Trauma, Rape and Resilience

Trauma, Rape and Resilience

March 5, 2026

It was the story that resulted in international horror.  The story of Gisele Picot and her repeated rape by strange men while drugged by her husband raised disbelief, anger, fear and a strong desire for consequences for all who contributed to this unsuspecting woman’s ordeal.

Her beloved partner of 50 years mixed sleeping and anti-anxiety medication in her food and drink for almost a decade.  Then when she was in a near comatose state, he would rape her, and he invited dozens of men he met online to rape her, too.  He documented it all, in thousands of videos and photographs that he stored in a digital folder called “abuse.”

Mr. Pelicot’s crimes were discovered only because he was caught in a grocery store taking photos up women’s skirts and arrested.  After investigating his computer and phones, the police began the discovery of his years of drugging and raping his wife.

During the subsequent trial, she revealed little of herself.  She was calm and poised and delivered sharp testimony in measured tones.  She did not want to expose herself to any more trauma, but if she remained silent, she would be offering all the men who abused her a kind of anonymity and power over her.  A phrase that inspired her was “Shame has to change sides.”

She has bravely chosen to write a book about her life and the experience entitled “A Hymn to Life.”  What may be most remarkable about Gisele and her book, is her positive outlook.  For the first time in  years, she is looking to the horizon and not  in the rearview mirror.  She wants to work on healing, in particular the relationships with her three children, two of whom broke contact after the traumatizing trial.

While she once felt uncomfortable with her status as a feminist icon, she has now accepted the mantle to honor the thousands of women who wrote her heartfelt letters, lined up outside the courthouse to cheer her and still stop her regularly to thank her.  “Those women truly gave me such incredible strength.”

In writing her new book, She speaks of removing the “emotional body armor” she explains that she learned to don when she was 9 after her mother got ill and died.

Her powerful message to rape victims is “You must not give up on being happy.”

-New York Times, 2/22/2026