Sigmund Freud observed that individuals can become fixated on their moment of trauma. The life of Roméo Dallaire is proof of this. Twenty-two years on from the Rwandan genocide, and a little over a decade since the publication of his first book on the conflict, Shake Hands with the Devil, he has written once more of a place and time that holds him captive. He begins his book Waiting for First Light: My Ongoing Battle with PTSD by placing his suffering alongside that of the Ancient Mariner, both men doomed by circumstances beyond their control to a life of emotional pain. This comparison is apt to begin with, but as the general’s past reveals, their shared path down the long road of sorrow diverges. There is an inspiring message embedded in Dallaire’s tale of woe, namely how resilience can kick in, lift a man out of a very dark place, and become the driving force for recovery and redemption. But I am getting ahead of myself.
The subtitle of Dallaire’s...
Anthony Feinstein is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto and author of Journalists Under Fire: The Psychological Hazards of Covering War (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006).
Advertisement
Advertisement