Ravages of Oppression, Denial and the Life of the Forgotten
Through the Eyes of Elie Wiesel's Book
The Accident
A Complimentary 5 Part Series
"She wanted to make me happy no matter what. To make me taste the pleasures of life. To make me forget the past. "Your past is dead. Dead and Buried" she would say. And I would answer, "I am my past. If its buried, I'm buried with it."
(Elie Wiesel in The Accident Pg 62)
Elie Wiesel's, The Accident, speaks of a life accompanied by unimaginable trauma. Many who have read this work have wept, in feeling for the first time that someone truly understands what it is like to live in the tumultuous world of trauma, and under the storm clouds of sadness and oppression. Written as a novel, but telling the story of his life, it speaks of "trying to make life" after liberation from Auschwitz. For Wiesel's nameless protagonist, denial, obliteration and all the comforts provided by our defenses were not longer available to him. Memosyone but no Themes!! His capacity for denial was killed and stolen in the camps.
For him the horrors of the past never faded, walking side by side with his current reality. He understood that his memories were no longer simply events that had already occurred in the distant past, but a telling of a reality that forever more he would live with. Here the past is renewed each day in such remembrances. Like the eclipse of the sun, these memories would blind him to the reality of his current life. His past now collided with the present, and on a daily basis obliterated what could be his new life. Two tracks, two worlds running side by side, a past filled with unimaginable horrors and a current life often swallowed up by the magnitude of his pain.
Memories know no boundaries and live on as shapeshifters, shaping current reality to fit the contours of the past. We see the intrusive nature of these memories when we find the main character and his lover Kathleen, walking hand in hand in NY city on a beautiful fall day, when she sees smoke coming out of a chimney. For her this is an intimation of a romantic evening together in front of a roaring fire, drinking wines wrapped in a serpentine embrace praying for the night to never end. However, for our nameless hero, the sight of smoke from a chimney could only mean one thing. Without benefit of doubt or that capacity for denial which he had been robbed of, all he could see was the billowing of smoke from the crematorium. Forced to remember what should never be spoken of again.
Both are expressions of reality, but as Wiesel writes, "The dead never give up the living..." so this past becomes the only reality. Memories allow for integration, but not for our hero, but not for those which steal the capacity for hope. It is the brilliance of this book to unflinchingly tell the story of such a life, constantly wrestling with the demons of the past, present, and probable future. Even when realizing the childish nature and illusions of happily ever after, still somewhere in the heart and soul, one hopes and dreams of a better life, to just touch a tiny piece of what we may have dreamed of, and in their absence and if and when despair sets in, to secretly wipe away the tears. While theories about trauma, its origins, effects, treatment, and even the neuro-biology, have we really learned anything about the pain residing in the soul? Theories of resilience, hope confronting the inner darkness, and more, cannot touch the soul while residing within "these moments".
Wiesel writes; "It's too late. To change, we would have to change the past. But the past is beyond our power. Its structure is solid, immutable. The past is grandmother's shawl..." Not once does Wiesel's The Accident descend into a delusional offer of hope, but instead, offers an uncompromising, and unflinching portrayal of suffering.
I had the good fortune to sit with Elie Wiesel in private for an hour where I suggested that psychology and many of our religious traditions have done an injustice to those who suffer the unimaginable. He understood only too well the meaning of the word unimaginable. He said that ,"The only response to one who has suffered so much is a moral one. When sitting with oneself or with another suffering such pain, the only truly moral and spiritual response is to be with them, perhaps in silence." Free from the distractions of therapeutic and religious euphemisms we come face to face with the reality that there are no answers or responses to one who has to live with their memories, their pain- often alone, for much of their life.
While theories about trauma, its origins, effects, the neuro-biology and cures abound, we have learned very little about the reality of the soul living with such pain. Theories of resilience, hope confronting the inner darkness, and more, cannot touch such a person while residing within "these moments". It is Wiesel's unwavering faith in the divine and courage to journey to this no mans land that offers us a hand, a light and way of finally understanding something about the emotions which so powerfully yet silently wrap us in its grip.
