The Theory and Practice of Therapeutic Writing

The Theory and Practice of Therapeutic Writing is a Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies class taught by Marian MacCurdy.

Course Description
The events of September 11, 2001 and following galvanized a public discussion about the utility of language to counteract the impact of trauma. Writers as diverse as astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson and poet Adrienne Rich have spoken and written about the salutary effects of writing on recovery from traumatic experiences. Recent research has demonstrated that writing does more than provide access to the emotional realm: writing about difficult experiences can attenuate the negative impact of those experiences. Therefore, writing can have a beneficial effect on the emotional and cognitive lives of trauma survivors. This class investigates the relationship between writing and recovery by bringing together information on trauma, brain biology, and the composition process. It offers a methodology for transforming iconic memories into aesthetically effective prose and studies selected narratives to investigate their possible effects on writer, reader, and the larger culture.