I have a theory about pulling out thorns. A thorn is trauma understood as a memory with a frozen emotion inside it. When we hit one, the brain takes a shortcut to go round the memory. The thorn is precisely that alarm signal. To pull a thorn out: first hit it and stop. Do not open the frozen emotion — create a branch instead. A fictional memory. An alternative ending. Run the film on in a different direction and leave the hard part frozen. The hypothesis: next time we hit that thorn, the shortcut is not used. A new film plays. The alarm stops
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