MY NAME MEANS FIRE

A haunting memoir that excavates the weight of names, family mythology, and inherited trauma.

In this deeply personal narrative, Yaghmaian, writer and psychotherapist, chronicles how a single word—Atash, meaning “fire” in Persian—became both identity and burden from birth. Born during a period when her pregnant mother felt compelled to dance nightly, she inherits not just a name but a family curse that her mother believed destroyed her marriage. The memoir traces the author’s childhood in pre-revolutionary Tehran, living with her grandmother, Maman Bozorg, after her parents’ divorce, bound literally to bedposts for safety and figuratively to stories that shaped her understanding of self. Yaghmaian, who migrated to the United States at the age of 19, skillfully weaves together scenes of family dysfunction—her mother’s legendary beauty and consuming jealousy, her father’s dramatic suicide attempt that won her hand—with broader themes of cultural displacement and the psychology of blame. The prose moves between tender childhood observation and mature reflection, examining how family mythologies can define and confine identity across generations. Her exploration of superstition, particularly her mother’s belief that naming her “fire” invited destructive spirits into their lives, offers insight into how immigrant families process trauma through cultural frameworks. The narrative’s strength lies in its unflinching examination of how children internalize adult conflicts, carrying guilt for circumstances beyond their control. Yaghmaian writes, “For many years, I felt like a freak, but through the many trauma survivors I’ve worked with, I’ve come to see the blessing in dissociation and am determined to tell my story now in order to give hope to others.”

A powerful exploration of how family stories and cultural identity forge—and sometimes fracture—the self.