Who Am I? Writing to Find Myself

Abstract

Developmental creative writing and the related areas of expressive writing and therapeutic writing have only recently arisen as significant areas of study; however, although recent research has determined that writing is good for your health, just expressing oneself on the page isn’t enough to promote personal development. In this paper, I set out to answer the question – how is personal development achieved in the context of therapeutic writing? In order to answer this question, I consider many definitions of personal development and writing as outlined by experts in the associated fields of expressive writing, therapeutic writing and developmental creative writing, and I also review concepts of the self as I consider a related question – who am I? Through an in-depth analysis of my own personal writing about my sister’s mental illness, I conclude that writing for the purposes of personal development requires a conscious self-reflexive effort, with the goal of developing a deeper understanding of self, so as to promote positive change in the way that one perceives one’s own life.