The Role Of Symbolic Representation In Impulsive Movements

Narratives let us judge how to view a person based on his or her life story. People’s views change depending on what narrative – either with a positive or negative motif - we see a person fits in, especially when people see themselves living in that person’s narrative. Through neural bindings, the blending of simple narratives create complexity, it is where it produces emotional experiences that mend people’s

We all have a way of channeling our thoughts, some through writing some through painting. The concept

At some time in life, a person will experience the death of a relative or lose something that was very important to him or her. After that traumatic event, will that person confront his or her pain, or will that person bury it deep within them? Both ways are possible, however, only one is effective in the long term. According to Tim O'Brien, the most effective way to heal after a traumatic experience is to share stories. In Tim’s book, The things they carried, he used the motifs of loneliness, life, and the mood of nostalgia to illustrate the importance of sharing stories during a healing process.

Emotions in The Things They Carried How do soldiers grasp all of the traumatic events they have seen? Tim O’Brien answers this question in his collection of short stories, The Things They Carried. The author uses entertainment metaphors, the motif and the metaphor of carrying things, and the motif of the cold, all to convey how soldiers conceal their emotions out of fear of being perceived as soft, and how internally they reflect on their emotions. O’Brien uses entertainment metaphors and the motif of carrying things to demonstrate how soldiers hide how they truly feel due to their fear of others judging them and perceiving them as weak. In his first short story, “The Things They Carried”, the author employs several techniques to support this

Throughout the 1980s, Dr. Terence M. Keane ran experiments on a new idea called exposure therapy. The case studied how victims of trauma would react to being repeatedly shown places, imagines, and stories that mirrored theirs. In the study was twenty four veterans of the Vietnam War, and at the end of the study, they no longer had reactions classified as severe anxiety. Like the veterans in this case study, soldiers in Tim O 'Brien 's The Things They Carried all experience the death of their friend, Kiowa, which results in feelings of loss and trauma. In one way or another, all these men try to

“This is where you can find your soul, if you dare.” (Anderson, pg 10) This belief comes from the mind of the Melinda, the progantists, art teacher, Mr. Freeman. Art is truly a door to the mind of an individual, showing things that people aren’t able to say. It shows through images and colors what many people aren’t able to express in words, events and thoughts speaking through the medium. Art is growing as a use of therapy to heal and tell. Psychologists analyze their patients art at a psychological level, interpreting the image into words. One of the theories in art therapy, which is seen throughout “Speak”, is the idea that unconscious thoughts are expressed in an image. (Irvings)These images then can be explained rationally. Melinda’s three major art images, the half dead trees, turkey bone, and cubism represent this theory.

In Susan Farrell, the author of “Just Listen”: Witnessing Trauma in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, mentioned “...all theorists agree that the process of recovery from trauma must involve a narrativization of traumatic event--putting a sensory images into words in order to integrate trauma into a person 's life story” (186). However, without reading Cathy Caruth’s Trauma, readers will not understand that not only integrating trauma into a narrative will help them recover but it also allows the witness apprehend their flashbacks into meaning. Flashbacks, although are taunting, has the most vivid images compared to narrated memories. For one to remember a highlight or a significant moment, one must preserve it as a flashback. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien convert his flashbacks into narrative memories allowing himself and readers to comprehend his experiences, but O’Brien also added flashbacks into his memories create the most graphic images for the readers.

In ancient times, befuddled wordsmiths concocted myths and fables to explain natural phenomena, preserve tradition, and promote civil behavior--although stories still remain at the core of modern culture, they explain far more than puzzling scientific principles. In his novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien suggests that at their best, stories provide emotional truths, thereby alleviating suffering in both the teller and in the listener. By employing a hopeful tone, fortified by use metafiction and shift of perspective, O’Brien illuminates the overall message that even in the most most gruesome of experiences majesty may be found, that despite intense tragedy one may, with the help of storytelling, endure.

