Unspeakable: Stories of Survival and Transformation After Trauma
Author: Gwen Adshead and Eileen Horne
ISBN-13: 978-0571385249
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Guideline Price: £20
In many ways this is a book about silence or, more accurately, about two kinds of silence. One kind of silence is the silence trauma inflicts on us humans and renders so much beyond words and so much is left unspeakable. The other silence is the silence used by a skilled therapist: knowing when to pause, to hold back, not rush in. It is this silence that allows the unspeakable to be spoken and healing to unfold.
The book is a tender and brave tribute to both these kinds of silence, exquisitely unpacked in the hands of consummate storytellers.
Each of the eight chapters that make up Unspeakable tells stories of ordinary people who have experienced traumatic life events and yet manage to live and love despite what might break many other human beings. Adshead and Horne illuminate what it is about these people that enable them to not just survive but to thrive. They take us inside the therapy room by way of compelling stories; told with a humanity rich in tenderness and warmth.
Despite the word survival being used in the subtitle and in several other places throughout the book, this is not a book about survival; survival is too small, too afraid, too narrow and does not capture the people Adshead and Horne bring to life in this book. These people don’t survive – they thrive and as a result the book is brimming with optimism; gracefully genuflecting to the tenacity of the human spirit.
Adshead is a psychiatrist who recently trained as a psychotherapist – it is through this latter, more expansive lens of psychotherapy that she views and describes human trauma. It is a lens that is richly enhanced with a psychological sensitivity and an awareness of the impact of socio-economic disadvantage on mental health. All of this makes for a deeply compassionate understanding of the human condition.
Unspoken is about both breaking silence and maintaining silence. There are several beautiful examples of where Adshead maintains a silence in therapy – where she holds back – and in so doing allows something profound to unfold between patient and therapist. This precious kind of silence allows the unspeakable find voice and healing to unfold.
If you are therapy-curious, a therapist or simply interested in the tenacity of the human spirit, Unspeakable is for you.
Paul D’Alton is an associate professor in the school of psychology at University College Dublin