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Judith Lewis Herman
36 quotes
“an understanding of psychological trauma begins with rediscovering history. (Introduction)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fundamental stages of recovery are establishing safety, reconstructing the trauma story, and restoring the connection between survivors and their community (Introduction)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To hold traumatic reality in consciousness requires a social context that affirms and protects the victim and that joins the victim and witness in a common alliance. For the individual victim, this social context is created by relationships with friends, lovers, and family. For the larger society, the social context is created by political movements that give voice to the disempowered. (Introduction)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Without the context of a political movement, it has never been possible to advance the study of psychological trauma. The fate of this field of knowledge depends upon the fate of the same political movement that has inspired and sustained it over the last century. In the late nineteenth century the goal of that movement was the establishment of secular democracy. In the early twentieth century its goal was the abolition of war. In the late twentieth century its goal was the liberation of women. All these goals remain. All are, in the end, inseparably connected. (Chapter 1: A Forgotten History)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fifty years ago, Virginia Woolf wrote that "the public and private worlds are inseparably connected... the tyrannies and servilities of one are the tyrannies and servilities of the other." It is now apparent also that the traumas of one are the traumas of the other. The hysteria of women and the combat neurosis of men are one. Recognizing the commonality of affliction may even make it possible at times to transcend the immense gulf that separates the public sphere of war and politics-the world of men-and the private sphere of domestic life-the world of women. (Chapter 1: A Forgotten History)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Psychological trauma is an affliction of the powerless. At the moment of trauma, the victim is rendered helpless by overwhelming force. When the force is that of nature, we speak of disasters. When the force is that of other human beings, we speak of atrocities. Traumatic events overwhelm the ordinary systems of care that give people a sense of control, connection, and meaning. (Chapter 2: Terror)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“the very "threat of annihilation" that defined the traumatic moment may pursue the survivor long after the danger has passed. No wonder that Freud found, in the traumatic neurosis, signs of a "daemonic force at work." The terror, rage, and hatred of the traumatic moment live on in the dialectic of trauma. (Chapter 2: Terror)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“traumatized people relive in their bodies the moments of terror that they can not describe in words. Dissociation appears to be the mechanism by which intense sensory and emotional experiences are disconnected from the social domain of language and memory, the internal mechanism by which terrorized people are silenced. (Chapter 2: Terror)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Traumatic events call into question basic human relationships. They breach the attachments of family, friendship, love, and community. They shatter the construction of the self that is formed and sustained in relation to others. They undermine the belief systems that give meaning to human experience. They violate the victim's faith in a natural or divine order and cast the victim into a state of existential crisis. (Chapter 3: Disconnection)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“the most common trauma of women remains confined to the sphere of private life, without formal recognition or restitution from the community. There is no public monument for rape survivors...In refusing to hide or be silenced, in insisting that rape is a public matter, and in demanding social change, survivors create their own living monument. (Chapter 3: Disconnection)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The legal system is designed to protect men from the superior power of the state but not to protect women or children from the superior power of men. It therefore provides strong guarantees for the rights of the accused but essentially no guarantees for the rights of the victim. If one set out by design to devise a system for provoking intrusive post-traumatic symptoms, one could not do better than a court of law. (Chapter 3: Disconnection)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Political captivity is generally recognized, whereas the domestic captivity of women and children is often unseen. A man's home is his castle; rarely is it understood that the same home may be a prison for women and children. (Chapter 4: Captivity)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Women quickly learn that rape is only a crime in theory; in practice the standard for what constitutes rape is not set at the level of experience of women's violation but just above the level of coercion acceptable to men. (Chapter 4: Captivity)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“former prisoners carry their captors' hatred with them even after release, and sometimes they continue to carry out their captors' destructive purposes with their own hands. Long after their liberation, people who have been subjected to coercive control bear the psychological scars of captivity. They suffer not only from a classic post-traumatic syndrome but also from profound alterations in their relations with God, with other people, and with themselves. (Chapter 4: Captivity)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Repeated trauma in childhood forms and deforms the personality. The child trapped in an abusive environment is faced with formidable tasks of adaptation. She must find a way to preserve a sense of trust in