This story speaks to modern cultures that tend to judge immobilization and dissociation in the face of overwhelming threat as a weakness tantamount to cowardice. Beneath this castigating judgment lies a pervasive fear of feeling trapped and helpless. This fear of fear and helplessness, and of feeling trapped, can come to dominate a person’s life in the form of persistent and debilitating shame. Together, shame and trauma form a particularly virulent and interlocked combination. Self-blame and self-hatred are common among molestation and rape survivors, who judge themselves harshly for not
...more
