Giving Voice to Silence: Empowerment and Disempowerment in the Developmental Shift from Trauma ‘Victim’ to ‘Survivor-Advocate’

In the past several years, a public conversation in the United States about interpersonal violence has flourished, sustained by the work of advocates who are themselves survivors. This surge in public sharing of trauma stories is a rhetorical form of resistance to ideologies in mainstream American culture that impose silence on survivors (e.g., the “just world” belief). However, the developmental progression from trauma ‘victim’ to empowered public ‘survivor/advocate’ accommodates to dominant American cultural preferences that stories of adversity have a redemptive story line. In a redemptive story, negative experiences are followed by something positive (e.g., personal growth, lessons learned, strength gained). In this paper, we draw from theory and the sparse relevant literature across multiple disciplines to conceptualize when and for whom the redemptive storying of trauma (or, redemptive master narrative) is available, advantageous, and systemically encouraged. Among the proposed advantages of redemptive storying are its psychological health benefits; potential to empower self and others; promotion of meaning-making, mission, and communal solidarity; and the larger social/political changes that can emerge from giving voice to silenced experiences. Proposed challenges to redemptive storying include layers of societal oppression and marginalization that shape the redemption stories of many survivor-advocates; ongoing connection to or dependence on relationships and communities that enable abuse; and the reality of historical trauma and other forms of intergenerational trauma, which complicate the linear, individualistic story of redemption. With this theory-driven framework, we wish to promote compassion for survivors, along with interdisciplinary, inclusive, and intersectional research in this understudied area.