Reestablishing the internal “Thou” in testimony of trauma

At the very core of the extreme traumatic experience (for example, genocide or childhood sexual abuse) is the obliteration of the internalized, empathic communicative dyad. Just as the executioner does not heed the pleas for life and relentlessly proceeds with the execution, the internal “Thou,” the addressee with whom inner dialogue takes place – a prerequisite to symbolization and to internal world representation – ceases to exist. Without that internal dialogue, psychic representation of the traumatic experience cannot exist and narrative cannot be formed to relate it to another. Therefore, to a large extent, the witness “does not know” what she knows of her experience of extremity. It is only through the testimonial process, in the company of an intimate, totally present listener, that the lost internal “Thou” can begin to be reestablished and the process of internal dialogue, symbolization, and narrative formation can resume. A memory is thus created that can be both related and forgotten. The (video) testimonial intervention described here has a therapeutic effect by both creating a remembered past and freeing up the emotional space for present living. Trauma discourse is replete with failed attempts at narrativization of trauma, ranging from momentary lapses, through dissociative states, to total muteness. Examples of such “crises of witnessing” will be given.