Graduation

Knowing the right time to leave therapy can be challenging, as life continues to throw challenge and opportunity in our direction.  By adopting a ‘long-game’ view of emotional development and growth, leaving therapy can feel less pressured.   We can trust in our intuition that we’ll know when it’s important to re-engage with a therapy process.  There are times to plumb the psychological depths, and there are also times to take a break and simply enjoy floating downstream.
Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket inspired the aesthetic of this comic.   This soldier is not in conflict with the therapist, but is struggling in his own psychological drama.  What better metaphor for internal helplessness, chaos, and suffering than war?  He is faced with a choice between the armoring he’s used to survive a life of struggle, or to let go and open himself up to the possibility of healing and change.  An internal dilemma we all face as we move through life’s cycles of injury and recovery.
The armoring of the soldier as lamented by Joker in Full Metal Jacket:
“Graduation is only a few days away, and the recruits of Platoon 3092 are salty. They are ready to eat their own guts and ask for seconds. The drill instructors are proud to see that we are growing beyond their control. The Marine Corps does not want robots. The Marine Corps wants killers. The Marine Corps wants to build indestructible men, men without fear.”

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