
Blog & Commentary

A Tryst of Pain and Art
What about Sylvia Plath’s story compelled you to read her book? What about Kurt Cobain hooked you into his raw, expressive music? If you are anything like me, you were probably intrigued by their haunting stories of pain, trauma, and the appeal of the ‘tortured artist’. But did they need to suffer through irreparable trauma to create genre-defining art?

Reconciling The Battle Within
Much like the issues that arise from ignoring symptoms of other illnesses, not finding healthy ways to regulate moral distress can snowball into much bigger problems that manifest themselves as problematic and harmful behaviour. The most studied manifestation of chronic moral dysregulation is the behaviour of “othering” individuals that may fall outside our own unique experience of moral distress where we slowly but surely develop a sense of isolation — both socially and morally. Once the isolation sets in, it becomes infinitely easier to overlook the mountain of well-being benefits we gain from solidarity in community. And so the cycle goes on.