Therapeutic metaphors for children and the "inner child" SCIENCE and STUDY, PSYCHOLOGY, HUMAN Title: Therapeutic metaphors for children and the "inner child" Author: Mills Joyce, Richard Crowley Publisher: Nezavisimaya firma "Klass" Publication year: 2000 Pages: 144 Format: pdf Size: 5.37 Mb ISBN: 5-86375-013-8 Quality: Excellent The normal adult usually loves to learn new things about children. To better understand their own. And in a vague hope of reconnecting with himself, with that "inner child" who laughs and cries in everyone until the last hour of a long adulthood. This book is devoted to the language of communication and psychotherapeutic work with "both children". The authors, who have devoted many years to child psychotherapy, simply and in detail show how, together with children, to construct fairy tales, images, drawings that will give children the strength to cope with problems, and adults to better understand these problems through contact with the "inner child". The book will facilitate and decorate the life and work of a pediatrician, psychologist, teacher and, of course, parents. CONTENTS "Or maybe embroider ..." Foreword by E.L. Mikhailova ... 5 Foreword by Ernest L. Rossi ... 7 Introduction: origins ... 8 Part one. LIMITS OF METAPHOR …141. The nature of metaphor …14Metaphor and Eastern wise men …15Metaphor and Western psychology …19"Physiology of metaphor" …262. Metaphor in child psychotherapy ...28Return to the "child in us" ...28The meaning of imagination ...34Theoretical approach to imagination ...36Experience with the use of metaphor in child psychotherapy ...38Utilization of symptoms ...41Flexibility in utilization ...503. What a story is composed of…55Literary and therapeutic metaphor…55Components of therapeutic metaphor…57Real life and literature as the basis of metaphor…63Part two. CREATING THERAPEUTIC METAPHORS …694. Collecting information ...69 Identifying and utilizing positive experiences ... 69 Recognizing and utilizing minimal cues ... 74 Identifying and utilizing sensory preferences ... 805. Children's language and how to learn it …84Language signals: a conscious communication system? …84Eye movements: an unconscious communication system? …87 "Extraconscious" sensory system: a new perspective in theory? …92Establishment of extraconscious systems …102Presentation of a problem or symptom …1026. Three levels of communication as a single process …110Storyline: first level …110Suggestions: second level …111Interlacing: third level …112Living metaphors …114Teaching metaphor: Sammy the Elephant and Mr. Camel …117Epilogue …128 85 1 2 3 4 5

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Joyce C.Mills, Richard J.Crowley THERAPEUTIC METAPHORS FOR CHILDREN AND THE CHILD WITHIN BRUNNER/MASEL Publishers New York Joyce Mills, Richard Crowley THERAPEUTIC METAPHORS FOR CHILDREN AND THE INNER CHILD 615.8 BBK 53.57+57.33 M 60 Mills J., Crowley R. F 60 Therapeutic metaphors for children and the "inner child" / Translated from English by T.K. Kruglova. - M .: Independent firm "Class", 2000. - 144 pp. - (Library of Psychology and Psychotherapy) ISBN 5-86375-013-8 (RF) himself, with that "inner child" who laughs and cries in everyone until the last hour of a long adult life. This book is dedicated to the language of communication and psychotherapeutic work with "both children". , simply and in detail show how to design together with children fairy tales, images, drawings that will give children the strength to cope with problems, and adults to better understand these problems through contact with the "inner child". The book will facilitate and decorate the life and work of a pediatrician, psychologist, teacher and, of course, parents. Chief editor and publisher of the series L.M. Krol Scientific consultant of the series E.L. Mikhailova Published in Russian with the permission of Brunner/Mazel publishing house and its representative Mark Paterson. ISBN 0-87630-429-3 (USA) ISBN 5-86375-013-8 (RF) © 1986, Joyce Mills, Richard Crowley © 1986, Brunner/Mazel Publisher © 2000, Klass Independent Firm, edition, design © 1996, T.K. Kruglova, translation into Russian © 1996, E.L. Mikhailova, foreword The exclusive right to publish in Russian belongs to the publishing house "Independent Firm "Class". The release of a work or its fragments without the permission of the publisher is considered illegal and is prosecuted by law. Individual copies of the books in the series can be purchased in stores: Moscow: House of Books "Arbat ", Trading houses "Biblio-Globus" and "Young Guard", shop No. 47 "Medical Book". St. Petersburg: House of Books. trendy topic.Psychotherapists of various theoretical orientations are increasingly using a story - a parable, a "tale", a fairy tale - in their work, as if listening to the muffled, heavy voice of Milton Erickson, who will "stay with you" Here is a book of such "enchanted" authors. Even if it had nothing more than this - the popularization of Erickson's legacy - it would remain worthy of the attention of any professional dealing with children and any thoughtful parent. And you can imagine a pediatric dentist who competently builds "painkillers" and "fear-banishing" metaphors. Or a school psychologist who will find the "magic word" for a child who is difficult to adapt in the classroom. Or a teacher who knows how to tell such stories. This book is for them. It is detailed, understandable, in a good way "technical". But there is something else in it, a kind of "message of the second level" ... And now I want to say a little more about it - and in a different way. Pieces of colored glass in a kaleidoscope, clay on a potter's wheel, a grandmother crocheting a tablecloth... In the "screensavers" of chapters, images of manual labor are so common that they are hardly accidental. What do we know about needlework? It requires a precise plan, sometimes very inspired, and then, with inevitability, accuracy, patience, good "fine motor skills". It is absolutely unheroic. It can be creativity, or it can remain a craft, which is also good in its own way. It does not change the structure of the world, but patches up its gaps, makes it a little more habitable, animated, "one's own". Once a magical ornament turns into a simple ornament by endless repetitions - who remembers its mysterious meaning? (That one, however, does not disappear without a trace - just call ...) Needlework is sometimes practical - then it is "needless for inventions is cunning", and sometimes it does not solve any everyday problems, then it is "just for the soul." It does not need recognition, a special place: as old as the world and humbly content with the status of "applied art" ... Everything the same, word for word, can be said about the work of the authors of this book. Yes, they are into "new wave" psychotherapy, including Neuro-Linguistic Programming - and the enlightened reader will even come across a description of the use of "eye access keys". But only. The ball came up in color, and it was already found in the grandmother's household, spun with one's own hands or a thread was pulled out of a somewhat fake mantle - what's the difference? In another place, Carl Gustav Jung “suited” them in the same way, and even the wise men of the East - and even more so ... Moreover, it is quite obvious that in their extensive practice, the authors not only tell stories, but also do a lot of other things: draw, they play, just talk, observe children in their natural environment... Of course, everything "works" together. It's just that the rest is not new, many and many Western experts are able to do this, and it seems that it is not necessary to talk about it. .. But when embroidering, it is important not only how and with what, it is also important - on what, although the basics may not be visible later. For the authors, their own experience and the entire professional culture of child psychotherapy, diagnostics and counseling is an implied "background", a therapeutic metaphor is a "figure". For a Russian professional, "background-figure relations" will be different, which is important for the perception of this book. It is the context of the professional use of the method that will give it its final meaning and determine the outcome. And then in one case we will deal with a really powerful effect, in the other - just with one of the many "techniques", and in the third case, the therapeutic metaphor will remain a pretty decoration, a "toy", which is just as good and a lot. It can be said differently: having learned to "own the hook", the reader of this book will acquire something that he will dispose of according to his own understanding. Moreover, this will remain with him even when in the psychological world "other times come, other names will rise." Ekaterina Mikhailova Return to your origins And become a child again. Tao Te Ching FOREWORD Joyce Mills and Richard Crowley have poured their heart, scientific courage, and observant mind into this book, which in itself has a therapeutic effect on the reader. The new methods of treating children discovered by them with the help of detailed metaphorical images have not only a purely applied value, confirmed by their extremely successful practice, but help to re-understand one of the important issues of psychotherapy: the process of resolving age-related problems and psychological assistance during growing up. . In their search, Mills and Crowley rely on practical experience Milton G. Erickson, enriching it with a new original vision of the problem. In creating their own methodology, they respectfully draw on previous experience: the work of Freud and Jung, as well as modern teachings related to neuro-linguistic programming, behavioral and cognitive approaches. The greatest impression is made by their own practical material, which they cite in support of their new positions. I was particularly struck by the methodological simplicity of using their ideas in everyday psychological practice, especially considering the depth of their theoretical substantiation. This disarming simplicity brings amazing results, helping the client to quickly get out of the seemingly inextricable swamp of unsolvable problems. Regardless of their theoretical background, the reader will appreciate the novelty of the author's approach, which equally successfully affects both children and adults. This wonderfully written book will spark creativity in any professional, help you see your clients' problems in a new way, find your own uncharted path to solve them, and thereby contribute to the ever-expanding arsenal of therapy. Personally, I look forward to learning more from Mills and Crowley, who bring hope to their clients and the joy of creating for themselves. Ernest L. Rossi, Malibu, 1986 INTRODUCTION: ORIGINS Colored glass, mirrors and straws have been around for centuries. For some, they continued to exist on their own. For others, they served as the source material for transforming the whole world of colors and shapes and creating new fantastic images that the kaleidoscope opened up for them. The last decade has been marked by the publication of many works devoted to the study and development of therapeutic methods by psychiatrist Milton G. Erickson. Many of them were written by those who were fortunate enough to learn from Erickson. The very personality of this kind and wise genius influenced everyone who worked with him in a very deep and for many still inexplicable way. Thus, Ernest L. Rossi, who worked closely with Erickson from 1974 until his death in 1980, only recently fully realized the unusual and complex learning process that Erickson, with his inherent humor, devised for Rossi to increase for his interest in the lessons. Using direct and indirect influence, didactics and metaphor, Erickson sought to expand the thinking, horizons and abilities of his students. Given Erikson's exceptional dynamism and inventiveness as a person, one can doubt whether his "second generation" students will be able to prove themselves. Will therapists who have not worked directly with Erickson creatively master his brilliant techniques? The fact that we wrote this book, in which we talked about the use of Erickson's methods in working with children, indicates that the second generation students were deeply and invigorating the impact of Erickson's miraculous experience. The more we study it, the more we feel it. And the point here is not only in the impact of Erickson's personality, but in the creative message, the energy that we draw from his work for our own creativity. This is a kind of "domino effect", when each insight drops a spark for the next discovery. By the time we became acquainted with Erickson's work, we both had about 25 years of experience in practical work. She was mostly successful. We used various therapeutic methods: insight analysis, behavior modification, family therapy, principles of gestalt therapy. But we both felt that our work lacked something vital that could take it to the next level. new level. We turned to non-traditional approaches to psychotherapy and attended a Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) workshop led by Richard Bandler and John Grinder. The brightly presented theoretical and practical material aroused our deep interest, and we decided to replenish our knowledge by studying in a small group under the guidance of an NLP specialist. And yet we felt that we had not yet found something important. Our searches were mainly of a structural nature: where and what technique should be used - and this, to some extent, led us to a creative dead end. It was during this very period, in March 1981, that we stumbled upon an extremely informative and exciting workshop by Paul Carter and Stephen Gilligan, where we had our first exposure to Erickson's ideas and methods. The techniques developed by Bandler and Grinder also relied on the Ericksonian method, but Carter and Gilligan managed to convey the essence of Erickson's unconventional and innovative approaches in a manner that was more in line with our personal and professional orientations and allowed me to find the missing link in our therapeutic practice. More precisely, it was not just a link, but a decisive turn in our views on psychotherapy. The traditional starting point for therapists has always been the psychology of pathology, with Erickson it has been subtly transformed into a psychology of possibility, and the conventional authoritarianism of the therapist has been replaced by participation and the desire to use (utilize) the possibilities of healing inherent in the patient himself. Traditionally revered analysis and insight have been pushed off their pedestal and replaced by creative reframing* and unconscious learning. We both have the skills of traditional hypnosis, but it has always seemed to us something artificial, limiting and imposing. In addition, it implies a certain disrespect for the patient, who is invited to enter into some strange state where he or she limply follows someone's suggestions. At the Carter and Gilligan workshop, we saw exactly the opposite: trance became a natural result of an internal movement towards a state. introduction to a different context, usually a wider one. As a separate technique practiced in NLP, it is used as a technique in many other approaches. (Approx. scientific editor.) Concentration and focus, and hypnotic suggestion - a natural, externally directed means that encourages a person to find independent solutions. Every time we went into a trance during class, it felt like something deeply personal had been touched in us, as if a curtain had been lifted and sunlight flooded into a dark room. For us, it was the work of Erickson, which highlighted new creative approaches in our practice. It took us months theoretical foundations , hands-on work and study to transform our creative insight into real results. In August 1981, we participated in an intensive workshop by Carol and Steve Lankton, where we continued our introduction to Ericksonian methods. The next step in the same direction was our acquaintance with Steven Geller in 1982. The concept of "unconscious restructuring" he formulated (Geller and Stahl, 1986) was a further development of the neuro-linguistic theory of communication. Geller added to it a new model of thinking, which he called the extraconscious system, where metaphor plays an integrating role. Our cooperation lasted for about two years. During this period we received the support and practical help of a number of leading teachers of Ericksonian hypnosis. Special mention goes to Jeffrey Zeig, director of the Milton G. Erickson Foundation. He not only actively supported our scientific research, but also helped in the creation of this book. Margaret Ryan, who became our close and dear friend, provided us with invaluable help in carrying out the plan. Through her we met Ernest Rossi, who kindly wrote the foreword to the book. Jeff put us in touch with Brunner/Mazel, which brought our book to the public. The application of the Ericksonian method (and techniques based on it) was not easy for us, and sometimes led to confusion. At first, we felt awkward and embarrassed when we interrupted an adult patient with unexpected phrases like "by the way, this reminds me of a story." Still, we did not back down, because we intuitively believed that the metaphor told would hit the mark rather than a simple conversation or discussion of the problem directly. Our fears that the patient would indignantly interrupt us with the words: "I'm not paying money to listen to your stories" - fortunately, were not justified. On the contrary, we were convinced of the favorable reaction of our customers and soon we were calmly telling our stories to both adults and children. Deta, of course, more readily respond to this approach. It is much more interesting to listen to a story than to listen to an annoying adult. For most children, a metaphor is such a familiar reality, because our childhood is woven from fairy