The narrative labyrinth of violent dying.

This essay outlines the dynamics of retelling the violent death of a loved one and the narrative "dilemma" of vulnerable family members fixated on retelling. To counter this fixation, the author presents a mythic retelling of violent death (the Myth of Theseus) as narrative basis for developing a restorative retelling. The essay begins by exploring the deformed and deforming structure of the violent dying story, then details the dynamics of its retelling and concludes by presenting a restorative retelling model for family members who cannot release themselves from the story for months or years after the violent dying.