Point of View

Victor(y) Over Interpersonal Trauma

Rowell
10.1177/1078390305277442

The Victor(y) Over Interpersonal Trauma

Patricia A. Rowell

[Elie] Wiesel is a messenger to mankind; his message is stressful occurrence that is outside the range of usual
one of peace, atonement and human dignity. His belief that human experience, and that would be markedly dis-
the forces fighting evil in the world can be victorious is a tressful to almost anyone (Levine, 1997, p. 24). With
hard-won belief. His message is based on his own personal
trauma, there is always a victim. A victim is someone
experience of total humiliation and of the utter contempt for
humanity shown in Hitlers death camps. The message is in subjected to oppression, deprivation, or suffering
the form of a testimony, repeated and deepened through the (American Heritage Dictionary, 1976, p. 1428). Mental
works of a great author. health professionals focus on assisting victims to over-
Wiesels commitment, which originated in the sufferings come victimhood and become a survivor, that is, be-
of the Jewish people, has been widened to embrace all re- come one who continues to exist, function, or compete
pressed peoples and races.
after others have ceased to do so (American Heritage
Norwegian Nobel Committee, Dictionary, 1976, p. 1296). Survivorship seems to mean
The Nobel Foundation (1986) that a victim has reached the level of trauma mastery.
The question arises, however, whether being a sur-
The tribute to Elie Wiesel illustrates how one indi-
vivor is all a victim can wish or strive for. Victims of
vidual overcame unbelievable odds to live a giving, car-
trauma are often injured in ways that are the most fun-
ing, and productive life. His story is an example of a
damental to their personhood and most difficult to
trauma victim who was transformed into a victor. The
identify and heal. The loss of trust, self-esteem, iden-
intent of this article is to explain how victims of inter-
tity, feeling, and a variety of other losses can affect a
personal trauma become survivors and finally victors.
victim to varying degrees. Interpersonal trauma is
Interpersonal trauma is a part of life for many peo-
harmful because a persons trust in fellow humans is
ple. The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks; murders
severely damaged.
on the street; family violence; and rape, among other
Each persons reaction to a trauma is unique. There
horrific events, all deliver regular and significant doses
are multiple factors that influence an individuals re-
of trauma to individuals. Some individuals exposed to
sponse, and some individuals are psychologically in-
trauma will suffer sequelae, which affect their lives in
jured by trauma whereas others are not. The psycho-
significant ways. Their conditions may receive psychi-
logically injured are usually in the minority of those
atric labels, such as acute stress disorder, post-
experiencing trauma.
traumatic stress disorder, or anxiety disorder. They are
One of the central tenets of many psychological
referred to as victims.
models is that people grow through action in relation-
As victims begin to address their traumas and mas-
ship with others (Walker, 2004, p. 4). One can imagine
ter them, they are often seen as survivors. Some sur-
the impact of interpersonal trauma on relationships.
vivors are transformed by their trauma and healing
Traumatic episodes strike at the heart of ones connec-
process to become individuals who function at an en-
tions with fellow humans. That is the tragedy of inter-
tirely different level. They are, I would suggest,
personal trauma. The infliction of trauma by one per-
victors.
son on another person can severely damage the
Sigmund Freud defined trauma as a breach in the
victims trust in others, thus forcing the victim into iso-
protective barrier against stimuli leading to feelings of
lation. The loss of ones trust in fellow humans, espe-
overwhelming helplessness (as cited in Levine, 1997,
cially family and/or friends, forces a person into a con-
p. 197). Mental health providers define trauma as a
stricted world of fear and anxiety.
Assisting someone who is traumatized requires that
Patricia A. Rowell, PhD, RN, is a senior policy fellow of the Ameri- the person be supported and kept safe during periods
can Nurses Association, Silver Spring, MD; prowell@ana.org. of emotional vulnerability. Trust and mutual empathy
DOI: 10.1177/1078390305277442 must be established in the relationship, and authentic-

