Resisting Attrition in Stories of Trauma

Abstract

From my perspective as an oral historian who is interested in narratives of trauma, Rita Charon's essay prompts the reminder that memory is something that sets out to capture something else that is already lost. As I think about the project of telling in the profession of medicine, which seeks to repair that which may be already broken, it occurs to me: oral history does have a place at this grand table if in even a very humble way (stealing up to it as a service worker perhaps, an eaves dropper on what is being said, while refilling those great empty Jamesean cups). I am reminded of the paper a wonderful intellectual, Parita Mukta, recently pre sented at the meeting of the International Oral History Association in Rome enti tled The Attrition of Memories: Ethics, Moralities and Futures. Attrition she defined as that process of friction or gradual wearing out that leads to a loss of feeling sorry for sin or contrition that is required for ethical life. The question she asked in her paper was why, with the rise of the spectacular media coverage of vi olence against ethnic groups in her own home country of India, and terrorism across the globe, is there an of real understanding, communication, and sorrow over that which has been lost. She writes, It is as if despite the most so phisticated and committed use of various media in exposing and laying bare the flagrant abuse of power by brutal governments, civic authorities and those often (faceless) murderers ... there is both an overload of evidence testifying to the vio lence of the contemporary times that permeates all aspects of life, as well as a lack of knowledge of real suffering (Mukta). Her purpose is to understand how the attrition of memories occurs, where the very heart of the communications