people who are untrustworthy, safety in a situation that is unsafe, control in a situation that is terrifyingly unpredictable, power in a situation of helplessness. Unable to care for or protect herself, she must compensate for the failures of adult care and protection with the only means at her disposal, an immature system of psychological defenses. (Chapter 5: Child Abuse)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Repetition is the mute language of the abused child. (Chapter 5: Child Abuse)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Observers who have never experienced prolonged terror and who have no understanding of coercive methods of control presume that they would show greater courage and resistance than the victim in similar circumstances. Hence the common tendency to account for the victim's behavior by seeking flaws in her personality or moral character. (Chapter 6: A New Diagnosis)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The first principle of recovery is empowerment of the survivor. She must be the author and arbiter of her own recovery. Others may offer advice, support, assistance, affection, and care, but not cure. (Chapter 7: A Healthy Relationship)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Recovery can take place only within the context of relationships; it cannot occur in isolation. In her renewed connection with other people, the survivor re-creates the psychological facilities that were damaged or deformed by the traumatic experience. These faculties include the basic operations of trust, autonomy, initiative, competence, identity, and intimacy. Just as these capabilities are formed in relationships with other people, they must be reformed in such relationships. (Chapter 7: A Healthy Relationship)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Working with victimized people requires a committed moral stance. The therapist is called upon to bear witness to a crime. She must affirm a position of solidarity with the victim. This does not mean a simplistic notion that the victim can do no wrong; rather, it involves an understanding of the fundamental injustice of the traumatic experience and the need for a resolution that restores some sense of justice. (Chapter 7: A Healthy Relationship)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Integrity is the capacity to affirm the value of life in the face of death, to be reconciled with the finite limits of one's own life and the tragic limitations of the human condition, and to accept these realities without despair. Integrity is the foundation upon which trust in relationships is originally formed, and upon which shattered trust may be restored. The interlocking of integrity and trust in caretaking relationships completes the cycle of generations and regenerates the sense of human community which trauma destroys. (Chapter 7: A Healthy Relationship )”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Recovery unfolds in three stages. The central task of the first stage is the establishment of safety. The central task of the second stage is remembrance and mourning. The central focus of the third stage is reconnection with ordinary life. (Chapter 8: Safety)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The survivor who has accomplished her recovery faces life with few illusions but often with gratitude. Her view of life may be tragic, but for that very reason she has learned to cherish laughter. She has a clear sense of what is important and what is not. Having encountered evil, she knows how to cling to what is good. Having encountered the fear of death, she knows how to celebrate life. (Chapter 10: Reconnection)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Safety always begins with the body. If a person does not feel safe in her body, she does not feel safe anywhere. (from the 2015 Afterword: "The Dialectic of Trauma Continues")”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“in the end, we come back to the understanding that healing from trauma requires integration of body, brain, and mind: safety, remembering, grieving, and reconnecting with a community. Healing from the impact of human cruelty requires a relational context of human devotion and kindness. Psychotherapy and social support are the bedrock of recovery. No new technique or drug is likely to change these fundamental principles. (from the 2022 Epilogue)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This book owes its existence to the women's liberation movement. Its intellectual mainspring is a collective feminist project of reinventing the basic concepts of normal development and abnormal psychology, in both men and women. (from the Acknowledgements)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable. Atrocities, however, refuse to be buried. Folk wisdom is filled with ghosts who refuse to rest in their graves until their stories are told. Murder will out. Remembering and telling the truth about terrible events are prerequisites both for the restoration of the social order and for the healing of individual victims. The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central dialectic of psychological trauma...”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In order to escape accountability for his crimes, the perpetrator does everything in his power to promote forgetting. Secrecy and silence are the perpetrator’s first line of defense. If secrecy fails, the perpetrator attacks the credibility of his victim. If he cannot silence her absolutely, he tries to make sure that no one listens. To this end, he marshals an impressive array of arguments, from the most blatant denial to the most sophisticated and elegant rationalization. After every atrocity one can expect to hear the same predictable apologies: it never happened; the victim lies; the victim exaggerates; the victim brought it upon herself; and in any case it is time to forget the past and move on. (Chapter 1: A Forgotten History)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Many abused children cling to the hope that growing up will bring escape and freedom. But the personality formed in the environment