Mending a nation

Kintsugi is “the art of precious scars”. Judith Ancer has found it a useful idea in therapy, particularly during the pandemic. “The Japanese break a plate and mend it with gold mixed in the glue, so what you have afterwards is more valuable. Being in the world today is uncomfortable, and that for me means embracing the imperfection and the scar tissue. A strong idea in psychology is that the self develops through a series of ruptures and repairs. Those cycles build tolerance and awareness.”