The True Power of Stories

1096 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Wars effect on literature

Story telling is something extremely powerful. Stories are used as an escape, a connection, or a memory. In “How To Tell A True War Story”, by veteran and author Tim O’Brien, stories were used to help keep the author sane after fighting in a brutal war. In “Selections from Reading Lolita in Tehran”, written by Azar Nafisi an author and activist, Nafisi explains how escaping reality through works of fiction helped her keep her individuality and sanity during a time of great struggle in her homeland of Iran. Opposing these two authors ideas is Martha Stout’s, a clinical psychologist, “When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday”, by scientifically examining her patients experiences to explain the phenomenon of dissociation. Stout’s definition of dissociation was described in a way that it has varying levels, from slight to monumental, and how it disrupts people lives and changes their sense of self. In all three of these pieces it is clear to see that dissociation is used differently, and has different effects on each scenario. Dissociation is often linked to healing, but it is not a method of healing, it is a method of coping with tragedy. People utilize different aspects such as imagination and fiction as tools to aid their dissociation, but in the end they are still forced to come back and face the harsh reality of their lives. The true question is if dissociating helps protect or if it harms the delicate sense of self. This essay will explain how these tools, of imagination and fiction, are used to shield the person’s sense of identity, and whether dissociation is helping them or harming them.

The mind is fragile, so when it breaks it ‘heals’ in different ways, but it is never truly healed. In Stout’s work she describes many ...

... middle of paper ...

... times of great struggle, times where it would have been much easier to fade into the background because that was expected. Instead they fought against their traumas, using their minds, to shield and shelter them, through this tactic they both pulled through, but they only won the battle not the war.

In conclusion, dissociation is not a form of healing. It cannot change what has already happened, nor can it change when or if it will happen again. What dissociation does do is protect the mind so that the individual can cope, and move on in their lives. From these three authors it is clear that surviving is the one of the biggest win that trauma patients can aim for, along with their individuality, and a strong sense of self. Many people, like Stout’s patients, lose pieces of themselves through this process of protecting themselves, because they are not there.

Show More
Related

  • Martha Stout’s When I Woke up On Tuesday, It Was Friday

    1557 Words  | 4 Pages

    Dissociation can occur any time in our life and there is two kinds of dissociation, childhood and adulthood. Child dissociation is different from adult dissociation. Child dissociation occurs when the child is actually experiencing some sort of trauma, like abuse. Adult dissociation happens in situations like stress or family related issues. Another difference is that child dissociation does not last very long (usually a hour), but adult dissociation lasts for a longer period of time. Dissociation occurs when something so painful is happening that the mind leaves the body to go elsewhere. In Martha Stout’s essay “When I Woke up On Tuesday, It Was Friday,” she defines dissociation as the mind leaving the body and transporting our awareness to a place so far away, it feels like the person is watching from outside their body. In her essay, she tells her audience about the dangers of dissociation, such as blackout, unable to relate to others, a sense of not knowing who one is, and the sense of lost time. She also includes some of her patient’s stories and experiences with dissociation, how they struggle for sanity and how she helps them see a new meaning of life. She tells her audience that often when patients or people dissociate they have lack of self-control and self-awareness. Dissociation can happen to anybody in a dire situation, for instance a child getting abused or some other traumatic event. Martha Stout has her audience/reader rethink about dissociation particularly the harmful side of it. She has help me see that although dissociation is helpful, it could lead to suicide thought, accidents, loss of identity and sanity.

    Read More

  • Stitches By David Small: Textual Analysis

    581 Words  | 2 Pages

    For my topic I have chosen to write on how this graphic text was David’s way of using literature as an outlet to deal with his traumatic experiences. Literature allowed Small the freedom to deal with his fears through fantasy, and seek an alternative reality that displays his trauma in unique ways. Part of David’s healing process was empowered by reconstructing the story and transforming his ordinary memories. It is understandable why Small chose a graphic memoir instead of a purely verbal memoir because where words were no longer sufficient, his drawings supplemented and gave meaning. This is why the graphic memoir plays such an important role in his healing process because Small was able to recreate his childhood memories into images in the memoir that words by themselves could not access these memories. His traumatic memories lacked the verbal narrative and context so they were encoded into the form of vivid sensations and images.

