The Silent Patient: Unmasking PTSD and Psychological Eclipse Syndrome
"Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways."
Imagine a mind so haunted by trauma that it goes as far as crying for help in silence. This is what Alicia Berenson, the main character of Alex Michaelides's book, *The Silent Patient*, epitomizes. After committing a violent act, Alicia locks herself away from the world into complete silence, withdrawing inward to a place where words can no longer touch her. She speaks loudly not with her voice but with her silence. Her silence speaks volumes of the unutterable intricacies hidden deep within the human mind.
What if Alicia's condition were more than muteness based on trauma? What if we termed the creation of such a phenomenon, where a fortress is built in the psyche so indestructible that the host person is unaware of the walls they have erected? Let's call it **"Psychological Eclipse Syndrome."** As the moon eclipses the sun, the conscious mind forms an abode of unbearable truth, leaving a shadow—an absence that haunts existence.
For Alicia, the trauma was not a one-time incident but rather a slow build up, just like a dam ready to burst. Her silent protest against the world—her refusal to explain why she shot her husband—is a form of emotional self-defense. It's as if her mind has pressed pause, choosing to mute the agony instead of facing it.
This Psychological Eclipse Syndrome is not all fiction; it only represents a larger aspect of reality that seems to protect the brain from overwhelming pain. In some cases, people who suffer psychological trauma may dissociate, withdraw, or create a mental block to avoid confronting deep-seated fears or memories. Silence then becomes a coping mechanism-a way of preserving what is left of their sanity.
A similar case with Alicia's muteness and outburst of violence reflects how people dealing with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, C-PTSD, or other dissociative disorders deal with emotional overload in real life. The mind, overwhelmed with emotional overload, may cut the connection between thought and speech, between what is felt and what is expressed. This is not due to a personal choice but due to the psychological eclipse, unable to speak amidst darkness.
Ultimately, Alicia's silence is not just the lack of words but a protection mechanism, a scream cemented under layers of psychological rubble. *The Silent Patient* reminds us of how easily trauma can imprison us sometimes without our realization, and finding one's voice again is perhaps the hardest journey of all.
