Opening Up by James W Pennebaker, Chapter Seven

In this chapter, Pennebaker addresses something about which I was curious. There are various forms of art therapy which incorporate visual arts or dancing as a means of working through trauma. I wanted to know if these were as effective or not. Apparently they are effective but they ultimately draw on the same necessity of talking to explain or clarify what was expressed in the art or movement.

During or after dancing, drawing, or singing, clients are strongly encouraged to talk about their emotional experiences. In other words, non-language-based therapies rely heavily on language once the clients’ inhibitions are lifted (101).

Ultimately, putting the experience into words is where the healing happens. I love the analogies Pennebaker uses. He describes how, when getting ready for a trip, he will think about all of the things he must do, running them through his mind over and over again; but, if he makes a list of these things, then his mind is free to focus on other things rather than the details of what needs to be done before he leaves. He uses a perfect metaphor, explaining that this is similar to downloading a file or printing it to be stored elsewhere, leaving space on the hard drive of our brains for other things (98).

I definitely understood this and am glad to have my expectations reaffirmed. Pennebaker also mentions Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which may be familiar to most of you. When looking at this pyramid it is obvious that journaling, writing things about, is inevitably going to be a part of self-actualization. You don’t need to journal to survive, to have food, clothing, shelter. You don’t necessarily need it to have a feeling of love or build relationships with others (although it helps, from my own experience). You may not even need a journal to build self-esteem, especially if you have a strong support system that lovingly communicates their appreciation of you on a regular basis. But to get to the point where you understand yourself, where you accept things as they are, to reach self actualization (which literally means to make the self real), you have to make time to know yourself, to think about things, to gain the necessary objectivity to accept things as they are. As Pennebaker says, “[w]riting promotes self-understanding (92).”

He concludes the chapter with a summary of the benefits of putting traumatic experience into words, of translating experience into language. I think it is enough to say that we have a choice—we can carry these unspoken and avoided burdens inside or we can dump them onto paper or in therapy and thus free ourselves to fill those spaces with healing and love.