The unpleasant fact that must be faced about trauma is that, in the very moment of victimization, a version of the same violence that hurts the child from without comes to “scream out its birth” from within. And that birth is permanent. From this night forward, Tom, if stressed enough, is capable of turning on someone in rage, just as his father did. With chilling irony, Henry’s rage stealthily enters his son through the very door of Tom’s repulsion. Whether called social learning, modeling, identification, or absorbed energy, the raging force surrounding Tom is pulled into his very being,
...more
