Re: Writing as Therapy
Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2015 9:24 am
I think the reason why writing is therapeutic is because, it is can be one outlet to express whatever emotion that you have without thinking other's opinion about your emotion.
By replaying the events of your life, you can more easily com to terms with them. You re-organise the jumble of events into something meaningful and coherent. (Even where such coherence is false).tbieter wrote:http://www.amazon.com/Reaper-Autobiogra ... the+reaper
During his interview this morning, the author said that after returning home he started having difficulties. As therapy, he decided to write about his experiences and the result was this autobiography.
Why does the act of writing apparently have a therapeutic effect?
We live our life as narrative. When the narrative is misunderstood or incomplete that sets up a tension, which we seek to understand to get resolution and what the Americans like to call "closure". Like completing a chapter in a book that explains the previous chapters, talking over the events of the past can provide context within your own life-story.
As humans we have to do this. It's not story telling that makes us narrativise our lives; it is the need to narrativise that makes humans story telling beings in the first place.
Creation stories reassure us of our place on earth; "in creation", as it were. Or where we fit in the Universe. And autobiographies (which in a virtual sense we internally and continually construct), reinforce our purposes and aims.