Wordless Horror
Van der Kolk provides neuroanatomical and physiological explanations as to why language often fails in the face of extreme trauma. In Chapter 3, he describes the state of speechless terror that often accompanies trauma. He states that "victims of assaults and accidents sit mute and frozen in emergency rooms; traumatized children 'lose their tongues' and refuse to speak." One particularly striking representation of speechless horror is what is known as the "thousand-yard stare," a term which originated during the First World War to describe soldiers experiencing "shell shock" (now understood as PTSD). Iconic photographs of combat soldiers show "hollow-eyed men staring mutely into a void."
The Shadow
Epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter suggest the theme or tone. At the beginning of Chapter 14, Van der Kolk quotes Marion Woodman via Stephen Cope's The Great Work of Your Life:
We can hardly bear to look. The shadow may carry the best of the life we have not lived. Go into the basement, the attic, the refuse bin. Find gold there. Find an animal who has not been fed or watered. It is you!! This neglected, exiled animal, hungry for attention, is a part of your self.
The "shadow" represents the unexamined parts of oneself that inspire fear, and both Woodman and van der Kolk urge readers to integrate all the darkest contours of their selves.
Mammalian Behavior
A prominent example of visual and verbal imagery that occurs in the book is when van der Kolk contextualizes human behavior through mammalian behavior. From humans to apes to dogs, there is a shared system of emotional regulation. Van der Kolk draws this comparison when he writes that "Just as your dog cowers if you shout and wags his tail when you speak in a high singsong, we humans respond to harsh voices with fear, anger, or shutdown and to playful tones by opening up and relaxing" (Chapter 5). The expression and complexity of the emotions themselves (as well as how they are regulated) varies between species.
