Mind

Much of the literature about the legacy of experiences of violence looks at whether the brain is changed from the experience. But in spite of a myriad of articles about the changes to the brain and the way in which memories of trauma are stored, my questions about memory and ability in the adult learning process were not answered by the literature I read or the therapists I interviewed. In the literature there were suggestions about trauma causing “damage” and links between trauma and learning disability. For example:

Physiological hyperarousal interferes with the capacity to concentrate and to learn from experience. Aside from amnesias about aspects of the trauma, traumatized people often have trouble remembering ordinary events as well. Easily triggered into hyperarousal by trauma-related stimuli, and beset with difficulties in paying attention, they may display symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. After a traumatic experience people often lose some maturational achievements and regress to earlier modes of coping with stress. ..... in adults it is expressed as excessive dependence and in a loss of capacity to make thoughtful, autonomous decisions. (van der Kolk, 1996, p.422).

Though the implications of such research for literacy learning raised many questions, the unproblematic creation of those who have experienced trauma as “other” was disturbing. One group of literacy learners were very clear that they did not like the concept of “damage” to the mind because they felt that it suggested no hope, and was diminishing.

I asked various counselors whether trauma affects current memory and if so, is it permanent. Several said that they were asking themselves the same questions. A key question for literacy programming is whether it would make any difference to literacy workers or to learners to know whether psychological difficulties with learning come from trauma. Would it lead to different ways to teach? Perhaps the issue compares with learning disability. For some learners, the label of learning disability has been helpful for them to free themselves from feeling stupid. For others it can seem medical, just another label, which does not help them learn. Similarly, a suggestion that problems with memory may be a result of trauma might make it easier for some learners to feel less stupid. Other learners might experience such a judgment as negative.

One learner I interviewed said eloquently that damage felt like a “put down” and sounded unfixable. She said that abuse causes so much pain that the mind blocks the pain, and so learning may also be blocked. She felt that the way in which the mind protects itself suggested that far from not working, the mind is working brilliantly. She said that she felt her mind was filled with all the ways in which she was reacting to the violence and that took energy away from new learning:

My mind is already being used, my mind is not damaged, my mind is busy.

Sandra Butler refers to this “busy-ness” as a natural and healthy response to prolonged stress that is a consequence of trauma, which requires various coping behaviors that result in increased difficulty in concentration (Butler, 1992). She calls this “trauma stress.” Several learners stressed how much difficulty they had learning during crises and suggested that it would have been helpful to have been told that was common, so they did not blame their own stupidity.

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