This is hidden brain.
I'm Shankar Vedantam.
Greek mythology is filled with stories of violence, anger and hatred.
Take the tale of the goddess Medea to distract her father.
As she fled with her lover, Medea killed her brother, cut up his body, and scattered the pieces behind her.
Then there's the God Kronos, who devoured five of his children at birth to ward off a prophecy that one of them would eventually overthrow him.
For a land blessed with exceptional sunshine and good wine, Greece is home to a striking number of tales about incest, brutality and bloodthirsty revenge.
Thousands of years ago, the greek philosopher Aristotle had a theory of why this was in poetics.
He suggested that the goal of art was something he called catharsis.
Writing, watching, and reenacting tragedy was good for the soul.
It was a form of healing.
The idea that stories can be a form of therapy has carried over into modern times.
Sigmund Freud explored the idea.
Psychoanalysis involves understanding the self as a series of stories.
After Freud fell out of favor, researchers and counselors have continued to explore the role that stories play in our mental well being.
This week on Hidden Brain, how understanding the stories of our lives and rewriting them can change us forever.
A quick heads up.
Todays episode touches on trauma and how we cope with it.
There are references to suicide and revenge.
Rachel first met Greg in California.