Post by rollerk on Dec 2, 2017 2:28:26 GMT
What is meant by the concept of "constructive bankruptcy," and what is important about this concept? Can you provide an example from your personal life or from a character in a novel or film who seems close to constructive bankruptcy? Explain your example.
Each of use develops a theory of the past that helps us make sense of the present and anticipate the future (Butt p. 113). This theory is the foundation of our self: the personal narrative that gives us a sense of self over time in different situations. Psychological trauma happens when we lose this sense of self, when there is a disruption of personal meaning and identity. "Constructive bankruptcy" occurs when these traumatic events simply do not fit into our meaning systems. We often re-live them over and over attempting to make sense of them. But we can't. Our personal constructs and the narrative that has given us a sense of self in different situations have come up empty in understanding the trauma we have lived.
The idea of "constructive bankruptcy" is important because understanding that at the core of an event being traumatic is an insufficient meaning system is the only way to really help yourself or someone else who has experienced trauma. Reconstructing our meaning system into one that can hold your trauma is key.
When I was 21 years old, I woke up with a headache. It has lasted almost 12 years so far and shows no signs of relenting. This greatly disrupted of the continuity of my life. I was no longer able to see my life as knowable, orderly, manageable, or predictable. I was no longer able to define myself on the continuum of my past and my perceived future. My constructions of who I was in relation to this continuum of past and future proved bankrupt. I could no longer be the self that achieved, overcame, and persevered despite all obstacles. I had met an obstacle I couldn't overcome. The construct that will power and determination would always be enough to "succeed" (also a construction) proved insufficient in the circumstances I found myself in. I was no longer able to associate my sense of self with the 21 years of the productive, driven self that I once was. For many years I could not assimilate my life of chronic pain into any construction that made sense to me - certainly not for lack of trying. Religion often proved a poor alternative construction preaching prosperity theology - was I not doing good enough to be blessed? Anger at myself (for not doing/being better), my circumstances (pain and more pain), and God (for allowing it all) became a constant. Pain and thoughts of it consumed me. My new past and future within which I defined myself was pain.
I cannot say that it was one alternative construction that enabled me to hold pain within my self without being subject to it. I believe it was many. Understanding that "time and chance happen to them all" (Ecc. 9:11), that I can be more that just in pain (even when I am in pain), and that psychological pain is not a necessary part of physical pain all brought me into a meaning system that can now hold the presence of pain without proving bankrupt.
Each of use develops a theory of the past that helps us make sense of the present and anticipate the future (Butt p. 113). This theory is the foundation of our self: the personal narrative that gives us a sense of self over time in different situations. Psychological trauma happens when we lose this sense of self, when there is a disruption of personal meaning and identity. "Constructive bankruptcy" occurs when these traumatic events simply do not fit into our meaning systems. We often re-live them over and over attempting to make sense of them. But we can't. Our personal constructs and the narrative that has given us a sense of self in different situations have come up empty in understanding the trauma we have lived.
The idea of "constructive bankruptcy" is important because understanding that at the core of an event being traumatic is an insufficient meaning system is the only way to really help yourself or someone else who has experienced trauma. Reconstructing our meaning system into one that can hold your trauma is key.
When I was 21 years old, I woke up with a headache. It has lasted almost 12 years so far and shows no signs of relenting. This greatly disrupted of the continuity of my life. I was no longer able to see my life as knowable, orderly, manageable, or predictable. I was no longer able to define myself on the continuum of my past and my perceived future. My constructions of who I was in relation to this continuum of past and future proved bankrupt. I could no longer be the self that achieved, overcame, and persevered despite all obstacles. I had met an obstacle I couldn't overcome. The construct that will power and determination would always be enough to "succeed" (also a construction) proved insufficient in the circumstances I found myself in. I was no longer able to associate my sense of self with the 21 years of the productive, driven self that I once was. For many years I could not assimilate my life of chronic pain into any construction that made sense to me - certainly not for lack of trying. Religion often proved a poor alternative construction preaching prosperity theology - was I not doing good enough to be blessed? Anger at myself (for not doing/being better), my circumstances (pain and more pain), and God (for allowing it all) became a constant. Pain and thoughts of it consumed me. My new past and future within which I defined myself was pain.
I cannot say that it was one alternative construction that enabled me to hold pain within my self without being subject to it. I believe it was many. Understanding that "time and chance happen to them all" (Ecc. 9:11), that I can be more that just in pain (even when I am in pain), and that psychological pain is not a necessary part of physical pain all brought me into a meaning system that can now hold the presence of pain without proving bankrupt.