tales, cartoons, fairy-tale movie characters, they are the ones that have the greatest impact on the soul of a child. Even role modeling in the family can be seen as a metaphorical process by which a child learns to behave "as if" he or she is one of the parents. Oral storytelling for children is not a new or the only form of child therapy, but a special combination of techniques in writing such stories can produce amazing results. Empathizing, the child easily plunges into his inner world, which the therapist helps to create with his story, which is a complex interweaving of observations, learning skills, intuitive prompts and goal setting. As a result, the child receives a valuable and important message that stimulates his unique associations and experiences. This is what Erickson did best. There was no static or structural rigidity in his therapeutic experience. He never tried to teach him how to work. Rather, he helped the therapist figure out how to work for him or her. A little girl finds a box of crayons with a magical variety of colors. Having poured out the crayons, she begins to draw first with one color, gradually discovering with delight how beautifully the colors combine and combine. Here is a blue mountain, a dog, the sky, but you never know what other miracle can be depicted in blue. The girl is growing up, now she is already a schoolgirl, and she hears a strict instruction: "Today we draw butterflies." The child creates his butterfly with inspiration. "The butterfly is not drawn like this. It must be done like this." Or even she is given a pre-printed contour image of a butterfly. “Paint without going beyond the line,” they say to the child, “it will be like a real butterfly with everything.” But the girl's colors go beyond the contour all the time. "That's not good," she is reminded, "only paint over what's inside the line." Now imagine a teacher who gives paper and paints and simply says: "Draw as you like. Let your hand guide you, and I will only tell you if necessary." How often we as therapists and educators are held back in this way. This is done in different forms, but the essence is always the same: "Do not get out of the line." At the same time, we are expected to have a creative and non-standard approach to work. Isn't this a paradox? Erickson managed to overcome it, who recognized that every person has abilities worthy of respect. He helped to reveal these inclinations not through some frozen formulas and established systems, but by creating special conditions for each person in order to stimulate unique internal processes in him. Lacking the happiness of knowing Ericson personally, it was as if we were learning from him, feeling his unique indirect influence, discovering more and more layers of original creativity in ourselves and growing generous fruits on them. For purely teaching purposes, one has to analyze the technique of creating metaphorical images, but one should not forget that the therapeutic effect of a metaphor lies precisely in the fact that it does not lend itself to exhaustive analysis. No matter how hard we try to decompose it into its component parts, no matter how carefully we trace the countless internal connecting factors, there is always something unrevealed in it. It is in this part, inaccessible to analysis, that the transforming power of metaphor lies. Kopp very well captured the features of one of the varieties of Eastern metaphor - the koan (koan). A koan, in its tone, can seem both very simple and puzzling. It hides a certain paradoxicality inaccessible to logic. A student can spend months, or even years, puzzling over a solution to a problem until he realizes that there is no problem at all. And the desired solution is to give up further attempts to delve into the meaning, because there is nothing to delve into, and to answer spontaneously, directly. Immediacy of reactions is best for children. Without philosophizing over the story told, they simply dive into it with all the vastness of their imagination. Put into action, it is the main transforming and healing factor. As a match lights a candle, so a metaphor fires up the child's imagination, turning it into a source of strength, self-knowledge and imagination. This book is intended for those who want to awaken all the best in a child and his family. The metaphor will greatly enrich your practical and theoretical experience, awaken the child in yourself, which will help you better understand the inner world of children who need your help. Dreams of childhood Having overcome the fog of real life, I will pave the way deep into myself And enter a trance that will return Me to another, forgotten world... Known to everyone as "Dreams of childhood". Having discarded the tinsel of all rules and propriety, I will again and forever enter Into the garden of young, carefree days. Be yourself as a child again, Play with yourself as a child. Let toys or memory remind of him, Or emptiness or loneliness of the dwelling. Experience this child's love like a miracle And undress again. I could have known nothing, If I hadn't risked And returned to childhood again... Part one FACETS OF METAPHOR 1. THE NATURE OF METAPHOR Having placed a lump of clay in the center of the potter's wheel, the master begins to rotate it slowly and with the help of water and sensitive, but confident The touch of your fingers shapes the clay until it becomes a unique piece of art that can be admired and used in equal measure. Metaphor is a kind of symbolic language that has been used for centuries for educational purposes. Take the parables of the Old and New Testaments, the sacred texts of the Kabbalah, the koans of Zen Buddhism, literary allegories, poetic images and the works of storytellers - everywhere a metaphor is used to express a certain idea in an indirect and therefore, paradoxically, most impressive form. This power of metaphor is felt by all parents, grandparents. Seeing the sad face of the child, they rush to console and caress him, telling some story with which the child can intuitively relate himself. This chapter provides a wide range of theories covering philosophical, psychological, and physiological perspectives on the nature of metaphor. Metaphor and Eastern Wise Men "How can I see the truth?" asked the young monk. "With everyday eyes," replied the sage. We have begun this chapter with the sages of the East because their philosophies, in a metaphorical sense, reproduce the development of the child. To be in harmony with life and nature, one must learn to grow up and overcome difficulties. The main teaching tool for Eastern philosophers of various directions was metaphor. They preferred this method of indirect influence because they understood that students perceive the learning process as something subject to the laws of logic and reason. It is this circumstance that can hinder successful learning. For example, Teacher Zhuang Tzu, when explaining the unity of man, nature and the universe, did not use logical constructions, but stories, parables and fables to convey the same concept in the form of a metaphor. There once lived a one-legged dragon Kui. His envy of the centipede was so great that one day he could not stand it and asked: "How do you manage with your forty legs? I have a hard time with one." "Easier than simple," answered the centipede. "There is nothing to be controlled here, they themselves fall to the ground like drops of saliva." From the philosophers of Zen Buddhism, parables and fables acquired a deeply thought-out and refined form of koans - paradoxical riddles that are not subject to logic. Koans of one type are direct, simple statements, but no less mysterious and veiled for that. Say what it sounds like to clap with one hand. or The flower is not red, and the willow is not green. Another type of koan has a traditional question-and-answer form, but is non-traditional in meaning. The student asks a completely expected or predictable question, the teacher's answer is surprising and completely incomprehensible. A young monk asks: "What is the secret of Enlightenment?" The teacher replies, "Eat when you're hungry; sleep when you're tired." or The Young Monk's Question: "What does Zen mean?" Teacher's answer: "Pour boiling oil into a raging fire." The mysteriousness of this approach to learning is its strength, because it encourages the student to search for deeper knowledge. Rossi and Jichaku (1984) attribute the value of koans to the fact that the enigma they contain requires the student to go beyond ordinary dualistic thinking. To understand the koan, one must erase the traditional line that separates good and evil, black and white, lion and lamb. In search of a solution, one must go beyond one's own mind. And then the effort to comprehend the meaning suddenly dissolves in the flood of insight that is always with us. An example of such enlightenment is given by Rossi and Jichak, quoting Master Hakuin. “All my earlier doubts melted like ice. I exclaimed loudly: “A miracle, a miracle! Man does not have to go through the eternal cycle of birth and death. There is no need to strive for enlightenment, because it does not exist. And the one thousand seven hundred koans brought to us from the past do not have the slightest value. "" Enlightenment "is in ourselves, according to Eastern sages. No need to suffer in search of knowledge, you just need to sort it out into noses that separate enlightenment from it human perception, and the best way to do this is the metaphor of a koan, a parable and a fable.Here is an expressive passage from the "Garden of Stories" (Xian and Yang, 1981): Tui Zi always speaks in riddles, one of the courtiers once complained to Prince Liang - Lord, if you forbid him to use allegories, believe me, he will not be able to sensibly formulate a single thought. The prince agreed with the petitioner. The next day he met Guy Tzu. "From now on, please leave your parables and speak directly," said the prince. In response, he heard: "Imagine a person who does not know what a catapult is. He asks what it looks like, and you answer that it looks like a catapult. Do you think he will understand you?" "Of course not," the prince replied. "And if you answer that the catapult resembles a bow and is made of bamboo, will it be clearer to him?" "Yes, that makes sense," agreed the prince. "To make it clearer, we compare what a person does not know with what he knows," Gui Dzy explained. The prince admitted he was right. The concept of "enlightenment" refers to the world of an adult and is based on his experience. What does it have to do with children? It will be admissible to say that the child's knowledge of the world is enlightenment in its pure and direct form. In the teachings of Zen and the writings of mystics of various directions, it is children who are considered the natural carriers of enlightenment. Adults are encouraged to return to child condition to gain the knowledge they long for. Because children live in the moment, are immersed in it and perceive what is happening around them with their entire sensory world. They are not bound by the searches and anxieties of adults (Kopp, 1971): “As for questions of the spirit, here the child seems to be enveloped in God's favor. He is so absorbed in the very process of life that he has neither time nor opportunity to think about matters of essence. ty, or expediency, or the meaning of everything around. This very "state of good will" was reached by Teacher Haku-in at the moment of insight, when koans instantly lost all their value compared to the value of life itself. Everyone seems to have to go all the way from the innocence, purity and openness of a child, through the difficult search for self-knowledge that the adult mind is engaged in, finally back to childish spontaneity and simplicity, enriched with consciousness and maturity. * According to the metaphor Taoist Hoffa, a child can be compared to a "rough stone." "The principle of 'rough stone' means, in essence, that the natural strength of things lies in their original simplicity, violating which, one can easily damage or even lose strength." * Jung called this process individuation (1960) and considered it the single most important task of modern consciousness. It is this power of simplicity that constitutes the special gift of the child's consciousness, which amazes us, modern psychotherapists, brought up in the spirit of adult superiority. We are lost when we suddenly discover how easily a child understands complex interpersonal relationships. We learn a lot, but we do not know how to respond to such insight. But we, adults, are supposed to know more in order to direct and lead. Where does a child get such sensitivity? How do we maintain this strength (and fragility) of childish simplicity as we teach our pets to adapt to the complexities of the world around them? It will not be so difficult if we, psychotherapists, understand that we should draw knowledge from two sources: from experience accumulated as a result of the evolution of adult ideas, and from that distant childhood experience that is waiting to be called from the subconscious. ​for now, it remains there as a child within us. A family in the bosom of nature I listened attentively to my client, who spoke with bitterness and tears about her teenage son. He just recently got off drugs. She talked about the confusion that goes on in her soul when she does not know whether to leave her son alone and detachedly watch how he struggles with himself, or to rush to help. If you sacrifice yourself, then to what extent? How to cope with the feeling of powerlessness that grips her when she watches her son struggle with his weakness? I listened to her sad story and suddenly remembered one incident that perfectly coincided with her problems. Catching the moment when my visitor fell silent, holding a sigh and lowering her shoulders limply, I looked expressively at her and began my story. A few months ago, we got together as a group and set off to travel along the river on rafts. One morning I woke up before anyone else and decided to take a walk along the river bank downstream. There was amazing peace and quiet all around. I sat down on a log by the water's edge and looked around. Nearby stood a huge beautiful tree. On one of the branches sat a small bird in bright plumage. I noticed that she was looking intently towards a small depression in the rock, located about six meters from the tree and just below the branch. Then I drew attention to another bird, which all the time flew from the depression to another branch of the same tree and back. In the recess, all huddled and afraid to move, sat a tiny chick. Realizing that something important was happening in this "family", I began to observe with even greater interest. What are parents trying to teach their child? One of the birds continued to scurry between the two points. Then I had to leave my observation post. When I returned about an hour later, I found that the baby was still sitting ruffled in his recess, mom was still flying back and forth, and dad was still sitting on his branch and chirping directions. Finally, once again reaching her branch, the mother stayed on it and did not return to the baby. A little more time passed, the chick fluttered its wings and began its first flight into the light, and immediately plopped down. Mom and dad watched silently. I instinctively rushed to help, but stopped, realizing that I had to trust nature with its centuries-old learning experience. The older birds remained where they were. The chick rustled, flapped its wings and fell, puffed up again and fell again. Finally, dad "got it" that the baby was not yet ready for such serious activities. He flew up to the chick, chirped several times and, returning to the tree, sat on a branch that was located much lower than the previous one and much closer to the baby. A tiny creature with wings as bright as a gem joined his father, who was sitting on the lower branch. And soon my mother settled down next to them. After a long pause, my client smiled and said, "Thank you. Apparently, I'm not such a bad mother, if you look at it. My chick still needs my love and my help, but he must learn to fly on his own." Metaphor and Western Psychology Carl Jung In his seminal work, Carl Jung built bridges between the teachings of antiquity and modernity, between the sages of the East and the psychologists of today, between Western religions and the modernist quest for faith. The basis of his constructions is a symbol. A symbol, like a metaphor, conveys more than meets the eye. Jung believed that the whole picture of our mental world is mediated by symbols. With their help, our "I" manifests all its facets, from the lowest to the highest. Jung's definition of the symbolic coincides surprisingly with existing definitions of metaphor. "A word or image becomes symbolic when something more than a conveyed or obvious and immediate meaning is implied. Behind it lies a deeper "subconscious" meaning that cannot be precisely defined or exhaustively explained. Attempts to do this are doomed to failure. When the mind examines a symbol, it stumbles upon concepts that lie beyond the limits of rational understanding." The expression of the archetype, according to Jung, is the main role of the symbol. Archetypes are innate elements of the human psyche, reflecting the general patterns of sensory experience developed during the development of human consciousness. In other words, archetypes are metaphorical prototypes representing the many stages of human evolution. There are archetypes of father and mother, masculinity and femininity, childhood, and so on. For Jung, the archetypes are "living psychic forces" no less real than our physical bodies. Archetypes are to the spirit what organs are to the body. There are many ways to express or recreate an archetype; the most common of these are dreams, myths and fairy tales. In these special areas of activity of consciousness, the elusive archetype takes on