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Journalism of Courage
Celebrated author Salman Rushdie, who was brutally stabbed during a literary event in Chautauqua, western New York in August last year, opened up about the “colossal” attack for the first time, ahead of the release of his new novel, Victory City. Speaking to The NewYoker, the Booker Prize-winning novelist said that he suffers from PTSD and writer’s block after the incident.
“There is such a thing as PTSD, you know,” he said. “I’ve found it very, very difficult to write. I sit down to write, and nothing happens. I write, but it’s a combination of blankness and junk, stuff that I write and that I delete the next day. I’m not out of that forest yet, really.”
Rushdie added that he has never “allowed” himself to use the phrase ‘writer’s block’. “Everybody has a moment when there’s nothing in your head. And you think, Oh, well, there’s never going to be anything. One of the things about being seventy-five and having written twenty-one books is that you know that, if you keep at it, something will come,” he said further.
But, has that happened to Rushdie yet? “Not really. I mean, I’ve tried, but not really,” he replied, adding that he was only lately “just beginning to feel the return of the juices”.
Talking about his injuries, the author shared, “Well, you know, I’ve been better. But, considering what happened, I’m not so bad.”
He added that the “big injuries” have healed. “I have feeling in my thumb and index finger and in the bottom half of the palm. I’m doing a lot of hand therapy, and I’m told that I’m doing very well,” Rushdie said, adding that he can’t type very well ” because of the lack of feeling in the fingertips of these fingers” and just writes “more slowly”.
He also shared that he has been getting nightmares after the attack. “There have been nightmares—not exactly the incident, but just frightening. Those seem to be diminishing. I’m fine. I’m able to get up and walk around. When I say I’m fine, I mean, there are bits of my body that need constant checkups. It was a colossal attack,” he said.
What is PTSD?
Post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD is a disorder that results due to the repercussions associated with the failure to recover from or return to homeostasis after experiencing or witnessing an event that is traumatic, said Drisha Dey, Consultant Psychologist, Kolkata.
She explained that PTSD “may last for years fraught with triggers that bring back memories of the trauma or the state of being experienced during the trauma along with intense emotional and physiological reactions. The body stores the feeling state of the trauma and any reminder brings the body back to the physiological and emotional reactions experienced during the trauma.”
Owing to PTSD, one may experience impairment in daily life functioning, the psychologist said. “The body learns the reaction pattern that allowed it to survive and this knowledge gets deeply embedded and starts showing up when one faces a situation reminiscent of the traumatic experience.”
Agreeing, Shinjini Deb, Clinical Psychologist, Kolkata, said that PTSD can indeed affect day-to-day functioning if the impact of the traumatic event is intense and one has to come to terms with triggers on a daily basis. “Say for example a car accident, the person has to travel to work and is either unable to drive or is scared to go out again because of it. Or a person was molested by an office colleague and the person has to see him/her in the office on a daily basis. He/she might start avoiding going to the office or the side where the person may be,” she explained.
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