Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh my!

T.R Johnson packs much philosophical references, fictional narratives, and scientific resources into one piece just to prove that 1) writing cannot be taught 2) people are multi-dimensional 3) Plato is just... no. I have to thank Poetics for helping me through this reading, without which I may have had to re-read this essay three or four times. Johnson picks at some really interesting topics, such as trauma, teaching, and transformation. But what I found to be the most interesting was how Johnson broke down expressivist theory and where it was derived from.
Johnson argues that expressivist critics often assume that this rhetoric focuses too much on "individualism" and an "ideal-self"-- influenced by Plato. This assumption, however, is incorrect. The essay argues that expressivist rhetoric is derived from anti-Platonic ideals, and is rather more concerned with discovering the multi-dimensional self and emphasizing the importance of that process rather than the product.
In relation to healing, Johnson points out that traumatic events can cause illnesses (such as PTSD). These characters of disease can, in a way, possess someone of their spirit. To treat such illnesses, Johnson refers back to logotherapy as a means to rid people of these illnesses. Eventually, as these oral traditions faded due to a rise in literacy, the same process of ridding the body of illness was applied in writing. Seen as a mere character among characters within a person, expressivists believed that through writing, one can free themselves of a damaging personality or illness and move on to find a more productive and positive person within themselves. Of course, as teachers, no one can teach a student or writer how to heal --only the writer can evoke hope within their trauma-- but Johnson argues that the teacher can provide the environment for the student to build up that rhetoric. This makes me think about a traditional therapy session-- the kind you see in the movies. A psychologist sits in a chair facing a client who's laying down on a couch, and a series of questions (usually very similar in content) are being asked by the therapist. The client responds with explanations that seem to lead nowhere until BOOM, they sit up and all of a sudden they realize there's some hope. Of course this is is only an exaggeration, but in a way it summarizes the importance of the process, rather than the product. In order to heal a person must take the time to reflect, express and revise their experience until they are released into "euphoric catharsis".