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This is a small but powerful and thought-provoking book written by a leader in the field of dissociative studies. Sinason considers themes many others have written about, but in a very original way and has provided a wealth of information, statistics, and definitions about trauma and trauma-related conditions. Alongside this is a commentary which challenges us as readers to know what we'd prefer not to know and to hear and speak the unspeakable, something Sinason herself has done courageously in her work with people with learning difficulties and with dissociative identity disorder. The book's opening quotation from Audre Lorde: “When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard, nor welcomed. But when we are silent we are still afraid” (p. ix), sets the scene on life in a world where so many horrific stories have been and are still being silenced. I read this in a week when the headline news about the shocking revelations of the cricketer Azeem Rafiq about pervasive racism in the world of sport reminded me again of the courage it takes to step forward and
tell one's story. It was also a week when the story of sleaze in British politics and the government's obfuscations and exculpatory statements revealed once again how common it is for wrongdoing of any sort to be swept under the carpet. And this is especially true when done by “people like us” (Lammy, 2020, p. 11). “It can be hard to speak in difficult times”, wrote Sinason, “as well as difficult to hear. The voice of trauma, even when whispered, can hurt the speaker and the listener”, and she described the book as a “guided tour of pain” (pp. ix, x).
The book's opening chapter, “Coronavirus and other plagues”, went straight to our immediate context of being in a traumatic situation together. I enjoyed the way that Sinason looked back in time in order to emphasise that a plague is not new, and nor are some of our responses. Indeed, the quotations from Pepys' diary with which she began, if we updated the la