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Imagining Trauma

I read with great interest Parul Sehgals essay about our cultures fascination with trauma (A Critic at Large, January 3rd & 10th). As a sitcom writer, and as someone whose life has been shattered by traumamy two children were killed by a drunk driver when they were teen-agersI am often dismayed by film and television depictions of parents who have lost children. Need a quick, easy way to explain a characters depression, or failed marriage, or difficulty getting through the day? Whip out the dead kid backstory. It seems to have become the perfect explanation for any debilitating dysfunction.

When I talk about my grief with friends, they often say, I cant even imagine. If they are fellow-writers, I urge them to not just use their imaginations but to do some research. Traumatized characters are too often approached without curiosity and rigor, and rendered without dimension. Although recent movies and TV series might suggest that traumatized people spend all our time slumped under a blanket, swilling bourbon, turning away from someone in a bed, or standing atop a cliff with our toes too close to the edge, in real life we also manage our pain while doing things like teaching algebra, performing surgeries, perhaps even writing comedy. It bears remembering that, in spite of our suffering and fragility, we can be the resilient, idiosyncratic people we once were.

Gail LernerLos Angeles, Calif.

Though I agree with much of Sehgals wonderfully written essay, I feel compelled to add that many therapists who, like me, focus on treating the long-term consequences of complex developmental trauma share her objections to the reductive nature of a P.T.S.D. diagnosis. Sehgal writes that the experience of uncertainty and partial knowledge is one of the great, unheralded pleasures of fiction. In my opinion, openness to this experience is also essential to the posture of an effective therapist. Good therapy is unscripted, and acknowledges that a therapist doesnt know everything. It creates room for the client to fill in the blanks with contributions that the therapist could not have imagined. When it doesnt allow for this ambiguity, therapy is likely to be as routine and uncreative as the characters in the works that Sehgal critiques.

Leslie LebowitzBerkeley, Calif.

Elizabeth Kolberts piece on the island nation of Naurus role as a sponsor for the deep-sea-mining outfit the Metals Company brought to mind another troubling partnership that the country has pursued (Comment, January 3rd & 10th). For the past two decades, Nauru has served the Australian government as a dumping ground for refugees and asylum seekers, in return for millions of dollars in aid. Hundreds of cases of abuse have been documented in the islands refugee-processing center, and numerous deaths have resulted from medical neglect and suicide. Nauru has also made attempts to resist independent oversight. For instance, journalists wishing to obtain visas are charged a fee of eight thousand Australian dollarsthe equivalent of almost six thousand U.S. dollars. Last September, Australia renewed its agreement to have Nauru serve as an enduring offshore processing center. Having seen Nauru assist Australia in implementing a morally bankrupt policy, none of us should be surprised that the country is now trying to make money by supporting mining ventures that threaten to do serious harm.

Guy S. Goodwin-GillHonorary Professor of Law & JusticeUniversity of New South WalesOttawa, Ont.

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