Thrall – AJ Sloan, Ethan Chase, Leo Louis
Many of us leave childhood carrying deep shame for our own unmet needs. When our caregivers failed to love us in particular and necessary ways, we developed beliefs about the ensuing feeling of lack, which became part of our identities. To cope with what we have lost, many of us reach, strive, and pursue perpetual goals for greater success.
Still, others of us lose ourselves in addiction to substances, food, sex, television, social media – anything that takes away the existential anxiety of living in a human body in our fragmented world. Deep down, we feel the weight of our independence: the knowledge that, as adults, we must give ourselves the love we never receive from another person – despite relationships, both romantic and platonic.
A bold way to play with this intrapersonal dynamic is to intentionally represent our dependence on others, the emotion of not making choices, of not being responsible for our own needs and of not thinking about the next step in our journey. For a moment, being totally dependent on another person can be an incredible gift of recovery and, for many, an erotic high.
