How Can I Deal with My Emotions & Traumatic Experience Discussion

DUE AT 6:00PM
Expository Writing

Anthony Alms

Essay 3

Readings:

-Martha Stout, “When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday” (413-33)

Plus YOUR CHOICE of:

-Daniel Gilbert, “Immune to Reality” (141-59)

–Azar Nafisi, “Selections from Reading Lolita in Tehran” (276-96)

-Karen Armstrong, “Homo religiosus” (1-23)

You will engage with two texts in this essay, and there will be three drafts.

Guidelines:

The first rough draft (at least 1,000 words long) is due on March 12. The second rough draft (at least 1,300 words long) is due on March 26. The final draft (at least 1,700 words long) is due on April 2. Please indicate the word count at the end of each draft.

Both drafts must be typed, double-spaced, with one-inch margins and 12-point font, Times New Roman. Include your name, page numbers on every page, and an original title centered on the first page. When evaluating your papers, I will be looking specifically for these things:

1) A thesis that responds directly and fully to the essay question

2) An engaging introductory paragraph (not too long!) followed by a series of well-

formed, coherent body paragraphs (each c. 250 words long) and a brief concluding paragraph

3) Support for your thesis, including at least one quotation in each body paragraph

4) At least three body paragraphs in which you connect one quotation from each text

5) Good integration of quotations, as discussed in my comments on your drafts and in my

instructions on Canvas

6) Minimal sentence-level errors

Question:

Common sense would seem to subscribe to the adage that dividedness is a liability: “United we stand, divided we fall.” Yet Martha Stout presents cases in which a divided awareness can be an appropriate and successful adaptive strategy. By means of such a strategy, for instance, her patient Julia is able to escape the trauma of her childhood to lead what appears, in many respects, to be a successful adulthood.

The other authors we have read this semester also explore positive aspects of a divided self, from Gilbert’s explanation of our views being “negotiated behind closed doors…outside of our awareness,” to Nafisi’s students simultaneously inhabiting two sides of Iran’s “fragile unreality,” to Armstrong’s description of an enlightened state of “ekstasis.”

However, Stout would be the first to warn of the dangers of remaining in a prolonged state of dissociation, and our other authors offer similar implicit warnings. In this essay, I would like you to address the following: To what extent can a state of personal dividedness be a good thing?

Please engage equally with Stout and the other text you choose.