Blues and Emotional Trauma

The process of bringing the visceral, bodily aspect of emotional experience into language plays a vital role in the working
through of painful emotional states. Such visceral-linguistic unities are achieved in a dialogue of emotional understanding,
and it is in such dialogue that experiences of emotional trauma can be held and transformed into endurable and namable painful
feelings. The blues is a wonderful example of such dialogue. In the unifying experience of the blues, songwriter, performers,
and listeners are joined in a visceral-linguistic conversation in which universally traumatizing aspects of human existence
can be communally held and borne.