From Ancient Greece to the Present: The Healing Power of Stories

A friend told me last night about an article in the Smithsonian he’d just read: “The Healing Power of Greek Tragedy. Do plays written centuries ago have the power to heal modern day traumas? A new project raises the curtain on a daring new experiment.”

Charles knew I’d be interested in the piece for several reasons. First, I help people write their personal stories, including as a way to better understand the darker moments they’ve lived through.

Also, I’m a writer, currently working on an Op-Ed piece I’m hoping to see published on or before Veterans Day. Inspired by what I experienced during the Vietnam War years, it is a longer, and more detailed version, of my brief story that appeared recently on PBS.org, as part of the Ken Burns’s “The Vietnam War” film website:

“I was 23 when the two men I loved most in my life served in Vietnam. Philip was stationed in Cam Ranh Bay and returned home in 1967. I married him in October, and in August 1968 we stood with thousands protesting the war in Chicago’s Grant Park during the Democratic National Convention. Eddie was killed in Vietnam in 1969, just as Philip’s drug use was escalating and he and I separated. Best friends, Eddie and Philip were both casualties of that war.”

The timing of my Op-Ed piece and of the Vietnam War documentary series and of Veterans Day makes the Smithsonian article especially relevant to me. I want to pass along the link should some of my readers find it relevant as well.

And note: While the article focuses mainly on The Theater of War—the creation of director and co-founder Bryan Doerries—the piece also mentions other traumatic situations, including Ferguson, to which Dowries applies the ancient Greek tragedies:

“Theater of War Productions has presented more than 650 performances for military and civilian audiences all over the world, from Guantánamo to Walter Reed, from Japan to Alaska to Germany. Doerries has employed other plays from ancient Greece to serve other purposes as well, addressing issues such as domestic violence, drug and alcohol addiction, gun violence and prison violence. Presentations can be tailored for service members, veterans, prison guards, nurses, first responders, doctors and police officers.”

Finally, here’s Doerries himself, on what he sees as the connection between the Greek tragedies, i.e., stories, and trauma:

“Through tragedy, the great Athenian poets were not articulating a pessimistic or fatalistic view of human experience; nor were they bent on filling audiences with despair. Instead, they were giving voice to timeless human experiences—of suffering and grief—that, when viewed by a large audience that had shared those experiences, fostered compassion, understanding and a deeply felt interconnection. Through tragedy, the Greeks faced the darkness of human existence as a community [emphasis mine].”

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/healing-power-greek-tragedy-180965220/