Copyright 2005 American Psychiatric Nurses Association 103

Rowell
ity in the relationship be accepted. The traumatized
person must be provided a place of safety to heal. The
person who has experienced an interpersonal trauma
needs to learn that others can be trusted, that vulnera-
bility can be acknowledged and not be taken advantage
of, and that conflict does not always result in punish-
ment or desertion. The individual must learn mutual-
ity in relationships. And for the traumatized individ-
ual, this is a huge and frightening goal.
Because trust in others is damaged, victims of inter-
personal trauma may be wary of the urge to connect
with others and may attempt isolation as a form of self-
protection against further pain and betrayal. It is not
unusual for a victim of rape to refrain from exposing
herself to places and people that trigger memories of
her rape. For instance, a girl may not go to school be-
cause the woods where she was raped is across the
street from her school. The victim isolates herself from
her peers, becomes a truant, and perhaps triggers fam-
ily conflicts by her behavior. She also gets angry with
herself for feeling helpless.
Self-esteem, self-image, trust, joy, love, and many
other emotions can be seriously distorted when there is
interpersonal trauma. Guilt about the individuals role
in the trauma, fear of how loved ones and friends will
treat the person, revulsion of oneself and ones body,
and rage at the perpetrator are all possible reactions by
the victim. These emotions can seriously frighten the
victim. Victims are often fearful of their intense rage,
which they think might overwhelm or engulf them.
One survivor described the feeling as one of being
drowned by a wave of rage. Such feelings may be so in-
tense that the individual cannot orient to the current
situation, successfully problem solve, or communicate
feelings and fears. Such situations can reinforce
feelings of helplessness.
For example, Olga was a middle-aged woman who
had endured incest throughout her childhood and ado-
lescence. Now employed in a position where she had a
supervisor who targeted her for criticism regarding
small administrative issues, Olga remained quiet. She
accepted all of the blame for any criticisms made by the
supervisor. Olga experienced lower back pain, panic at-
tacks, and high levels of anxiety. Olga directed her rage
inward because she accepted the criticism from an au-
thority figure, as she had done all of her life. With much
support from her therapist and a huge amount of work
on her part, Olga was finally able to recognize that her
supervisor was abusing her. Olga continued to keep si-
lent and avoid a face-to-face discussion with her super-
visor because she feared that she would lose control of
her anger and it would be destructive to either her su-
pervisor or herself. Finally, after a protracted period of
104 Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, Vol. 11, No. 2
therapy, Olga was able to decrease her fear of her anger
to the point that she could confront her supervisor. Al-
though her supervisors behavior continued to be diffi-
cult, Olga was in a different and more empowered
place. Subsequently, her back pain decreased, panic at-
tacks disappeared, and her level of anxiety decreased
markedly. In conquering her traumatic symptoms,
Olga had to get in touch with her feelings, her body, and
her reality.
Understanding the differences between the reality
of past trauma and its expression in an individuals
current life is a major step in the healing process.
Knowing that and being assured that flashbacks,
nightmares, and anxieties are residuals of past trauma
help to ground a victim in reality. Traumatic residuals
(symptoms) can vary greatly, but they are grounded in
the individuals state of being overwhelmed to the point
that the victim is unable to defend himself or herself.
The rediscovery and/or rebuilding of trust in oneself
and others are critical to healing.
Some victims of interpersonal trauma will become
chronic victims, some will become survivors, and some
will exceed all expectations and reach a significantly
greater level of connection. Those who reach this con-
nection will become the victors. The time between the
traumatic encounter and treatment may vary greatly.
Some people will receive therapeutic interventions im-
mediately, whereas others do not seek care for years,
even decades.
THE PATH TO HEALING
Moving On
As the client moves from victim to survivor, some of
the fundamental issues of personhood begin to heal.
The person begins to trust enough to risk coming into
connection with a therapist. The individual starts to
master feelings, images, anger, and interpersonal rem-
nants of trauma. Over time, the victim becomes the sur-
vivor; the trauma is now an integrated part of the per-
son, not the individuals whole. Life goes on, and the
survivor once again begins to live a fuller life. The term
survivor does not quite say that. Victor, that is, one who
defeats or vanquishes an adversary, a winner of a
contest or struggle, does.
Resilience
Resilience, a word that describes an individual who
overcomes a situation thought to be destructive beyond
ones coping capacity, is often used as a characteristic of
persons who experience trauma yet continue to flour-

