Week 8: Assessing My Thesis Progress

I think the presentation last week really helped me in a way of knowing what other people perceived about my thesis topic in general and the direction that they thought it will lead to. I realized from the comments that many people have when it comes to the word “trauma” or “post-traumatic experiences”, their thoughts automatically go back to settings such as war and sexual abuse. A lot of them suggested me to look at readings and videos that documented the personal traumatic experiences coming from the victims from the Holocaust as well as human trafficking and/or sexual assault in East Asia such as China and Japan. Also at the same time some people understand my thesis topic more towards the idea of memories and how people remember things differently as I mentioned the psychological term of autobiographical memories, as well as the importance of how it is impacting our emotional well-being.

Looking at The Opposite: The Witness

During the group discussion, someone in my group, Katherine, she firstly mentioned about a book that documented some interactions between the victims from the holocaust and interviewers, how the reason behind why they have such a difficult time remembering back to those traumatic times besides the fact that those memories being negative and traumatic, it is also because of this other factor that is coming from the witnesses who are listening. There is this tendency from the witness of having a hard time fully believing in the victim’s story that the victim loses trust to share to anyone. So looking at the opposite perspective from the witnesses and studying how we approach those who grow up with traumatic experiences is also crucial factor to consider. I personally think this is a smart way to approach the issue because people around us definitely plays an important part in influencing how we think and feel as an individual, and that has an impact in terms of how we deal with our negative memories and what do we want to do about them. Katherine gave me a list of authors who have written about witness, so that was really helpful and hopefully I can dive into at least a few next week. Here are the names of those authors: Pat Barker, Nadine Gordimer, Gunter Grass, Primo Levi, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Rigoberta Menchu, Toni Morrison (Beloved), and Virginia Woolf.

This Week’s Realization

At first I thought that it might be better for me to specifically define the kind of traumatic experiences that I am referring to for my thesis as there are quite a few different ones with their own approaches and methods of healing. But then I realized that I don’t want to narrow it down to a specific one because I feel like traumatic experiences such as war, terrorist events, natural disasters, and sexual or physical abuse are such highly sensitive topics to get myself into as the process might be tricky for a reason that I personally might not have previously experienced with. So I will not be deciding to focus on a specific trauma, but instead will direct myself more towards the direction of how we acknowledge how we are feeling, digging those unknown emotions just like how the process is when it comes to understanding autobiographical memory. I feel like the word “trauma” is very powerful and it triggers a lot of people in an intense way, so I think it will be smart for me to shift my word choice into “negative memory” instead, making it more subtle and generalized. I also want to focus more on how to understand and express feelings, as well as regulate those emotions in a healthy way because those who grow up in an Asian household, feelings are not typically brought up in a daily conversation so once becoming young adult, they do not know how to describe the feelings and why they feel a certain way.

Using Distraction as a Way of Therapy

Another person in my discussion group, Da Zhen, she mentioned about this knowingly effective method that is practiced in therapy in general, which is called “sand tray therapy”. She sent me this link to learn more about the technique, apparently it is an activity that allows individual or even couples who are in therapy to build a world or a scene inside a tray full of sand. “This world may be similar to the person’s real-world, allowing them to express feelings that are difficult about real-life situations.” Through building these scenes, there might be a higher chance for individuals to bring forward their subconscious feelings that might be difficult to admit even to oneself. The action of building scenes might work better for children as it can be a source of emotional creativity for them, however for adults, it can simply be a way of distraction, a soothing element to make them at least feel more comfortable and eventually be more open to sharing their feelings. This method actually reminds me of a scene that I mentioned previously on Sex Education when the main character mentioned how “it might help you think more clearly about what you want to say if you don’t feel observed.” When we are having fun and once our focus has shifted towards the sand tray, it is easier to speak up as we don’t feel much of being observed in comparison to when we are speaking eye to eye with another person.

I also talked to Dan about maybe starting to create quick prototypes in terms of how the experience might visualize into. He mentioned how one of his previous students interview people about their personal lives in a situation where the interviewee is doing whatever they enjoy doing, so for instance one of them was playing video games. This is an effective way that is similar to that of sand tray therapy, by using a way of distraction to help individuals be at ease, being less self-conscious about themselves at the moment of sharing.

Quick Prototypes

I am thinking of interviewing people in a situation where they are:

• Playing jigsaw puzzle or puzzle games
• Folding laundry or organizing something
• Drawing or painting
• Buying groceries
• In the shower
• Cooking or preparing a meal
• Cleaning or doing house chores
• Wearing make-up
• Having their hair cut