In the City

   [The complex psychological and spiritual fall out from the Holocaust, the Shoa, still looms as a troubling cloud which will never disappear.  It must be dealt with in truth by each person.  Even those who have refused to deal with it have chosen their response.]

Trauma as an etiological agent in the genesis of psychopathology was largely ignored from the end of the second world war till after the end of the Vietnam war, forty years later.

[Although, trauma of all sorts have been around since ‘after the Fall!’  These effects are a reality dealt with in the Bible. The ‘heart and mind of man is very deep! Ps. 68.  We are made in God’s image. 

As Fr. William F. Lynch stated: “There is no city of the well and a city of the sick.  We all live in the same city.” 

And, no matter how much these woundings of the soul, the heart, and the mind are ignored, denied, shoved under the rug, mis-appropriated, re-translated in the useless attempt to avoid recognition, reject responsibilities, and deny interaction these terrible effects of sin will only continue to haunt the city of man as barbed reminders.  And, then, “…ain’t we got fun”…] 

     …”it has been become clear that…a…majority…suffer from a variety of…problems…overeating…depressions, self-hatred, obsessive fears, …with intimacy…morbid worry…nightmares…addictions of every kind…”

    The severity of trauma’s impact…depends on…”the relationship between the victim and the agent(s) responsible for the trauma, the duration…and the availability of social support”  denied to most…”the majority…have histories of multiple traumas”…they also reported the wholesale blame and punishment by others is the culminating severe, and severing,  factor that…”made their lives unbearable.” 

    “There is little indication that”…people…”outgrow” these…problems…Their “interpersonal relationships” ultimately suffer without competent interventions and support….because to lead “satisfying lives: being able to engage in competent social relationships has been shown to be an important…factor in the capacity to recover from trauma…(1997)”  Dr. Rachel Yehuda, Traumatic Stress, 2001