Solemn Witness: A Pilgrimage to Ground Zero at the World Trade Center

Abstract

A visit to ground zero of the World Trade Center debris site became more than a voyeuristic tour. It became a personal pilgrimage into reflections on the connections between personal and political traumas, between the most intimate of tragedies and the most global of nightmares. A narration of travel experiences in a walk around the disaster zone is punctuated with considerations of how therapy can dialogue with trauma and how it may be possible to transcend cycles of violence and vengeance for both individuals and societies.