I put Anna Karenina down this week to read something very different: In An Unspoken Voice, How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness. Interesting how things happen. I bought this book by Peter Levine PhD last Thursday, hours before Japan’s nightmare began.
Dr. Levine’s thesis, if I understand it, is that the human brain, over many millennia, has evolved in such a way as to allow one to move beyond psychic trauma by recognizing and honoring instincts. When instincts are thwarted, Levine contends, a repetitive, debilitating, conscious or unconscious reenactment of the horrific event occurs, and an individual becomes trapped in cycle of pain, shame, anger, and sorrow.
On page 256, an illustrative diagram of the human brain details three levels of cognition: the reptilian level, the mammalian level, and the primate level. In evolutionary terms, the reptilian level of the brain, found closes to the spinal cord, is the oldest. That’s where instinctual impulses of fight, flight, or freeze are initiated. The mammalian level is higher on the brain stem and produces our feelings and social inclinations. The primate level, at the top of the brain, is home of the intellect, where thinking, planning, inhibitions, symbols and memories are created and stored.
If, during some highly alarming event, the instinctive choices of flight, fight or freeze are stunted, the experience remains stuck at the reptilian level, and no amount of “talk therapy,” done at the primate level, will ever fully alleviate the distress symptoms. An example of this was a case study in which a little boy was terrified by gowned and masked doctors and nurses when he was taken to a hospital to have his tonsils removes. His desperate screams and struggles were overpowered by the adults who strapped him down and injected him with anesthesia. Months later, the family asked to Dr. Levine for help because the previously docile and happy boy was now out of control. Levine and the boy’s family devised a game in which a favorite stuffed toy was used as a patient. The scenario brought up all of the boy’s fears, but this time he was allowed to run screaming from the room. The exercise didn’t end there. With repeated enactments, the boy became more and more at ease with what was happening to the toy, until finally he was capable of participating in the mock surgery. The new, loving environment allowed the boy to expel his trapped anxiety, and was restored to his more “normal” self.
My apologies to Dr. Levine if I’ve misunderstood his theories, but what I’ve gotten out of his book has been very helpful and enlightening for me.
And now for Japan. What I have learned about trauma causes me concern for those who experienced that tsunami and are now faced with that seemingly endless debris flow. As a culture, the Japanese seem so contained. Admirable as that is, my hope is that any one of those people who needs to holler to the heavens, kick, punch, wail, cry, or whatever expression serves them, will be allowed to do so, without shame, supported by the love and understanding of the world.
Stand by me
Have a good week, and I’ll write again next Friday.
I have spent so much of my life advocating for recycling and responsible handling of our trash that one of the first things I thought of was – what are they going to do with all the trash?The clean up appears completely overwhelming. And there is the problem of scattered belongings. And also the problem of – what if it is too contaminated to go near it? I think it would be less traumatic if everything had burned and nothing was left. It is so horribly ugly. And it ain’t over yet!
I read Peter Levine years ago and used his therapy. It worked well for me.
Rita
Hi Ms Rita,
I couldn’t figure how they were ever going to clear the World Trade Center wreckage either, but they managed. Japan is such a small country. I imagine they have sophisticated ways of handling their garbage, and burning it may be part of the solution.
Terry – I thought about you tonight. I read an article from this week’s New Yorker. I checked and you can’t access it on-line unless you are a subscriber, but it’s called “The Poverty Clinic” and it is about the connection between childhood trauma and adult health (physical) and the chemistry of abuse. The Clinic is in Oakland – and doing some good work. They don’t mention Levine, or I don’t remember if they did – it’s late – but his work is relevant here. It’s wholism (why is it holism?) at its best. Mom always chided me that I am too sensitive and I always responded that I don’t want to be less sensitive. I want other people to be more sensitive…. and less hurtful. This article addresses why abusers abuse their own children. It’s the trauma. Good article.
I was able to access the teaser first page of the article and it sounds right on. I’m so glad research is being done in this area, not that there is anything surprising about the fact that a child’s physiology is altered through abuse. I get it. But research will give that fact academic validation…and hopefully funding and methods of treatment will follow. Cycles of trauma and abuse are truly a cancer on society. Similarly, it may be difficult but not impossible to treat.
Thanks
This clinic really is having good results, just by paying attention to people and all their problems, and caring enough to stick with them. It would be amazing if this clinic set a president for social programs and insurance companies by showing them how to save money by actually caring about people. Brave new world.
Rita
Still not reading a novel yet, but still want to. After spring planting.