“When I asked my father whether he thought that it was possible that his mother was raped behind that closed door, he said, "She had washer-woman knees. No one could possibly think of her as a sexual object. Besides," he… — Jessica Stern Copy Share Image
“How much of what we think of as an admirable response to trauma - the "stiff upper lip" - is actually dissociation, the mind's… — Jessica Stern Copy Share Image
“Here is what I think now, reading what I wrote down for the police at age fifteen, right after I was raped. I was… — Jessica Stern Copy Share Image
“I often feel like nobody," Skip says. "I ask myself: Why would you want to talk to me? Why would anyone want to talk… — Jessica Stern Copy Share Image
“When I asked my father whether he thought that it was possible that his mother was raped behind that closed door, he said, "She… — Jessica Stern Copy Share Image
“My breathe would catch at the sight of violets-so common in the woods at home, so surprising in the mountains. The violet's message was… — Jessica Stern Copy Share Image
“What is courage?" I ask. "Bearing witness. That is a form of courage.” — Jessica Stern Copy Share Image
I have listened and I have been quiet all my life. But now I will speak. — Jessica Stern Copy Share Image
“Why does the threat of violent death alter some of us, even if subtly, forever? Why does it make us unusually numb or calm… — Jessica Stern Copy Share Image
I will roar argon into chlorine, xenon into fluorine, all the noble gases into reactive ones My lament will terrify even the stars. — Jessica Stern Copy Share Image
“After a series of traumas, one can lose the capacity to feel fear appropriately.” — Jessica Stern Copy Share Image
Some people's lives seem to flow in a narrative; mine had many stops and starts. That's what trauma does. It interrupts the plot. You… — Jessica Stern Copy Share Image
“Other flowers came at the end of the summer, but by then the winter sadness had already dissipated, and the effect of the blooms… — Jessica Stern Copy Share Image
“People say that rape is not sex, that it's violence," Lucy says, bitterly. "But it's also sex. You can't get around that," she says.… — Jessica Stern Copy Share Image
“Denial helps the bystander. We don't want to know what the boys we send to Iraq have done to others out of terror, or… — Jessica Stern Copy Share Image
