Stigma & Kintsugi [3 films, 5’33”]
Huseyin Djemil describes working in a rehab where staff used to put a cover story together for residents so that when they left they didn’t have to reveal their past. He found that difficult and later said to residents, when he became temporary CEO of the rehab, ‘Do you really want to start your new life with a cover story, like you’re a spy?’
Huseyin talks about Kintsugi, which as a Japanese philosophy treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise. It’s an embracing of the flawed or imperfect. He says, ‘… if I transfer that to my recovery, I could try and fix the cracks in a way that they are not visible to anyone. But what I’ve chosen to do instead is to take the Kintsugi route and put my cracks on show.’ He considers his recovery as an asset.
Huseyin describes running a Kintsugi group at Towards Recovery and stresses the value of such an approach.