The ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word „unspeakable“... Atrocities, however, refuse to be buried... Remembering and telling the truth about terrible events are prerequisites both for the restoration of the social order and for the healing of individual victims... When the truth is finally recognized, survivors can begin their recovery. But far too often secrecy prevails, and the story of the traumatic event surfaces not as a verbal narrative but as a symptom...

Judith Lewis Herman,

Trauma and recovery, 1992