Journal of Psychology & Psychotherapy
Open Access

Challenging the myth of mental illness -The use of metaphors for the self in systemic therapy

International Conference on Positive Psychology and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

June 13-14, 2016 Philadelphia, USA

Maria Carolina Sanchez-Thorin

Northern University, Colombia

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Psychol Psychother

Abstract :

The main aim of this paper is to explore how the use of metaphors in systemic therapy introduces change and difference in the scenario of people who identify themselves as mentally ill. In this context, the paper will try to explore a different view from the traditional medical model around mental illness, looking at how the use of metaphors for clients when trying to define themselves as mentally ill can create a shift in the way stories and myths are created about them. In the first part I will discuss some general issues related to metaphors and systemic thinking. Then in the second part I will discuss how identity is structured around the myth of mental illness and introduce some case examples that could help us to understand it. The context for this discussion will be how identity could be constructed in a different way through a systemic conversation by the use of metaphors for the self. The last part will explore a therapeutic perspective of systemic conversations by which mental illness and identity may be deconstructed by the use of different metaphors for the self in therapy. This paper gives new ideas about how metaphors for the Self in therapy, may become part of the lively, unique and ever-flowing conversations with patients. This paper also uses an integrative perspective of psychodynamic and systemic concepts of self and Narcissism.

Biography :

Email: mcsanchezthorin@gmail.com