Journal of Traumatic Stress, Vol. 3, No. 3, 1990
« A True Child of Trauma » – Sarah Haley: 1939-1989
Chaim F. Shatan
At the Tufts University memorial for Sarah Haley (October 7, 1989),
ail types of people whose lives she had touched were present: her brothers,
sisters-in-Iaw, niece, and nephew; friends; V.A. clinicians; her psychiatrist;
comrades from the Vietnam veterans movement; colleagues from the Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. Most poignant was the presence of veterans
from three wars which spanned her lifetime.
A black Vietnam veteran spoke about the difference she had made in
his life by never giving up on him – even though, for her, there was no financial gain. A veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars told us how she had
saved his life when the memory of his atrocities made him suicidal. He said
that she gave up on no one, and that her dedication was much deeper than
just doing a job. He added that he would go anywhere and promote any
cause that furthered the work set in motion by Sarah Haley. A veteran, badly scarred by burns suffered in World War II, moved us by his quiet yet in-
tense account of her profound grasp of his suffering. « We are her living
memorial, » he concluded. Her brother Tom spoke about those aspects of
her life that were most personal, rendering meaningful her passage from the
beginning of her life to the Sarah Haley we knew, respected, and loved. After hearing Tom talk, Erwin Parson said: « Sarah was a true child of trauma. »
Fifteen years earlier, Nick Egleson reporter for the Village Voice of
New York) called me and asked if l’d ever heard of Sarah Haley’. 1 said that
1 hadn’t. He said: « You ought to read her paper ‘When the Patient Reports
Atrocities.’ She’s been working with Vietnam veterans since 1969 and 1 just
spent an hour and a half on the phone with her. »
I got her paper from the New York Academy of Medicine. It let loose
in me an instinctive flood of startled recognition. 1 contacted her at once
because 1 felt grateful and nourished by its rich draught of life. Her work
seemed absolutely natural and inevitable. Here was someone else, sort of
like you, saying things about pain and sorrow; about death, fear, and darkness; about helpfulness and hope, that meant something. I invited her to take part in a round table on « War Babies » at the 1975 meeting of the American
’Orthopsychiatric Association in Washington. She had already noticed the
impact of homecoming Vietnam veterans on their wives and children. At the
round table, she presented a paper entitled « Guerrilla Warfare and the Magic Years. » Little did I know, then, from what deep wellsprings of personal
experience as a war baby she spoke. It was no wonder that her projected
book of Vietnam veteran cases was dedicated to her father, Joseph Dennis Haley. As a World War II veteran, he had not only caused her pain, but
taught her a great deal about the relationship between the Veterans Administration and war veterans.
Pour lire la suite de l’article, consulter le Journal of Traumatic Stress, Vol. 3, No. 3, 1990
Pour lire la suite de l’article, consulter le Journal of Traumatic Stress, Vol. 3, No. 3, 1990
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Autres billets dédiés à Sarah Haley
1/ Hommage à Sarah Haley an incest victim involved in the acceptance of PTSD