ish in life. Having written extensively on resilience,
Rutter (1993) described the resilient individual as one
who overcomes adversity, who survives stress, and
who rises above disadvantages (p. 627). Resilient indi-
viduals seem to integrate their experiences into their
personality in a healthy way so that they can live a life
not damaged or limited but informed by their trau-
matic experience(s). Resilience has been studied exten-
sively in an effort to try to understand why some per-
sons become chronically mentally ill following trauma
and why others do not. It has also been studied in rela-
tion to how individuals traumatized by life continue
to prosper instead of slipping into aberrant behavior.
For instance, the child who is raised in an abusive fam-
ily yet continues to go to school, have friends,
participate in school activities, and prosper is one
example of personal resilience.
Healing
Healing from interpersonal trauma can be a long
and difficult process. For the person seeking assistance
in the healing process, the journey can be a panoply of
emotions, both positive and negative. The healing pro-
cess has no time table. There will be times when the
person takes one step forward and two steps back.
For those seeking professional assistance for heal-
ing, much of the counseling time is spent in developing
trust between the therapist and client. It takes great
courage for the person who experienced interpersonal
trauma to risk emotional responsiveness, to ask for
help, and to accept ones vulnerability. Confidence in
the client-therapist relationship must be established;
the client must (re-)establish confidence in himself or
herself and his or her value. In addition, the client must
learn to discriminate between mutual (mutually empa-
thetic and empowering) and nonmutual relationships.
This involves learning to notice when interpersonal in-
teractions are equal and when they are not. This helps
the client in moving from isolation to the recognition
that one is part of a larger world. To quote Jordan
(1992),
What is integral to a notion of relational awareness or
relational resilience is moving from the self at the cen-
ter of motivation and awareness to a broadening expe-
rience of being with, of being part of, of transcending
narrow self-interest and self-concern. (p. 36)
Resilience, a concept associated with survivors, is
amazing in its actualization. The person has moved
from victim to survivor. The individual has moved from
the harmed one to the one who continues to exist and
function when others have ceased (American Heritage
Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, Vol. 11, No. 2
Victor(y) Over Interpersonal Trauma
Dictionary, 1976). All victims of interpersonal trauma
may not reach this point, but many do. But a few survi-
vors keep on going. Who are these survivors? Super
survivors? No. Rather, they are victors: persons
positively transformed by their trauma.
Transformation
Jordan (2004) and Levine (1997) used the term
transformation. Unlike resilience, transformation
suggests not just a return to a previously existing state
but movement through and beyond stress or suffering
into a new and more comprehensive persona and rela-
tional integration (Jordan, 2004, p. 42). Jordan further
stated that transformation moves from a recovery from
personal pain to a state in which one is more thor-
oughly integrated into the human community and, as a
person, feels a greater sense of integrity. Levine (1997)
noted that transformation requires change, especially
with the relationship we have with our memories
(p. 216).
Transformation is a life-altering leap from function-
ing within limitations to maximizing ones future de-
spite the residuals of trauma. These people are victors.
THE TRANSFORMED
A victor is one who defeats or vanquishes an adver-
sary or is a winner of a contest or struggle (American
Heritage Dictionary, 1976, p. 1428). What greater
struggle than the one against the demons (e.g., adver-
sary) of the victim of interpersonal trauma? Surely,
there is no doubt that the recovery from that struggle
breeds a winner. Not only has the victor prevailed in re-
covery, but the individual has also moved forward past
the victim and survivor statuses to become a person
feeling a greater sense of commitment to others and a
more real part of the community.
Working through trauma and severe stress can in fact
lead to a deepening appreciation of the preciousness of
life, a wisdom that eludes those who maintain illusions
