The Roles of Imagery in Writing about Trauma
In: Pain without Boundaries: Inquiries across CulturesSearch for other papers by Roy F. Fox in
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Over a five-year period, I interviewed two veteran ‘language experts’ who were independently using writing to understand personal traumas—one negotiating a terminal illness, the other recovering from losing her husband in a freak accident. Both women allowed me total access to all of their writings. Because Lucy and Kate were engaged in writing for purposes of ‘healing’ long before I asked them to participate in this study – and because they were naturally focused on their immediate issues – I am certain that they did not consciously employ any of these strategies. They occurred naturally. Results show that these two writers demonstrated many of the same thinking strategies in their writing, as well as some differences. This chapter focuses only on a single common strategy – their visual thinking through uses of imagery and metaphor.