Part IV: The Imprint of Trauma
Required Reading:
Chapter 11 - Uncovering Secrets: The Problem of Traumatic Memory
Chapter 12 - The Unbearable Heaviness of Remembering
Discussion Prompts:
Over 100 years ago, Freud and Breuer published the exciting new discovery that talking can release stuck emotions. This was called “the talking cure,” and includes the most popular therapy we know today: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. However, according to Dr. van der Kolk CBT may not help much when the source of distress is past trauma. What are views on this? Do you think talk therapy is enough in treating people with trauma?
Dr. van der Kolk prologues Chapter 11 with his introduction to the story of Julian, a young man who claimed to have been sexually abused as a child by Father Paul Shanley, a Catholic priest. Julian said that he had repressed these memories until his girlfriend told him about an article in the Boston Globe which reported that Shanley was under suspicion of molesting children. The memories of Julian’s own experience then returned in a fragmentary and disorganized way. Julian’s story and journey brings up memories of the recent #MeToo movement. The surge in public survivor accounts had and is continuing to have a powerful and transformative impact on cultural attitudes and public policy. In this chapter, we learn that fragmented memory is common for sexual assault survivors. Did you know this already? If not, does this assist in how to better engage with survivors’ stories? Also, did Julian’s story bring anything up for you?
Can you point to a specific passage that struck you personally in Chapter 12 - as interesting, profound, incomprehensible, or illuminating?
Why does van der Kolk include so many examples of specific patients? How does including them support the main themes of the text?
