Injurious language from our past can be reinterpreted and reframed to create a reimagined, more positive landscape to allow for personal growth and recovery.
Spoken language is intimately tied to the slice of time within which it was uttered, and words thrown at us at that moment can pierce a fragile heart. But over time, our assiduous brain can purposely shatter these harmful connections, separate the language from its interpretation, and create a new dawn of a more positive narrative. We see a set of personal memories, laid bare and with a new visual language attached to them. We are taken on a journey of reinterpretation that is aligned with Judith Butler’s assessment that “Words might, through time, become disjointed from their power to injure and be recontextualised in more affirmative modes.”
