Life Narratives as a Tool for Healing

In Missing Sarah, Maggie De Vries says she is writing “to make it real for herself” as well as “to make it real for you” (Prologue XV). This suggests that there is an aspect of healing to writing life narratives, even if one is relieving the tragedy they are trying to escape. Perhaps Dany Laferriere also wrote to heal in The World is Moving Around Me, when he writes “as long as I am writing, nothing moves. Writing keeps things from breaking down” (183). This quote makes it sound as if he used writing as a kind of therapy to heal from the traumatic event he witnessed, somewhat like Maggie de Vries.

This then leads me to a list of questions: does writing help “ground” people, calm them, or help them understand or organize their thoughts? Or is it the notion that one can “escape” reality, pausing their remembrance of a haunting tragedy, like Laferriere, that leads them to write?

In help make sense of these questions, I found a journal article called Utilizing Narrative Methodology in Trauma Treatment with Haitian Earthquake Survivors, that also uses life narratives as a tool for healing. It is a study done by David Lane, Keith Myers, Maurice Hill, and Donna lane, after the 2010 Haiti earthquake that uses storytelling and life narratives as a “culturally sensitive” way to help Haitians cope. The article claimed through previous research that storytelling allows people to make sense their lives, and is vital to making sense of trauma. So, they used the cultural importance of storytelling to help Haitians heal. The study had participants follow a story that called Gold Stone – that contains the main traumas of a natural disaster such as death and loss – while sharing their own traumatic experiences. They then would try to identify a meaning behind their personal stories, “reconnecting with their sense of self to establish wholeness” and finally  “write” what their life could be like after the trauma. The study was rather successful, showing that individuals that has undergone the study had significantly less PTSD symptoms (Hill, Lane, Lane, Myers).

This study can help us make sense of why people write life narratives, as well as how life narratives can be used to heal. Both Missing Sarah and The World is Moving Around Me may be written just as much for the purpose of healing than for what their main focus suggests: countering stereotypes. The study can also help us to make sense of why writing is so important; not only is it a way to communicate with others, but it is a way for people to “come to grips” or understand themselves.

Sources:

Laferriere, Dany, and David Homel. The World Is Moving Around Me: A Memoir of the Haiti Earthquake. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp, 2013. Print.

Lane, David W., Keith J. Myers, Maurice C. Hill, and Donna E. Lane. “Utilizing Narrative Methodology in Trauma Treatment with Haitian Earthquake Survivors.” Journal of Loss and Trauma 21.6 (2016): 560-74. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.

Vries, Maggie De. Missing Sarah: A Memoir of Loss. Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2008. Print.