The human psyche is an incredible thing. It can be incredibly strong if a child grows up in an emotionally and socially stable environment, or it can be fractured and weak due to trauma. Daniela Sieff's Understanding and Healing Emotional Trauma looks at how human psyche is broken, what the consequences of a traumatized psyche are, and how to heal from the trauma. The book is intended for the average person who wishes to understand a traumatized person or for someone to help heal their broken psyche as well as psychologists and therapists. Sieff interviews many psychologists with varying perspectives: psychodynamic psychotherapy, neurobiology, and evolution. The text follows the stated structure, but this analysis will only look at the first interview in the first part of the book.
"Uncovering the secrets of the traumatised psyche – The life-saving inner protector who is also a persecutor" begins with a summary that briefly explains that when children are traumatized, they cannot physically withdraw like how a typical reaction would dictate, so a child will withdraw psychologically. This summary explains this with psychological jargon, but then Sieff down-shifts so an audience that does not use such terminology can understand. Sieff says, "[H]owever, when we are children, and it is our caregivers who are causing pain, we cannot physically withdraw, so withdrawal happens at a psychological level instead. We dissociate" (26). Look at how Sieff makes the distinction between physical and psychological distancing. She makes it clear that when someone cannot physically remove themselves from a painful environment, they do so mentally, and then she makes that statement more concise and understandable for a broader audience by reiterating it in two simple words: We dissociate. This reiteration allows the statement to stick more firmly in the mind especially if a teacher or a parent or a person looking to recover from their trauma cannot easily understand the psychological jargon. The structure of the sentence also shows the desire for easy comprehension. The first sentence is far more complex than the second. This down-shifting is a prelude to the overall structure of the interview where Donald Kalsched utilizes it to properly deliver his directive. The summary continues to briefly explain what occurs when someone is traumatized: the protective system created during a traumatic event turns into a self-persecuting system which causes "life-denying and self-traumatising" (26, Sieff) instances. She states that in order for someone to heal, they must reconnect with the parts of themselves that were forced into the subconscious. She continues the format previously analyzed so her audience can easily understand her explanation. Sieff also mentions The Handless Maiden before a transcript of an interview occurs.
The interview is with Donald E. Kalsched. Kalsched is a clinical psychologist and the senior training analyst with the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts. Sieff speaks very little in the interview, but what she does say comes across as quite formal. She uses terms such as undergo, essence, constellate, and dismantled. Those terms elevate her speech. It is Kalsched that makes the terminology easily understood. Kalsched goes into great length to make sure he properly conveys his message. He begins by explaining how the psyche is developed, first in a healthy environment and then in an unhealthy one. Kalsched says, "If, as children, our social and emotional environment is good enough, we will develop as an integrated whole. Our creativity, confidence, and sense of self will unfold organically, and as we grow we will learn how to protect our emotional self in a healthy way" (27, Sieff). These two sentences are somewhat stating the same thing. In the first sentence, Kalsched says that if a child grows up in a healthy environment, they will come out of it as a complete person. He reiterates this in more basic language by stating what parts of the psyche will naturally flourish within us and that those parts allow us to learn healthy ways to handle pain. Whenever Kalsched uses complex terminology, he downshifts into more easily understood words. After stating why someone may have psychological trauma at as a child, he mentions the psychological survival system. He simplifies that term by then calling it the self-care system. He goes on to make various comparisons. Kalsched compares AIDS to the persecutor system so readers can understand that it is the mind attacking itself like how T-cells have been tricked into attacking healthy tissue. After explaining the analogy he makes a concise two sentence explanation. He says, "In short, the inner protector turns against the very person it is supposed to be protecting to become an inner persecutor. This makes the pain carried by the trauma survivor much worse" (29, Sieff). This constant reiteration of how a victim not only has to deal with the initial trauma but their own self-inflicted harm truly allows the reader to understand their mindset.
In order for the readers to get a better understanding of a broken psyche, Kalsched gives examples of the inner voice the persecutor system creates. He says, "For example, if we were abandoned as a child, [the voice] might say something like 'You are not lovable, and never will be' in its determination to prevent our adult self from opening to love . . . these negative, demoralizing inner attacks often result in deep and overwhelming feelings of hopelessness and despair" (29, Sieff). This easily understood diction allows for a deeper impact upon the reader or an intense connectivity with a victim. The traumatized person would easily be able to see the parallels Kalsched provides within themselves. This easy ability to empathize with a survivor continues as Kalsched describes a broken psyche as a puzzle with 500 pieces which allows a disassociation between the person and the emotions. He also describes this phenomenon as people becoming zombies.
Immediately after the zombie analogy, he allusions Emily Dickinson. He says one of her poems nicely encapsulates the sensations he is attempting to convey. Once again, the constant repetition of explaining the same thing in a different way allows the most amount of people to understand the self-care systems negative consequences. If one way has not been able to be comprehended, another surely will. These reiterations also do not get tedious as each new metaphor and comparison adds a deeper layer to the concepts described.
Sieff's entire interview with Kalsched continues that trend. There are many other references made: Peter Pan, Yeats' The Stolen Child, The Phantom of the Opera, Christianity, The Woman Without Hands, and more. All the while he continues to down-shift his diction and sentence structure after psychological terms and complex sentences are utilized so their audience can best comprehend what is being conveyed. Overall, Sieff and Kalsched, while using a professional tone, make this an interesting and compelling experience.
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Academic Papers
Non-FictionThese works are the papers I've written for my community college and university courses. Topics will range from violence in video games and literary analysis to slavery and rape. There is also some poetry in here!
