I felt relieved as I read it, vindicated, almost personally understood

[GoodTaste]

What does "vindicated" mean here? Cambridge gives the definition "proved that what someone said or did was right or true, after other people thought it was wrong." Is theII sentence structure here "(I felt) vindicated"? If so, "I felt proved" would mean "I felt the articulating proved to be true...?" I am not sure.

======================
The End of Faith articulates the dangers and absurdities of organized religion so fiercely and so fearlessly that I felt relieved as I read it, vindicated, almost personally understood… Harris writes what a sizable number of us think, but few are willing to say in contemporary America… This is an important book, on a topic that, for all its inherent difficulty and divisiveness, should not be shielded from the crucible of human reason.

Source: NATALIE ANGIERThe New York Times Book Review

 

[Tarheel]

Do you think "I felt proved" makes sense?

 

[GoodTaste]

No. Yet the grammar led to it, that is why I wrote:

"I felt proved" would mean "I felt the articulating proved to be true...?"

You haven't answered my question.

 

[Tarheel]

www.dictionary.com

 

[GoodTaste]

Sorry. Nothing got improved. The OP ALREADY posted with the definition, unsure of whether it worked:

Cambridge gives the definition "proved that what someone said or did was right or true, after other people thought it was wrong."

 

[GoodTaste]

The best I've got now is "(I) vindicated/justified the point of view of the book (The End of Faith)."))
The problem for this understanding is that the speaker said "(I) almost personally understood" - If the understanding were almost, then the justification would be weak.

 

[5jj]

It is the 'I' who felt relieved, felt vindicated and felt almost personally understood. 'Almost' modifies 'personally', not 'understood'.

 

[GoodTaste]

"felt vindicated" is what I got at the very beginning (that's why I guessed it as "felt proved." See the OP)
What does "felt vindicated" mean?

 

[5jj]

I felt vindicated means that the writer felt that she had been vindicated, shown to be correct, about her ideas on the dangers and absurdities of organized religion, ideas which she had been unwilling to express.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

And this might help:

- I felt vindicated.

- I felt that I had been proven right.