a tangible form and is embodied in action. The conscious mind listens to a certain story with a certain sequence of events, the meaning of which is fully assimilated only at a subconscious level. The archetype is clothed in metaphorical garb (Jung uses the term parable) which helps it to go beyond the comprehension of ordinary waking consciousness, just as happens in Eastern koans (Jung, 1958). "In terms of content, the archetype, first of all, is an allegory. If we are talking about the sun and it is identified with a lion, an earthly ruler, a countless golden treasure guarded by a dragon, or with some power on which human life and health depends, then all these identities are inadequate, because there is a third unknown, which more or less close to the comparisons listed, but, to the constant annoyance of the intellect, it remains unknown, not fitting into any formula. pitep - divine will), because they evoke an emotional response in a person, a feeling of awe and inspiration. Jung especially insisted that symbols are both images and emotions. A symbol loses its meaning if it does not contain numinosity, emotional "When we have just an image, then it is just a verbal picture, not burdened with a deep meaning. But when the image is emotionally saturated, it acquires numinosity (or psychic energy) and dynamism and carries a certain connotation. "For Jung, symbols are the life-giving force that nourishes the psyche and serves as a means of reflecting and transforming life. In the Jung symbol I have always seen the carrier of modern spirituality, born of vital psychodynamic processes occurring in every person.The gradual decline of interest in traditional authoritarian religions leads to the fact that in search of faith, "gaining a soul", a person will increasingly have to rely on his own psyche and its symbolic connections. "Man needs a symbolic life ... Only a symbolic life can express the need of the soul - the daily need of the soul, pay attention to this! " Sheldon Kopp In our review of the works of many famous psychologists govs and psychotherapists, the works of Sheldon Kopp have found a worthy and consonant with our own views. Aphora from a Psychotherapist (1971) Kopp talks about the saving role of fairy tales in his own childhood and how he later rediscovered the educational power of legends and poetry. The search for his own path in therapy raised doubts in him about the power of the scientific world of research and theories, which did not affect his personal experiences, feelings and intuitive sensations, while classical myths and metaphors created by various cultures of the world sank into the soul deeply and for a long time. . “At first it seemed strange to me that in my psychotherapeutic practice, stories about magicians and shamans, about Hasidic rabbis, Christian hermits and Buddhist sages helped me the most. Poetry and myths gave me much more than scientific research and reasoning." Diving into the literature of metaphor helped Kopp to clarify one important aspect of the therapeutic process that is often overlooked: the internal process that takes place in the therapist himself. Kopp referred to it as "arising kinship" or "internal unity" with the client. Exploring the phenomenon of metaphor, Kopp distinguishes three types of knowledge: rational, empirical and metaphorical. He believes that the latter type expands the possibilities of the two previous ones and even displaces them. "Metaphorical knowledge does not depend directly from logical reasoning and does not need to check the accuracy of our perception. To understand the world metaphorically means to capture on an intuitive level situations in which experience acquires a symbolic dimension, and a multitude of coexisting meanings are revealed to us, giving each other additional semantic shades. " Julian Jaynes Psychologist and historian Julian Jaynes develops Kopp's ideas, arguing that the subjective conscious mind is precisely the process of constructing metaphors. Mind is "that vocabulary or vocabulary whose concepts are metaphors or analogues of behavior existing in the physical world ". As Jaynes puts it, a metaphor is a primary experience that serves a twofold purpose: (1) to describe experiences that later (2) can lay down new models in the mind that expand the boundaries of subjective experience. In other words, when we try to describe any particular event, i.e. reproduce it objectively, in the process of our story, new analogies arise, which in themselves expand the initial experience.A funny illustration of this point of view of Jaynes can serve as the notorious tale about "such a fish that caught hooked, but it fell off. "So an unremarkable experience turns into almost the most significant event in life. An example of a big its productive "work of metaphor" is the psychotherapeutic process, when, talking about himself, a person rethinks individual moments of his life in a new way. It has happened to each of us that, when we tell a friend about an event, we discover new details, more complex twists and more intricate dependencies than we imagined at the time of the event. According to Jaynes, this process of enrichment occurs at the expense of the generative capacity of metaphor. If we agree with this idea, then the metaphor can be extremely useful tool communication in those cases of therapy, training and counseling, when it is necessary to search for a new understanding of the problem by the client. Erickson and Rossi It is difficult to count the number of metaphorical stories that Milton Erickson has created in his 50 years of brilliant professional work. Most of them were drawn from personal experience and therapeutic practice. Many believed that he was unrivaled in the use of metaphor for medicinal purposes. Erickson himself gave little thought to the theoretical basis for the effects of metaphor until his collaboration with the psychologist Ernest Rossi began during the last decade of Erickson's life. During this period, a theory based on the latest research by neurologists in the field of the functioning of the cerebral hemispheres began to gain integrity. This theory reveals an important relationship between metaphor, symptomatology, and therapeutic action. Studies have shown that the processing of metaphorical type messages occurs in the right hemisphere. It, to a greater extent than the left, is responsible for the emotional and figurative side of thinking. It is believed that psychosomatic symptoms also originate in the right hemisphere. Erickson and Rossi suggested that since "symptoms are messages in the language of the right hemisphere, then the study of metaphors will allow you to communicate directly with the right hemisphere in its own language." From this it becomes clear why the metaphorical approach to therapy gives results much faster than the psychoanalytic method. "This [use of metaphor to communicate directly with the right hemisphere] is fundamentally different from the traditional psychoanalytic approach, where the body language of the right hemisphere is first translated into abstract models of left hemisphere cognition, which already somehow have to feed back on right hemisphere to change symptoms." Metaphor, on the other hand, goes to the goal in a straight line, setting in motion the right hemispheric processes. Erickson was especially adept at "communication on two levels," as Rossi put it, ie. he simultaneously worked with both the conscious and the subconscious. While the consciousness receives its message (in the form of concepts, ideas, stories and images), the subconscious is busy with its own business: unraveling the subtexts and hidden meanings. Consciousness listens to the literal meaning of the story being told, while suggestions, carefully thought out and skillfully woven into the fabric of the narrative, cause the necessary associations and shifts of meanings in the subconscious, which, accumulating, eventually overflow into consciousness. "Consciousness is puzzled because a response is born in it that cannot be explained... With the help of the same mechanism, analogies, metaphors, jokes affect the subconscious in the strongest way, activating its associative abilities and responses, resulting in end product that is given to consciousness in the form of "new" knowledge or behavioral response. Erickson's work with one of his patients can serve as an expressive illustration of the above thoughts. For many years, Joe had been successfully gardening when he suddenly found out that he had an incurable form of cancer. Unable to bear the pain and limitations of the disease, he was constantly complaining, irritated and refusing the endless amount of painkillers that each doctor prescribed according to his own taste, denying the benefit of the drugs prescribed by other doctors. Knowing that Joe hated even the very mention of the word hypnosis, Erickson resorted to an extended metaphor based on growing tomatoes and used it as an indirect and not at all hypnotic suggestion to soothe, support and comfort his client and alleviate his physical condition. . Here is a small excerpt from this story (suggestions woven into the story are in italics): “Now I want to talk with you, as they say, with feeling, really, with arrangement, and you listen to me carefully and calmly too. I'll be talking about tomato seedlings. A strange topic for a conversation, isn't it? Curiosity immediately arises. Why about seedlings! So you put a seed in the ground and hope that a whole bush will grow out of it and please you with its fruits. "Yes, it swells by absorbing water. It's not difficult, because from time to time warm, pleasant rains fall, they bring so much peace and joy in nature. And you know, flowers and tomatoes grow for yourself ... You know, Joe, because I grew up on farm, and for me the tomato bush is a real miracle; just think, Joe, in such a tiny seed, so peacefully, so comfortably, the whole bush dozes, which you have to grow and see what wonderful shoots and leaves it has. ma they are so beautiful, and the color of such a thick miracle the hue of a forest, that your soul sings with happiness, Joe, when you look at this seed and think of that wonderful plant that sleeps so calmly and comfortably in it. Although there was little hope of a cure, Erickson managed to improve his symptoms significantly. The treatment relieved the pain so much that Joe could do without painkillers. His spirits rose and he spent the remaining months of his life with the same "activity with which he had lived all his life and successfully conducted his business." Thus, in the case of Joe, the tomato metaphor activated in the subconscious mind the associative models of peace, comfort, happiness, which in turn stopped the old behavioral models of pain, complaints, irritation. The result is a new behavioral response: an active, cheerful lifestyle and a positive attitude. Of course, the change did not come immediately, and the effect of the metaphor was not instantaneous. Its many-sided, ever-expanding comprehension began. One understanding gave birth to another, causing appropriate behavioral responses. Thus, the chain of change was set in motion by something like a self-activated feedback system built into the mind. Bandler and Grinder The last decade of Erickson's life was the most fruitful in his teaching career. While working with students, Erickson used a number of methods of indirect influence, including elements of recycling, trance, and metaphor. Both linguists, Bandler and Grinder, observed Erickson's clinical work and, on the basis of these observations, built their linguistically oriented understanding of the mechanism of action of metaphor. Metaphor, according to their theory, operates on the principle of a triad, passing through three stages of meaning: 1) Metaphor represents the surface structure of meaning, directly expressed in the words of the story. 2) The Surface Structure activates its associated Deep Structure of meaning, indirectly related to the listener. 3) This, in turn, triggers the returned value deep structure that is directly related to the listener. Approaching the third stage means that a trans-derivative search has begun, with the help of which the listener relates the metaphor to himself. The storyline itself serves only as a bridge between the listener and the message hidden in the story, a message that will never reach the addressee without his invisible work to establish the necessary personal connection with the metaphor. Once the link is established, interaction begins between the story and the awakened inner world of the listener. Our brief review reveals the respect common to all theories for metaphor as a special and effective remedy communication. Everyone agrees that metaphor is a multifaceted phenomenon, and its use can be very diverse to expand the boundaries of human consciousness. "Physiology of metaphor" We took as a revelation the theory of Erickson and Rossi about the possible connection between metaphor, symptomatology and the work of the right hemisphere. New creative possibilities opened up for us. Having understood where the power of metaphor comes from and what happens in the brain at the physiological level, we began our research in order to trace the connection between the work of the hemispheres of the brain and the language of symbols or metaphors. First, let's briefly talk about the latest achievements of science in the field of brain research. In the 1960s, the psychologist Roger Sperry and his colleagues Philip Vogel, Joseph Bogen, and Michel Gazaniga collaborated to investigate connections between the hemispheres. In a 1968 paper, Sperry described an unprecedented operation successfully performed by Vogel and Bogen on the brain of an epileptic patient. Its essence was that the pathways between the two hemispheres were interrupted. Studying the aftermath of a series of similar surgeries, scientists found unexpected changes in the behavior of patients, which indicated a fundamentally different way of processing information in each hemisphere. “Judging by the behavior of such patients, it seemed that the process of thinking in them was not a single stream of consciousness, but two independent streams, each arising in its own hemisphere, cut off from each other and having no points of contact. In other words, each hemisphere has its own special sensations, perceptions, concepts, its own stimulating impulses and the associated experience of knowing, learning, expressing will. Prior to this discovery, it was thought that both hemispheres functioned, if not identically, at least in largely similar ways. The work of Sperry and his colleagues has sparked renewed interest in this area of ​​research. As a result, a very complex picture of the work of the brain has opened up, where elements of specialization are balanced by elements of integration. We already know that each hemisphere has its own "style" of information processing (specialization), but both of them also work together as a whole (integration). This also applies to language, which has always been considered the prerogative of the left hemisphere. Research has shown that both hemispheres interact synergistically in the complex business of creating language and deciphering verbal messages. The left hemisphere perceives language sequentially, logically and literally, while the right hemisphere grasps messages instantly, in full, capturing the hidden meaning. In other words, the left hemisphere puts the cubes in order to get the correct picture, while the right sees it right away. What is the metaphor here? Since the meaning of a metaphor is not so much its literal meaning, but the meaning hidden in it, it will take more work for the right hemisphere to decipher it. This is supported by two independent studies. In 1978, Ornstein measured the brain wave activity of medical students performing various cognitive tasks. The highest activity of the left hemisphere was noted when reading and writing texts of a technical nature, and the highest activity of the right hemisphere was recorded when reading Sufi parables (Mohammedan mystical pantheism). In the left hemisphere, these texts caused the same activity as technical texts plus a burst of activity in the right hemisphere. Rogers and Her Colleagues (1977) held comparative analysis English and Hopi (the language of an Indian tribe living in settlements in northeastern Arizona) in terms of hemispheric work. Primary school students who knew both languages ​​listened to the same story on tape in English and in the Hopi translation. At the same time, electroencephalograms were recorded. The results showed that processing the story in Hopi elicited increased right-sided activity compared to the English version. This is because, unlike English, the Hopi language is more contextual. In Hopi, words do not have fixed meanings, but are understood depending on the overall meaning of the message. It is this need for flexibility in understanding depending on the context that causes the activity of the right hemisphere. Summing up, Pelletier writes: "The elements of these (right-sided) verbal constructions do not have fixed definitions, but depend on the context and, taking place in new structure change their meaning". Pelletier's idea of ​​a semantic shift coincides with what Kopp called "a set of coexisting meanings" and with the "two-level theory of communication" put forward by Erickson and Rossi. Research in this area is ongoing and the final conclusions are ahead, but already the initial stage confirms the intuitions of those theorists who draw a parallel between the linguistic characteristics of metaphor and the physiological features of the work of the right hemisphere. Metaphor is truly the language of the right hemisphere. It is to be hoped that further research will provide even richer material that will equip us with knowledge about the physiological basis of understanding and even enhancing the effectiveness of metaphorical