Public truth-telling is a form of recovery, especially when combined with social action. Sharing traumatic experiences with others enables victims to reconstruct repressed memory, mourn loss, and master helplessness, which is trauma’s essential insult. And, by facilitating reconnection to ordinary life, the public testimony helps survivors restore basic trust in a just world and overcome feelings of isolation. But the talking cure is predicated on the existence of a community willing to bear witness. ‘Recovery can take place only within the context of relationships,’ writes Judith Herman. ‘It cannot occur in isolation. Lawrence N. Powell
A lie will easily get you out of a scrape,
and yet, strangely and beautifully,
rapture possesses you when
you have taken the scrape and left out the lie.
Charles Edward Montague
