The Tree Metaphor

A psychology prof once described the process of developing a disorder as a sapling that encounters resistance while growing. If the little seedling's trajectory meets with a material that it can't grow through (for example, a brick wall), it will grow around it. The tree may not grow straight up, but it will still grow. It might grow in a strange shape, or perhaps there will be a dearth of leaves on certain brances, or it's trunk may be crooked. But still it will grow, having compensated it's straight-up trajectory in order to still find the sunlight.

In this way, normative development may be interrupted in a child who encounters stress growing up - especially one who may have a genetic predisposition that makes them vulnerable to some stress. The seed will still grow, but if there is something vulnerable about it and/or it encounters adversity, the result is the development of some coping mechanism which MAY end up being maladaptive in the long-run.

So, little acorns, I've been sitting in the earth for the past six years working through the undergraduate degree part-time. It's finished, and with the grand results from my thesis, the graduation and the Certificate of Excellence from the CPA, this little seedling has finally pushed through the earth and can feel the sun on her face.

Classes start in just over a month. I will be weighing in regularly about the rigours of grad skule life, psychology topics, and how everything seems to remind me of Arkham Asylum. Stay tuned.