Playful metaphors

American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis,  Jan 2003  by Linden, Julie H

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The inner world of the child is a community of archetypes potentially available for the child's healthy ego development. Many forces limit and prohibit their utility. Play therapy in the context of a hypnotic relationship can potentiate these archetypes into becoming "playful metaphors" for healing and strengthening ego development. In this article, the author describes her use of playful metaphors in her therapeutic work with two children and explores how metaphor in play therapy is able to connect the child with healing archetypal imagery.

Key Words: Archetypes, encopresis, hypnosis, magic, metaphors, play, playful

Maria Montessori (1965) once said that play is the child's work. It is also the adult's work. I am very lucky that I am in a profession that allows me to answer my children when they ask: "What do you do in your office?" with "I play all day." They know it must be true, since they see my office filled with toys, games, dollhouses, and stuffed animals that are in an ever-changing arrangement. Playing is fun, for me and for the children with whom I work. It is through play that children develop, and when development has been interrupted therapeutic play can heal. Play has at least four functions for the child (Schaefer & O'Connor, 1983). These are broadly classified as:

1) the biological: a way to relax and release energy, to exercise, to learn basic skills;

2) the intrapersonal: a way to explore and develop mind and body, to master situations, to master conflicts through symbolism and wish fulfillment;

3) the interpersonal: a way to develop social skills, to achieve separation-individuation and identity, and

4) the socio-cultural: a way to imitate desired roles.

Play and hypnosis share many characteristics. Each requires absorption, a concentrated attention. The person in trance is wholly involved in the imagery or sensorial experience of the moment. The child at play is also absorbed in the creative and imaginative moment. Dissociation is experienced in each. The hypnotized individual may leave his or her body for greater comfort. The child at play moves into the world he or she has created, and both play and hypnosis utilize the senses and imagination creatively. It is the seasoned hypnotherapist who attends not only to what suggestion to give, but also to how a suggestion is worded. This same experienced hypnotherapist is most careful, as well, to the timing of the suggestion. The use of these elements of language and surprise are what made Milton Erickson the master of hypnosis for therapeutic change.

These same elements can be applied to the hypnotic relationship with children in playful ways that bring about therapeutic change. How do we do that, especially when children prefer action to talking? The inner world of the child, when viewed from a Jungian perspective (Kalsched, 1996) is a community of archetypes that are potentially available for the child's healthy ego development. In this theoretical orientation the archetype is comprised of the archaic and what is typical of the psyche's self-- preservation system (Kalsched, 1996, p. 4). Said another way, it is the mythological, the ancient, and dream world characters universally understood to represent the array of human emotions. The figures of the King or Queen (leadership/power archetypes), of the Wizard or Witch (magician archetypes), of the Soldier or Spy (fighter archetypes), of the Angel or Devil (archetypes of good and evil), are just some of the resources that comprise the child's inner world. Some of these figures are active and evident in the child's choice of superheroes and actor roles for make-believe play. We can identify these figures by learning what the child's favorite storybook, TV, and movie characters are, or by watching to see what the child chooses for a dress up costume.

Other archetypes lie dormant, like sleeping volcanoes, awaiting wakening. Gardner's "Mutual Storytelling Technique" (Gardner, 1983) is a good example of how archetypes can be accessed. A child draws an object from a "bag of things", and creates a story about the object. This usually entails the projection of psychodynamic issues onto the story. Once the meaning is surmised by the therapist, the therapist creates a responding story, but one in which conflicts are resolved or healthier adaptations are introduced. Archetypal figures, such as Great Bears, Goblins, and Monsters are often the subjects of these stories. Affect is usually portrayed by the archetypal figures and themes. Many of the active and interactive techniques of play therapy, the so called creative arts techniques, rely on the identification of a child's affect, the associated maladaptive thinking, and the introduction of new ways of thinking, and new ways to manage affect, usually done in a metaphorical manner and outside of conscious awareness. These techniques of "active imagination" (Kalsched, 1996, p. 133) are hypnoidal (Linden, 1996), or what Hilgard referred to as protohypnosis in the imaginative involvement of the younger child (Hilgard & LeBaron, 1984, p. 4).