The True Power of Stories

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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 ...

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... 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.

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