Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Support Group
Find support with others who have gone through a traumatic experience. Whether you have chronic or acute PTSD, we are here for you.
We have a new pope from Argentina whose ministry there covers the period in which I got my PTSD that brings me to this site every day. I was one of those people rounded up in that period of Argentina's history so that's my trauma that caused me to be here with PTSD in the first place. I survived military torture in December of 1973 and it went on for years until my escape in December of 1975.
I thought I'd share some more positivity to celebrate along with celebrating the new choice of pope.
In our South American story there's tragedy to be sure, just as in the story of South Africa. What's amazing now, though, is how much South American society in general has done to face those problems. Lots of wise people very much like Nelson Mandela of South Africa are now in charge in South America. The last president of Chile is a woman who is a torture survivor. The current President of Uruguay is a torture survivor. The current President of Brazil is a woman who is a torture survivor. Right now.
The new pope is haunted by some accusations against him from that period in the 1970s. They may be true or not. But I can attest to the fact that as for the world he comes from, it is an imperfect society but one that has much to teach the world about facing up to PTSD on a mass scale and contributing to history by growing as human beings. Lawrence Weschler's book A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torture sums the wisdom of the southern hemisphere survivors up nicely. He interviewed many of us.
Here's its book blurb, should anyone wish to follow up. It puts the new pope's background into perspective.
Blessings, all!
Mujicaptsd
(my username here, by the way, has always been in honor of the current President Mujica of Uruguay, a torture survivor himself who has spoken out just this year about his own PTSD and, despite having to hospitalized for it, how it has now made him a better person and president.)
http://books.google.com/books/about/A_Miracle_A_Universe.html?id=cd8EyY-w9JgC
A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers, by Lawrence Weschler
University of Chicago Press, Jul 1, 1998 - Political Science - 311 pages
During the past fifteen years, one of the most vexing issues facing fledgling transitional democracies around the worldfrom South Africa to Eastern Europe, from Cambodia to Bosniahas been what to do about the still-toxic security apparatuses left over from the previous regime. In this now-classic and profoundly influential study, theNew Yorker's Lawrence Weschler probes these dilemmas across two gripping narratives (set in Brazil and Uruguay, among the first places to face such concerns), true-life thrillers in which torture victims, faced with the paralysis of the new regime, themselves band together to settle accounts with their former tormentors.
"Disturbing and often enthralling."New York Times Book Review
"Extraordinarily moving. . . . Weschler writes brilliantly."Newsday
"Implausible, intricate and dazzling."Times Literary Supplement
"As Weschler's interviewees told their tales, I paced agitatedly, choked back tears. . . . Weschler narrates these two episodes with skill and tact. . . . An inspiring book."George Scialabba,Los Angeles Weekly
I thought I'd share some more positivity to celebrate along with celebrating the new choice of pope.
In our South American story there's tragedy to be sure, just as in the story of South Africa. What's amazing now, though, is how much South American society in general has done to face those problems. Lots of wise people very much like Nelson Mandela of South Africa are now in charge in South America. The last president of Chile is a woman who is a torture survivor. The current President of Uruguay is a torture survivor. The current President of Brazil is a woman who is a torture survivor. Right now.
The new pope is haunted by some accusations against him from that period in the 1970s. They may be true or not. But I can attest to the fact that as for the world he comes from, it is an imperfect society but one that has much to teach the world about facing up to PTSD on a mass scale and contributing to history by growing as human beings. Lawrence Weschler's book A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torture sums the wisdom of the southern hemisphere survivors up nicely. He interviewed many of us.
Here's its book blurb, should anyone wish to follow up. It puts the new pope's background into perspective.
Blessings, all!
Mujicaptsd
(my username here, by the way, has always been in honor of the current President Mujica of Uruguay, a torture survivor himself who has spoken out just this year about his own PTSD and, despite having to hospitalized for it, how it has now made him a better person and president.)
http://books.google.com/books/about/A_Miracle_A_Universe.html?id=cd8EyY-w9JgC
A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers, by Lawrence Weschler
University of Chicago Press, Jul 1, 1998 - Political Science - 311 pages
During the past fifteen years, one of the most vexing issues facing fledgling transitional democracies around the worldfrom South Africa to Eastern Europe, from Cambodia to Bosniahas been what to do about the still-toxic security apparatuses left over from the previous regime. In this now-classic and profoundly influential study, theNew Yorker's Lawrence Weschler probes these dilemmas across two gripping narratives (set in Brazil and Uruguay, among the first places to face such concerns), true-life thrillers in which torture victims, faced with the paralysis of the new regime, themselves band together to settle accounts with their former tormentors.
"Disturbing and often enthralling."New York Times Book Review
"Extraordinarily moving. . . . Weschler writes brilliantly."Newsday
"Implausible, intricate and dazzling."Times Literary Supplement
"As Weschler's interviewees told their tales, I paced agitatedly, choked back tears. . . . Weschler narrates these two episodes with skill and tact. . . . An inspiring book."George Scialabba,Los Angeles Weekly
Join the Conversation