Good Quote

I am currently re-reading Judith Herman's work, Trauma and Recovery: The aftermath of violence--from domestic abuse to political terror--why am I reading a text on such a sensitive subject matter, you may be wondering.  Initially, I had purchased the text a handful (or more) years ago, to try and better understand the dialectic of trauma and recovery, how someone could recover from mental, physical, and emotional trauma.  At the time, I was unable to intellectually or emotionally grasp how trauma could be overcome: for I believed that the effects of trauma were seared into one's consciousness, like a metaphorical scar, never forgotten. 

Fast forward to 2011.  This is my second reading of the text, from a more contextualized standpoint.  The words have more resonance to me now.  I am re-reading Trauma and Recovery to add dimension to a personally-important literary work, a work that means much to my family and I to complete, from an intellectual standpoint.  Herman's book remained in the back of my mind for my work, but I was, maybe, afraid to open up the book; let out the spirits that a book of this caliber awakens and invokes.  However, this inclusion was needed, and I am satisfied with my choice to include, rather than to exclude Trauma and Recovery.  Herman writes from a humanistic, feminist viewpoint, making relevant the knowledge and understanding of trauma for both sexes.  A very refreshing voice, indeed.

Here is the quote, not said by Herman, herself, but nevertheless is quite worthy of mention: 

"There are people of spirit and there are people of passion, both less common than one might think.  Rarer still are the people of spirit and passion.  But rarest of all is a passionate spirit." 

- Martin Buber*, philosopher

*In Trauma and Recovery, Herman includes these lines, which are from Buber's eulogy to "Anna O."  "Anna O." is the pseudonym for Bertha Pappenheim, a recovered "mute hysteric," who had invented/termed psychoanalysis/therapy as the "talking cure," in the mid-1890s.