Monday, April 14, 2008

Magical thinking

Do you think the term "magical thinking" is a good description of Didion's mind beset by grief? What was magical about it? Have you ever experienced anything like this, as a consistent thought pattern or as a momentary occurrence?
Posted by at

4 comments:

kc said...

I don't know. I think perhaps "magical thinking" may be just another way of saying old habits die hard. You are simply not used to someone being dead and gone. It's not real yet. Right after my grandpa died, I almost said a few times, while talking to my mom or grandma, "How's Grandpa doing?" or "Where's Grandpa?" It's like you forget what happened. Then I remembered doing that with my dad's mom, too — forgetting that she's dead. It takes the mind a while to permanently register the new reality.

6:23 PM, April 14, 2008
Erin said...

The "magical thinking" is interesting. I had never heard of that phenomenon. I mean, what she was describing seemed to be a step beyond your run-of-the-mill denial. My mom certainly didn't seem to experience that. She was pretty efficient about getting rid of my dad's clothes and other possessions. Maybe it's different when the death is sudden? I wonder how common the "magical" thinking is.

10:18 PM, April 14, 2008
kc said...

I like that she quoted C.S. Lewis (have you guys seen the Anthony Hopkins movie about him and his wife?). This touches on habit, which I think is a big part of the magical thinking. After his loved one (H.) died, Didion writes, Lewis said:

I think I am beginning to understand why grief feels like suspense. It comes from the frustration of so many impulses that had become habitual. Thought after thought, feeling after feeling, action after action, had H. for their object. Now their target is gone. I keep on through habit fitting an arrow to the string, then I remember and have to lay the bow down. So many thought roads lead to H. I set out on one of them. But now there's an impassable frontierpost across it. So many roads once; now so many cul de sacs.

12:01 AM, April 16, 2008
Erin said...

I liked that, too. Love the line about the cul-de-sacs.

2:38 PM, April 16, 2008

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)