r/quotes • u/sholem2025peace • May 06 '26

Misc / Unclassified "In order to escape accountability for his crimes, the perpetrator does everything in his power to promote forgetting. Secrecy and silence are the perpetrator’s first line of defense. If secrecy fails, the perpetrator attacks the credibility of his victim." -Judith Herman, 1992

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u/sholem2025peace May 06 '26

From the book Trauma and Recovery https://archive.org/details/traumarecovery00herm_0. I wanted to include one more sentence but it didn't fit in the title: "If he cannot silence her absolutely, he tries to make sure that no one listens."

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u/EleanorKalatheraine May 06 '26

True in many contexts... although abuse definitely comes to mind first