When Words Become Wounds

How Trusted Voices Shape Our Health, Identity, and Freedom

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What is this book all about?
Table of Contents
What the Readers Say?
About the Author

What is this book all about?

Words do more than communicate ideas—they shape bodies, identities, and lives.

From Wound to Word explores a powerful but often overlooked truth: when language is spoken under authority, it becomes biologically embedded. A parent’s judgment, a teacher’s label, a doctor’s prognosis, or a partner’s verdict may be uttered once, yet its effects can echo across a lifetime—shaping emotional regulation, health, identity, and freedom.

Drawing on neuroscience, psychology, sociology, evolutionary theory, and clinical practice, this book examines how trusted voices—parents, teachers, medical professionals, clergy, fortune-tellers, digital influencers, intimate partners, and friends—become internal authorities. What begins as guidance and protection can, under certain conditions, harden into obedience, silence, and embodied distress.

Integrating attachment theory, polyvagal theory, trauma research, salutogenesis, and the biopsychosocial model, From Wound to Word shows how language operates as a biological, psychological, and social force. It traces the pathways through which authority wounds are transmitted across relationships and institutions—and how those same pathways can be reclaimed for healing, coherence, and agency.

Rather than framing recovery as rebellion against authority, this work presents healing as the maturation of authority: a return to authorship, integrity, and self-directed meaning. With clarity and depth, it offers a compelling framework for individuals, clinicians, educators, and institutions seeking to move from control to care, from fragmentation to coherence, and from inherited narratives to conscious creation.

This book will resonate with readers interested in mental health, trauma, authority, social systems, and the quiet power of language to wound—or to heal.

Table of Contents

	Dedication	iii
	Who Am I, and Why Did I Write This Book?	v
	Table of Contents	vii
	Acknowledgements	ix

Part One: Setting the Scene
1	Introduction: The Voices We Trust, the Wounds We Carry	1
Part Two: The Architect of Harm
2	Radical Helplessness: The Birth of Vulnerability	11
3	The Power and Peril of Words	21
4	Authority: Foundation of Narrative Imprint	31
Part Three: The Trusted Voices that Wound
5	Parents: First Gods of Existence	41
6	Teachers: Makers of Minds and Labels	53
7	Doctors: The Burden of Prognosis and Certainty	65
8	Clergy: The Language of Sin, Karma, and Judgement	79
9	Seers and Systems: Scripts of Fate and Fear	93
10	Influencers: The Algorithm of the Wound	105
11	Partners and Friends: Intimate Voices, Subtle Wounds	117
Part Four: The Mechanisms of Internalisation
12	The Personal Equation of Pain: Why Words Affect Us Differently	133
13	The Wound of Authority: Why Trust Amplifies Harm	143
14	The Architecture of Complicity: Silence, Fear, and Obedience	149
15	The Inner Empire: How External Words Become the Self	159
Part Five: The Cultural Amplification & Inheritance
16	The Collective Echo: Culture and the Reinforced Wound	169
17	The Inheritance of Obedience: How Trauma Becomes Tradition	181
18	The Web of Life: Healing the Systemic Entanglement	189
Part Six: Entrapment, Liberation & Autonomy
19	The Identity of Suffering: Why We Cling to Our Wounds	199
20	The Prison of Language: How Words Shape Our Reality	207
21	The Cost of Obedience: Health, Stress, and Erosion of Self	215
22	The Biology of Defiance: The Courage to Feel and to Speak	223
23	The Language of Liberation: Reclaiming Authority	231
Conclusion
24	From Wound to Word, from Repair to Creation	237
Back Matters
1	References	243
2	About the Author	263
3	Author’s Other Publications	264

What the Readers Say

“A profound and unsettling examination of how language, when carried by authority, becomes biologically embedded. Drawing seamlessly on neuroscience, psychotherapy, and social theory, this book reveals how words shape identity, health, and freedom—and how reclaiming authorship is a genuine act of healing.”

“This book gives language back its weight. With clarity and compassion, it shows how seemingly ordinary words from parents, teachers, doctors, and partners can become lifelong inner laws—and how those laws can finally be questioned and rewritten. Essential reading for therapists and anyone working with trauma, anxiety, or shame.”

“Once you read this, you will never hear authority the same way again. This is a powerful, humane guide to understanding how words wound—and how awareness can return agency, dignity, and freedom. A rare book that is intellectually rigorous and deeply liberating.”

"An essential read for young couples and new parents navigating the emotional challenges of pregnancy and early parenthood. Feeding Anxiety to Your Kids reveals how parental anxiety can shape a child's development from the very start—and offers empowering strategies to foster emotional security and resilience from infancy.”

About the Author

Dr. Bandara Bandaranayake completed his B.Ed. (Honors) Degree and MPhil Degree at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and earned his PhD from Monash University, Australia, on a Monash Graduate Scholarship. After completing his first degree, Dr. Bandaranayake joined the Ministry of Education in Sri Lanka, where he served as a secondary school teacher before advancing to senior administrative roles in the Education Service. Following his PhD and a brief tenure at Monash University, he transitioned to the public service. Over the course of three decades, he held senior positions at the Department of Internal Affairs (New Zealand), the Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development (Australia), and the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (Australia). Dr. Bandaranayake’s research interests span evolutionary psychology, educational psychology, cultural anthropology, educational governance, ethics and integrity, public sector reforms, and public policy. He has authored several books and numerous journal articles in these fields. Currently, Dr. Bandaranayake is engaged in psychotherapy practice and independent research, continuing to contribute to his areas of expertise with a focus on both theoretical insights and practical applications.

Email: bandaranayakeb@gmail.com