Fiftieth Gate

    Case studies of Post traumatic stress and its symptoms. # Both Uncle Jake Heinrichs and his twin Anne Ogilvie felt inordinate guilt as a result of sitting in the front seat of the car when their father was killed. They were only 19. Each in their own way felt they were in some way responsible for his death. It affected the rest of their lives in different ways. People with PTSD experience continuous trauma.

    Analysis of Christie Blatchford’s Life Sentence # Blatchford # Christie Blatchford was a well-known Canadian journalist, columnist, and author. Ms. Blatchford’s candid and uncompromising writings have earned her a well-deserved reputation as a courageous, fair and objective reporter. Ms. Blatchford has become known for speaking truth to power, and is sensitive to the core Canadian principles of individual liberty and the rule of law. Risking injury to career and reputation, and refusing to be intimidated, she has faced cultural forces and bureaucratic tendencies with steadfast conviction that the light of truth must always prevail.

    The Fiftieth Gate # ** ** The proliferation of holocaust literature in recent years is partly due to most survivors approaching their life’s end so we are eager to hear their stories before they are lost forever and we are determined to prevent the amnesia that allows repetition –that this could happen again. It has been stated; variously ascribed to Santayana, Hegel, Voltaire and others tha*t “those who fail to understand history are condemned to repeat it”*.

    History and Memory # The writing of History is an attempt to record, document and preserve the collective memories of our past. In an attempt for continuity, most societies transmit the accumulated experience, traditions, wisdom and values of their ancestors to younger generations. In oral cultures this was done through myths, dance, legends and songs. In literate cultures recordings are more indelible or permanent. These can be raw data such as church records, documents, paintings, archaeological artefacts, eye witness accounts, letters, narratives; The world’s oldest extant piece of Literature is putatively, The Epic of Gilgamesh.

    The Life and times of Anne Ogilvie #

    Memory # We assume our memories to be accurate and reliable, however they can easily become subjective and therefore biased, selective, distorted, imaginary, fantasised, deceptive and sometimes even delusionary. Psychologists believe that often our memories are merely a memory of the last time we recalled an event and therefore contaminated. Memories are generally triggered by an event, a comment or a sensory perception. Pliable memories can be readily manipulated or contaminated into false memories.

    Post Traumatic Stress Disorder # A disorder, in the past referred to as nerves, a mental break down or shell shock, that often went undiagnosed. It is closely associated with obsessive compulsive disorder. For 33 years, the American Psychiatric Association classified OCD as an anxiety disorder— but in May 2013 the A.P.A. redesignated it as an impulse disorder. PTSD is a condition that may not appear to be obvious. It can creep up unwarily from experiences deeply embedded in the unconscious - something you have successfully suppressed over many years, but suddenly triggered by an event or repressed memory.

    The past and future # Cultures are formed and transmitted by varied means by our ancestors, both immediate and long past. The shared values, customs and beliefs are imbued into our national psyches. The inspiration of the known reflects upon the new, while the new resonates with the known. The lessons of the past must be learned in order to avoid repetition so that we learn to identify with our shared inheritance.