family

Family can be our support system. Or they can be part of the problem. All about the complicated, loving, and difficult relationship with us and the ones who love us.

Notebooks and Nightmares
I shut my eyes for probably the twentieth time that night, desperate, longing for even a few minutes’ worth of rest. 3:13 AM.
By Stephen Acosta5 years ago in Psyche
Actaeon
‘He didn’t have to read it.’ That was her consolation after Julian’s…accident. Merging onto I-91, Katelyn didn’t know what else to say. It wasn’t her fault—it couldn’t be. When she received the letter eight days ago, she couldn’t possibly have known what would happen. But her father? Could he have known? When he wrote, ‘I’m dying, Kati. These will be my last words to you,’ did he also know how she would choose, or what it would do to Julian?
By Robert Bailey5 years ago in Psyche
A father's rights
“Hope, you evil little thing,” she thought to herself as she reached out with her open palm positioned just below where the moon hung in the sky.
By Benjamin Kibbey5 years ago in Psyche
A Slow Burn
Growing up with a narcissistic mother can leave untold damage. Especially when you don’t realize the trauma that has been a constant burden until you’ve reached forty-four years old, thriving in life. Or so you thought.
By Emeline Scrivener5 years ago in Psyche
The Body
Many times I’ve dreamed of running into a large sum of money, or finding a suitcase full of cash. Well now I was lucky enough to find one, and lugged it around with me.
By Chato Urbin5 years ago in Psyche
Review of ‘Familial Complexes in Individual Formation by Jaques Lacan’
Preface The situation of myself, primarily as an interviewer at PAWS has led me to write to and exchange correspondence with a variety of professionals involved with design, theatre to the culinary arts. Often the selection of which of the interviews would make it to the magazine was a bone of contention between the management and me. For reasons best known to others, the management has chosen to conceal the circulation figures, as well as not heeded my request to include a letters to the editor section. In the absence of any mechanism of feedback, to discern the reception of our articles, and to perhaps make a space of exchange regarding the process and criteria, not merely of the selection of articles, but also their form – which to my eyes need not be relegated to interviews alone, I seek to continue my prior study of Lacanian psychoanalytic theory.
By Arsh K.S5 years ago in Psyche
War Games
When I was 5 or 6, before my mother became abusive, she had a boyfriend who lived with us named KB. KB took us to a drive-in movie one night.
By Byron Hamel5 years ago in Psyche
The Once and Always Valentine
Valentine weekend isn't always sweetness, light, and lacy hearts for everyone. The expectation of fluffy lovey doviness can do a number on a person and dredge up fountains of grief. For me, the grief is missing what once was.
By Judey Kalchik 5 years ago in Psyche
Self-Made?
I get called self-made, by those who I will admit, know me the best. At times I would have agreed, But the truth is, I am not self-made. I am very far from self-made. I wasn’t raised in the traditional sense. When I was a child and teenager, I would watch those who I lived with and pick up all the traits I didn’t want to have. I knew who I didn’t want to be by the time I was 20, but I didn’t know who I was, not really.
By Angelique Edmondson5 years ago in Psyche
Holding onto Hope
It’s easy to see the scars on those who are victims of their own minds. Their lives crumble, they exude a tiredness that is almost contagious, and often the person they are is overshadowed by the illness that is affecting them. They lose part of their identity and so many mentally ill patients feel they will never again find it. And yet, there are so many far reaching effects of the illness that are so rarely considered.
By Antonia Humphrey5 years ago in Psyche
Are you a narcissist?
"Am I a narcissist? Chances are, if you made it this far in the article the answer to your question is no. You are not a narcissist.
By Ship Wreck5 years ago in Psyche
Finding Forever
Prologue~ Being beaten everyday at home and school was hard, but tolerable for Charlie. He had lived with it ever since he had come out with that boy. When it came to his home life, it was his father that would beat him. His mother, on the other hand, was okay with his preference; yet she did not stop her husband from beating their son unconscious, mainly because she was lead to believe that the man would merely ignore and scold the boy. Another reason Charlie's mother did not interfere, or talking sense into her husband, was the chance that he would take his anger out on her; and with the multiple times that he had almost killed the woman, it was understandable why she stayed quite. At school it was continuous name calling, shoving and beatings for Charlie. His teachers' always said he was a joyful child, then one day he closed off. To everyone they saw Charlie as "clumsy" and because he was clumsy that was why he would show up with cuts and bruises. Charlie did not counter the suspicion that he was clumsy, he let people say it, he let them believe it.
By Nenise Mariposa5 years ago in Psyche