to bolster further actions. Also I’m......more

Goodreads review by Elissa

I wanted so much more from this book--it felt like we were just skimming the surface! Even though the author gave a caveat at the beginning, the contextualizing at the end was more helpful and all throughout there a little bit of a looking down upon these people vibe. It made me feel a little weird.......more

Goodreads review by Becca

This book is so important especially if you are working in community mental health. It talks about how government policies (specifically in Chicago but can be applied in other cities) are correlated with the trauma people in Chicago face.......more

Goodreads review by Vincent

I wanted to like this book and I felt like the author had a solid introduction to the text, but than we go on a bizarre case study based adventure. The first client was a Trans Latine woman who the author uses her deadname (the name she was given at birth, and even though the client says it and the......more

Goodreads review by Hannah

Well-written and a good introduction to the ideas of community trauma, systemic injustice, and the intersections of race, class, and health. It’s not saying anything incredibly radical or diving deeply into the complexities of each issue, but offers insight via personal stories and experiences, whic......more

Quotes

“Looks at the many ways in which urban poverty, crime, violence, and other socio-economic factors can destroy a life…[and] offers five such case studies…The author closes with the exhortation that what is needed is ‘a modern-day Poor People’s Movement to aid those who by circumstance of their birth are at a higher likelihood of experiencing suffering in all its forms.’ An urgent call for reform worthy of serious consideration.” Kirkus Reviews

“Narrator Kevin Kenerly’s voice packs a lot of punch. His narration describing the way one of the author’s clients, a man who has lost a son to gun violence, takes on a defensive physical posture is gentle and powerful at the same time…Kenerly’s authoritative voice is easy to listen to.” AudioFile

“We rediscover the trauma of everyday life in urban America as Jonathan Foiles documents the course of his practice as a psychotherapist in the most hard-pressed surrounds of Chicago. He explores the conditions that perpetuate the experience of oppression, demoralization, and suffering, challenging us to rethink what it means to speak of help and care. He brings a moral energy and a muscular pragmatism to his conceptions of therapeutic action and hope.” William Borden, PhD, lecturer, School of Social Service Administration and Department of Psychiatry, University of Chicago

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