Jessica Stern's Denial Analysis

In her memoir, Denial, Jessica Stern delves into the topic of trauma and the denial of traumas. Stern and her sister, as children, were victims of a serial rapist: a trauma that permanently alters their lives. Embarking on a journey of introspectiveness and investigation, Stern seeks to find the truth about her trauma, her family and her own mind. Along this journey, Stern encounters some fundamental truths about her own mind: she likely has post-traumatic-stress-disorder, she has the ability to intentionally, and unintentionally, be an advocate for others as well as having the ability to feel empathy, love and compassion. For a majority of Stern’s life post-rape, she has suspected she has post-traumatic-stress-disorder and her thoughts are more or less confirmed through a series of interviews and encounters with …show more content…
In chapter twelve titled “War Victims” Stern dives the deepest into the idea of having post-traumatic-stress-disorder. She admits at first that she can not have PTSD because that is for soldiers and not young girls. She makes note that the trauma of war and the trauma of sexual violence are two very different things. Stern and Erik, the soldier she is interviewing, discuss everything from dissactioted states to the process of being a seen by a military-approved doctor that can diagnosis a former soldier with PTSD. They discuss how bright, fluorescent lights bothers Erik, how he gets nervous in large crowds, his road rage, his spacey and light headed, dizzy feelings when talking on the phone. Stern notes that she shares similar mental sensations with Erik, like the annoyance of fluorescent lights and the inability to speak on the phone for too long. Through her conversations with Erik, Stern comes to understand that PTSD is not limited to just soldiers, and even the most “minor” of traumas can induce PTSD, because in the end, trauma is