Norway
“Can we trust the Lighthouse?”
Anne Kyong Sook Øfsti
Novelist, Associate Professor, Family Therapist.
Anne Kyong Sook Øfsti has been employed at Vid University, Oslo, since 2001. She is an experienced therapist. Øfsti has been the editor of Fokus på Familien and has written articles, essays and book chapters. She disputed at Tavistock in 2008 with the dissertation Some call it love. In addition, Øfsti has published two novels: Si at vi har hele dagen (2014) and recently, The Little We know about Mama (2023)
Abstract
As a child, Nobel Prize Winner Alice Munro remembers reading Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales and changing the endings of those she didn't like.
In my childhood, I too read a lot. I delved into fairy tales, children´s Bible and short stories about poor families and happy, wealthy families. But it never came to my mind to change the stories. I had too much trust in the authoritative author. Reading was a guide to knowledge and reliable values in the art of living.
Later, in my professional development, I experienced a diversity of doubts. How do we navigate when life collapses when answers and evidence are blurred, and when role models and leaders behave untrustworthy? I don’t have any clear answers. I often mistrust the Lighthouse and get lost, both in my private life and in meeting with clients.
In this talk, I will explore, share, reflect and linger around some questions: Where can we find places where we can glimpse what it might feel like to be another person. Where can we free ourselves from the constant judgment in this world? Where may we be inspired to walk the detours and paths to learn more about ourselves? To tell stories, to retell old narratives, to live in the span between fragility and strength.