ABSTRACT
What happens when we are traumatized? In addition to the physical, neurological, and emotional trauma, we experience a fundamental assault on our right to live, on our personal sense of worth, and, further, on our sense that the world (including people) basically supports human life. Our relationship with existence itself is shattered. Existence, in this sense, includes all the meaning structures that tell us we are a valued and viable part of the fabric of life. Thus, it is significant that, according to Krippner and Colodzin (1989), Vietnam veterans’ flashbacks “might represent unsuccessful attempts to make sense of an experience that many of the veterans’ fellow Americans considered to be pointless or wrong” (p. 81) (see also Coalson, 1993; Decker, 1993a,b; Greening, 1990a; Greening 1990b; Greer, 1980;Jaffe, 1985; Perry, 1976; Williams, 1983; Wilson, 1989).
