Telling stories is an extremely powerful thing. Stories are used as escape, connection, or remembrance. In “How To Tell A True War Story,” by veteran and author Tim O’Brien, stories were used to help the author stay sane after fighting in a brutal war. In “Selections from Reading Lolita in Tehran,” written by Azar Nafisi, author and activist, Nafisi explains how escaping reality through works of fiction helped her maintain her individuality and sanity during a time of great struggle in her homeland, Iran. These ideas of the two authors are opposed by that of Martha Stout, clinical psychologist, "When I woke up on Tuesday morning, it was Friday", scientifically examining the experiences of her patients to explain the phenomenon of dissociation. Stout's definition of dissociation has been described as having varying levels, from mild to monumental, and as disrupting people's lives and changing their sense of self. In all three of these pieces it is clear that dissociation is used differently and has different effects in each scenario. Dissociation is often linked to healing, but it is not a method of healing, it is a method of dealing with tragedy. People use different aspects such as imagination and fiction as tools to aid their dissociation, but in the end they are still forced to go back and face the harsh reality of their life. The real question is whether dissociating helps protect or harms one's delicate sense of self. This essay will explain how these tools, of imagination and fiction, are used to protect a person's sense of identity and whether dissociation helps or harms them. The mind is fragile, so when it breaks it "heals" in various ways, but it is never truly healed. In Stout's work he describes many... paper moments... moments of great struggle, moments where it would have been much easier to fade into the background because it was expected. Instead they fought against their traumas, using their mind, to shield and protect them, through this tactic they both made it, but they only won the battle, not the war. In conclusion, dissociation is not a form of healing. It cannot change what has already happened, nor can it change when or if it will happen again. What dissociation does is protect the mind so that the individual can cope and move forward in their life. From these three authors it is clear that survival is one of the greatest victories that trauma patients can aspire to, along with their individuality and a strong sense of self. Many people, like Stout's patients, lose pieces of themselves through this process of protection, because they are not present.