Silence as a coping mechanism

."She wants me to flay myself, to dig deep, to mine all that I have swallowed. Perhaps even drag Little Ahmed up, muddy water dripping from pale brow... No. »"p75

"Basic affective controls are barely intact, and patient relies on a variety of defense mechanisms to contain the underlying failed psychotic process, including intellectualization, compartmentalization and repression. In particular the patient exhibits severe detachment from physical and emotional experience, with at least one recorded episode of psychogenic amnesia.”p79

“I showed the doctor what silence was then. It was a silence so extreme, it seemed, at times, that I was the only person left in the whole world, so complete was my dissociation from everything around me. »p172

“And it seemed to me that the only way to counter this cacophony was to go quiet, to express nothing. The only reasonable response was to fill myself up with silence.”p172