THE RING-SHAPED ISLAND:
A New Metaphor for Speaking of Trauma
10. References and Notes
References
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Acknowledgement: The translation into English was done with the help of Kaoru Aoyama and John J. Tobin. I greatly appreciate their excellent linguistic skills and warm support.
Notes
1. ‘Ring-shaped’ is a mathematical term, which refers to a doughnut shape. The island could be called ‘crater island,’ ‘doughnut shaped island,’ ‘ring island’ or ‘circle island’ as well. I chose ‘ring-shaped’ because the abstractness of the word, despite the initial unfamiliarity, might produce a more vivid and persistent image.
2. The ethnographic research methods I employed include participant observations and interviews (one to one as well as group interviews) in the course of case conferences, supervisions, peer supervisions, supporters’ group meetings, academic conferences and other opportunities. As a kind of “native anthropologist” in the field of “ the helping professions”, it is difficult to separate my research activities from my work in general. My fieldwork in the U.S., Peru and Argentina, especially interviews and discussions with colleagues in similar fields, has been very helpful in testing the model’s applicability outside of Japan.
3. The idea of adding a third dimension (altitude = ability to speak) to a ring shape (concentric circles) on the map of the atomic bomb is my original idea, not directly derived from victims’ narratives in my clinical or ethnographic work. The three dimensional figure gave rise to the image of an island with an inner sea. The metaphors of gravity, wind and water were inspired by the image of the island, and the whole model gradually took shape. From there I used it as a working model, which worked well and became my survival map. It also helped some victims to figure out where they and others stand. Detailed analyses of clinical cases, court decisions, victim’s memoires, and the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake using this model are in (-----, 2007; -----, 2011). Although my model was probably inspired by the natural environment and the linguistic traditions of Japan (for example the existence of many idioms and expressions employing natural elements), the images of an island, gravity, wind and water must be readily available in other parts of the world as well.
4. Some of them were already there at the time of an atrocity and others went into the area later to rescue the affected or to investigate and report on the situation.
5. For a discussion of ‘ignorance’, Sedgwick’s concept of ‘privilege of unknowing’ is valuable (Sedgwick, 1990).
6. A survivor of a gang rape commented on this model that she prefers clean water so that she can see other victims even when she and they are not on the island.
7. According to a Japanese government survey, 7.3% of women experienced of being raped and 62.6% of them told no one about it. Only 4.1% of them went to the police (Naikakufu, 2009).
8. Improvements in the legal process such as shielding a testifying witness from view, or using in camera hearings to take testimony in private only began in 2000 in Japan.
9. On the intelligibility and credibility of clinical narratives in the refugee’s asylum seeking process, see (Kirmayer, 2007). In a different vein, Butler’s work on intelligibility in relation to body and society (Butler, 1993) is also very stimulating.
10. Emphasis on evidence-based medicine and the notion of trauma symptoms as solely pathological, and the current PTSD treatment paradigm which values disclosure, memory and meaning, might raise the water level (Rousseau & Measham, 2007).
11. Regarding the change in water level on the issue of domestic violence in Japan, see (-----, 2002).
12. The question of positionality is usually posed from the victimized standing on the inner slope to their supporters on the outer slope of the TI. The question cannot be addressed to the people in the outer sea (because they do not listen), and it can push supporters into the outer sea.
13. Three researchers’ positions can be considered: a “helicopter” position for an etic kind of research; a fieldworker position for an emic kind of research emphasizing participatory observation as if to see the world from the ground level; and a “survivor researcher” position in which the victimized, or the actor who is the focus itself of the research, studies her/his own issue by looking at it from the inner sea and the inner slope. “Survivor research” involving post-colonialism, feminism, disability studies can be both liberating and painful. For details, see (-----, 2007)