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Archive Number 3576 | ||
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Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2004 14:40:51 EST
MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sorry to have missed your point, Mary. Wow! You're describing many people I work with. It is a dilemma, because the choices seem so stark: separation from kith and kin or continued exposure to the battering of the same old stories, family myths, replete with trauma, scapegoats and scandal. It's hard to know what's worse, the constant immersion in it or the delight of so many in the lurid retellings. Family systems can become so poisoned. The people I know who have most successfully survived such systems did need to separate themselves from the group for a period of time, usually two or more years ... sometimes up to ten, very rarely, but occasionally, entirely. Therapy helps the individual come up with a clearer sense of her or his own true story. Maintaining a grounded center while still in the midst of the swirling chaotic storytelling can be done, but usually only if the person has a consistent and dependable support network. There must be stories out there for these kinds of survivors. I'm thinking of Cordelia in King Lear.... 'her voice was ever soft and gentle' Although she might not be the best example considering the outcome there! Oh yes, and then there's Ophelia! Good grief. Help! There must be pillars of strength in the midst of mythic familial chaos: How about Sister in Eudora Welty's Why I live at the P.O. Then again, she, too moved out! Hmmm. Good question, Mary. Ann ------------------------------- To Unsubscribe from Healingstory send the message: unsubscribe healingstory to: listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu ------------------------------- | ||