Of The Sculptor And The Clay

An individual who has fallen victim to prolonged psychological abuse and deprecation will continue to subject themselves to the very same treatment even after having left the damaging relationship. These individuals have been conditioned to believe that they themselves ARE in fact what they have been led to believe themselves to be. What causes such self-doubt and degradation to remain even after the source has been removed? In my experiences, I firmly believe that the cause can be found within the practice of repetition and also a strange form of comfort brought about by way of familiarity. That is not to say that these individuals find comfort within the act of self-deprecation, but in doing so they find a realm in which they can better control certain aspects of their own lives. If it is their fault, they can theoretically fix it. Having assessed themselves to be the problem, they feel much better about possessing the ability to form a solution. What these individuals fail to understand is that this particular habit comes with a terrible price. Just as a sculptor chips away at a stone becoming increasingly unhappy with his work, he soon finds that his masterpiece is nothing more than a pile of dust with nothing left to chip away at. The road to reparation after immense psychological abuse can be better attuned to brushing away the dust of the old self and beginning anew with a more malleable medium such as clay. The clay of which I speak is a metaphorical depiction of one's own capacity for self-motivation and courage. In this way the individual can begin to form and shape new confidence without stifling limitations and irreparable damage. In conclusion, if you have experienced psychological abuse and the aftershocks associated with it, think not of yourself as a pile of dust, but as a new lump of clay with infinite possibilities and hopes for your future construct.