In the essay “Selections from Reading Lolita in Tehran” by Azar Nafisi, the author writes of her experiences living in Iran under the power of its totalitarian regime. Martha Stout is a renowned clinical psychologist and author of “When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday”, in this essay, Stout describes the different forms of psychological dissociation and several stories of her patients fighting trauma. Stout introduces the topic of psychological dissociation and the various degrees it entails, including, play, daydream, and distraction.
A ‘trigger’ that causes a person to mentally flee the reality shared with mankind, into an individually altered reality, known as psychological dissociation. In Both essays, there is a shared struggle to overcome troublesome reality, by Stout’s patients and Nafisi, in attempt to lead fulfilling lives. A shared concept from both essays is the presence of ‘darkness’ in different forms, as trauma for Stout’s patients, and in relation to Nafisi and her students, the oppression of women by the regime.
Nafisi and Stout describe the power of ones imagination, and in these cases its role as a form of escape from troubled reality. Lastly, both authors write of the importance of one’s sense of self and individuality, Stout talks of how trauma can cause a disconnection from oneself and the world around them, relating to Nafisi’s struggle to retain individualism. The power of ones imagination is a key factor for both authors in the attempt to create fulfilling lives for there patients, students, and selves.
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Through Nafisi’s essay, she writes of her time living in Iran, under oppression from the totalitarian regime. As a woman Nafisi and her students were required to wear veils and long robes, and were born into lives where they were given very little choice in any aspect of life. They were to live, as they were expected, leaving no room for imagination. Instead of sufficing to this brutal and inhumane reality, they create a book club; it serves as a sort alternate world, a sanctuary of flourishing imagination and individuality.
The book club was held weekly at Nafisi’s home and consisted of seven of her “best and most dedicated students”; the club would discuss books that would not be accepted in Iranian universities. These books included “The Great Gatsby”, “Invitation to a Beheading”, “A Thousand and One Nights”, “Pride and Prejudice”, and several other western classics. Nafisi states, “Perhaps one way of finding out the truth was to do what we did: to try to imaginatively articulate these two worlds and, through that process, give shape to our vision and identity.
” The previous passage from Nafisi represents the personal growth underwent by Nafisi and her students. This better understanding and ability to express their imaginations would have been impossible if not for Nafisi’s book club. The importance of imagination expressed by Nafisi is also a strong topic from Martha Stout. Stout speaks positively of imagination and encourages the application of it, “In the interest of play, a child can, in a heartbeat, leave himself behind, become someone or something else, on general things at once. Reality is even more plastic in childhood.
Pretend games are real and wonderful and consuming”. But stout does not speak plainly on imagination alone; she also discusses thoroughly, mind states created by ones imagination. Stout provides examples form several of her patients who use their imagination in order to escape past traumatic events. One patient of Stouts, a man named Seth says of his escape method that, “The abyss part, with the sharks and all, that’s frightening. But for most of my life it was really no more frightening than then things that were on the beach, no more frightening than reality, I guess is what I’m saying.
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So floating in the middle of the ocean was really the best place, even though I guess that sounds strange. Also, being there takes care of the physical pain; theres no more pain when I’m there. ”(Stout 396) This passage is from Seth, he is describing his imaginary ocean that he would escape too rather than face the troubles of reality. As Seth escapes too his ocean, Nafisi and her students similarly escape too there book club. These methods of using ones imagination too escape troubled realities, were caused by different forms of ‘darkness’.
For Nafisi and her students, this ‘darkness’ came in the form of the Iranian government and the oppression of women. Nafisi states in her book that, “They had harassed and limited me in all manner of ways, monitoring my visitors, controlling my actions, refusing a long overdue tenure; and when I resigned, they infuriated me by suddenly commiserating and by refusing to accept my resignation. ”(Nafisi 253) Nafisi is speaking of the harassment she would endure as woman professor in an Iranian university, where she eventually lost her job for not conforming to Iranian laws and wearing her veil.
Unfair treatment towards women such as this is what led Nafisi to start this book club and share her hope for freedom with a select few students. In relation to Stout’s definition of dissociation, this oppression of women would be seen as the ‘trigger’ and their book club is the form of escape. For Stout’s patients, this ‘darkness’ came in the form of traumatic events. These traumatic events, unique in detail to every of her patients, all lead to different forms of escape from troublesome reality.
An example from Stout’s essay is one patient, Julia; she grew up in a house with abusive parents and was clueless to this. She dissociated the memory of her abusive childhood, which resulted in her becoming unable to realize this was her reason for attempting suicide and living with depression. The mind state I’m referring too is psychological dissociation; Stout explains that dissociation is caused by traumatic events, which a person’s mind attempts to bury. Though it would seem that both Nafisi’s students and Stout’s patients used the same method, Nafisi and her student’s were not in a form of dissociation.
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The reason for this is that Mafiosi’s students willingly chose to create this book club, and altered world, as a form of escape. Wherein dissociation, the person is not mentally aware that reality is being altered, and there escape is brought forth unconsciously by their mind. Of course for every being the most essential need for a person is to have a sense of self or feeling of individuality. Every person is born with a blank slate, and throughout life they shape and mold themselves, into a unique individual.
But in order too keep a sense of individuality and have a true feeling of ‘self’, one must be free to make there own choices without restraint. The factor restraining Stout’s patients are past traumatic events, which have disrupted their brains, and holding them back from lives with connections to themselves and the world. Stout says that “…the ability to dissociate from reality, which functions as a life-preserving defense mechanism during times of stress in childhood, can develop into a way of life that leads to emotional detachment and prolonged disengagement with the world.
”(Stout 380) In this passage Stout discusses how dissociation creates a disconnection from reality, making it unable for them to truly be themselves. She also says that this dissociation from reality leads to isolation, and detachment from a persons self and the world. The idea’s put in place by Stout are given factual basis from the experiences of Nafisi and her students, in their fight for individuality. Under the totalitarian regime of the Iranian government, women are given few rights and choices to determine their lives; they are expected to live as commanded.
The feeling of individualism is absent to these women, who are required to dress identically in robes from head to toe and veils. In a world where women are required to dress as told, and conduct themselves according to the hierarchy of a male’s world. A world such as this leaves women hopeless in obtaining a sense of individualism. Nafisi offers this book club as a short escape for her students, where they could express their personal thoughts freely. “When my students came into that room, they took of more than their scarves and robes.
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Gradually, each one gained an outline and a shape, becoming her own inimitable self. ”(Nafisi 250) The previous passage perfectly depicts the sense of self that was gained through this book club. The women out of there identical robes and veils, become distinct from one another, not just another robe, but a person, wearing clothes of there choice. This club may have given them a sense of freedom from the regime, and allowed them to obtain a feeling of individualism.
This struggle to overcome troublesome realities, in attempt to lead fulfilling lives, is shared by Nafisi and her students, as well as Stout’s patients. Both were presented with a form of ‘darkness’, Nafisi’s oppression from the totalitarian regime and Stout’s patients trauma. But through the power of imagination and the courageous defiance against the regime for Nafisi, and traumatic pasts for Stout’s patients, they were able to retain a sense of self. Opening doors, to lives defined by personal choices, creating individuals with true connections.
