into survivors' live is integral for their successful mourning and healing. Second,

narratives also cure by sectioning off the hard-to-manage, highly emotionally charged

cluster of events and loosening their grip on those suffering from posttraumatic stress

disorders. In other words, narratives "unravel the traumatic knot" and "break the event

down into smaller conceptual bits, each of which should be subjectively less threatening,

and at the same time much more easily parsed than the memory as a whole."200 Thus,

narratives serve as a "buffer" against the immediacy of raw pain and unexamined

negative associations. It is through the dynamic interaction between the two narrative

modes of integration/assimilation and disintegration/segregation that those with PTSD

learn to weave their traumatic past incident into their lives as one of the distinct markers

of their psychological landscape, putting behind their past as past.

 It is noteworthy that despite the positive effects of narratives, however, suturing the

open wound of trauma by representing and narrating the horrendous experience is a

challenging and even risky task. It is important to bear in mind that narrative healing,

even if it does occur, does not happen in a linear, progressive manner. Nor does the

simple act of narration guarantee healing. Additionally, narration, especially narration of

catastrophic events of great magnitude, often involves a high risk of misrepresentation.

For this reason, George Steiner, Elie Wiesel, and Claude Lanzmann, among others, plead

for respect for the lives lost and for those survivors who are repeatedly put on the spot to

defend themselves against indecent queries and accusations. According to Steiner, "The

world of Auschwitz lies outside speech as it lies outside reason." In "A Plea for the

Survivors," Wiesel has also strongly suggested that the Holocaust be "approached with

fear and trembling" so that people can avoid placing the "stamp of vulgarity and