Analyzing Elizabeth Smart

reply to post by redhorse

Okay. While I am admittedly a little slow, I don't understand why everyone thinks the OP was trying to call Elizabeth Smart a liar. She is very composed, and people were doubting her. The OP seems to be trying to lend a bit of expertise (albeit buried in a great deal of lingo that sounds awfully good but I don't really understand, and I'm a psych major), to actually add credibility to her story.

Thank you.

A few people have been doubting her. And, to the untrained eye, you can possibly put up an argument that the whole thing was "set up". I just thought, being an expert (or someone very well read) in traumatology, I can point out why her body language implies having gone through a major trauma (since the body contains the trauma), and also, psychologically, why she would be interested in spreading awareness: since social engagement is a basic requirement in healing post traumatic stress (activates the ventral tract of the vagus nerve, which connects the cortex - where we think - with the body), this whole PR tour she's currently been doing could be tremendously healing for her.

I actually applaud what she's doing. Although I came into this thread with a different motive, I did make sure that I was absolutely positive before I made any claims. I reviewed that video, and all the signs came flashing forth. She suffered an intense trauma, and she's done a masterful job controlling those aggressive emotions, both the hyper and hypo types.

Astrocyte
reply to post by redhorse

 

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Astrocyte
I actually applaud what she's doing. Although I came into this thread with a different motive, I did make sure that I was absolutely positive before I made any claims. I reviewed that video, and all the signs came flashing forth. She suffered an intense trauma, and she's done a masterful job controlling those aggressive emotions, both the hyper and hypo types.

I think that she is very courageous, and I could see how going as public as she is could be very healing, but I don't think I could do it. I am sympathetic regarding situations with people doubting those who have been through trauma and seem to be coping unnaturally well. I am also rather... sensitive to it, I must admit.

I was the victim of a gang rape when I was 15. While this was insignificant compared to what Elizabeth Smart experienced, I was certainly traumatized. I did a great deal of work to cope, and eventually I did get to the point where I could not only recount the event, but I could recount it in a way that many people thought was emotionally flat enough that I must be lying. This included members of my own family. The doubt and accusations can to this day (I am 37), spin me into a sort of revisit of the event and those associated feelings of fear, helplessness and shame. It just goes to show that while many people may learn to cope with these horrific experiences and not just melt into an incapacitated ball of jelly, it can still stay pretty raw there underneath any apparent composure.

I applaud what she is doing as well, but as I said, I could not do the same; largely do to the scrutiny, doubt, and blaming that I have faced. She is a remarkable woman, and I found your analysis of the mechanisms you feel she is using really interesting. It was also interesting that most people who bothered to reply were defending her (which is wonderful), but not really bothering to read what you wrote. Even good intentioned knee-jerks aren't really productive.

reply to post by redhorse



I wonder how much of the exercise of seeking out social interaction, to stimulate other areas of the brain, are also about learning to trust people again.

I think that the inability to trust other people again, is what is mostly likely to build the largest barriers to leading a normal life again. Lack of trust puts up a wall between the individual and the rest of society.

I think important lessons that we are not being taught is how to learn who to trust. In this modern world of suburban sprawl, we encounter far more people than our ancestors ever had to sort though. It is important to learn how to trust others, but it is also important to learn who not to trust.

IMO, trust is the foundation on which morality is built.