A Convenient Term

A rare case: the book comments on itself. Ashley names what she sees “a trauma bond” — the term is accurate; we use it in this very codex. But the text honestly shows what she needs the term for: it “sorted chaos into compartments” and allowed her to believe that everything could be fixed through the proper intervention.

A label is a tool with a false bottom: it makes the terrible thinkable, but it can become a shield against the living person. To name is not yet to understand; a diagnosis is not a door, only the sign on one. Help begins where, behind the term, one can again see the particular Simon — who never fits into the term entirely. This is a warning to our “Psychology” section as well.