Healing a Violent World: Healing Invisible Wounds

Boston Globe Health and Science Article Today

An article/essay I wrote, "Trauma Care," is featured in The Boston Globe, Health and Science section today.

Pictured at right is the article, including a featured image of Svang Tor, Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma staff member, and former refugee. She holds her identification photo from her time in a Cambodian refugee camp.

From the article:

Trauma victims can transcend the most horrific events imaginable and go on to lead rich and meaningful lives. Ultimately, traumatized people heal themselves -- and what's more, their experience can teach the rest of us how to deal with the tragedies of everyday life.

You can find the article (for the next couple of days) here:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/health_science/articles/2007/07/02/trauma_care/

The Innocence Project Exoneree Presentation

I promised to post the slides for the March 24 presentation/workshop/discussion with exonerees from wrongful convictions at the Innocence Project Conference at Harvard Law School. It was an honor to speak with you all and to hear your experiences.

Here is the presentation: Download innocence_project.ppt

Humiliating the Wounded Warrior - Walter Reed Op-Ed in Baltimore Sun

Op-Ed, The Baltimore Sun, Sunday, March 25, 2007
by Richard F. Mollica

No amount of money is going to fix the tragedy unfolding under public scrutiny at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Department of Veterans Affairs...Sadly, the ill treatment of injured soldiers is a tale with a long history. The public neglect of Vietnam veterans, for example, is well-known.

It is the genius of the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles that he described our current situation more than 2,000 years ago. In his play Philoctetes, he addresses the condition of every wounded hero: How can traumatized soldiers be made whole again, after terrible events place them in painful and unpredictable circumstances, and our society either ignores or abandons them?  More>

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"Healing Invisible Wounds" Book Reading, Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, MA 2/2/07

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View video of my reading from the book at Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, MA. I discuss human resilience and the potential for psychological self-healing - lessons learned in my 25 years of working with refugee populations and torture survivors. I describe the connections between humiliation, depression, and violence; and the work that remains to be done by acknowledging and supporting the relationship between personal healing, social healing, and social justice.