messages.2. MEPHBTSPSB IN CHILD PSYCHOTHERAPY In the real world, the horse remains just a horse for us.But in the world of fantasy and myths, it grows wings and becomes a Pegasus, which can freely deliver the rider to any part of the world. Go to the "child in us" Those who work with children should never forget the epigraph: "Go back to your roots and become a child again." The ability to return to the "child in us" is truly an invaluable quality. It happens when we relive our happy childhood memories and funny fantasies or watch children play in the park, on the beach or in the school yard. This helps us to recapture the characteristics of children's immediacy of perception and use them as an important therapeutic tool. Through the Eyes of a Child A colleague of mine once asked me to urgently consult his client, a young woman with a four-year-old son, Mark. My colleague explained that, according to his mother, Mark had been repeatedly sexually assaulted by his father. At this time, the mother was seeking custody of her son, convincing the courts of the unworthy behavior of the father. In the past few months, the child has been endlessly questioned and tested by court-appointed psychotherapists. But there was no judgment. Meanwhile, the emotional state of the baby quickly deteriorated. He woke up screaming in the middle of the night and could not calm down for a long time, during the day he was afraid of everything and often cried. Our meeting took place the next morning. A charming woman entered my office, clutching a large folder of court and medical records on the boy's case to her chest. A white-headed blue-eyed kid was holding on to the pocket of her jeans with a thin little hand. Despite the bitterness and despair that overwhelmed her, her mother bravely sat down on the couch and began busily sorting through her papers. Mark quietly settled down beside him, still clinging to his mother's pocket. He looked at the toys with interest, board games , soft animals, theater puppets, paintings and drawing objects that filled my office. “Maybe I should first read the conclusions of the therapist?” the mother was worried. “Or read the conclusion of the court first?” In the first few minutes of our meeting, I obediently flipped through the pages, not losing sight of the baby. The report contained endless interpretations of what happened between father and child. The court case was also full of assumptions and recommendations. In the meantime, I felt that I was becoming uneasy, and I was busy with the wrong things. All these pieces of paper flashing before my eyes distracted me: the more I went into them, the more I moved away from the child. Meanwhile, the very object of this corrosive and dispassionate study sat with a sad face, silently pressed against his mother's side. He hardly moved, only his eyes continued to dart curiously from object to object. It took me a little time to study the "relevant documents", because I soon realized that this was not going to work. For all their apparent content, all this pile of papers gets in the way of the most important thing in the treatment of a child: the opportunity to establish contact with him in his own world. I put the folder aside, explaining to my mother that it was important for me to play a little with Mark so we could get to know each other. I took the boy's hand and said briskly, "I see you keep looking at what I have here. Do you want to come closer?" His eyes sparkled, he nodded his head and began to get off the couch. Noticing this change in the child, I myself began to calm down internally and felt how some kind of connection began to arise between us. Mark moved from one toy to another, and I, crouching, walked beside him, trying to see the room through his eyes, and not through the eyes of a wise doctor. I repeated after him the words with which he described the objects he saw, trying to reproduce his intonations and pronunciation, not in order to please him, but for myself, in order to feel the same thing that I would feel if I four years old and find myself in the office of the same doctor after the same worldly trauma. We as therapists are taught to be objective and to be mindful of transference and countertransference. But how can one speak of objectivity if one does not know what is going on in another human soul? This kid has been studied so diligently that the folder with the results of these objective works weighs almost more than himself. My tactics should be completely different: at the side of all objectivity, at least for a while, to understand Mark, his world will help me the child in me - my "inner child". Although the experts recognized the boy as exceptionally withdrawn and uncommunicative, even during this first meeting, he was able to tell me a lot about the confusion that was going on in his childish soul, through drawings and stories. But before that happened, we spent about thirty minutes traveling around the room, getting to know the toys and each other in a way that only children can. In our practice, we have repeatedly had to convince parents, at least for a while, to abandon the adult view of things and try to see them through the eyes of their child in order to understand his world, his problems, and for this you need to return to your own childhood. Monsters and Easter Bunnies Danielle was a lovely eight-year-old girl who was brought to my appointment by her mother. Complaints abounded, including excitability and sleep problems. For several years now, the girl could hardly be put to sleep. As soon as it was time to go to bed, she was seized with fear. She claimed that monsters lived in the bedroom. The mother used all reasonable arguments to convince the girl that there are no monsters and there is nothing to be afraid of. But the girl continued to believe in her monsters and tried desperately to convince her mother that it was true. I became interested in the details and asked the girl to tell how the monsters look, if they make noise, if they touch her, etc. The girl perked up and excitedly answered my questions, because they confirmed my faith in the reality of her world. Mother listened to our conversation with puzzlement. Having seized the moment, she called me aside and expressed her indignation at the fact that I was indulging my daughter's inventions and negating all her many years of efforts to rid the child of these fantasies. Before remaking a girl in my own adult way, I explained to my mother, we must first recognize the reality of her world, understand her fears, and then look for a way out. Let her imagine herself as an eight-year-old girl who is being chased by monsters, maybe then she will extract something important and useful for herself from our conversation with her daughter. In the meantime, I came up with a metaphor that helped Danielle to see the monsters from a completely different perspective and suggested how to deal with her fear and the problem in general. When I asked the girl if she had ever heard the story of monsters and Easter cakes, she shook her head. "And you?" I asked my mother. "No," she replied with a shrug. So, I began my story, there were once very unhappy children, because they had no friends. Whatever they thought up to make friends, but no one paid attention to them. And so they became sad and not well at heart. And one day the thought came to their minds that they needed to somehow stand out so that other children would notice them and become friends with them. They came up with very strange, strange costumes for themselves, and they also began to behave very unusually. They went out in this form to other children, and they were scared to death and decided that they were monsters. So these unfortunate children now wander in costumes of monsters and are themselves afraid of everyone. I reminded Daniel of the scene from the famous children's movie where the hero, the boy Elliot, meets the strange creature Iti in his yard, and how they both tremble with fear. And then Elliot gave Iti a gift and they became friends. "I remember, little cake!" Daniel responded happily. "That's right," I confirmed. "And now, Danielle, when you get home, give your monsters a present and they'll be kind." Then the girl asked permission to go to the toilet. Taking advantage of her absence, her mother remarked with a smile: “You know, I saw everything you said directly. Silly, of course, but it made so much sense. From the radio when they were broadcasting fairy tales. What can you think of later. Thank you for reminding me of my childhood. " A week later, my mother told me that Danielle made a Easter cake as a gift for the monsters and laid it out in front of the closet door where they "live." With the exception of this night, she slept peacefully all week. Over the next three weeks, Danielle occasionally had sleep apnea, but her mother reminded her every time of Easter cake, Elliot, and Iti. Lingering by the girl’s bed to tell her something and calm her down before going to bed, the mother, to the delight of her daughter, became a really excellent storyteller. Jung and the "inner child" In his autobiographical book "Memories, Dreams and Reflections" (1961), Jung tells about his amazing acquaintance with the child in himself and about what an indelible imprint this acquaintance left on his whole life. In the chapter "Encounter with the Unconscious" he tells how, after a series of unusual dreams, he was seized with inner restlessness and a state of "permanent depression". The emotional anxiety was so strong that he began to suspect that he had a "mental disorder." Trying to get to the bottom of the reasons for what happened, he began to sort through childhood memories. But this did not give him anything, and he decided to let the situation develop on its own. It was then that a living and touching memory came, which turned his whole life upside down. “I remembered the time when I was ten or eleven years old. During this period I was terribly fond of building with cubes. As I now saw the houses and castles I built, the gates and vaults of which were made of bottles. A little later I began to use the stones of my buildings, holding them together with damp earth. To my amazement, these memories caused some deep tremulous feeling in my soul. “Aha,” I said to myself, “all this is still alive in me. The kid inside me is not dead and is full of creative energy that I lack. But how can I find the way to it?" For me, as an adult, it seemed impossible to return to my eleven-year-old self. But there was no other way, and I had to find my way back to my childhood with its childish amusements. This was my turning point. ment in my destiny. But endless doubts gnawed at me before I submitted to my own decision. It was painfully humiliating to admit that there is no other way but child's play. " Jung really "submitted" and began to collect pebbles and other Construction Materials for my project: building a whole toy settlement with a castle and a church. Every day after dinner, he regularly started his construction work, and even worked out the "shift" in the evenings. Although he still doubted the rationality of the purpose of his cause, he continued to trust his impulse, vaguely guessing that there was some hidden sign in it. “In the course of construction, a certain enlightenment occurred in my thoughts, and I began to catch those vague assumptions that I had only vaguely guessed about before. You build your town, as if performing some kind of ritual!" I had no answer, but inside I was sure that I was on the way to discovering my own legend. And the building game is only the beginning of the journey." The encounter with the "inner child" unleashed Jung's enormous creative energy, which allowed him to create a theory of archetypes and the collective unconscious. As we have already mentioned, Jung defined different types archetypes - mother, father, child, hero, villain, temptress, rogue, and so on. Directly related to the topic of this section is his clear understanding of the unique meaning of the archetype of the child (the child within us), set forth in the chapter "The Psychology of the Child Archetype". According to Jung, this archetype symbolizes the future potentialities of the conscious personality, bringing balance, integrity and vitality to it. The "child inside" synthesizes opposite qualities of character and releases new abilities. "The dominant of the child is not only something from the distant past, but also something that exists now, that is, it is not a rudimentary trace, but a system that functions in the present...." The child "paves the way for the future transformation of the personality. In the process of individualization, he already foresees what will result from the synthesis of conscious and unconscious elements in the formation of personality.Therefore, he (the archetype of the child) is a unifying symbol that brings together opposites. " In another chapter, Jung defines the child archetype even more clearly: “He embodies the life forces that are beyond the limited limits of our conscious mind; embodies ways and possibilities of which our one-sided consciousness has no idea ... He expresses the very strong and irresistible desire of every being, namely, the desire for self-realization. For Jung, the child archetype means more than just a concept or theory. It was a life-giving source, to which he fell on more than one occasion in difficult moments of his personal life and professional career. Erickson and the "inner child" Childishness as a character trait was also respected by Erickson, perhaps also because, as an adult, he remained childishly playful and mischievous. Here is his lovely story of how he turned to the child in himself (albeit subconsciously) to solve an adult problem: "I was working on a scientific report, but it stalled when I got to the point where I had to describe the illogicality behavior of one of my patients. I decided to go into a trance, and I thought: 33 I wonder what business I will do - one that I could not describe, or another? When I came out of the trance, I found myself re-reading a bunch of comics. time for comics! When I started my report again, I decided that I would work better in the waking state. I got to the section that didn’t come to me in any way, and what do you think? Donald duckling appeared out of nowhere in my head Duck and his friends Huey, Dewey and Louie, and the story that happened to them reminded me very much of my patient, that's the logic for you! My subconscious mind pushed me to the comic book shelf and forced me to read them until I found the exact image to convey the meaning." Erickson tells another story about a clue given to him by the "child inside". Erickson was waiting at the airport for his departure and watched behind a woman with a little girl. The baby looked to be about two years old. She was rather restless, and her mother looked tired. The girl’s attention was attracted by a toy in the window of the kiosk. The girl quickly turned her gaze to her mother, who was deep in reading the newspaper. Then the girl from time to time she began to jump and spin around her mother, disturbing her and not letting her read. She did this persistently and methodically. The completely exhausted mother got up, deciding that the child needed to stretch. And, of course, the girl dragged her straight to the kiosk. So , without saying a word about his desire, the child managed to get what he wanted. "I watched this crumb and thought how exactly she would get the toy. I thought - following the logic of an adult - that the baby would simply take her mother by the hand and lead her to the kiosk. But she turned out to be much smarter than me - she turned out to be inventive!" We psychotherapists learn from the examples of Jung and Erickson to draw creative forces from a life-giving connection with the child inside us, learn to pity and understand children who need our help. that time, while relaxing on the beach, I watched a charming boy, who, unfortunately, had a serious neurophysiological disorder.He and his father settled down not far from me, and I heard the baby, pointing with a trembling hand at the scattered along the coast large stones, explained to his father that these were chests filled with various treasures. His face shone, his eyes sparkled when he spoke about his great secret - about what he alone knew. I even envied this faith. Imagination is an internal child's world, an innate, natural process by which a child learns to understand the world around him, to fill it with meaning.In a normally developing child, imagination is a genetic , a biological function with a well-established mechanism for timely exit from the state of fantasy. A normal child is characterized by two types of imaginative play (according to the theory of Peirce, 1977): imitation, when the child reproduces the actions of the character he has chosen, and "pretend play", i.e. an imaginary or symbolic game in which an object is transformed into something far removed from its original purpose. For example, an empty box found in the attic can turn into a fortress, a castle, a ship; the salt shaker on the dinner table becomes a racing car, a ballistic missile or a submarine. In other words, an object with a very limited real content serves as a springboard for the boundless flight of children's imagination and imaginative thinking. This kind of "children's metaphor" contributes to the continuous process of learning the world of the child. Everything that the child learns immediately forms the basis of his games or stories, which, in turn, help to assimilate the newly learned. Dancing Shoes My back pain led me to see a Feldenkrais therapist. When I arrived at her appointment, her daughter Katie, two and a half years old, was at home. Very shy in front of strangers, Katie huddled in a corner of the sofa and carefully tore off bits from a piece of paper. Looking at another piece in her fingers, I asked if she would like