Activating The Mirror: Seeing What We Don't Want To See

 

Actually in my case it was much more confusing, as what people seemed to imply were defects (even, indirectly, in the sense that they seemed to indicate something non-specific was wrong) was just a different cultural character structure.  That's like, supposing you come dressed in a fur coat for hot weather.  My reactions were very inappropriate for the particular culture, but not so inappropriate for my own.  In the pressure of the ensuing crisis, I simply threw as much of everything that I could overboard, including large parts of my former self.  Then again, having to deal with this rupture and sudden change to  cultural and historical contexts is why I call myself a historical shaman, not an ordinary one.