I
included the internet address for this particular webpage in my letter
to The Journal,
but they did not include it in my letter
Welcome, staff and readers of the North Coast
Journal. I hope that The Journal publishes my lighthearted letter
on a subject that is actually dark, serious and tragic.
There are uncounted numbers of child abuse victims
and survivors who have needs and problems that cannot be understood yet
in terms of modern psychology and psychiatry. And there are no
organizations doing research to search for victims and survivors whose
needs and problems cannot be understood with present knowledge in
psychology, including child developmental psychology and life span
development psychology.
Imagine how tragic it would be if a major tsunami or
earthquake devastated a city and caused buildings to collapse, but no
one searched for victims inside the collapsed buildings. The
public would be shocked if that actually happened. But when it
comes to the situation regarding child abuse victims and
survivors, there is no one searching to discover if there are any
victims who have been neglected because their needs and problems don't
fit into the categories of the present Diagnostical Statistical Manual.
Ten years ago I wrote four letters to the HSU
Lumberjack and offered to do a presentation titled "Survivor Myth,
Survivor Image, Survivor Reality: Seeking the truth about child abuse
victims and survivors." But not a single professor or student
emailed me in response to my offer. A few years later I wrote a
guest editorial (included in my letters web page) and offered that same
presentation again. But there was not a single response. I
personally consider that to be just as shocking as what happened at
Penn State, even though the situation was different. If there was
a city that had an earthquake or a tsunami and no one cared to listen
to someone who told the community that there are victims still buried
under buildings, that would make world news. I think my analogy
is justified.
When I go to publishers to have my book published I
am going to tell them that my book is going to be the most important
book ever written on the topic of child abuse. And I will have
the science to back up that statement.
But before I go to a publisher I will ask either the
Times-Standard or The Journal to print up an article about my life
story and my book, including my ideas for a world honor society for
adult and adolescent victims and survivors. And then I will send
the copies of that article, or series of articles, to publishers.
And whatever newspaper or journal that writes those articles should
think about writing an article that could win a Pulitzer Prize.
In fact, I think that the four letters I wrote to
the HSU Lumberjack and the guest editorial that followed years later is
worthy of a Pulitzer Prize; that is, the story of how nobody at the
university was interested in the differences between myth, image and
reality when it comes to child abuse victims. And no one was
interested in even considering the possibility that there were myths
and images as compared with reality. That story reflects the
truth about ignorance and apathy in our world and society. And it
is such stories that win Pulitzer prizes.
But I can't say when I will be ready for writing
articles in local newspapers, or having local newspapers or journals
write articles about me. However, I do know that if you publish
my letter about the Diagnostical Statistical Manual it will bring me
one step closer to my opening up to the public about my book.
This thing about "wilder than rock 'n' roll" is
serious, too. I am one of the many survivors of child abuse who
ended up with feelings and emotions that are permanently wilder than
rock 'n' roll. PTSD does that to you, especially if you suffer it
at an early age. I am sorry to say that the people who think that
rock 'n' roll is "everything" are just as narrow-minded and ignorant as
the people who think that the "Bible of Psychiatry" represents
"everything" or that that the Jewish/Christian Bible represents
everything. There is a lot more to being human than the religious
Bible or the Bible of Psychiatry or the world-universe of rock 'n'
roll.
There are thousands of victims of child abuse who
end up committing suicide because they can't understand their
feelings. And they can't understand their feelings and their
thoughts through any religious Bible or through the Bible of
Psychiatry, nor through the medium of rock 'n' roll. And before
they kill themselves, they wander the streets (oftentimes homeless)
talking to themselves out loud. And you can hear their
frustration. And listening to rock 'n' roll doesn't cure them and
make them happy. Rock and roll doesn't help give their minds any
coherence anymore so than the Bible of Psychiatry or the religious
bible. They are the people I wrote about in one of my letter when
I wrote about "the three-times neglected" because they have been
neglected by their families, neglected by scientists and neglected by
society.
I have empathy for those neglected people. And
empathy means feelings. But my feelings of empathy can never be
transcribed into any kind of music. It's not about music; it's
about tears!
I used to play and sing music, myself, years ago,
coming from a musical family. But then I started singing the Bob
Dylan's song "A Hard Rain's a Gonna Fall...Oh, where have you been my
blue-eyed son?" And that was just before I remembered "where" I
had been in my childhood (memories that had been blocked by trauma)
when I was radically abused and ended up suffering PTSD and long-term
identity dissociation. That song was one of the last two or three
songs I sang before I permanently quit music. I had to realize
that I had feelings (repressed feelings blocked by childhood PTSD) that
could not be put into any kind of music or song. And any attempt
to do so would be harmful.
Such feelings are beyond all music, including rock
'n' roll. And it has something to do with the brain, the body and
the nervous system and what the mind/brain does to heal itself (a good
book to read is "The Feeling of What Happens; Body and Emotion in the
Making of Consciousness" by world famous neuroscientist Antonio
Damasio, plus his newest book titled "Self Comes to Mind").
You just have to go with those feelings and let
those feelings take you to wherever they take you, maybe even out of
this world. Maybe even beyond the religious bible and the
psychiatric bible. Maybe to a place in the mind and heart that
can lead someone to winning a Nobel prize and a Templeton prize.
There is something wild, mysterious and beautiful in
all of us (including the human brain and nervous system), and we need
to honor it and protect it.
