Elif Shafak is a Turkish writer whose book, Black Milk, explores her travail during a debilitating post-partum depression. In the process she presents life as viewed from someone who has been raised in a very multi-cultural world which is probably, in her case, related to the internal conflict and confusion she battled…and certainly battles even today.

An essential part of her story is recurrent dialogue with six internal voices which she calls her Thumbelina’s, six tiny finger-sized women who represented various dimensions of her psyche. At times these internal voices, and others, came to tyrannize her and as she worked through her depression she was able to find freedom from them.

Each of us is a composite work. We are a myriad of personalities and if we are lucky these various voices will be subsumed under a specific ego structure. We will know who we are and the other voices that would otherwise harangue us are more or less muted into private fancy or forbidden impulse. Some have rich imaginations, however, and often they are writers and can vividly portray a broader dimension of reality than most of us are permitted to otherwise have access to. And, of course, there is another alternative in which these voices can be experienced—mental illness!

I would like to share one excerpt from this very interesting and poignant book:

The Sufis believe that every human being is a mirror that reflects the world at large. They say each of us is a walking microcosm. To be human, therefore, means to live with an orchestra of conflicting voices and mixed emotions. This could be a rewarding and enriching experience were we not inclined to praise some members of our inner orchestra at the expense of others. We suppress many aspects of our personalities in order to conform to the perfect image we try to live up to. In this way, there is rarely—if ever—a democracy inside of us, but instead a solid oligarchy where some voices reign over the rest….Only when we can harmonize and synchronize the voices within can we become better mothers, fathers, and even writers