Abstract:

This dissertation examines through a review of the literature the use of metaphor, story as extended metaphor, and a specific type of story, the teaching story, as transforming agents in the therapeutic process.

In this dissertation it is argued that the therapeutic relationship can be a means for the client to undertake the metamorphosis that occurs when a person becomes less identified with his or her conditioned personality and comes into contact with experiences of an essential self which exists apart from conditioning.

Further, it is argued that metaphor, which by its very nature uses words with definition to create a new context which transcends fixed definitions and which engenders experience, is well suited to the therapeutic process. Metaphor and story are demonstrated as catalytic agents which can induce a change in the client's understanding and can produce directly in the client an experience of "being."

The teaching story is introduced as an extended metaphor constructed with the conscious intent of producing in the listener or reader an experience of self or an experience in preparation for an experience of self. Fairy tales, the parables of Jesus, and teaching stories from the Sufi tradition are presented in this context.

The author uses examples from her transpersonally oriented practice of psychotherapy to illustrate a variety of contexts in which stories can be used. Interviews with three psychotherapists who use story as an adjunct are included in the appendix.

A summary of the literature review augmented by clinical observations suggests that metaphor and story provide a new language which the therapist can use in helping the client go beyond conditioned personality. Not only do stories provide new models of reality, but also engender in the client an experience of "being"---contact with an unconditioned and essential self.