If you're fortunate, you'll meet people over the course of your career who exceed your expectations in every way. When you work or spend time with them, you find yourself wanting to be a better person.
PTSD occurs following a trauma that was so awful that in retrospect you don't understand how you survived. What that causes is an extreme feeling of vulnerability that you get past but that doesn't go away.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the profound impact of traumatic experiences on an individual's sense of vulnerability and survival.
Mark Goulston's quote delves into the psychological aftermath of trauma, particularly in relation to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It emphasizes that after experiencing a deeply horrifying event, individuals can feel an overwhelming sense of vulnerability that lingers, affecting their mental health and worldview. This understanding of trauma not only illuminates the struggles faced by those with PTSD but also underscores the importance of empathy and support in aiding recovery.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a mental health seminar discussing the effects of trauma.
More from Mark Goulston
All quotes →Why do people who consider themselves good communicators often fail to actually hear each other? Often it's due to a mismatch of styles: To someone who prefers to vent, someone who prefers to explain seems patronizing; explainers experience venters as volatile.
The measure of self-assurance is how deeply and sincerely interested you are in others; the measure of insecurity is how much you try to impress them with you.
Similar quotes
I sat down in the sand, breathless with shame and failure. God, I thought, some defender of the weak. Some freedom fighter: Joan of Arc in sunscreen.
I knew someone had to take the first step. So I made up my mind not to move.
It's tough, acting. You have to walk two lines of a tightrope. There's the all-consuming fear of failure: I'm about to fall flat on my face. There's that and there's also confidence - you have to be confident in order to try things - and they fight each other all the time.
The strike, the boycott, the refusal to serve, the ability to paralyze the functioning of a complex social structure-these remain potent weapons against the most fearsome state or corporate power.
For whatever trauma came with service in tough circumstances, we should take what we learned - take our post-traumatic growth - and, like past generations coming home, bring our sharpened strengths to bear, bring our attitude of gratitude to bear.
To act coolly, intelligently and prudently in perilous circumstances is the test of a man - and also a nation.