to give it to me. I held out my hand and the girl handed me the rest of the paper. Thanking the little girl, I carefully put the gift in my pocket. By the end of the session, through half-closed eyes, I noticed how Katie and a twelve-year-old friend who had come to her were watching her mother work. Without looking in their direction, I waved at them like a child. When the session ended, I opened my eyes and sat up. It turned out that Katie and her friend had moved closer and were sitting quietly at my headboard. To test my sense of balance, the therapist asked me to walk slowly around the room with my eyes closed. Katie looked wide-eyed. When the matter was over, I once again thanked Katie for the gift and suddenly, without any conscious purpose, drew the girl's attention to my shoes and said that I called them "dancing shoes." Immediately I depicted with my feet a semblance of a tap dance. "You just have to tell the shoes: dance - and they immediately start dancing," I explained. "Now try it, tell your shoes: dance." Katie uttered the cherished word and began to move her legs, imitating me. She burst out laughing when she saw that she was also succeeding. Then we once again made our shoes dance in turn. Finally, I said goodbye and went home. The following week, Katie's mother informed me that her usually shy and timid Katie was dancing and showing off her "dancing shoes" to everyone. A Theoretical Approach to Imagination There are many theories regarding the dynamics of the creative process of play and imagination. It is not surprising that among them there are theories that negatively evaluate fantasy, while others note its value and usefulness as a means of development and treatment of the child. Freud believes that imagination is a means of satisfying a desire that is impossible in reality, i.e. is generated by dep-rivation. In his opinion, fantasies, like dreams, play the role of a compensatory mechanism designed to fill the void or redirect the harm done to the offender himself. Bettelheim adds to Freud's idea by noting that imagination is essential for the correct development of the child: given his impotence and dependence in the adult world, imagination saves the child from helpless despair and gives him hope. Moreover, at various stages of development (according to the Freudian classification), fantasy allows the child to overcome his emotional psychological problems and even rise above them (transcend). Montessori (1914) gives a very vague interpretation of the imagination, considering it to be "an unfortunate pathological tendency of early childhood" that gives rise to "character flaws." For his part, Piaget believes that the imagination plays an extremely important role in the cognitive and sensory-motor development of the child. Symbolic games like sand castles and salt shaker racing cars can be seen as a way to develop the motor functions of the body and its cognitive-spatial orientation. Recent studies have noted that imagination has two aspects: compensatory and creative. The child gives free rein to his fantasies in order to get away from an unpleasant situation or satisfy an unfulfilled desire. On the other hand, imagination gives scope to the creative abilities of the child. Gardner and Olness believe that a lack of imagination can negatively impact a child's development. The excessive realism of Western culture, while devaluing the role of the imagination, can lead to personality conflicts during growing up. As Axline emphasizes, the therapist must be open to the free flight of childhood fantasy and not try to squeeze it into the Procrustean bed of common sense. What is meaningful for a child and can help his treatment, sometimes seems like a trifle from an adult bell tower. Oaklander shares the same point of view, believing that the child's imagination is both a source of fun and a reflection of his inner life: hidden fears, unspoken desires and unresolved problems. Erickson draws an interesting line between conscious and unconscious imagination. Conscious fantasy is a simple form of wish fulfillment. In our imagination, we accomplish great feats, create unique masterpieces, because in life we ​​do not have the necessary talents for this. Unconscious fantasy is a signal that the subconscious gives us, reporting on really existing, but hidden possibilities; it is a harbinger of our future accomplishments, if the consent of consciousness is obtained for them. "Unconscious fantasies ... are psychological constructions in various stages of completion, which, if the opportunity presents itself, the unconscious is ready to make part of reality." The unhealthy kid on the beach, whom I mentioned, of course, knew that stones were stones, but the wise subconscious, using the metaphor of secret treasures, hinted to us that the boy himself was a storehouse of hidden abilities. Hearing the word "block", the baby will immediately imagine how many wonderful things can be built from blocks, and the adult will first think about how to go around it. Apparently, getting acquainted with the world, the child knows something that we, having matured, forget. Maybe it's an innate ability to use any material at hand - an image, an object, a sound, a structure - for the most wonderful discovery: getting to know yourself? The experience of using metaphor in child psychotherapy Using the form familiar to the child, therapeutic metaphor hides its true purpose in the fabric of the story. The child perceives only the described actions and events, without thinking about the meaning hidden in them. The last decade has been marked by a large amount of research on the use of metaphor to treat both children and adults. The variety of applications should be noted: parental cruelty; bed-wetting; school education; family therapy; adoptive parents; hospital stay; learning, behavior and emotional problems; children with minor brain disorders; Oedipus complex; mentally retarded children and adults; school phobias; help with low self-esteem; sleep disorders; thumb sucking habit. In all these cases, the metaphor has played its curative role in a fun and creative way. We want to dwell on the variety of techniques for constructing a therapeutic metaphor. Brink, a family therapist, based his metaphors on both Western folklore and Native American legends. Although it is difficult to separate the impact of a particular metaphor from the overall outcome of a psychotherapy session, Brink believes that individual changes can be directly linked to the operation of a metaphor, which is "an indirect form of suggestion and does not arouse open resistance from the client, who is afraid of any changes in his life." In working with children from six to thirteen years old, Elkins and Carter relied on the imagery of science fiction. The child was asked to go to an imaginary space trip with all the accompanying adventures. During space travel, the child encounters characters and events that help solve his problem. This technique worked successfully in eight out of ten cases related to school phobias. In five cases out of six, he helped to eliminate the side effects of chemotherapy treatment (vomiting, pain, anxiety) in children; managed to help an adult patient suffering from anorexia to cope with the fear of suffocation, which she experienced when swallowing; success was noted in three cases of enuresis and two cases of motor hyperactivity. This technique has its limitations related to the monotony of the metaphor (space travel) on which it relies, and the fact that many children are not interested in this topic and even cause fear. Levine talks about the use of videocassettes with recordings of fairy tales. In two cases of insomnia, the children listened to stories before going to bed, retold in such a way that they themselves became the heroes. The eight-year-old boy's sleep improved after four nightly auditions, and during the day he was more spontaneous and calm. It took the three-year-old kid six evenings, and sometimes he listened to the recording three or four times in a row. The methods of other researchers approach ours to a greater extent, so we will dwell on them in more detail. Noting that children equally love to listen and tell, Gardner developed his technique of "mutual storytelling." He begins the session with a deliberate opening phrase: " Good morning , boys and girls! I invite you to Dr. Gardner's next television program, "Composing a Story." Next, the child is given the conditions for the upcoming game: the story should be exciting and adventurous; it is impossible to retell what the child saw on TV, heard on the radio, or what actually happened to him once; the story must have a beginning, middle, and end, and, finally, it must contain a certain lesson. When the story is ready, the therapist gets to know it from the point of view of "psychodynamic meaning". Given the information received from the story, the therapist composes his story with the same characters and the same plot, but weaving into the fabric of the narrative moments of "healthier adaptation" that are absent in the child's story. We have successfully used this Gardner technique in our work with children. As our individual experience accumulated, our attention gradually shifted from the psychodynamic sense to the appearance of subtle changes in the behavioral pattern of the child during the psychotherapy session. We began to take these subtle changes into account when constructing our own metaphors, using a three-level process of communication, weaving suggestions into the fabric of the story, and not forgetting the content's content that should captivate the young listener (see Chapter 4). Robertson and Burford tell of a six-year-old patient who, due to a chronic illness, was confined to a breathing apparatus for a year. When it was no longer necessary to use it and it was disconnected, it was a physical and psychological trauma for the boy. To help the child, stories were invented especially for him, which spoke in an accessible form about his future and what doctors want to do for him. The authors note the need for deep empathy on the part of medical personnel in order to "on its basis penetrate into the world of the child through stories." There was a direct connection between the sick baby and the storyline, characters and events of these stories. The boy's name was Bob, the same name was given to the main character, with whom the same thing happened as with the baby. Fairy tale characters were introduced into the stories who are friends with the hero and help him - for example, the Green Dragon the size of a palm. Although Robertson and Burford note the successful outcome of the treatment in the above case, we still prefer a less direct and more imaginative approach. We believe that the name of the hero of a fairy tale or story should not coincide with the name of a sick child, and events should not copy what actually happens to the child. In fact, Robertson and Burford have given the real situation the form of a fairy tale. We prefer the similarity of the situation in a fairy tale, since indirect metaphors give the child the opportunity to distract from his illness and activate his responses, excluding the impact of attitudes already formed on the conscious level. Thus, the focus shifts from the content to the story itself. Kitten I had a patient, a seven-year-old girl named Megan. She suffered from asthma attacks. I made up a story for her about a little calf who had trouble getting a fountain of water out of her breathing hole. In previous sessions, the girl told me how she liked to watch whales and dolphins in the oceanarium, so the cub became the hero of my story. So, the kid loved to frolic and somersaults in the ocean, it was so easy and simple (a reminder of the joys of the recent past). But then he began to notice that something was wrong with his breathing hole, the water came out with difficulty, as if something was stuck there. I had to invite a wise whale, who was a specialist in holes and was generally famous for his diverse knowledge. The wise whale advised the baby to remember how he managed to successfully overcome difficulties before. For example, it is much more difficult to get food in muddy water, and the baby has learned to use other senses to find food until the water becomes clear. The wise whale reminded the kid about his other abilities and opportunities that will help him get his fountain working. By the end of the story, the asthmatic symptoms had not disappeared and Megan was breathing with difficulty, but she noticeably calmed down and calmed down on her mother’s lap, smiling with her whole face. She said she felt better. The next day I called my mother to inquire about the girl's health. Megan slept peacefully most of the night. Two weeks later, her condition improved markedly. After another month and a half, it was possible at home light conditions medication to stop small attacks, which usually at this time of the year were so strong that the girl had to be periodically hospitalized. Perhaps the metaphor worked? I had my doubts when I was writing my story. However, the apparent and sustained improvement in the girl's health suggests that the story of the whale played a major role in this. Utilization of symptoms Erickson was the first to apply in his work a methodology in which the symptoms of the disease are not only taken into account, but also actively used in the treatment strategy. We have been able to establish a complementary and living relationship between symptom utilization and metaphor. An effective healing metaphor must include all kinds of information about the child and the shades of his behavior, both on a conscious and unconscious level. Since the focus of therapy is symptomatology, it is important to define what is meant by symptomatology. In our field, there are four main views on the origin and treatment of symptoms. The authors of one theory believe that the symptoms are manifestations of traumatic experiences in the past (usually in infancy or early childhood) and can only be eliminated by returning to the original cause. Such a return is primarily associated with self-knowledge and introspection (psychoanalytic approach), but can also be carried out with a strong emotional impact (Janov therapy, bioenergetic therapy, Reich therapy). In both cases, the main element of treatment is a return to the root cause of the disease. Another theory sees the symptoms as the result of mistakes made in teaching the child and developing his skills, both in the past and in the present. Here the healing process is connected only with the present time and its goal is to create new cognitive-sensory structures that will help the child to relearn (behavior modification, restructuring cognitive process , preconditioning). With this approach, the initial cause is considered insignificant. There is also a psychoneurophysiological view of symptoms that considers both behavioral and organic components. In the study of the etiology of the disease, genetic and biochemical factors, as well as environmental influences, are taken into account. One of the components of the treatment process is the biochemical effect. Scientists who adhere to another direction - the fourth - consider the symptom to be a message or "gift" of the subconscious. Utilization of this symptom helps to eliminate it, regardless of its connection with the past. The ancestor of this trend is Erikson, who widely and variedly used this technique in his hypnotherapy practice. He invariably insisted on the speedy elimination or reduction of the symptom before delving into the psychodynamic factors of the disease. "As a psychiatrist," Erickson wrote, "I don't see the point in causal analysis unless the morbid manifestations are corrected first." Utilization of severe symptoms implies the appropriateness of any approach, depending on the individual specifics of each clinical case. One patient must be given the opportunity to know himself, another needs a strong emotional shake-up, the third needs a modification of the behavioral model. Only with this approach will the interests of the client and the completeness of disposal be ensured. Hurricane Together with a fellow therapist, I had to work with a married couple, where both spouses were in a second marriage. In addition to having two children from their marriage, the husband had two other teenage children from his first marriage, Luke and Caroline, who lived with their mother. When a friend of the mother began to pester Carolina, the mother sent the children to her husband's new family. The behavior of Luke and Carolina went beyond all acceptable limits. Life in a new family has become simply unbearable. The parents decided to go to a therapist, not knowing what to do: either continue to endure the antics of older children, or return them to their mother, or place them in a boarding school. During the session, the older children seemed to try not to disgrace their reputation as daredevils: they jumped like monkeys from sofa to sofa, threw pillows, made various jokes and endlessly interrupted our conversation with parents with stupid questions and remarks. According to the spouses, it was their usual behavior, they turned everything in the house upside down. Meanwhile, my partner was playing in the middle of the room with a toddler, mother holding a restless baby in her arms, which was trying to wriggle out. Instead of a session, there was chaos and confusion. It was necessary to find some way to tie together all the participants in the session: two therapists, a baby, a toddler, two tomboys, a father and mother (she is also a stepmother). Assessing the zeal and ingenuity with which the older guys tried to disrupt the session, I realized that I needed to interest them and win them over to my side. I frankly asked them if what their parents were saying about them was true. They looked mischievously at each other and answered in unison: "Aha!" With my question, I managed to interrupt their antics, now it was necessary to keep their attention. I used their expected behavior as the basis for a quick metaphor and asked the guys if they remember the hurricane that recently swept over Los Angeles. They nodded their heads. In a calm, measured voice, including suggestions in the course of the story, I began to talk about how wonderful calm weather had been for several months - and suddenly a terrible hurricane came up. Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed, so it was scary even in your own bed. It was clear to old and young alike that it was impossible to cope with the hurricane. He uprooted trees and power poles, all the people were in alarm. Another such hurricane, and the city will not do well. Under the knocking gusts of wind and torrential rain, they tried to save at least something from destruction. Who wants to be washed away by water and carried away God knows where. How they wished that everything would finally calm down so that restoration work could be taken on! The story took me seven minutes. Towards the end, the older guys quieted down and, judging by their faces, became thoughtful. Thus, with the help of a metaphor, we were able to close the session and help everyone focus on the important problems that we had to solve. Erickson's method and child psychotherapy Erickson's anecdotes demonstrate his ingenuity in utilizing prominent symptoms. It is enough to get acquainted with the story of a six-year-old boy who had to be weaned from the habit of sucking his thumb. Ericson's approach is not only a technique, but a true philosophy. For Erickson, a child deserves the same respect as an adult, and he is required to take the same "adult" responsibility for his actions: "Let's get one point right away. The thumb of the left hand is your finger, the mouth is also yours, and your teeth are yours too. I believe that you have the right to do whatever you want with your finger, your mouth and your teeth. When you went to kindergarten, the first thing you learned there was to keep the line. If you were assigned some task in the kindergarten, then all of you, boys and girls, did it in turn ... At home, the queue is also observed. Mom, for example, serves a plate of food first to your brother, then to you, then to your sister, and then to yourself. We are used to following the line. And you suck the thumb of your left hand all the time, but what about other fingers, why are they worse? I think you're doing unfair, not good, wrong. When is the index finger's turn? The rest should also be in the mouth ... I think you yourself understand that you need to establish a strict queue for all fingers. his behavioral problem. Everything else is taken for granted. It goes without saying that very soon the child finds out what a "backbreaking job" it is to suck on all ten fingers in turn, and gives up this business once and for all, without making an exception for his favorite left thumb.Although Erickson did not have a preference for working with children, the cases he cites contain valuable points and working methods for a utilization approach in therapy, which together can serve as the basis for successful treatment of children and respect for them. with children, Erickson primarily proceeded from the fact that one should not put pressure on a child with his authority as an adult and a learned person. and the desire not to blame the child and not to make one's final judgment, but to look at a symptom or deviation in behavior from a completely different, unusual and advantageous point of view. For children, this abstinence from indisputable judgments is especially valuable, because it is precisely in childhood that a child listens to endless teachings about "what is good and what is bad." According to Erickson, the treatment of children is based on the same principles as the treatment of adults. The task of the therapist is to find an understandable form for his treatment strategy, taking into account the unique life experience of each individual person. As for children, it is necessary to use their natural "thirst for new sensations and openness to new knowledge." The mother breastfeeds the child and purrs in an undertone, not so that he understands the meaning of the words, but so that the pleasant sensation of sound and melody is associated with pleasant physical sensations in the nursing mother and the suckling child and serves a common purpose ... So in child hypnosis needs continuity of stimulation. .. During hypnosis, any client, child or adult, should be exposed to simple, positive and pleasant stimuli that in everyday life contribute to normal behavior that is pleasant for everyone around. Applying the recycling method In working with children, symptoms for us are not so much manifestations of psychological and social pathology as the result of blocking resources (the child's natural abilities and capabilities). The child discovers a boundless ocean of sensations, and in the course of their comprehension (both correct and incorrect), such blockages may arise. Problems in the family, relationships with friends, difficulties at school - all this can cause stress overload that interferes with the normal manifestation of the child's abilities and his learning. And this, in turn, leads to a distortion of emotional and behavioral reactions that no longer correspond to the true nature of the child. When a child cannot fully be himself and does not have direct access to his innate resources, then there are limited solutions, i.e. symptoms. We see the symptom as a symbolic or metaphorical message from the subconscious. The latter not only signals a violation in the system, but also gives a clear picture of this violation, which becomes the subject of disposal. The symptom is thus both a message and a remedy. “I believe,” Geller believed, “that a problem or symptom visible to the eye is in fact metaphors that already contain a story about the essence of the problem. The therapist’s task is to read this story correctly and, based on it, create his own metaphor, in which they will offer possible solutions to the problem. What Sarah Loves Among my clients was a pretty eight-year-old girl named Sarah. She had daytime incontinence. When she came to me for the first time with her mother, I asked her what she likes the most: what kind of ice cream, for example? What color is her favorite dress? Her favorite TV shows, etc. Then I suggested that she choose a favorite day of the week and go around with wet pants on that day, without worrying about anything. The puzzled expression on her face was quickly replaced by a wide smile. "I like Tuesday and Wednesday the most," the girl readily replied. “That's great,” I approved of her choice with a smile. “I wish you a successful Tuesday and Wednesday, swim in wet pants at your pleasure.” The next week, Sarah reported to me that she had successfully fulfilled my wish and that her panties did not dry out all Tuesday and Wednesday. We talked again about her favorite things, and then I invited her to choose a favorite time of the day for her wet "procedures". Over the next five weeks, Sarah and I gradually added more and more "favorite" terms for her problem. Each innovation gave the girl the opportunity to simultaneously manifest her symptom and control it. With each new constraint, i.e. By "favorite condition" (day of the week, time of day, place, event, etc.), the girl learned to control her bladder and choose the time to empty it. By the end of the fifth week, the game had lost its initial interest for the girl, and with it the habit of wetting her panties disappeared. Sorry - Sorry I once had to treat a teenage girl who had problems communicating with her peers. Angela was extremely timid and shy, with very low self-esteem and a complete lack of self-confidence. Her speech was interspersed with endless apologies: “I’m sorry… Did I disturb you?… I’m sorry… I think I didn’t express myself clearly?… I’m so sorry… I’m sorry… I’m sorry. .." When I asked if she was aware of how often she repeats her apologies, the girl replied embarrassedly: "Yes, besides, everyone tells me about it, but I can’t help myself, no matter how much I try." Then we agreed that Angela would insert the words "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" in her story after every fifth word. She smiled, nodded her head in agreement, and began to talk about herself. After the first five words, she inserted her "sorry" with an expressive look, then after the next five, then again, but then she began to lose count, and said six or seven, or even more words, before she remembered her favorite "sorry". This violation of the contract completely upset Angela, and she could not finish the important story for her about the boy she liked. Understanding her distress, I offered my help. Let her continue to tell, and I will count the words and after each five I will raise the index finger of my left hand so that she can insert another "sorry." The girl smiled and thanked me for participating. Five minutes passed after our agreement, and I noticed how Angela's face began to gradually turn red, and irritation sounded more and more noticeable in her voice. In the end, she could not stand it: "I'm tired of repeating "I'm sorry" endlessly! I don't want to anymore!" "Actually, what don't you want?" I asked with an innocent look. "I don't want to say sorry again," Angela repeated indignantly. "It's up to you," I agreed peacefully. "We'll have to look for another way to help you. Apparently, this method was ineffective. Tell me more about your friend." The following week, Angela reported that as soon as she said "sorry", she began to laugh. And in general, she began to insert her apologies into her speech less and less. “It looks kind of stupid,” the girl remarked. Whoever tried to dissuade her from this habit before (parents, teachers, friends), but to no avail. It turned out that a completely different approach was required: the girl had to be given the opportunity to choose, to help her decide how to behave. To do this, in the first session, her attention was focused on the meaninglessness and tediousness of the endless repetition of apologies in the structure of normal speech. Erickson warns of the need to feel the reality of the child's world, which can be changed in a certain direction if a clear symptom requires it, but in no case can it be distorted. As an example, he talked about his four-year-old daughter Christy, who had to visit a surgeon. "You see, it didn't hurt at all," the doctor remarked cheerfully, and immediately received a rebuke: "What a guppy you are! Still, how savagely, I'm not showing my mind." The child needed understanding and approval, and not an adult's invention (albeit with good intentions). If the doctor begins with the words: "You will not be hurt a bit" - he will fail in communicating with the child. Children have their own ideas about reality, and they must be respected, but children are always ready to revise and change their ideas, if necessary, and it is brought to the child cleverly and subtly. There are plenty of examples in the literature to support this idea. Here is a case from Erickson's practice when he encountered a symptom of trichotillomania (the habit of pulling out eyelashes). He enters with understanding into the world of a sick child, taking the symptom for granted, and then finds a way to change this world and cure the child, i.e. modifies the symptom. “I remember that a girl was brought to me with completely bare eyelids. Not a single eyelash. Probably, many people think that her eyes are not beautiful, I noticed, but, in my opinion, they look interesting. The girl liked the remark, and she believed me. But I really thought the eyelids were interesting, because I looked at them through the eyes of a child. Then I suggested that we both think about how to make the eyelids even more interesting. Maybe if there was an eyelash on each side? Perhaps you can add more one in the middle, three cilia on each eye, right? I wonder how long they will be? And how will they grow, at the same speed or on average faster than others? ... The only way to get an answer to all these questions is to let the cilia grow! out of sight of the child himself and violate main principle, which should be remembered, taking on a change in his attitude to the world: "Your sincere conviction in something should be expressed to another person in a form accessible to him." Erickson did not doubt that a child has the right to suck his own thumb; The problem of the child's behavior is exclusively his own business. Therefore, the Erickson method will work only if you sincerely respect the child and assume that you have a whole person in front of you. Rossi believes that the brilliant success of Erickson's methodology is primarily due to his sincere and genuine interest in his clients. A child can be easily carried away by verbal balancing act and effective technique. However, children are unusually perceptive and easily grasp the difference between pretense, sincerity, and what can be called an egocentric mind. Every therapist must learn to maintain a very important and easily disturbed balance between technique and treatment philosophy. Waiting for the Burglar I have had the opportunity to see for myself how important sincerity and conviction are to the therapist in his work with the client. It happened two decades ago when I was a captain in the medical service in a military camp. We treated not only the military, but also their families. One day, a girl named Dolores came to my appointment and complained of problems with sleep. As night fell, she was terrified that burglars would break into the house. Ten years ago, rogues did indeed visit the house, but at that time the event did not affect her sleep in any way. Now getting ready for bed has become something of a ritual for her. First she made sure the front door and the back door were locked, then she checked each window, then she folded her clothes for tomorrow in a certain place so that they would be at hand if something unexpected happened at night. At the time, I was working under the guidance of a psychiatrist. He developed a strategy for treating the girl, based on the idea of ​​\u200b\u200b"paradoxical intention", as Jay Haley understood it. At the time, this unorthodox approach was unfamiliar to me, and my manager's plan made me laugh a lot. He suggested using the girl's bedtime ritual for treatment. Before going to bed, she had to do everything as usual and go to bed. If you have not been able to fall asleep within an hour, you should get out of bed and check all doors and windows again. If after that the dream did not come,

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THERAPEUTIC METAPHORS
FOR KIDS
AND INNER CHILD
Translation from English
Moscow
Independent firm "Class"
1996
Get back to your roots
And be a child again.
Tao Te Ching
FOREWORD
Joyce Mills and Richard Crowley put their heart and courage into this book.
scientific research and an observant mind, which in itself affects the reader
body therapeutic effect. Discovered new treatments
children with the help of detailed metaphorical images have not only
purely applied value, confirmed by their extremely successful practice
tics, but help to understand in a new way one of the important issues of psychotherapy
fii: the process of resolving age-related problems and psychological assistance in
maturation period.
In their search, Mills and Crowley draw on practical experience
Milton G. Erickson, enriching it with a new original vision of
problems. Creating their own methodology, they respectfully use pre-
moving experience: the works of Freud and Jung, as well as modern teachings,
related to neuro-linguistic programming, behavioral
and cognitive approaches. The greatest impression is made by their
their own practical material, which they cite in support of
nie their new provisions.
I was particularly struck by the methodological ease of use
their ideas in everyday psychological practice, especially if we take into account
the depth of their theoretical justification. This disarming simplicity
brings amazing results, helping the client to get out quickly -
out of a seemingly endless swamp of unsolvable problems.
Regardless of their theoretical background, the reader deserves
will appreciate the novelty of the author's approach, equally successfully
for both children and adults. This wonderfully written book
will push any professional to creativity, will help to see in a new way
solve the problems of their customers, find their own unexplored path to solve them
research and thereby contribute to the ever-expanding arsenal of
therapy. Personally, I hope to learn much more from Mills and Crowley, who
ry give hope to their clients and the joy of creativity to themselves.
Ernest L. Rossi,
Malibu, 1986
INTRODUCTION: ORIGINS
Colored glasses, mirrors and tubes are already known
for many centuries
vate on their own. For others, they served as the mother
scarlet to transform the whole world of colors and shapes and create
new fantastic images that opened for them ...
kaleidoscope.
The last decade was marked by the publication of many
va of works devoted to the study and development of therapeutic methods
psychiatrist Milton G. Erickson. Many of them were written by
who were lucky enough to learn from Erickson. The very personality of this
kind and wise genius influenced everyone who worked with him, very
deep and for many still inexplicable way. Yes, Er-
L. Rossi, who worked closely with Erickson from 1974 until the very
his death in 1980, only recently fully realized the whole
the unusualness and complexity of the learning process, which Erickson with
with his inherent humor invented for Rossi to increase his
interest in lessons. Using direct and indirect effects
action, didactics and metaphor, Erickson sought to expand the possibilities
mentality, horizons and abilities of their students.