Our hope is to find a way to walk with both realities, and to experience those moments where dreams of a good life reside. Hope comes in many different forms. Elie Wiesel and his wife Marion had a child, and understand that to not celebrate this new life, this love and the endless possibility of such a birth, that past would win again.
It may well be that when understanding the nature of the soul's experience of trauma we find that therapy as we know it has come to the end of road, and something dramatically different is needed if there is any hope of retrieving the soul that has been taken hostage by the past.
For him the horrors of the past never faded, walking side by side with his current reality. He understood that his memories were no longer simply events that had already occurred in the distant past, but a telling of a reality that forever more he would live with. Here the past is renewed each day in such remembrances. Like the eclipse of the sun, these memories would blind him to the reality of his current life. His past now collided with the present, and on a daily basis obliterated what could be his new life. Two tracks, two worlds running side by side, a past filled with unimaginable horrors and a current life often swallowed up by the magnitude of his pain.
Memories know no boundaries and live on as shapeshifters, shaping current reality to fit the contours of the past. We see the intrusive nature of these memories when we find the main character and his lover Kathleen, walking hand in hand in NY city on a beautiful fall day, when she sees smoke coming out of a chimney. For her this is an intimation of a romantic evening together in front of a roaring fire, drinking wines wrapped in a serpentine embrace praying for the night to never end. However, for our nameless hero, the sight of smoke from a chimney could only mean one thing. Without benefit of doubt or that capacity for denial which he had been robbed of, all he could see was the billowing of smoke from the crematorium. Forced to remember what should never be spoken of again.
Both are expressions of reality, but as Wiesel writes, "The dead never give up the living..." so this past becomes the only reality. Memories allow for integration, but not for our hero, but not for those which steal the capacity for hope. It is the brilliance of this book to unflinchingly tell the story of such a life, constantly wrestling with the demons of the past, present, and probable future. Even when realizing the childish nature and illusions of happily ever after, still somewhere in the heart and soul, one hopes and dreams of a better life, to just touch a tiny piece of what we may have dreamed of, and in their absence and if and when despair sets in, to secretly wipe away the tears. While theories about trauma, its origins, effects, treatment, and even the neuro-biology, have we really learned anything about the pain residing in the soul? Theories of resilience, hope confronting the inner darkness, and more, cannot touch the soul while residing within "these moments".
Wiesel writes; "It's too late. To change, we would have to change the past. But the past is beyond our power. Its structure is solid, immutable. The past is grandmother's shawl..." Not once does Wiesel's The Accident descend into a delusional offer of hope, but instead, offers an uncompromising, and unflinching portrayal of suffering.
I had the good fortune to sit with Elie Wiesel in private for an hour where I suggested that psychology and many of our religious traditions have done an injustice to those who suffer the unimaginable. He understood only too well the meaning of the word unimaginable. He said that ,"The only response to one who has suffered so much is a moral one. When sitting with oneself or with another suffering such pain, the only truly moral and spiritual response is to be with them, perhaps in silence." Free from the distractions of therapeutic and religious euphemisms we come face to face with the reality that there are no answers or responses to one who has to live with their memories, their pain- often alone, for much of their life.
While theories about trauma, its origins, effects, the neuro-biology and cures abound, we have learned very little about the reality of the soul living with such pain. Theories of resilience, hope confronting the inner darkness, and more, cannot touch such a person while residing within "these moments". It is Wiesel's unwavering faith in the divine and courage to journey to this no mans land that offers us a hand, a light and way of finally understanding something about the emotions which so powerfully yet silently wrap us in its grip.
Our hope is to find a way to walk with both realities, and to experience those moments where dreams of a good life reside. Hope comes in many different forms. Elie Wiesel and his wife Marion had a child, and understand that to not celebrate this new life, this love and the endless possibility of such a birth, that past would win again.
It may well be that when understanding the nature of the soul's experience of trauma we find that therapy as we know it has come to the end of road, and something dramatically different is needed if there is any hope of retrieving the soul that has been taken hostage by the past.