{"id":385,"date":"2019-02-07T07:26:35","date_gmt":"2019-02-07T07:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bodytheology.co.za\/?p=385"},"modified":"2019-02-07T07:26:37","modified_gmt":"2019-02-07T07:26:37","slug":"the-interpretation-of-wounds-being-a-wounded-healer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bodystory.co.za\/2019\/02\/07\/the-interpretation-of-wounds-being-a-wounded-healer\/","title":{"rendered":"The interpretation of wounds ~ being a wounded healer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cWorking \u2013through of trauma calls for a\ndelicate equipoise between silence and speaking, invisibility, and visibility,\nif the wound is to grow into a healing scar.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nis probably one of the most beautiful sentences I\u2019ve read \u2013 that is as\ntherapist at least. These wise words are by the Irish philosopher, Richard\nKearney. He explores the idea of the \u201cwounded\nhealer<\/em>\u201d in mythology and literature and practices it in his own work endeavouring\nto bring about healing and reconciliation in divided communities. Just listen:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf\none covers the pain too soon, it festers and needs to be reopened at a later\ntime for a new scar to form; if one covers it too late, infection can set in\nand the pain becomes intolerable. Wounded healers know, from their own\nexperience of woundedness, two basic things: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(1) the right timing between too early and too late, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(2) the right spacing between too near and too far<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nimportant as sensitivity to timing, is being careful neither to over-identify\nwith suffering (too close) nor to remain and indifferent observer (too\nremoved). It is a matter of tact <\/em>in\nthe sense of both tactility and know-how. An art of \u2018exquisite empathy\u2019\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His\nidea of \u201cexquisite empathy\u201d embraces compassion as feeling into the pain of\nothers, while keeping an appropriate distance. Tactility is about touch, and\nspecifically how to touch. (click to read my previous blogs on empathy: https:\/\/bodytheology.co.za\/2018\/11\/15\/the-erosion-of-empathy\/<\/a> and https:\/\/bodytheology.co.za\/2018\/11\/22\/make-empathy-great-again\/<\/a> )<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe next blog or two I shall retrace Kearney\u2019s footsteps in mythology and literature\nleading up to his interpretation of wounds and the \u201cwounded healer<\/em>\u201d, and healing through narrative catharsis<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note:\nThis is a discussion of Richard Kearney\u2019s chapter, \u201cThe hermeneutics of wounds\u201d\nin the 2018 book \u201cUnconscious Incarnations: Psychoanalytical and Philosophical\nPerspectives of the Body\u201d, edited by Brian W Becker, John Panteleimon\nManoussakis, and David M Goodman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"