We Were Liars: Adolescence, Trauma, and the Mind’s Need to Forget
Year: 2024
Format: TV Series
Based on the novel by: E. Lockhart
Starring: Emily Alyn Lind, Shubham Maheshwari, Esther McGregor, Joseph Zada
What does it feel like to grow up when something terrible has happened, but your mind refuses to let you remember it?
We Were Liars is a haunting, emotionally restrained series that explores adolescent trauma, grief, and dissociation. It draws viewers into the interior world of a teen whose mind has learned to survive by forgetting. The series offers an unsettling portrait of trauma as it often appears in adolescents: quiet, disorienting, and shaped as much by adult silence as by loss itself.
Scroll down for the PsychiaTRICs Score as our psychiatrist weighs in on what this TV series gets right, and where it falls short, in its portrayal of adolescent trauma, dissociation, and grief.
Synopsis
Cadence Sinclair is a teenage girl returning to her family’s private island after a summer she cannot fully remember following a head injury. Once a place of closeness, ritual, and belonging, the island now feels unfamiliar. Cadence experiences chronic headaches, emotional disconnection, and gaps in her memory, struggling to understand why her sense of self no longer aligns with the life she once knew.
As she reunites with her cousins and closest friends, fragments of the past begin to surface. However, the adults around her maintain a careful silence, preserving normalcy while avoiding direct acknowledgment of what occurred. In the absence of shared language or emotional guidance, Cadence is left to navigate her confusion largely on her own.
As Cadence unravels what happened, she is confronted with the full force of the trauma, forced to either hold the truth this time or retreat once again into the amnesia that has protected her before.
Key Mental Health Themes
Dissociation as a Protective Response in Adolescence
We Were Liars depicts dissociation as a protective response that emerges when trauma becomes too overwhelming to integrate. In adolescence, when the brain is still developing the ability to hold emotion, memory, and meaning together, dissociation can function as a way to survive devastating experiences. Cadence’s memory gaps, emotional disconnection, and fragmented sense of self reflect a mind working to contain trauma that exceeds what she is able to process.
Midway through the series, even as Cadence becomes increasingly determined to uncover what happened, her vulnerability remains clear. When she comes close to remembering, her body responds before her mind can hold the truth, and she retreats once again into amnesia. The series shows how dissociation can recur when traumatic material is encountered before an adolescent feels emotionally safe enough to hold it, even when the desire to know is strong.
Guilt and Self-Blame in Adolescent Trauma
The series also highlights the powerful role of guilt in adolescent trauma. Cadence carries a profound sense of responsibility for what occurred, which complicates both her grief and her memory. In adolescents, guilt and self-blame can intensify emotional withdrawal, reinforcing dissociation when the emotional consequences of remembering feel unbearable. We Were Liars captures how guilt can tether trauma to identity, shaping how teens understand themselves in the aftermath of loss.
Adult Silence and Its Psychological Consequences
A central theme of the series is the impact of adult silence following trauma. In We Were Liars, Cadence’s mother initially attempts to explain what happened, but each conversation overwhelms Cadence and is followed by renewed distress and retreat into amnesia. Over time, these reactions lead the adults around her to stop naming the event altogether, an understandable attempt to protect her from further harm.
As time passes, however, this silence becomes its own burden. Without ongoing opportunities to revisit what happened at a pace Cadence can tolerate, she is left without shared language or emotional guidance, and her symptoms are forced to carry what words do not. From a mental health perspective, the series illustrates how protective silence, when prolonged, can deepen confusion and isolation, highlighting the importance of remaining open to questions and revisiting trauma in developmentally appropriate ways as adolescents grow and their capacity to process it changes.
PsychiaTRICs Score: We Were Liars
Themes (Mental Health): 3.5/5
Why? – The series engages thoughtfully with trauma, grief, dissociation, and guilt, but these themes remain largely implicit until later in the narrative. Its mystery-driven structure limits sustained exploration of Cadence’s psychological experience.
Real-Life Relevance: 4/5
Why? – Dissociation, post-traumatic amnesia, and guilt following overwhelming trauma are experiences that can occur in children and adolescents. The show reflects fairly well how these symptoms may emerge when young people are unable to process what has happened.
Impact (Emotional/Artistic): 4/5
Why? – The gradual unraveling of the truth is emotionally compelling and helps contextualize the severity of the trauma. The reveal effectively communicates why forgetting became necessary for survival.
Clinical Reflection: 2.5/5
Why? – While the series depicts the psychological consequences of trauma, it offers little insight into treatment or recovery. Viewers are not shown how an adolescent like Cadence might work through trauma with therapy, medication, or higher levels of care.
Final Verdict – 14/20
We Were Liars offers a compelling journey alongside Cadence as she confronts the truth of her trauma, inviting viewers into the emotional weight of that reckoning. While the series lingers with her at the moment of understanding, it does not stay with her long enough to explore what healing might look like.
