Troy Terwilliger’s Reviews > Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror > Status Update

“Finally, the survivor may direct her rage and hatred against herself. Suicidality, which sometimes served as a form of resistance during imprisonment, may persist long after release, when it no longer serves any adaptive purpose.” (p. 49). That’s a high price to pay for something no one should have ever done.

“Moreover, she is left with a burden of unexpressed rage against all those who remained indifferent to her fate and who failed to help her. Occasional outbursts of rage may further alienate the survivor from others and prevent the restoration of relationships. In an effort to control her rage, the survivor may withdraw even further from other people, thus perpetuating her isolation.” (p. 49)

“The intense anger of the imprisoned person also adds to the depressive burden. During captivity, the victim cannot express her humiliated rage at the perpetrator, for to do so would jeopardize her survival. Even atter release, the former prisoner may continue to fear retribution and may be slow to express rage against her captor.“ (p. 49)

We have learnt that our personality is fragile, that it is in much more danger than our life; and the old wise ones, instead of warning us 'remember that you must die,' would have done much better to remind us of this greater danger that threatens us. If from inside the Lager, a message could have seeped out to free men, it would have been this: take care not to suffer in your own homes what is inflicted on us here.

“The victim's greatest contempt is often reserved, not for the perpetrator, but for the passive bystander. Again we hear the voice of the coerced prostitute Lovelace, dismissing those who failed to intervene: "Most people don't know how hard I judge them because I don't say anything. All I do is cross them off the list. Forever. These men had their chance to help me and they didn't respond." (p. 47)

“People in captivity become adept practitioners of the arts of altered consciousness. Through the practice of
dissociation, voluntary thought suppression,
minimization, and sometimes outright denial, they learn to alter an unbearable reality.” (p. 44)

The worst fear of any traumatized person is that the moment of horror will recur, and this fear is realized in victims of chronic abuse. Not surprisingly, the repetition of trauma amplifies all the hyperarousal symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Chronically traumatized people are continually hypervigilant, anxious, and agitated. (p. 44)

Women and children are not ordinarily chained, though even this occurs more often than one might think. The barriers to escape are generally invisible. They are nonetheless extremely powerful. Children are rendered captive by their condition of dependency. Women are rendered captive by economic, social, psychological, and legal subordination, as well as by physical force. (p. 39)

‘when a large group of children were followed from birth until adulthood, roughly one child in ten showed an unusual capacity to withstand an adverse early environment.These children were characterized by an alert, active temperament, unusual sociability and skill in communicating with others,& a strong sense of being able to affect their own destiny, which psychologists call "internal locus of control."’ (p.33)

“No two people have identical reactions, even to the same event. The traumatic syndrome, despite its many constant features, is not the same for everyone. In a study of combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, for example, each man's predominant symptom pattern was related to his individual childhood history, emotional conflicts, and adaptive style.” (p. 32)