One of the interesting thoughts I had during the reading came up in chapter 6. The subject “losing your body” and the notion of sensory, and the complicated relationship that is inscribed between the body, the senses, and the mind. I did a Literature Review in high school that studied Music and its impact on the brain, and one of the terms that came up was “DSN” — that term returns as they compare the brains of “normal” Canadians against those who had a history of trauma, and when observing the contrasts between the brains – it was terrifying to think about.

The idea that those who experienced trauma earlier in life had taught their body to “deaden” itself to certain feelings is shocking. The author describes the interplay with concepts of “self” and in trying to explain how it might affect their day-to-day life such as their struggle with a sense of self and purpose, to the point where they might not even recognize themselves in the mirror, further reinforces the significant impact that trauma can have in terms of long-lasting impact.

The deep interplay of the “sense of self” and the body is something that I find interesting and want to do more reading on. The concepts of agency combined with selfhood draw back to how important this concept of “identity” might be, not just as a “literary” or “self-discovery” element, but on a biological and fundamental level.