Healing Invisible Wounds: Paths to Hope and Recovery in a Violent World

5. Storytelling as a Healing Art

I n his memoir Survival in Auschwitz, the late Primo Levi describes a recurrent dream he had while in the death camp. In it he has returned home and is telling his story to his friends and family: It is an intense pleasure, physical, inexpressible to be at home, among friendly people and to have so many things to recount: but I cannot help noticing that my listeners do not follow me. In fact, they are completely indifferent: they speak confusedly of other things among themselves as if I was not there. My sister looks at me, gets up and goes away without a word....A desolating grief is now born in me.1 For traumatized persons who leave a world like Auschwitz, the ultimate fear is being unable to ever reconnect with the normal world. They dread that those closest to them will turn away in neglect or indifference when they try to share their most intimate experiences. A listener’s detachment only reinforces the survivors’ Chapter 5 humiliated feelings, instilled by their aggressors, that they are worthless and their stories meaningless. Levi’s dream, in its premonition of his relatives’ failure to acknowledge his suffering, symbolizes the universal crisis of connection between the traumatized person and the normal world. But the dream may also have guided Levi to a solution. Perhaps at some level it helped him understand why his sister could not tolerate the emotional distress associated with listening to his story. Although trauma survivors must share their experiences with others in order to heal, they must also try to do so in a sensitive way, so as not to overwhelm the listener. Levi came to see that people like his sister could be reached only if properly addressed. Before traumatized persons can engage effectively in telling their stories, they must assess the capacity of others to hear them. The medical doctors, social workers, community activists, and many others who are in contact with traumatized persons can serve as “storyteller” coaches. Grasping the full therapeutic potential of the trauma story means successfully working with traumatized persons on their storytelling skills. And this does not just include those who have experienced extreme violence. The abused housewife, the victim of domestic violence, those suffering from serious medical illnesses, and troubled adolescents and children can all benefit from the effective sharing of their stories with others. Adolescents and the elderly need special help at this, because each group feels disenfranchised and marginalized, believing that no one cares about their interests. poor storytelling A Chilean’s story illustrates the failure of the traumatized person to share her experiences of torture under Pinochet’s regime in such a way as to invite in a listener: Healing Invisible Wounds 111 I have been interrogated five times, and every single time I was completely naked; they ordered me to take off all my clothes. Yes, I was completely naked. During each of the five interrogations I started menstruating even though it wasn’t the right time for it; maybe it was due to nerves. Anyway it resulted in me always being covered with blood. There were always at least five torturers present , and they forced me to take off my clothes at the same time, always making me look at them in their eyes. They then humiliated me verbally in all possible manners, saying that they would rape me while they mauled me all over my body; it was extremely sexually humiliating... and they kept on making me look them in their eyes. They then lined themselves up in a row making me walk in front of them as if it was a fashion show, still making me look them in their eyes. It keeps on coming back to me that I had to keep on looking them in their eyes because it felt so incredibly humiliating.2 This story does not allow us to consider anything but the event itself: the sexual humiliation of a Roman Catholic woman that maximized her shame and degradation. As we visualize and experience the torture scene in our minds, our emotions overwhelm us. The Chilean woman, whom I will call Maria, is forced to participate in a perverse fashion show, where all aspects of feminine beauty are mocked and ridiculed by her tormentors. Her own body is forced to betray her as a very private female experience is made public. We want the perpetrators punished...