Given the exceptional dynamism and ingenuity of Erikso-
on as individuals, one can doubt whether his students will be able to prove themselves
nicknames of the "second generation"? Will therapists who have not worked
Is it difficult with Erickson to creatively master his brilliant techniques?
The fact that we wrote this book, in which we talked about the use of
Erickson's methods when working with children, suggests that students
ki of the second generation were under a deep and life-giving influence
effect of the miraculous Ericksonian experience. The more we study it,
the more we feel it. And it's not just about the impact of personality.
Erickson, but in that creative message, the energies that we draw from
his work for his own creativity. This is a kind of "domi-effect"
but" when each insight drops a spark for the next discovery.
By the time we were introduced to Erickson's work, we had two
had about 25 years of practical experience. She mostly walked
successfully. We used various therapeutic methods: insight-
analysis, behavior modification, family therapy, principles of
talt therapy. But we both felt that our work was missing something.
something vital that could take it "to a new level. We
turned to non-traditional approaches > psychotherapy and visited
Seminar on Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) under
directed by Richard Bandler and John Grinder. Brightly filed te-
theoretical and practical material aroused a deep interest in us, and
we decided to expand our knowledge by studying in a small group
under the guidance of an NLP specialist. and we all felt that
Haven't found anything important yet. Our searches were mainly
structural nature: where and what technique should be used - and this
to some extent led us to a creative "dead end"
It was during this very period, in March 1981, that we attacked the
extremely informative and exciting workshop by Paul Carter
and Stephen Gilligan, where our first acquaintance with the idea
yami and Erickson's methods. Techniques developed by Bandler and Green-
derom, also relied on the Ericksonian method, but Carter and Gil-
ligan managed to convey the essence of unconventional and innovative approaches
Erickson in a manner that is more in line with our personal
mi and professional orientations and allowed to find the lack of
a growing link in our therapeutic practice.
More precisely, it was not just a link, but a decisive turn in
our views on psychotherapy. Traditional starting point
for therapists has always been. the psychology of pathology Erickson has it
unobtrusively transformed into a psychology of possibilities and a generally accepted
The therapist’s taken authoritarianism has been replaced by participation and a desire to explore
use (dispose of) the patient's own possibilities
cure. The traditionally revered analysis and insight were
ousted from the pedestal and their place was taken by a creative reformation
reframing and unconscious learning
We both have the skills of traditional hypnosis, but he always
has become something artificial, limiting and imposing on us.
In addition, it implies a certain disrespect for the patient,
who is invited to enter some strange state when he
or she limply follows someone's suggestions. At the workshop Kar-
Ter and Gilligan, we saw the complete opposite: .trans
became a natural result of the internal Movement to the state
-Reframing - literally "transformation" - a therapeutic technique (reception), when-
yes to a phenomenon (an event in the client’s life, a symptom is given a new meaning due to
introduction into a different context, usually wider as a separate technique of practice
forged in NLP, used as a technique in many other approaches.

concentration and focus, and hypnotic suggestion
- a natural, externally directed means that encourages people
love to find independent solutions. Every time during
classes, we plunged into a trance, there was a feeling that in us
something deeply personal has been touched, as if a curtain had been lifted and a dark
the room was flooded with sunlight. For us, it was the work of Erickson,
highlighting new creative approaches in our practice.
It took us months of theoretical justifications, practical
creative work and study to transform our creative
real results. In August 1981, we participated in
intensive workshop by Carol and Steve Lankton, where
our introduction to Ericksonian methods.
The next step in the same direction was our acquaintance
with Steven Geller in 1982. The concept he formulated
"unconscious restructuring Geller and Steele, 1986) was
further development of the neuro-linguistic theory of communication. Gel-
ler added to it a new model of thinking, which he called extraconscious
system, where the integrating role is played by metaphor. Our
The collaboration lasted for about two years.
During this period, we received support and practical assistance.
a number of leading teachers of Ericksonian hypnosis. I especially want
to mention Jeffrey Zeig, director of the Milton G. Erickson Foundation. He
not only actively supported our scientific research, but also helped to
the building of this book. Invaluable help in the implementation of the plan
gave us Margaret Ryan, who became our close and dear friend
hom. Through her we met Ernest Rossi, kindly write
who wrote the preface to the book. Jeff brought us together with Bran
ner/Mazel", which published our book.
The application of the Ericksonian method (as well as
tricks) was not easy for us, and sometimes led to confusion
in. At first, we felt awkward and embarrassed when we interrupted
adult patient with unexpected phrases like "by the way, this reminds me of
tell me one story." Nevertheless, we did not retreat, since intuitively
believed that the metaphor told would hit the mark rather than
ordinary conversation or discussion of the problem directly. Our fears
that the patient will indignantly interrupt us with the words: "I pay money not for
in order to listen to your stories, "- fortunately, they did not materialize. Naobo-
mouth, we were convinced of the favorable reaction of our customers and soon
already calmly told their stories to both adults and children.
Children naturally respond more readily to such
an approach. It is much more interesting to listen to a story than to hear
sew an annoying adult. For most children, the metaphor is
this is such a familiar reality, because our childhood is woven from fairy tales,
10
cartoons, fairy tale movie characters, it is they who have the most
neck impact on the child's soul. Even role modeling in the family
can be seen as a metaphorical process by which
The child learns to behave "as if" he or she is one of the parents.
Oral stories for children are not a new and not the only form
child therapy, but a special combination of techniques in composing such
stories can give amazing results. Empathizing, rebbe-
Nok is easily immersed in his inner world, to create which
the therapist can help with his story, which is a complex plexus
observations, learning skills, intuitive clues and purposeful
lag. As a result, the child receives a valuable and important message,
simulating his unique associations and experiences. Exactly
this was best done by Erickson. In his therapeutic experience,
there was static or structural rigidity. He never p-
I tried to teach how to work. Rather, they help the therapist figure out
a thread on how to work for him or her.
Little girl finds a box of crayons, amazing
magical variety of colors. Having poured out the crayons, she begins to draw
at first in one color, gradually discovering with delight how
beautifully combined and combined colors. Here is the blue mountain, the dog, the sky,
but you never know what other miracle can be depicted in blue.
The girl is growing up, now she is already a schoolgirl, and she hears a strict
indication: "Today we are painting butterflies." The child is inspired
your butterfly. "The butterfly is not drawn like this. It should be like this." And even to her
give a pre-printed contour image of a butterfly.
“Paint without going beyond the line,” they say to the child, “it will be
like a real butterfly."
But the girl's colors go beyond the contour all the time. "Gak is not good-
Xia, - they remind her, - paint over only what is inside the line.
Now imagine a teacher giving paper and paints
and simply says: "Draw as you like. Let your hand guide you,
I'll just give you a hint if needed."
How often we are restrained in this way. therapists and pre-
givers. This is done in different forms, but the essence is always the same. "Not
get out of the line". And at the same time, they expect creative and non-stop
daring approach to work. Isn't this a paradox? Managed to overcome it
Erickson, who recognized that every person has abilities
properties worthy of respect. He helped to reveal these inclinations not
through some frozen formulas and established systems, and creating
special conditions for each person in order to stimulate in him
repeatable internal processes. Not having the happiness to personally know Eric-
son, we seemed to learn from him, feeling his unique indirect
impact, discovering in itself more and more layers of the original
creativeness and growing generous fruits on them.
For purely teaching purposes, one has to analyze technical
nickname for creating metaphorical images, but at the same time one should not forget
It can be concluded that the therapeutic effect of metaphor is precisely
The problem is that it does not lend itself to exhaustive analysis. How would we
no matter how carefully
traced countless internal connecting factors
Tori, there is always something undiscovered in it. It is in this short-
the part touched for analysis is the transforming power of metaphor.
Kopp very successfully captured the features of one of the varieties of reproduction
exact metaphor - koan ().
The koan, in its tone, may appear to be quite
thoughtful and puzzling. It hides a certain inaccessibility
nay logic paradoxicality. A student can for months, or even years,
puzzling over a solution to a problem until it dawns on him that
no problem whatsoever. And the desired solution is
in order to abandon further attempts to delve into the meaning, for attention
there is nothing to say, and to answer spontaneously, directly.
Immediacy of reactions is best for children. Not mud-
hovering over the story being told, they simply dive into it with all their might.
the boundlessness of your imagination. Put into action, it
is the main transformative and healing factor. Like a match
lights a candle, so the metaphor kindles the imagination of the child, pre-
turning it into a source of strength, self-knowledge and imagination.
This book is for those who want to awaken all the best
in the child and his family. Metaphor will greatly enrich your practice.
theoretical and theoretical experience, will awaken the child in yourself, which will
can you better understand the inner world of children who need your
help.
Dreams of childhood
Breaking the fog of real life
I will pave the way to myself
I will enter a trance that will return
Me to another, forgotten world...
Known to everyone as "Dreams of Childhood".
Throwing away the tinsel of all rules and propriety,
I will enter again and forever
In the garden of young, carefree days.
Be yourself a child again
Play with your child.
Let toys or memory remind him of him,
Either the emptiness or the loneliness of the dwelling.
Experience this child's love like a miracle
And split again.
I might not know anything
Whenever I take a chance
And did not return to childhood again ...
Metaphor and Eastern Wise Men
Part one
FACETS OF METAPHOR
1. THE NATURE OF METAPHOR
Having placed a lump of g. shny in the center of the potter's wheel, the master
begins to slowly rotate it and with the help of water and sensitive, but
confident touches of the fingers shapes the clay until
it does not turn into a unique work, which
can be admired and used equally.
Metaphor is a kind of symbolic language that
has been used for teaching purposes for many centuries. Take parables
Old and New Testaments, sacred texts of Kabbalah, Zen koans
Buddhism. literary allegories, poetic images and works
storytellers' denia - everywhere a metaphor is used to express
a certain thought in the indirect and from this, paradoxically,
most impressive form. This force of influence of the metaphor of feelings
All parents, grandparents, are involved. Seeing the saddened
chico child, they rush to console and caress him, telling him some
some story to which the child can intuitively relate and
myself.
This chapter presents a wide range of theories covering
kind of metaphor.
"How can I see the truth?" asked the young monk. "Everyday-
eyes," answered the sage.
We began the chapter with the sages of the East, because their philosophy
fii in a metaphorical sense reproduce the development of the child. What-
to be in harmony with life and nature, one must learn to grow up and
overcome difficulties. The main learning tool for re-
exact philosophers of various directions was a metaphor. They are from
preferred this method of indirect influence, because
that they understood that students perceive the learning process as
that is subject to the laws of logic and reason. It is this circumstance
may interfere with successful learning. For example, Master Zhuang
Tzu, when explaining the unity of man, nature and the universe, is
used not logical constructions, but stories, parables and fables, which
to convey the same concept in the form of a metaphor.
There once lived a one-legged dragon Kui. His envy of the centipede
was so great that one day he could not stand it and asked: "How are you
only manage with your forty legs? I'm here with one
it's hard to have. "Easier as shelling pears," answered the centipede. -
There is nothing to be controlled here, they themselves fall to the ground like drops
saliva."
From the philosophers of Zen Buddhism, parables and fables acquired a deep
thoughtful and refined form of koans - paradoxical riddles,
defying logic. Koans of one type are straight
my, simple statements, but from this no less mysterious and
tinted.
Say what it sounds like to clap with one hand.
or
The flower is not red, and the willow is not green.
Another type of koan is in the traditional question-and-answer form,
but unconventional in meaning. The student sets the expected or
predictable question, the teacher's answer is surprising and
complete incomprehensibility.
A young monk asks: "What is the secret of Enlightenment"
The teacher replies: "Eat when you're hungry; sleep when you're tired."
or
The question of a young monk: "What does Zen mean?" Teacher's response:
"Pour boiling oil into a raging fire."
The mystery of this approach to learning is its strength.
side, because it encourages the student to search for a deeper
knowledge. Rossi and Jichaku (1984) explain the value of koans by
that the riddle contained in them requires the student to go beyond
affairs of ordinary dualistic thinking. To understand the koan
it is necessary to erase the traditional line separating good and evil, black
noe and white, lion and lamb. In search of a solution, one must go beyond
the limits of your own mind. And then efforts to comprehend the meaning of
suddenly dissolve in the flood of insight that is always in us. At-
measures of such enlightenment are given by Rossi and Dzhichaku, quoting Uchi-
calf Hakuin.
"All my previous doubts have melted like ice. I loudly re-
called out: “A miracle, a miracle! A person does not have to go through the eternal
circle of birth and death. There is no need to strive for enlightenment, for it
no. And the one thousand seven hundred koans brought to us from the past do not have
not the slightest value."
"Enlightenment" lies in ourselves, according to Eastern wisdom.
rivers. No need to suffer in search of knowledge, you just need to make out
noses separating enlightenment from its perception by man, and the best
The best way to do this is the metaphor of the koan, parables and fables.
Here is an eloquent excerpt from the "Garden of Stories" (Xian and Yang
1981):
Tui Dzy always speaks in riddles, one of the
courtiers to Prince Liang. - Lord, if you forbid him to use-
allegories, believe me, he won’t be able to sensibly
formulate."
The prince agreed with the petitioner. The next day he met
Guy Dzy. "From now on, please leave your allegories and sayings-
stand straight,” said the prince. In response, he heard: “Imagine
Lovec, who does not know what a catapult is. He asks for
that it looks like, and you answer that it looks like a catapult. How are you
Do you think he will understand you?
"Of course not," the prince replied.
