--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The ORDINARY RESPONSE TO ATROCITIES is to…" description: "\"“The ORDINARY RESPONSE TO ATROCITIES is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: th..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d31/judith-lewis-herman-19218_abuse_the-ordinary-response-to-atrocities-is-t_2647266.jpg" --- # The ORDINARY RESPONSE TO ATROCITIES is to banish them from… ![“The ORDINARY RESPONSE TO ATROCITIES is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable. Atrocities, however, refuse to be buried. Equally as powerful as the desire to deny atrocities is the…” quote by Judith Lewis Herman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d31/judith-lewis-herman-19218_abuse_the-ordinary-response-to-atrocities-is-t_2647266.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d31/judith-lewis-herman-19218_abuse_the-ordinary-response-to-atrocities-is-t_2647266.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d31/judith-lewis-herman-19218_abuse_the-ordinary-response-to-atrocities-is-t_2647266.jpg) > ““The ORDINARY RESPONSE TO ATROCITIES is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable. Atrocities, however, refuse to be buried. Equally as powerful as the desire to deny atrocities is the conviction that denial does not work. Folk wisdom is filled with ghosts who refuse to rest in their graves until their stories are told. Murder will out. Remembering and telling the truth about terrible events are prerequisites both for the restoration of the social order and for the healing of individual victims. The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central dialectic of psychological trauma. People who have survived atrocities often tell their stories in a highly emotional, contradictory, and fragmented manner that undermines their credibility and thereby serves the twin imperatives of truth-telling and secrecy. When the truth is finally recognized, survivors can begin their recovery. But far too often secrecy prevails, and the story of the traumatic event surfaces not as a verbal narrative but as a symptom. The psychological distress symptoms of traumatized people simultaneously call attention to the existence of an unspeakable secret and deflect attention from it. This is most apparent in the way traumatized people alternate between feeling numb and reliving the event. The dialectic of trauma gives rise to complicated, sometimes uncanny alterations of consciousness, which George Orwell, one of the committed truth-tellers of our century, called "doublethink," and which mental health professionals, searching for calm, precise language, call "dissociation." It results in protean, dramatic, and often bizarre symptoms of hysteria which Freud recognized a century ago as disguised communications about sexual abuse in childhood. . . .”” [Judith Lewis Herman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/judith-lewis-herman/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The quote describes how societies and individuals tend to suppress horrific events, but those events persist in memory, causing psychological trauma that manifests in denial, dissociation, and other symptoms; confronting truth is essential for healing. **In simple terms:** People hide terrible events, but they keep affecting us until we speak the truth. Key Takeaway Speak truth to heal trauma. Themes trauma memory truth healing societal denial Mood somber reflective hopeful Type philosophical psychological inspirational When to use this quote - courtroom testimony - therapy sessions - historical education - media reporting - personal memoirs Key Concepts psychology social dynamics dissociation doublethink Questions to Reflect On - How does acknowledging painful history change personal healing? - What barriers prevent societies from confronting unspeakable events? A Different Perspective Secrecy can deepen trauma and hinder recovery if not addressed. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Abuse](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/abuse/) [Atrocities](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/atrocities/) [Consciousness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/consciousness/) [Crime](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/crime/) [Denial](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/denial/) [Dissociation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dissociation/) [Dissociative](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dissociative/) [Feeling Numb](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/feeling-numb/) [Ghosts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ghosts/) [Healing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/healing/) [Humanity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/humanity/) [Memory](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/memory/) [Mental health](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mental-health/) [Mind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mind/) [Murder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/murder/) [Posttraumatic-stress-disorder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/posttraumatic-stress-disorder/) [Power](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/power/) [Psychological trauma](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/psychological-trauma/) [Psychology](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/psychology/) [Ptsd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ptsd/) [Rape](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/rape/) [Recovered-memory](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/recovered-memory/) [Recovery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/recovery/) [Repressed-memory](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/repressed-memory/) [Restoration](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/restoration/) [Sexual abuse](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sexual-abuse/) [Sigmund-freud](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sigmund-freud-2/) [Social order](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/social-order/) [Society](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/society/) [Survivors](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/survivors/) [Telling the truth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/telling-the-truth/) [Trauma](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/trauma/) [Traumatic Event](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/traumatic-event/) [Truth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/truth/) [Unspeakable](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/unspeakable/) [Victims](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/victims/) [Violations](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/violations/) [Wisdom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wisdom/) ## Related quotes > [“Underlying the attack on psychotherapy, I believe, is a recognition of the potential power of any relationship of witnessing. 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Equally as powerful as the desire to deny atrocities is the conviction that denial does not work. Folk wisdom is filled with ghosts who refuse to rest in their graves until their stories are told. Murder will out. Remembering and telling the truth about terrible events are prerequisites both for the restoration of the social order and for the healing of individual victims. The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central dialectic of psychological trauma. People who have survived atrocities often tell their stories in a highly emotional, contradictory, and fragmented manner that undermines their credibility and thereby serves the twin imperatives of truth-telling and secrecy. When the truth is finally recognized, survivors can begin their recovery. But far too often secrecy prevails, and the story of the traumatic event surfaces not as a verbal narrative but as a symptom. The psychological distress symptoms of traumatized people simultaneously call attention to the existence of an unspeakable secret and deflect attention from it. This is most apparent in the way traumatized people alternate between feeling numb and reliving the event. The dialectic of trauma gives rise to complicated, sometimes uncanny alterations of consciousness, which George Orwell, one of the committed truth-tellers of our century, called \"doublethink,\" and which mental health professionals, searching for calm, precise language, call \"dissociation.\" It results in protean, dramatic, and often bizarre symptoms of hysteria which Freud recognized a century ago as disguised communications about sexual abuse in childhood. . . .”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Judith Lewis Herman" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/judith-lewis-herman/the-ordinary-response-to-atrocities-is-to-banish-them-from-2/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Abuse" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/judith-lewis-herman/the-ordinary-response-to-atrocities-is-to-banish-them-from-2/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d31/judith-lewis-herman-19218_abuse_the-ordinary-response-to-atrocities-is-t_2647266.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d31/judith-lewis-herman-19218_abuse_the-ordinary-response-to-atrocities-is-t_2647266.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d31/judith-lewis-herman-19218_abuse_the-ordinary-response-to-atrocities-is-t_2647266.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The ORDINARY RESPONSE TO ATROCITIES is to banish them from consciousness. 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