Survivor identity

The word survivor does important work — it refuses the passivity of victim while acknowledging the reality of what was endured — but it can also become a cage, a definition that keeps the wound at the center of the self long after the wound has begun to close. The examined survivor identity asks: what does this experience mean in my story, and how much of my story do I want it to be? Neither denying what happened nor organizing an entire life around it is the full answer; the integration is the task.