Gabriela
01-26-2007, 06:20 AM
One of the readings I have found to be helpful is "On Self Respect" by Joan Didion. It's an essay that originally appeared in Vogue andis now part of the collection of essays that comprise Slouching Towards Bethlehem. It isn't about eating disorders or mental health. But it is perhaps one of the most helpful written works I've found while recovering.
"To have that sense of one's intrinsic worth which constitutes self respect is potentially to have everything: the ability to discriminate, to love and to remain indifferent. To lack it is to be locked within oneself, paradoxically incapable of either love or indifference. If we do not respect ourselves, we are on the one hand forced to despise those who have so few resources as to consort with us, so little perception as to remain blind to our fatal weaknesses. On the other, we are peculairly in thrall to everyone we see, curiously determined to live out-- since our self image is untenable -- their false images of us."
That quote alone gave me quite a bit to think about this week. Another part of the essay that I found particularly helpful was how elegantly Didion characterizes the subtle points that keep self respect quite seperate and distinct from self loathing.
I took a lot away from the essay and I hope other people might read it and be helped by it as well. I like it when I read something that isn't "self help" but has a broad application in my life nontheless. Annie Dillard's book For The Time Being also helped a lot (also found in the essay section).
"To have that sense of one's intrinsic worth which constitutes self respect is potentially to have everything: the ability to discriminate, to love and to remain indifferent. To lack it is to be locked within oneself, paradoxically incapable of either love or indifference. If we do not respect ourselves, we are on the one hand forced to despise those who have so few resources as to consort with us, so little perception as to remain blind to our fatal weaknesses. On the other, we are peculairly in thrall to everyone we see, curiously determined to live out-- since our self image is untenable -- their false images of us."
That quote alone gave me quite a bit to think about this week. Another part of the essay that I found particularly helpful was how elegantly Didion characterizes the subtle points that keep self respect quite seperate and distinct from self loathing.
I took a lot away from the essay and I hope other people might read it and be helped by it as well. I like it when I read something that isn't "self help" but has a broad application in my life nontheless. Annie Dillard's book For The Time Being also helped a lot (also found in the essay section).