Earlier this week I commented on a simple book about controlling stress in a review by Floris Vermeir at Book of Calm.
I was a little harsh in my comment that books like these and Chicken Soup for the Soul did not really help anything. They were merely a salve for tragedy, unhappiness and horror. I had, after all, gotten a copy after a heart attack from a sweet and well-meaning acquaintance.
My wife was recently injured badly and a woman sent her this book: Writing as a Way of Healing. I have been reading it since my wife, a painter, feels she can work out her demons in her pictures. I, on the other hand, have slacked off my photography and am writing. When I was first sick it was strongly suggested that I write out my pain and worries and even begin some stories again or a non-fiction account and overview of a heart attack. That was eleven years ago and I wish I had begun the first day I could lift a pencil. It was good advice. I didn't take it.
On release from the hospital I did what all good blogcritics would do and took everything out of the library on heart disease and read them. A physician's first-person narrative of his attack and subsequent heart failure (sorry, title forgotten) helped save my life 2 months later when flash edema (named because it hits so quickly) began to kill me. Instead of waiting I remembered his description and called the paramedics immediately. Living 20 minutes from their station in the woods meant I kept breathing just long enough for them to get there. Not knowing the symptoms might have meant a different outcome.
The subject of this book subtitled, " How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives" is writing stories, histories, journals (maybe even blogs) in order to deal with the things in life that are almost impossible to deal with. The author, Louise DeSalvo, acts as mother hen and teacher to people who need catharsis for all manner of molestation, injury, abuse, disease and injury; Louise DeSalvo does it well enough to change my mind on this book. It has the value of therapy rather than the self-help pap of many such attempts.--the stuff of gifts when you visit the newly injured or hurt.
Article comments
1 - Phillip Winn
Nice post -- for someone who seems at points to pooh-pooh the idea of writing, well, you write well. :-)
It is true, I think, that those famous writers were good writers irregardless of whatever pain and suffering they experienced. Then again, good writing about rainbows and butterflies just fails to interest me and most people, I think.
But even bad writing can possibly hook you if it is about something you're really into.
And many people write not to be widely read, but to help understand what it is they're thinking.
Anyway, this sounds like a thought-provoking book, or at least you've written a thought-provoking review of it!
Thanks.
2 - alpha
Phillip. Thanks for the comments. From you they are appreciated.
Actually I love good writing. It is just that I love pictures at least as much.
And, yes, not only did the book get written about because it provoked some thoughts; but, now that I wrote of it, more thoughts about the how and why of creativity are blowing around in my head.
Pretty good for a book I hadn't planned to read.
3 - DrT
Nice Post. Thanks. I will definitely check out this book as it appears to cover the same topic of my own recent book, WellWriting for Health After Trauma and Abuse.
Not a doubt in my mind that writing heals.
Studies in JAMA support the technique as well as other scholarly journals.
link to healthaftertrauma.com and my blog