THE
INTERNATIONAL TEMPLE OF CONVALESCENCE AND SURVIVOR ART
(ITCSA)
"Are you ready for wilder than rock 'n' roll
art?" I like those words. In fact, I think I am going to
make red fliers with those words and put them up in my neighborhood,
and maybe throughout Eureka and Arcata.
I can even imagine those words in big letters on the
cover of The North Coast Journal. That actually might happen when
I am ready to write an article about ITCSA and the world honor society
for adult and adolescent victims and survivors of child abuse.
This could happen before I take my book to a publisher.
I've always considered two possibilities regarding
my book publication when it comes to the world honor society. The
book (titled "I Can Think About Meaning Therefore I Am") could have a
long chapter on the world honor society concept, and hence create the
world honor society, itself. Or, the world honor society could be
created first on the internet, along with ITCSA, before I take my book
to a publisher.
In any case, ITCSA will be part of the world honor
society, and there will be victims and survivors of child abuse all
over the world wearing t-shirts that say "International Temple of
Convalescence and Survivor Art" and survivors all over the world will
put ITCSA posters up on their windows.
ITCSA could be the first-ever internet temple.
And survivors of child abuse who are atheists will be part of the
temple just as much so as survivors who are religious. That is
because the world honor society for child abuse survivors is open to
all survivors and does not discriminate. Furthermore, who is to
say that science, logic, reasoning and critical thinking aren't sacred?
And members of the world honor society don't have to
show any of their own survivor art to anyone. A survivor can put
up an ITCSA poster on their window just to make a statement about
privacy, healing and convalescence. And anyone who wants to know
anything further would have to go to the ICTSA web site and learn more.
And surely, what lies inside the collective Temple
of Convalescence and Survivor Art includes art that is wilder than rock
'n' roll. We might need to have wilder than rock 'n' roll art as
part of our healing and therapy. But why should we show it to
you? Why should we show it to anybody?
I remember years ago, perhaps around 15 years ago or
more, when the Ink People had an art display of "survivor art" done by
adult and adolescent survivors of child abuse who were in
"therapy." And it really upset me!
What upset me was the misconception that victims and
survivors of child abuse in Humboldt County and all over the world,
were being treated by therapists and were healing, and that therapists
understood child abuse victims and their needs and problems. The
Ink People art display wasn't really about the victims; it was a
display for the therapists to show off their work to the public.
"Look everybody, we can heal child abuse victims!" "Look
everybody, we understand child abuse victims!" "Look everybody,
we understand children and child development and lifespan
development!" "Look everybody, we understand the nature of the
mind, the nature of body and mind, and the nature of the brain and the
nervous system!" "Look everybody, we know everything!"
"Look everybody, the Diagnostical Statistical Manual works!"
"Look everybody, there is no need for new and ongoing scientific
research because we are therapists, and we already know everything that
science will ever know!" "Look everybody, we are psychologists,
and this is our work, this is our success (the 'survivors'), and we are
the smartest people on the planet!"
But the truth is that countless victims and
survivors of child abuse need retreat sanctuaries to convalesce for
reasons that require future scientific research to understand.
And the people who have the guts and the inspiration to discover those
reasons are going to win Nobel prizes and Templeton prizes. And
people all over the world are going to learn a lot more about the
elementals of being human.
And that knowledge is going to help make the world a
better place for all human beings, because people will be better able
to empathize with what is elemental in all of us, regardless of
cultural upbringing. And people, including therapists, will learn
a lot more about the nature of empathy, itself. And a world of
people with empathy is a better world, and a peaceful world.
But there is no empathy when it comes to
stereotyping people and putting them into categories that are not the
constructs of science, but instead the constructs of mere schools of
thought (read Thomas Kuhn "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions").
I have mentioned in my letters several times that it
is going to take a Nobel Prize-winning type effort to understand the
effects of child abuse and the needs and problems of the victims and
survivors. And our world honor society for the victims and
survivors of child abuse is going to win a Nobel Prize related to that
effort! And I don't want anybody even thinking about being part
of it, or supporting it, unless they can think in terms of winning
Nobel prizes, Templeton prizes and Pulitzer prizes!
And if nobody here in Humboldt or on the North Coast
gets the message and understands it, then people all over the world who
will read my book will have that opportunity.
And that will be the opportunity to be part of a
wilder than rock 'n' roll project that will enlighten the world.
Science is wilder than rock 'n' roll, love is wilder
than rock 'n' roll, beauty is wilder than rock 'n' roll, empathy is
wilder than rock 'n' roll and inspiration is wilder than rock 'n' roll.
It's all wilder than the rock 'n' roll!
Get the message???
The brain is wilder than rock 'n' roll, the nervous
system is wilder than rock 'n' roll, pain is wilder than rock 'n' roll
and tears are wilder than rock 'n' roll.
The stars are wilder than rock 'n' roll, the
galaxies are wilder than rock 'n' roll, the moon is wilder than rock
'n' roll, the clouds are wilder than rock 'n' roll, the mountains are
wilder than rock 'n' roll, the trees are wilder than rock 'n' roll, the
flowers are wilder than rock 'n' roll, the animals are wilder than rock
'n' roll, the butterflies are wilder than rock 'n' roll...
Get the message?
It's all wilder than rock 'n' roll!
And I am a wild child!
Get the message???