Re-enactment
The phenomenon that drives the repetition of past traumatic events is called re-enactment. It is the final destination of the downward spiral in the development of trauma symptoms.
It represents the organism’s attempt to complete the natural cycle of activation and de-activation that accompanies the response to a threat.
Re-enactment is more compelling, more mysterious, and more destructive to us as individuals, as a society, and as a world community. In the re-enactment the world may be our stage. In remaining external, it also remains unchanged.
Hence, re-enactment rarely accomplishes its intended task. It is sad we live in a culture that doesn’t honor the internal world of dreams, feelings, images, and sensations.
Consequently, when our experience demands it, we are not prepared. Rather than negotiate it skillfully, we are more likely to re-enact it.
It is easier to maintain a social structure that appears to be in control of itself. However, by internalizing our natural propensity to resolve ‘life threatening’ events, we deny that the need even exists, and thus it remains hidden.
