Not Necessarily a Box of Chocolates

Mar 28

By Jay Slupesky

Stones (but not enough) I was conversing with some fellow marriage therapists about the difficulties faced by adults who were sexually abused when they were children. One therapist reminded us of a great scene from the movie Forrest Gump. Remember Forrest’s girlfriend Jenny, whom he met on the first day of school? Her father abused her when she was a young girl. When Jenny and Forrest go back to her home town and come upon the run-down shack where Jenny suffered at the hands of her father, she flies into a rage and begins hurling stones at the shack. She keeps this up until there are no more stones to be found. Then Forrest utters the very eloquent line, “Sometimes there just ain’t enough stones.”

That’s a great commentary on the anger that continues into the adulthood of those who survived childhood abuse.

In marriage therapy the issues of childhood abuse sometimes surface. The survivor may have chosen to be in, or to remain in, a destructive relationship. She may have a hard time maintaining appropriate boundaries and have difficulty resolving conflicts. A good marriage therapist needs to inquire about the childhood of his or her clients and deal appropriately with those who suffered abuse as children.

Tags: abuse

This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 8:11 pm and is filed under Marriage Dynamics.

One Response to “Not Necessarily a Box of Chocolates”

Carlita Baker Says:
April 5th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Great movie. I totally forgot about that scene though.

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