The Sicilian Approach to Trauma

When people ask my views on how to work with trauma, I usually abstain from response primarily because I code what
people refer to as trauma through a different lens that does not accord with the American modality. 

Sicilians tend to view
trauma and healing very differently from Americans. As one of the most conquered islands, from both invasion and volcano,
they’ve taken a novel approach; laugh much and drink poison, drink liquor.  

The laugh much is
a result of having faced mortality on a regular basis from both
invasions and volcanos and developing an invincibility, a laughing in the face of a death that looms close.    

There’s a freedom when nothing threatens you, but it is not an initiation many would face willingly.  

In terms of drink poison, drink liquor the idea stems from the Taceto plant. Tansy in English. Ingested without proper curing it can kill, but when used as a curative; something that inoculates 
and intoxicates at once,
it is said that you can live forever.  


Sicilans take the exact opposite approach
to Americans;
they seek out the poison,
work with it,
ingest it and inject it into pre-existing wounds.

This would look like
turning up the volume on what disturbs us, rather than turning it down. Some of us call this art.