Summary

“Language, Miracle and Tyranny” opens with a pair of quotes, one from “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare, urging that sorrows be spoken of; and one urging that the dark and painful sides of life and human nature must be explored. Author van der Kolk then prologues this chapter with commentary on how research has shown that New Yorkers, working through the traumas of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, almost entirely rejected traditional therapies (including talk therapy), instead choosing other techniques like massage and EMDR (which, he adds, will be examined later). This, he says, leads to a basic question: “what good is it to talk about your trauma?”

In “The Unspeakable Truth,” the author references how the importance of talk therapy was noted by Sigmund Freud (as referenced earlier in the book); how many traumas are experienced...