That's basically what I feel like when it comes to psychotherapy. My book and most of my thoughts since Friday have revolved around a topic I knew and still know very little about. I feel like a second grader in a room full of doctorate holders.
However, that just makes me want to figure it out that much more. Who doesn't love a challenge?
There is absolutely no hope in me becoming the next Freud between now and the due date, but I'm trying regardless to harness a deeper understanding of the world of psychotherapy. I read the introduction to the book (most of which made sense!), and I've talked to as many people as I've run into about psychotherapy in general. I'm lucky; I live with two psych majors who, regardless of whether or not they understand the creativity aspect of the project, are thrilled when I ask questions about psych. I'm sure their teaching style is simplified, but I have to thank them for giving me a more stable foundation to rest my creative ideas on.
So, the ideas are like this:
1) The original idea was sparked by a quote in the book about the conscious versus the *subconscious. In my head, the conscious encompasses everything I am aware of; the sub- is just the opposite. Along this thought process, I created a metaphorical landscape representative of the conscious, the sub-, and the psychotherapist. The conscious is represented by a hill leading to a cliff, where the cliff represents the precipice of the conscious. The sub- is represented by the cavern, which is only visible through a small opening on the top. After speaking with a friend about The Allegory of the Cave, I thought a hidden cavern in the book would be suitable for the hidden and hard to discover sub-. The psychotherapist is represented by light; he holds the ability to explore the sub- through the hole, while the person who is under exploration cannot see into the cavern when standing on the edge of the cliff.
2) Next came the idea of "the royal road to the unconscious" of Freud. For this, I had the idea of wrapping and excavating the book in one continual void. The moments were the void's path is lost in the book would be representative of the unconscious, and the moments of visible void would represent the conscious. The book itself represents the human mind.
3) This is when my suite mates came into play. From them, I learned about the Id, the Ego, and the Superego. Cool, easy enough to represent in book sculpture, right? Wrong. This idea is one that I struggled immensely with until late Monday night (not to say that I've got it all figured out, because I definitely don't). I was trying to think of three distinct ways to represent the levels of the mind.
The first level I see as more self-explanatory and simple, something to be expressed through distinct geometries. I picture some sort of woven pieces that represent the conscious workings of the mind.
The second level is the bridge between the conscious and unconscious. It is represented in similar strips to the conscious, although the strips take on more organic feels and directions. The weaving becomes less strict and the idea of free-form, organic loops is more evident.
The third level is the unconscious. For this, I thought about myself. What is my unconscious? According to some psychotherapists, one needs a psychotherapist to discover the inner workers of the mind. I see my mind as a vast expanse of who knows what. My deepest thoughts, joys, ideas, etc. are all kept in this vast expanse. For this reason, I represent the third level with void.
4) The last idea is the most recent idea. It was sparked by the readings about voids and solids. There is a passage in the reading that talks about the solid being meaningless without the void but the void having meaning without the solid. I found this to be mind boggling, definitely. It's just not something I ever really considered. However, I am liking the idea of representing the unconscious (void) as a growing force in the mind (book). In the beginning, it would start as nothing and grow to fill the entire book. This represents getting completely lost in the unconscious without anything to pull you back to the conscious.
Still feeling like a little kid being overwhelmed by things she doesn't understand, although it's not as scary anymore.
-a
*Just realized that I still haven't figured out if sub- or un- is more appropriate. Sorry in advance.