"And if you answer that the catapult resembles a bow and is made of
bamboo, will he understand better?"
"Yes, that makes sense," agreed the prince.
"To make it clearer, we compare what a person does not know with
what he knows," Gui Dzy explained.
The prince admitted he was right.
16
The concept of "enlightenment" refers to the world of an adult and
based on his experience. What does it have to do with children? Before-
it would be permissible to say that the child's knowledge of the world is enlightenment.
in a pure and direct form. In Zen teachings and scriptures
mystics of various directions, it is children who are considered natural
carriers of enlightenment. Adults are encouraged to return to
childish state in order to acquire the knowledge for which they are so eager
crumple. Because children live in the moment, immersed in it
and perceive what is happening around with all their sensual mind
rum. They are not bound by adult searches and anxieties (Kopp, 1971):
"As for the questions of the spirit, here the child is as if enveloped in God-
their favor. He is so absorbed in the very process of life that
he has neither the time nor the opportunity to think about the questions of the essential
ty, or expediency, or the meaning of everything around.
This very "state of benevolence" was reached by Master Haku-
in the moment of insight, when koans instantly lost all their value
before the value of life itself. Everyone seems to have to go through
full circle: from the innocence, purity and openness of the child, through
difficult search for self-knowledge, which is occupied by the mind of an adult
love, to return, finally, to childish spontaneity and simply
those enriched with consciousness and maturity.
According to the Taoist Hoff's metaphor, a child can be compared to
"rough stone".
"The principle of" raw stone "means, in fact, that natural
the inherent strength of things lies in their original simplicity, violating
which can be easily damaged or even lose its power.
This power of simplicity is the special gift of the child's consciousness,
causing amazement in us, modern psychotherapists, brought up
in the spirit of adult superiority. We are lost when we suddenly discover
We understand how easily a child understands complex interpersonal relationships.
niyakh. We learn a lot, but do not know how to respond to such a pro-
perspicacity. But we adults are supposed to know
more to guide and lead. Where does a child get such a chut-
bone? How to maintain this strength (and fragility) of childish simplicity when we
we teach our pets to adapt to the complexities of the environment
peace? It will not be so difficult if we psychotherapists understand that
Jung called this process individuation (1960) and considered it the only and most
important task of modern consciousness.
we should draw knowledge from two sources: from experience, accumulated
as a result of the evolution of the ideas of an adult, and from that
distant childhood experience that is waiting to be called from the subconscious
niya, but for now remains there as a child within us.
Family in nature
I listened attentively to my client, who, with bitterness and
she spoke with tears about her teenage son. He just recently gave up
addicted to drugs. She spoke of the confusion that was going on in
in her soul when she does not know whether she should leave her son alone and
detachedly watch how he struggles with himself, or rush to
help. If you sacrifice yourself, then to what extent? How to
writhe with a sense of powerlessness engulfing her as she observes
is he behind his son's struggle with his weakness? I listened to her grief
honest story and suddenly remembered one incident that
matched her problems better.
Catching the moment when my visitor fell silent, holding
sigh and slumping my shoulders limply, I looked expressively at her and
started her story.
A few months ago we got together as a company and
were able to travel down the river on rafts. One morning I
fell asleep before anyone else and decided to take a walk along the river bank down the
flow. There was amazing peace and quiet all around. I sat down
on a log by the water's edge and looked around. Nearby one hundred
a huge beautiful tree. On one of the branches sat a small
what a bird in bright plumage. I noticed that she was tense
looks towards a small depression in the rock, located-
about six meters from the tree and just below the branch. Here I turned
attention to another bird that kept flying from
recesses to another branch of the same tree and back.
In the recess, all huddled and afraid to move, sat a small
hot chick. Realizing that something is happening in this "family"
important, I began to observe with even greater interest. What is birth-
Are the bodies trying to teach their toddler? One of the birds continued
still scurrying between two points.
Then I had to leave my observation post. Ver-
after about an hour, I found that the baby was still the same
sits ruffled in his recess, mother still flies there and
back, and dad is still sitting on his branch and chirping
knowledge. Finally, once again reaching her branch, mother remained
on it and did not return to the baby. It's been a little while, chick-
the bird fluttered its wings and began its first flight into the world, and then
or flopped. Mom and dad watched silently.
I instinctively rushed to help, but stopped,
realizing that we must trust nature with its centuries-old experience
learning.
The older birds remained where they were. Sheburshil chick-
Xia, flapped his wings and fall, puffed up again and fell again. Nako-
no, dad "got it" that the baby is not yet ready for such serious
classes. He flew up to the chick, chirped several times and, returning-
going to the tree, sat down on a branch that was located much lower than the pre-
reaper and much closer to the baby. A tiny creature with bright as
gem, with wings joined the one sitting on the lower branch
ke father. And soon my mother settled down next to them.
After a long pause, my client smiled and said:
"Thank you. Apparently, I'm not such a bad mother, if you look. My
the chick still needs my love and my help, but he needs to learn how to fly
must myself."
Metaphor and Western psychology
Carl Jung
In his seminal work, Carl Jung built bridges between
du the teachings of antiquity and modernity, between the sages of the East
ka and psychologists of today, between Western religions
and the modernist quest for faith. At the heart of his constructions is
symbol lives. A symbol, like a metaphor, conveys something more than
appears at first glance. Jung believed that the whole picture
our mental world is mediated by symbols. With their help
our "I" manifests all its facets, from the lowest to
the highest. Jung's definition of the symbolic wonder
in a way coincides with the existing definitions of metaphors.
"A word or image becomes symbolic when it is implied
there is something more than what is conveyed or obvious and immediate
essential value. Behind it lies a deeper "subconscious-
ny" meaning, which is not amenable to precise definition or exhaustive
blazing explanation. Attempts to do so are doomed to failure.
When consciousness examines a symbol, it stumbles upon concepts lying
beyond the limits of rational understanding".
19
The expression of the archetype, according to Jung, is the main role
symbol. Archetypes are innate elements of the human psyche.
ki, reflecting the general models of sensory experience developed in
development of human consciousness. In other words, archetypes -
these are metaphorical prototypes representing numerous stages
py evolution of mankind. There are father and mother archetypes,
femininity and femininity, childhood, etc. For Jung, archetypes are
"living psychic forces" no less real than our physical
body. Archetypes are to the spirit what organs are to the body.
There are many ways to express or recreate an archetype;
the most common of these are dreams, myths and fairy tales. In these
special areas of activity of consciousness, the elusive archetype acquires
tangible form and embodied in action. The conscious mind listens
some story with a certain sequence of events, meaning
which is assimilated completely only at a subconscious level.
The archetype is clothed in metaphorical clothes (Jung uses the term
min allegories), which help him to go beyond the understanding
ordinary waking consciousness, just as it happens
wears oriental koans (Jung, 1958).
"In terms of content, the archetype, first of all, is
allegory. If we are talking about the sun and it is identified with a lion,
earthly ruler, guarded by a countless golden dragon (one hundred
house or with some force on which the life and health of a person depends
well, then all these identities are inadequate, because there is a third unknown
one that more or less approximates the listed
comparisons, but, to the constant annoyance of the intellect, it remains the same
known, not fitting into any formula.
Jung believed that the power of the impact of symbols lies in their "nu-
minosity"
because they evoke an emotional response in a person, a feeling of well-being
vein awe and inspiration. Jung especially insisted that
symbols are both images and emotions. Lost symbol
There is no meaning if it does not have numinosity, emotional valence.
"When we have only an image in front of us, then it is just a verbal
picture, not burdened with deep meaning. But when the image of emo
is rationally saturated, it acquires numinosity (or psychic energy).
giyu) and dynamism and carries a certain connotation".
For Jung, symbols are the life-giving force that
nourishes the psyche and serves as a means of reflecting and transforming life.
In the symbol, Jung always saw the bearer of modern spirituality,
born of vital psychodynamic processes
20
themselves, occurring in each person. Gradual decline in interest
sa to traditional authoritarian religions leads to the fact that in
in search of faith, "gaining a soul" a person will more and more have to
to look at one's own psyche and its symbolic connections.
"Man needs a symbolic life... Only a symbolic
The physical life can express the need of the soul - daily sweat
the childishness of the soul, pay attention to this!"
Sheldon Kopp
In our review of the works of many well-known psycho-
gov and psychotherapists worthy and consonant with our own
The works of Sheldon Kopp have found a place for views. In his book Guru;
metaphors from a psychotherapist "(1971) Kopp talks about the savior-
the role of fairy tales in his own childhood and how later he
discovered the educational power of legends and poetry. Finding your way in
therapy raised doubts in him about the power of the scientific world of research
ideas and theories that did not affect his personal experiences,
feelings and intuitive sensations, while classical myths and
metaphors, created by the most diverse cultures of the world, sank into
soul deeply and permanently.
"At first it seemed strange to me that in my psychotherapy
What helped me the most in my practice of chess was stories about magicians and
shamans, about Hasidic rabbis, Christian hermits and Buddhist
sages. Poetry and myths gave me much more than scientific
researches and arguments".
An immersion in the literature of metaphor helped Kopp to clarify one
an important aspect of the therapeutic process that is often overlooked
from mind: an internal process taking place in the therapist himself. Kopp
labeled it as "emerging kinship" or "internal unity"
with a client.
Exploring the phenomenon of metaphor, Kopp distinguishes three types of cognition
niya: rational, empirical and metaphorical. He believes that
the latter type expands the possibilities of the two previous ones and even you
crowds them.
"Metaphorical knowledge does not depend directly on logical
reasoning and does not need to check the accuracy of our perception.
To understand the world metaphorically means to grasp on an intuitive level
situations in which experience acquires a symbolic dimension, and we
many coexisting meanings are revealed, giving each other
additional connotations. "
For many years, Joe was a successful florist when
suddenly found out that he had an incurable form of cancer. Not being able to transfer
pain and limitations dictated by the disease, he constantly craves
caught, irritated and refused an infinite number of
painkillers, which each doctor prescribed according to his own
his taste, denying the benefit of remedies prescribed by other doctors
mi. Knowing that Joe hated even the very mention of the word
hypnosis, Erickson resorted to an extended metaphor based on
growing tomatoes, and used it for indirect and, as it were,
not at all hypnotic suggestion to calm, support
and comfort your client and alleviate his physical condition.
Here is a small excerpt from this story (in italics)
lines woven into the story of suggestion):
"Now I want to talk with you, as they say, with a feeling,
really, with the arrangement, and you listen to me, too, carefully and calmly
koino. And I will talk about tomato seedlings. strange topic for
conversations, right? Curiosity immediately arises. Why exactly
about seedlings Here you put a seed in the ground and hope that it will grow
from it a whole bush and will delight you with its fruits. Lies to himself
mechko, but swells, absorbing water. The matter is simple, because from time to time
warm, pleasant rains are pouring down on me, from them there is so much peace and
joy in nature. And know that flowers and tomatoes grow for yourself ... You know
Joe, because I grew up on a farm, and for me the tomato bush is real.
miracle; just think, Joe, in such a tiny seed it is so
koino, the whole bush is sleeping so comfortably, which you have to
grow and see what wonderful shoots and leaves it has. For-
ma they are so beautiful, and the color is such a thick wonderful shade that
your soul sings with happiness, Joe, when you look at this seed
and think about that wonderful plant that is so calm and cozy
sleeps in it.
Although there was little hope of a cure, Erickson
significantly improved symptoms. The treatment is so
relieved the pain that Joe could do without painkillers. On the-
his structure rose and he spent the remaining months of his life
with the same "activity with which he lived all his life and successfully
did his job."
Thus, in Joe's case, the tomato metaphor is activated
shaft in the subconscious associative models of peace, comfort, happiness,
which in turn ended the old behavioral
models of pain, complaints, irritation. As a result, a new
Vedic response: an active, vigorous lifestyle and positive
body mood. Of course, the change did not come immediately and the impact
The action of the metaphor was not instantaneous. Its multilateral
her, ever-expanding comprehension. One understanding of
gave rise to another, causing appropriate behavioral responses.
So the change chain was started with something like
built-in thinking self-activated system with the reverse
connection.
Bandler and Grinder
The last decade of Erickson's life was the most
conscientious in his teaching activities. Studying with
nicknames, Erickson used a number of methods of indirect influence
actions, including elements of utilization, trance and metaphor. Both
linguists, Bandler and Grinder oversaw the clinical work
toy Erickson and, on the basis of these observations, built their own linguistic
a linguistically oriented idea of ​​the mechanism of influence
actions of metaphor.
Metaphor, according to their theory, operates on the principle of a triad,
going through three stages of meaning:
1) Metaphor represents the surface structure of meaning, not
mediocre in the words of the story.
2) The surface structure activates the associated
the deep structure of meaning associated with it, indirectly correlated with
listener.
3) This, in turn, activates the returned depth
the binary structure of the value, directly related to the
shatel.
Approaching the third stage means that the trans-
derivative search, with the help of which the listener correlates
tafora with you. The storyline itself serves only as a bridge between
listener and hidden in the story by a promise, a message that
will never reach the addressee without his invisible eye work on
establishing the necessary personal connection with the metaphor. How
as soon as the connection is established, the interaction between the races begins.
tale and awakened to life by the inner world of the listener.
Our brief overview reveals a common
theories respect for metaphor as a special and effective means
communication. Everyone agrees that metaphor is a multifaceted phenomenon.
different, and its use can be very diverse for different races.
expanding the boundaries of human consciousness.
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2. METAPHOR IN CHILD PSYCHOTHERAPY
In the real world, the horse remains just a lo-
shady. But in the world of fantasy and myth, she grows wings
and she becomes Pegasus, who can freely
but deliver the rider to any part of the world.