"Wrong life cannot be lived rightly."--Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia; German sociologist and philosopher

The moment of truth can be caused by creating an instance of "empathic unsettlement," the term coined and discussed by historian Dominick LaCapra in Writing History, Writing Trauma. Empathic unsettlement, LaCapra maintains, “poses a barrier to closure in discourse…from which we attempt to derive reassurance or a benefit. . . ” for those who are open for change and seek to better themselves both emotionally and psychologically. When I think about Jennifer Teege's moment of truth as she unexpectedly read about her grandfather's role as the commandant of Plazow, Amon Goeth, I cannot imagine what a male student in my English Composition I class while he was felt talking to me one-on-one after his final examination at the end of the summer session about four-and a-half years ago at College of Lake County, in Grayslake, Illinois.The young man related how he had been tossed about from one foster family to the next, and even at age nineteen he was still living with a new family whose father figure was about as understa?nding and decent to him as an accursed enemy might be. Jennifer Teege fought depression as did my student. She deemed it necessary to write about book about her grandfather; my student, continue in school. Both Ms. Teege and my student proved Adorno wrong: a wrong life can be lived rightly by means of determination, fortitude, and courage.

Here is Jennifer Teege's story in an interview which took place in 2015.