“While survivors often feel shame in talking about abuse, talking about their artworks is an experience of finally coming home.” The first picture I created as a little girl, the second as an art student in college, and the other three in my adulthood. Painting, for me, is an affective methodology, a force of feeling life. Being an adult does not erase the childhood memories of abuse. The paintings presented here, convey psychological emotions of how a Black girl who witnessed domestic violence became a Black woman and how these paintings still give me space and freedom. The exploration of these paintings gives me a sense of accomplishment that I certainly would not have had if my father had shot me. I created a safe space for myself by focusing from my inner resource using my artwork and being self-empowering rather than being a victim. My journey taught me that I do not need to fear the past or give into negative criticisms about how I live my plight. Like Picasso, who felt wholly alive when he was painting and, only then, was it possible for him to taste freedom. What is significant for me now is how this little girl survived severe trauma and how I survived today as a Black

Telling stories can help people separate tragic events and occurrences like war from themselves. “I did not look on my work as therapy, and still don’t. Yet when I received. . . memories that might have otherwise have ended in paralysis or worse (Page 152).” To Tim O’brien writing was not a therapy, but it actually was. He says if he didn’t write, his memories might have caused him to end in paralysis

According to Cathy Malchiodi, an educator in the discipline, “Art therapy, an approach used in the treatment of trauma reactions, is often a primary form of therapy with children who are recovering from abuse, and neglect or are witnesses to family violence” (2). When these patients use art therapy to help them forget, the art that they create has their pain reflected onto it. When children were abused at some point in their life, they look at their abuser as a different person. They think of their abuser as a monster or a demonic-looking creature. When they draw their abuser, they draw a monster with sharp teeth or claws with piercing eyes. This is what the children, or adolescents, picture their attacker

Roger’s traditional person-centered therapy is perhaps the greatest example of “talk therapy” as there is not any homework, specific techniques, or behavior to be changed. Instead, the success of the therapy lies in the process and letting clients experience this process as fully as possible. Therefore, it may be surprising that Natalie Roger’s person-centered expressive arts therapy has shifted away from traditional verbal means of expression to more creative means. According to Sommers-Flanagan, through mediums such as movement, drawing, painting, music, writing and improvisation “clients peel away the layers of defense and find their true nature” (2007). Expressive art therapy is not concerned with the end product (client’s do not create a piece to hang on the wall) but rather the process of using art to delve into a client’s pain, rage, or grief is the goal. Therefore, just as in Roger’s person-centered therapy the process is the focal point but the mediums used are quite different. Through these mediums clients find other ways to go inward, other ways to speak. Like her father’s person-centered therapy, Natalie Roger’s expressive arts therapy is nondirective and lets client’s lead the process and trusts them to find the modalities they can learn from (Sommers-Flanagan, 2007).

How does one survive a terrible trauma? These experiences are the ones that make you stronger. Literary devices are commonly used by authors to promote the theme. The book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is about a high schooler who falls into depression after being raped at a summer party. “If” by Rudyard Kipling is a poem that a father wrote to his son about the importance of perseverance and self-confidence. “The Art of Resilience” by Hara Estroff Marano is an article that explains the characteristics of a resilient person. In the book Speak, the poem “If,” and the article “The Art of Resilience,” the theme that to be successful one must overcome hardships is developed through the use of symbolism, mood, and figurative language.

Expressive arts therapy is the use of art modalities, creative process, and aesthetic experience in a therapeutic context. It is a therapy of the imagination (McNiff, 1992). Effective communication is an essential element in therapeutic relationships and, although verbal language is the most conventional means of conveying information, other forms can convey just as much as words. The arts are an alternative form of communication that has recently received recognition for their value in therapeutic settings. There is a long well-established connection between the arts and psychology. Expressive arts therapy builds on a natural, complimentary relationship between the two disciplines. As a formal therapy, this form is relatively new with its

Before we can understand what expressive art therapy is, however, an understanding of terms, like imagination and creativity, is necessary. There is a lack of consensus about how imagination and creativity are defined and who is capable of it. In therapeutic contexts, the essence of imagination is the substance of dreams. Dreams, however, are not just images. In dreams, sounds, rhythms, acts, etc. can be perceived in a sensory or experiential way (Levine & Levine, 2004). Creativity springs from imagination and is understood in terms of its qualities and characteristics: spontaneity, playfulness, motivation, originality, self-expression, inventiveness, divergent thinking, and intuition. Creativity pushes limits, breaks down barriers, and