of coercive control is not well adapted to adult life. The survivor is left with fundamental problems in basic trust, autonomy, and initiative. She approaches the task of early adulthood―establishing independence and intimacy―burdened by major impairments in self-care, in cognition and in memory, in identity, and in the capacity to form stable relationships. She is still a prisoner of her childhood; attempting to create a new life, she reencounters the trauma. (Chapter 5: Child Abuse)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Repeated trauma in adult life erodes the structure of the personality already formed, but repeated trauma in childhood forms and deforms the personality. The child trapped in an abusive environment is faced with formidable tasks of adaptation. She must find a way to preserve a sense of trust in people who are untrustworthy, safety in a situation that is unsafe, control in a situation that is terrifyingly unpredictable, power in a situation of helplessness. Unable to care for or protect herself, she must compensate for the failures of adult care and protection with the only means at her disposal, an immature system of psychological defenses. (Chapter 5: Child Abuse)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The core experiences of psychological trauma are disempowerment and disconnection from others. Recovery, therefore, is based upon the empowerment of the survivor and the creation of new connections. Recovery can take place only within the context of relationships; it cannot occur in isolation. In her renewed connections with other people, the survivor re-creates the psychological faculties that were damaged or deformed by the traumatic experience. These faculties include the basic capacities for trust, autonomy, initiative, competence, identity, and intimacy. Just as these capabilities are originally formed in relationships with other people, they must be reformed in such relationships. (Chapter 7: A Healthy Relationship)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The reconstruction of the trauma is never entirely completed; new conflicts and challenges at each new stage of the life cycle will inevitably reawaken the trauma and bring some new aspect of the experience to light. The major work of the second stage is accomplished, however, when the patient reclaims her own history and feels renewed hope and energy for engagement with life. Time starts to move again. When the "action of telling a story" has come to its conclusion, the traumatic experience truly belongs to the past. At this point, the survivor faces the tasks of rebuilding her life in the present and pursuing her aspirations for the future. (Chapter 9: Remembrance and Mourning)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Commonality with other people carries with it all the meanings of the word common. It means belonging to a society, having a public role, being part of that which is universal. It means having a feeling of familiarity, of being known, of communion. It means taking part in the customary, the commonplace, the ordinary, and the everyday. It also carries with it a feeling of smallness, of insignificance, a sense that one's own troubles are "as a drop of rain in the sea." The survivor who has achieved commonality with others can rest from her labors. Her recovery is accomplished; all that remains before her is her life. (Chapter 11: Commonality)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Having come to terms with the traumatic past, the survivor faces the task of creating a future. She has mourned the old self that the trauma destroyed; now she must develop a new self. Her relationships have been tested and forever changed by the trauma; now she must develop new relationships. The old beliefs that gave meaning to her life have been challenged; now she must find anew a sustaining faith. These are the tasks of the third stage of recovery. In accomplishing this work, the survivor reclaims her world. Survivors whose personality has been shaped in the traumatic environment often feel at this stage of recovery as though they are refugees entering a new country. (Chapter 10: Reconnection)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Traumatic events destroy the sustaining bonds between individual and community. Those who have survived learn that their sense of self, of worth, of humanity, depends upon a feeling of connection with others. The solidarity of a group provides the strongest protection against terror and despair, and the strongest antidote to traumatic experience. Trauma isolates; the group re-creates a sense of belonging. Trauma shames and stigmatizes; the group bears witness and affirms. Trauma degrades the victim; the group exalts her. Trauma dehumanizes the victim; the group restores her humanity. (Chapter 11: Commonality)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thirty years out, it seems that the main ideas first proposed in Trauma and Recovery have held up remarkably well. It is clearer than ever that public and professional awareness and understanding of trauma require a social justice movement that recognizes and honors survivors (Chapter 1). The most encouraging news is that we are currently seeing a revival of such movements in many parts of the world-for women's lives, Black lives, the lives of other marginalized and subordinated peoples, and even the stirrings of a labor movement. The most discouraging news is that it has taken so much degradation worldwide-of the public health, of democracy, and of the natural ecosystem that supports human life-to bring us to this point. I fear for my children and grandchildren, and I take only small comfort in the fact that old people throughout history have often predicted that Ezekiel's four horsemen of the apocalypse, sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague would soon bring end times in this world. In our own time, we have already seen sword, famine, and plague aplenty, and it is the disappearance of the wild beasts that foreshadows even greater disaster. (2022 Epilogue)”
Judith Lewis Herman (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source