“All of us...the children who survived the accident, and the children who did not- it was as if we were the citizens of a wholly different town now, as if we were a town of solitaries living in a sweet hereafter, and no matter how the people of [our town] treated us, whether they memorialized us or despised us, whether they cheered for our destruction or applauded our victory over adversity, they did it to meet their needs, not ours. Which, since it could be no other way, was exactly as it should be.” T
The passage above, drawn from Russell Bank’s novel, The Sweet Hereafter (also produced as an award-winning motion picture) captures a poignant truth about some survivors of horrific events, which might be difficult to glean from years of clinical or research work.
We expect that other ISTSS members will also want to share a favorite passage from literature which may not be particularly well known but offers insight about the psychological effects of trauma or paths of healing.
You are invited to contribute a passage from the arts, broadly defined to included poetry, theater, film, religious scripture, folk stories, legends, fairy tales, musical lyrics-anything that gives literary voice to our field of study.
We hope in each forthcoming issue of TraumaticStressPointsto publish one of the submissions as part of a new feature entitled “Psychological Trauma and World Literature.” Send submissions to Harold Kudler and Howard Lipke at istss@aol.com.