The whispering of ghosts : trauma and resilience /

These two studies of trauma are as different as pessimism and optimism, rage and love. Swiss psychoanalyst Miller (The Drama of the Gifted Child) would like to abolish the commandment "Honor thy father and thy mother" because it protects perpetrators of child abuse. Even therapists, she says, are culturally inhibited from critically assessing bad parenting. Miller believes that nothing is forgotten by the body, though much is repressed by the mind. Those like herself who find an "enlightened witness" (therapist or friend) can confront emerging rage and escape bodily ills that include dermatitis, tuberculosis, tumors, and rheumatism. The truth of the matter-and there is some here-suffers from overgeneralization. Some children are indeed victims of bad parenting, but not all suffer as Miller describes; she fails to differentiate categories of experience, remedy, and outcome. Furthermore, she scorns forgiveness and has little to say about resilience. As a result, her insights become diluted through oversimplification: blame the parents and the biblical morality that shields them. French neuropsychiatrist and ethologist Cyrulnik (The Dawn of Meaning) takes a subtler view of trauma: it has to have salience, meaning, in order to be remembered by its victims. We are not traumatized, he asserts, by those we do not love or respect but suffer twice when the hurt comes from someone we do love. His book is made up of 43 short chapters containing vignettes, most clinical, some historical, with psychological teachings imparted with poetic charm. Unlike Miller, Cyrulnik is as interested in trauma as he is in strength and resilience-the factors that sustain people through traumatic experiences or enhance their recovery: "Because they had been loved, they had a hope of being helped.We can dream to protect ourselves or to imagine ourselves." He finds examples of such recoveries in street children, outcasts from the Middles Ages, and orphans of war and examines instances of physical, mental, and sexual abuse. The Whispering of Ghosts is outstanding and highly recommended for all libraries; The Body Never Lies is limited in scope but worth considering owing to Miller's considerable audience.-E. James Lieberman, George Washington Univ. Sch. of Medicine, Washington, DC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.