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In situations of captivity the perpetrator becomes the most powerful person in the life of the victim, and the psychology of the victim is shaped by the actions and beliefs of the perpetrator. Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From...
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Dear Steve, Fifty-five years ago tomorrow, plus two weeks, they sat me down on a comfy chair (upholstered in plaid – why do I remember that?) and gently laid your warm, soft, surprisingly heavy little body onto my lap and said, “Martha, this is your...
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Mama tied a blindfold over my eyes. The next thing I felt my flesh was being cut away. I heard the blade sawing back and forth through my skin. The pain between my legs was so intense I wished I would die. Waris Dirie, UNFPA...
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Few things a doctor does are more important than relieving pain. . . pain is soul destroying. No patient should have to endure intense pain unnecessarily. The quality of mercy is essential to the practice of medicine; here, of all places, it should not be...
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I wrote this in 2015, before the #MeToo movement. It’s all the more relevant now as voice after voice — of both women and men — sound out in the lingering anguish of having been used as a thing. Like so many young college women,...
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I wish people understood a little bit more about what it meant to be adopted, what it means to be adopted. Ben  (Adoptionbeat.org Adoptees Gallery ) CNN’s picture essay (John McCain Memorial pictures on CNN) on Senator McCain’s funeral shows his wife and grown children...
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Think of Donald Trump’s personal qualities, the bullying, the greed, the showing off, the misogyny, the absurd third-grade theatrics. We have long referred to him as ‘The Donald.’ He is the only person in America to whom we have added an article before his name....
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Human use, population, and technology have reached that certain stage where mother Earth no longer accepts our presence with silence. Dalai Lama XIV For a long time, just like most of you, oh beloveds, I read about climate change and I was disturbed. But then...
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Yeah. You read it right. He really tweeted that. Keep in mind, Twitter is my least favorite social media venue. The limited space that means that even smart people sound like illiterate adolescents (with all due kudos to the many marvelously literate teens out there),...
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