THE RING-SHAPED ISLAND:
A New Metaphor for Speaking of Trauma
3. Comparison with the Conical Island
The use of the RSI model may become clearer when compared with another model, the ‘conical island.’
The latter does not possess an inner sea but rather a mountain with its highest point at the center. Compared to the RSI in Figure 3, the right lateral view would look like Figure 4: the nearer to the ground zero of a trauma a sufferer stands, the more assertive s/he would ostensibly become.
Figure 4. Right lateral view of conical island.
Although we often assume that the more serious a person’s injury, the more a sufferer has the right and actual ability to speak out about a traumatic incident, those most gravely affected would be dead.
And even if some did survive, they would need certain preconditions to be met in order to speak out: motivation, intellectual capacity, the ability to communicate, and logic would be vital. Literacy or the ability to use the language of the listener might be required.
For a survivor’s story to be convincing, theatrical presentation or social credibility (such as having a respectable job, or a legal status to live, not prostitutes or drug addicts or undocumented workers) might also be necessary.
The threshold resources required for the survivor would be physical strength and capacity. Time, of course, is necessary, as is sufficient general hope and trust in others to believe that someone may listen.
The survivor should also be used to speaking publicly or to strangers, or to writing, or have the opportunity to practice these skills. S/he should be in an environment that rewards or encourages self-expression.
Also essential is possessing the minimal self-esteem that will allow the survivor to speak up.
As is well known, it is precisely these factors that are missing when individuals face long-term trauma such as domestic violence.