Sexual assault is routine. It is happening to women in our country right now, this second. Those women are no doubt leaving their bodies, feeling unreal, narrowing their focus, experiencing a strange slowing of time. None of this means it isn’t happening. In fact, from a neurobiological standpoint, dissociation is good evidence that it did happen, and of the deep and lasting harm it has caused.

More than a decade has passed since the September 11 attacks occurred and the subsequent War on Terror was launched. In that time, 12 sovereign nations have been subject to military invasion or interference, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and injured and millions displaced, and an unprecedented amount of laws have been proliferated radically expanding state and police powers, including intense surveillance of communities and zones of exception such as Guantanamo Bay.