    Read More

  • When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning It Was Friday Summary

    1694 Words  | 4 Pages

    Dissociation, a place many find themselves, is done subconsciously by an individual to escape from their current horrid reality. Stout explains, “In these ways the brain lays down the traumatic memories differently from the way it records its regular memories. Regular traumatic memories are formed through adequate hippocampal and cordial input” (Stout 421). The way a traumatic memory is recorded is vital for the individual. The hippocampus is responsible for the long term and short term memory consolidation, certain memories are allowed for modification and sealed from any outside control. Traumatic experiences are recorded as fragments in the brain whereas daily memories, or clear memories, are transcribed fully. After a traumatic experience, the brain allows the individual to suppress their emotions and move onward with life. The brain is able to undergo this process by dissociating. However, this suppression causes the painful memories to be fragmented, which leads to a change in the individual’s overall character. As Stout infers with her multiple case studies, this altering of character is expected. Julia, a summa cum laude from Stanford and

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of Ida Fink's The Table By Ida Fink

    1196 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ida Fink’s work, “The Table”, is an example of how old or disturbing memories may not contain the factual details required for legal documentation. The purpose of her writing is to show us that people remember traumatic events not through images, sounds, and details, but through feelings and emotions. To break that down into two parts, Fink uses vague characters to speak aloud about their experiences to prove their inconsistencies, while using their actions and manners to show their emotions as they dig through their memories in search of answers in order to show that though their spoken stories may differ, they each feel the same pain and fear.

    Read More

  • Effects Of Trauma

    1723 Words  | 4 Pages

    Dissociation does not work the same with everyone. Also, everyone’s dissociative mind is triggered by different situations. One can feel alienated in a social group if a certain situation triggers past traumatic emotions, leaving the individual to feel alone and unaware of how to socialize. When people are triggered, they are often caught off guard and can become frustrated because they do not know exactly what triggers them. One can be alienated just by worrying to themselves that their dissociation will be triggered. Gilbert talks about the how one can be confused by their own mind when he talks about the psychological immune system by saying, “our brains do their shopping unconsciously, we tend not to realize they will do it at all; hence, we blithely assume that the dreadful view we have when we look forward to the event is the dreadful view we’ll have when we look back on it” (Gilbert 132). It is difficult for people to maintain a healthy social competence when they are constantly worrying about the effects dissociation might have on them. People may be triggered by scenarios that do not directly relate to their past traumatic experiences, so they cannot predict when and where they will be when dissociation affects them. One could be enjoying themselves talking to friends and family, but instead, worrying about dissociation causes one to be stuck in their own world, unable to communicate. This is the point when the protective barrier of dissociation becomes a threat. In her essay, Stout explains the harms of dissociation by saying, “later in the individual’s life, in situations that are vaguely similar to the trauma - perhaps merely because they are startling, anxiety-provoking, or emotionally arousing - amygdala-mediated memory traces are accessed more readily than are the more complete, less shrill memories” (Stout 422).

    Read More

  • The Truth about Stories

    2174 Words  | 5 Pages

    In “The Truth about Stories”, Thomas King, demonstrate connection between the Native storytelling and the authentic world. He examines various themes in the stories such as; oppression, racism, identity and discrimination. He uses the creational stories and implies in to the world today and points out the racism and identity issues the Native people went through and are going through. The surroundings shape individuals’ life and a story plays vital roles. How one tells a story has huge impact on the listeners and readers. King uses sarcastic tone as he tells the current stories of Native people and his experiences. He points out to the events and incidents such as the government apologizing for the colonialism, however, words remains as they are and are not exchanged for actions. King continuously alerts the reader about taking actions towards change as people tend to be ignorant of what is going around them. At the end people give a simple reason that they were not aware of it. Thus, the author constantly reminds the readers that now they are aware of the issue so they do not have any reason to be ignorant.

    Read More

  • Stories within Our Time

    738 Words  | 2 Pages

    John Edgar Wideman’s, “Our Time”, tells the story of how his brother’s mistakes have caused Robby lots of trouble. Many questions have roamed through my head about Robby, John’s brother, and why he turned out the way he was. Why did Robby have to turn out to be the rebel in the family? Could it have been his home town, his family, or his friends? Those are the questions. I feel like it may have been the “ghetto”, Homewood, that influenced him.

    Read More

  • Dissociative Experience During Childbirth

    935 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...nfirm the implications of the results and to provide more research into dissociative experiences during childbirth. The author feels that good support during labor is necessary, and medical staff who provide good pain relief and information during delivery may reduce perinatal dissociation. The author feels that support should be improved for patients that have a fear of losing their baby or their own death and for women who have had trauma in their lives.

    Read More

  • When I Woke Up Friday

    1800 Words  | 4 Pages

    When individuals are affected by traumatic events, their minds internalize these experiences due to the impact that such incidents have on them. When dealing with the effects of the trauma, these individuals must confront the issues they face as a result of the trauma and manage the effects on their daily lives, or the trauma will act as a barrier that prevents them from finding a sense of self. In her essay “When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday,” Martha Stout focuses on detailing her interactions with Julia, one of Stout’s patients who experienced severe trauma during her childhood, and in doing so makes the point that Julia’s mind was not present for most of her childhood as a result of the trauma, preventing her from accessing the

