Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... Shin Dong-hyuk has undergone these horrors, which has made him unprepared to live in the contemporary world, finding it difficult to adjust to a totally different environment with freedom. Being psychologically free refers to freedom from attachment and from identifying with anything. In addition, psychological freedom also refers to when an individual is a being, rather than a knowing or a doing. Because of his experiences in prison camp 14, which have resulted in classical symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and Stockholm syndrome, Shin has been unable to gain psychological freedom.
Shin Dong-hyuk was born in a North Korean prison camp and lived under harsh and inhuman conditions for the first twenty-four years of his life. This was a period material, physical, and emotional deprivation for Shin, who underwent physical abuse and torture before making a successful escape from the prison camp (Harden 12). However, he escaped with scars consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder, such as flashbacks, nightmares, and panic attacks, which have denied him psychological freedom. Although he has received treatment for his posttraumatic stress disorder, he still finds himself in the grip of anger and fear, while he does not want to be alone with his thoughts for a long time because they trouble him (Harden 14).
Shin has been unable to attain psychological freedom because of his trauma’s fundamental psychological effect, which is the shattering of his innocence. His experiences in prison camp 14 have led him to lose faith in any meaning, predictability, and safety in the world or any safe place that he can retreat to, including his family, which reinforces his feeling of isolation (Harden 167). His body or mind did not process his traumatic experiences at the prison camp, unlike other experiences. This is most likely due to their shocking and overwhelming ...Download file to see next pagesRead More