fragmented beings

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Pablo Picasso, Woman Playing with Mandolin, 1909

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"Erik, we all go to pieces with our pacients at one time or another. We all go to pieces now and then even without a patient to help us along. Your grief makes you more fragile. You know I've always thought of wholeness and integration as necessary myths. We're fragmented beings who cement ourselves together, but there are always cracks. Living with the cracks is part of being, well, reasonably healthy."

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Siri Hustvedt, The Sorrows of an American