about their own invulnerability; it also creates an abid-
ing respect for the power of human connection, accom-
panied by an increasing awareness of our absolute need
for the love and support of others. Further, it can lead to
an expansive desire to assist others who are victimized
or injured; the movement toward helping others often
becomes key to the transformation of private pain and
isolation into compassion for the suffering of all human
beings. (Jordan, 2004, p. 39)
The victors are victims who successfully deal with their
trauma and then place their experience in a greater
context. In this context, they empathize with those who
105
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have experienced similar or even dissimilar traumas.
They want to share their learning from trauma with
those who need such compassion and help. Wiesel is an
example of such a person.
VICTORS
As introduced at the beginning of this article, Wiesel
is a world-renowned victor. As a young man, Wiesel and
his family suffered as inmates in the Nazi concentra-
tion and extermination camps of World War II. His par-
ents and one sister perished in the camps. Wiesel and a
sister survived. Released from Buchenwald, he at-
tended the Sorbonne in Paris, then worked as a journal-
ist. In 1958, he began his career as an author by pub-
lishing his memories of life in a concentration camp. He
has worked since then for the rights of persecuted peo-
ples. In 1986, Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize. A person abused by others who grows and heals
to the point he or she can fight for the rights of all re-
pressed peoples and races is a person transformed.
Another example of a victor is the great 20th-
century poet, playwright, essayist, movie/theater per-
former and director, and civil rights activist Maya
Angelou. Angelou was raped at the age of 8 and refused
to speak for the next 4 years. She and her brother were
moved from relative to relative for most of their early
lives. Angelou became a single mother the year she
graduated from high school. She earned her living as
the first Black cable car conductor in San Francisco, a
member of stage shows, a lyricist, and a variety of other
jobs. Over time, her lyrics evolved into poems and, in
1972, she was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Her se-
ries of autobiographies, plays, and poems share with
the world her struggles, mistakes, and triumphs and
demonstrate her victory over rape and a tumultuous
life. She is a victor!
Both of these remarkable people, Wiesel and
Angelou, are impassioned about their missions. So too
106 Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, Vol. 11, No. 2
are other victors impassioned about their missions. The
victor, as opposed to many victims and survivors, often
becomes public in sharing his or her trauma(s). Such a
person might be the woman who uses her story to teach
others about how to help rape victims, or he might be
the man battered as a child who works with abused
youth. They are the people who bring the moral and
ethical transgressions of individuals and societies to a
numb and/or uncaring society and say, Look. See.
Hear. Its happening. Care! Victors are not held down
by guilt, fear, hopelessness, or helplessness. They are
societys movers and molders. They are often the visual
conscience that causes many to squirm. They face rejec-
tion and criticism yet move beyond their fears for a
higher purpose. In other words, they face their old de-
mons and their new demonsand face them down!
They are citizens of the world who reach out to the
injured, frightened, and vulnerable.
REFERENCES
American Heritage dictionary of the English language. (New College
ed.). (1976). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Jordan, J. (2004). Relational resilience. In J. Jordan, M. Walker, &
L. M. Hartling (Eds.), The complexity of connection (pp. 28-46).
New York: Guilford.
Jordan, J. V. (1992). Relational Resilience. Wellesley, MA: Stone Cen-
ter Wellesley Center for Women.
Levine, P. A. (1997). Waking the tiger: Healing trauma. Berkeley, CA:
North Atlantic Books.
Norwegian Nobel Committee. (1986). The Nobel Peace Prize for 1986.
Retrieved July 16, 2004, from http://www.nobel.se/peace/
laureates/1986/press.html
Rutter, M. (1993). Resilience: Some conceptual considerations. Jour-
nal of Adolescent Health, 14(8), 626-31.
Walker, M. (2004). How relationships heal. In M. Walker & W. B.
Rosen (Eds.), How connections heal: Stories from relational-
cultural therapy (pp. 3-21). New York: Guilford.