#5 The blind spot

The blind spot is a location on the optic disk in the eye that is characterised by having no photoreceptor cells and therefore insensitive to light and visual stimuli. In other words, a tiny part of the human eye is not receptive to the visual information that is normally transmitted to the optic nerve and the brain.

This black spot makes us theoretically partially blind and yet does not prevent us from seeing perfectly well. This is an extraordinary phenomenon that despite its presence does not reduce the visual field and our ability to see through the eye.

I often refer to this as a metaphor to explain how we can relate to the demons of emotional hurt.

As human beings, we are exposed to emotions that can sometimes result in actions and thoughts that we may find very difficult to consciously make sense of. These emotions are experienced with various degrees of distress and pain that, at their most extreme, can feel like absorbing the entirety of our own self and our ability to contemplate anything beyond it. This feels like as if our entire field of vision was obstructed and as if the blind spot had grown so big that our entire ability to 'see' was compromised.

The blind spot is only a tiny part of the eye. The remarkable complexity of the organ cannot be reduced to the singularity of one of its parts. Equally, the part of us that suffers and carries emotional hurt remains a part amongst the many other parts that make us who we are and what we have become as a person amid other persons.

It is possible for what may feel overwhelming to recede, and for our field of vision to slowly open again. With time, the blind spot of emotional hurt can be reduced to the point of not preventing us from 'seeing'. It remains a part of our apparatus of existence, and the awareness of its presence reminds us of our own vulnerability. But, like for the blind spot in the eye, its plain presence does not compromise the entirety of our visual field.