Sunday 13 December 2009

Trauma Survivor



Description at YouTube:

"Elemental Ireland
Those termed "psychiatric patients" are in fact trauma survivors. Many who find themselves caught in the net of bio-psychiatry are responding to the abnormal circumstances of a traumatic childhood; the hated child, the abandoned child, the neglected child, the exploited child, the defeated child and the silenced child, to name a few.

Exploring 'The Roots of Violence' by Alice Miller. This video contains quotes by Alice Miller and by Elemental Ireland.

'For some years now, there has been proof that the devastating effects of the traumatization of children take their inevitable toll on society - a fact that we are still forbidden to recognise (a fact that is commonly denied). This knowledge concerns every single one of us and - if disseminated widely enough - should lead to fundamental changes in society; above all, to a halt in the blind escalation of violence'. Alice Miller

Having recently discovered Alice Miller, as a parent I found her work a welcome challenge. She has made me think deeply both about the way I parent and society's attitudes to children. It is a matter of urgency for me to heal my own wounded inner-child, so I can parent my children in the best possible way. She has tapped into great truths that I knew deep down but was afraid to voice to myself and in public. A good website exploring Alice Miller's work is Daniel Mackler's iraresoul. Daniel has made an excellent film called 'Take These Broken Wings' about recovery from (so-called) schizophrenia without medication.

Many trauma survivors are terrified and find it difficult to trust. They struggle with repressed rage and anger. Many are further punished for being trauma survivors by coercion and forced 'treatment'. They are further battered and broken by bio-psychiatry.

In most cases, the trauma survivor is silenced three times; firstly by their families, then by society and then by bio-psychiatry.

Wouldn't this make you angry?"

Some time ago, I lent Derrick Jensen's A Language Older Than Words to a friend. Earlier this week, I got it back: "I couldn't read past the first pages. Too painful to read about all this violence and abuse." Yeah. It certainly is a lot less painful to close your eyes to reality. It just won't change anything.

4 comments:

Mark p.s.2 said...

Two kinds of anger, a response in an impulsive immediate knee-jerk , and a diligent patient one. The (noun)patient must be (verb) patient as they submit to their punishment-"medical" treatment.
You are angry from our "medicinal" help? You ungrateful sick dog. Parent and child, master and slave roles.
Children who naturally want to stay children, slaves conditioned to fear their freedom.

Marian said...

Anonymous: I think, you've got Mark's comment wrong. As I read his comment, he's parodying the mh system's usual response to anger. It's not he himself saying so. (I guess, Mark himself has probably been called an "ungrateful sick dog" by the "carers" whenever he dared to get angry at their abusive "treatment".)

Mark p.s.2 said...

Yes Marian. Thank you for explaining. Not specifically called a dog, but called "SICK" and judged getting "better" when on drugs. Better than what? I don't know.
I guess I was smiling more when on the drugs.

Vancouver Therapist said...

Great post. The fear/self-blame/boundary violation cycle that many of my clients experience that were victims of childhood trauma can sometimes be so deep that it is like second nature. Nice work here.