    Read More

  • Polarization and Unification in Complete Maus

    1376 Words  | 3 Pages

    Trauma and recovery both have cycles in which an individual must pass through to heal. For those having lived through the Holocaust, these stages were well defined and could be addressed. However, when addressed, they only address the individual, not the group nor those affected in a secondary way. This creates a dichotomy between those experiencing an internal conflict, survivor or otherwise, and those who had experienced the physical external conflict of the Holocaust. Thus, I will argue that internal conflict is more damaging to the individual because it is polarizing both in a mental way but also with the relationships formed with others while external conflict actually serves as a bonding agent for a group by creating a common, albeit, negative experience. I am going to prove my thesis through the use of The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman. Specifically, I will examine the visual polarization between Art and his father, Vladek, in graphic elements and how it connects to Arts internal conflict. Following this, I will continue analyzing the graphic element of Maus focusing on the external conflict and how the use of visual symbolism and linkage creates a sense of unity and identity. Moving on to the literary aspect of the novel, I will explore Anja’s internal conflict with life and how it not only polarized her own mind but separated her from her son physically and mentally. Anticipating the counterargument of Mala’s and Vladek’s strained relationship I will briefly discuss the subtext of their interactions and use that to transition into the unity Vladek expresses with others experiencing the war and survivors after the war to fully expand the idea of polarizatio...

    Read More

  • The War within The War by Timothy Findley

    1727 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Struggles in life is something everyone is faced with whether it is physical, emotional mental or personal struggles. These struggles are capable of shaping an individual’s personality and outlook on life. Timothy Findley’s novel The Wars, shows that struggles lead to the character’s ultimate inner struggles, outer struggles and self-discovery. War exists in a person’s physical and psychological aspects. In The Wars, Robert Ross goes to war and fights a personal and physical battle.

    Read More

  • Ideas of Dissociation in Martha Stout’s When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday,”

    1103 Words  | 3 Pages

    Even though our bodies are in one place, our minds may be in another. In Martha Stout’s essay “When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday,” the author introduces us to the idea of dissociation. Dissociation is when one’s mind is away from the body and he or she does not know what is going on in the physical world. Those that have traumatic histories may experience this. But because of dissociation, victims may not know if they had a traumatic past because a memory of it never really formed. Stout also finds that individuals may use dissociation as a way to protect themselves from trauma. Sometimes the slightest and smallest piece of a traumatic memory may bring into play the dissociation. When these individuals experience dissociation and become their “flyaway selves,” they do not remember what happened to them in the time they were “away.” For example, whenever “Los Angeles” was mentioned to Julia, one of Stout’s patients, she would “flyaway” as a way to protect herself from remembering any of the traumatic experiences that happened to her when she lived in Los Angeles. But Julia did not remember going through any traumatic experiences in her history because the memory never really formed. When she would “flyaway,” Julia would blackout and not recall any of the things she had done in the days previous to her “waking up” again. Stout came to the conclusion that Julia was abused as a child and as a way to escape during the abuse, she would become dissociated with her surroundings and what was happening to her. To not remember one’s own past puts them on a very vulnerable and difficult trail; dissociation may seem a way to protect oneself, but at the same time it’s harmful.

    Read More

  • Describing The War Speech Summary

    286 Words  | 1 Pages

    He says “any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure”. The men`s deaths resulted from a “test” to see if such a nation can survive. Describing the war is such an unorthodox style downplays the gory image of the wars. It does, however, make the listeners picture the warriors not as barbarians who ruthlessly slaughtered one

    Read More

  • Parallelism In Cold Mountain

    1963 Words  | 4 Pages

    The combination of parallelism and antithesis along with symbolism littered throughout the story help transform the novel from a story of war and defeat to a tale of peace and triumph in romantic literary tradition (McCarron and

    Read More

  • The Story

    900 Words  | 2 Pages

    Thomas Builds-the-Fire entered his house filled with emotions. He had never cared what anybody thought of him, he knew he was different and would always be different. There was something inside of him that was bothering him. Maybe perhaps it was the fact that Victor finally apologized to him years later. He still did not understand why Victor beat him up that day or how Victor never spoke to him after they had shared so much as kids. He wondered if his life on the reservation would change after this trip. If Victor would share with the others how normal, funny and kind hearted Thomas really was. He was tired of being known as Thomas the story teller no one wanted to listen to. His stories where not just stories they were the truth, the truth that people were not ready to hear. Like when he told Victor his father’s heart was weak and wanted to leave him and his mother. Victor probably did not believe him but he was right. What people did not understand was that his stories were messages he had to deliver from the spirits and that is why he always retold the same stories. The messages had to be delivered but no one was listening. Victor was just not ready for that cruel truth. Thomas was finally beginning to understand why to some point he was rejected by his own people. He had hoped that their perspective would change and that Victor would own up to his word and listen to one more of his stories. He knew that the spirits would give him a story that would change the way everyone looked at him especially Victor.

    Read More

More about The True Power of Stories

Open Document