Šilkelio plonumo kelias. Apie gydantį pasakos dalyvavimą

ENThe article analyses the archaic Lithuanian fairy tale “Devyngalvis” [Nine-head]. The author, as a psychoanalyst of the Jungian direction, shares her experience of how, in the course of therapy, a fairy tale, awakened by intense therapeutic connection, emerges from the depths of the collective subconsciousness. Accepted with due respect, the fairy tale becomes the equivalent third participant in therapy and the attendant of a four-year therapeutic process. The creation of folklore, born in the soul of a nation, becomes a guide to the journey of a particular human soul. The nine-headed dragon, acting in our fairy tale, attempts to swallow a girl hidden from it in an apple tree, is also recognised in the psyche of the client as a powerful auto aggression, blocking the development of the client and suppressing her expression. The whole process of therapy was a desperate liberation from the mouth of the inner “Nine-head”, from deceit, and direct confrontation with fear, guilt, and shame. The trunk of an apple tree that has been chewed to the thinness of a silken thread by the nine-headed dragon is constantly cultivated in the fairy tale with invocation and ritual. In this way, the client’s sense of herself is “regrown” by drawing, which has become a therapeutic ritual. The inner world of the client’s inner tyrant breaks down into thin dotted lines in her drawings, but with the dragon, the line becomes bolder, with brighter colours, clearer shapes. Several drawings illustrating the process are also presented in the article. [From the publication]

• Etnologija / Ethnology
• Psichologija / Psychology