Category Archives: Colon disease

La villa

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Une architecte souffrait de la Maladie de Crohn. La maladie auto-immune et les traitements avec des corticoïdes et des interventions chirurgicales avaient mis son corps à rude épreuve. Après une certaine période d’entretiens thérapeutiques, la maladie semblait s’être calmée. Je lui posais la question : »Supposons que ton corps soit une maison précieuse en attente de sa rénovation – à quoi ressemble cette maison dans tes pensées ? » Elle décrivit une villa dans le style de la Gruenderzeit ( fin du 19ème siècle ), entourée de verdure, équipée de précieux ouvrages en stuc, de magnifiques tapisseries et de beaux meubles. La maison avait été abandonnée depuis très longtemps. Partout il y avait des traces d’infiltrations d’eau, de fissures dans les murs et de plâtre qui s’effritait. Une grande partie de ce qui était autrefois beau semblait délabré et usé. « Quels travaux les restaurateurs ont-ils à effectuer ? » je la questionnais. Elle dénomma différentes activités et nous avons réfléchi sur l’ordre dans lequel elles seraient à effectuer. Dans les conversations suivantes je lui ai à chaque fois demandé si les travaux de rénovation avaient progressé et à chaque fois les artisans avaient progressé. Comment aurait-il pu en être autrement : les rénovations vont vers l’avant, ne reviennent pas en arrière. La métaphore exclue les régressions. Une fois l’image acceptée, le cerveau exclut chaque comportement corporel ne correspondant pas à la métaphore. La femme a dit une fois : « trop de substance originale a été perdue de telle sorte que les artisans ne peuvent plus faire une restauration conforme à l’original. Ils ajoutent par analogie ce qui manque selon ce qui a pu être à l’origine. » Après plusieurs semaines elle me signala que les restaurateurs avaient terminé leurs travaux. La villa était complètement rénovée. C’était il y a environ quatre ans. Son état s’est considérablement amélioré. ( S. Hammel, Handbuch des therapeutischen Erzählens /Manuel de narration thérapeutique, 62f. )

Everything Else

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In a land in our time there lived a man, who read a book and found lots of wonderful stories therein. There were true and invented stories, experienced and pensive, enjoyable and painful stories. There were stories which contained stories, and such which were actually not stories. For every story he read, there occurred to him nearly five which he had either experienced or thought up himself. So the thought came to him, that a lot in the world was a story which could be healing for himself and others; he only needed to absorb the healing stories well and to forget the terrible ones immediately. Then he would learn which story he had used when and for what. So he organised his own stories which he knew, and which had become a help to himself and others, or could become so. Sometimes he noted it down when a new story came to his ears and sometimes when a helpful story occurred to him, he memorised it.

Then he saw before him in a picture the storystories of this life arranged in long shelves, as in a large pharmacy. And behind the counter there sat a man who had learnt to listen to himself and others. He was a master of his subjectspecialty. His talent was that he understood how to tell the right thing at the right time to himself and to those who visited him.

Civil War and Civil Peace

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Once there was a civil war in Pampelonia. This is what happened: one evening, the guards on the tower of the royal castle heard gunshots from far away. Somewhere on the western horizon they saw a column of smoke ascending. “A revolution!” they shouted. “Our country is in danger!” A unit of the royal army took their weapons, saddled their horses, and rode away. They followed the direction of the smoke column. Their path went through a deep dark forest. It was already dark when they arrived in the area from where the gunshots had been fired. At some distance, on a forest glade, they saw a fire burning. What had at first appeared to be a burning house turned out to be a very large bonfire. Around the fire, a large crowd of armed citizens had gathered. “Rebels!” the commander whispered. Silently, they surrounded the clearing. Then they stepped forward. “Surrender!” the commander shouted. “We are superior in number!” The men on the clearing were startled. “Robbers!” one of them exclaimed. “Poachers!” shouted another. They jumped up and opened fire. Too late did they recognize the uniforms of the royal army. Slowly the soldiers realized that they had encountered a gathering of hunters, who had come together for a good roast and a drop of wine after a hunt. But they already found themselves engaged in combat, and very soon the inhabitants of a nearby village came with scythes and pitchforks to defend the hunters against the alleged robbers. What should the commander do? “Cease fire!” he shouted. He had the trumpeter sound the retreat, and his soldiers drew back. He decided upon a phased withdrawal of his troops, pulling out half of his soldiers and letting the other half secure the field. He waited until his opponents had understood that they wanted to withdraw and ceased their fire as well. Again he ordered half of the remaining soldiers to retreat while the other half secured the territory. He waited again until the sound of gunshots died down, and repeated the procedure a few more times until he was the only one left. Last of all, he left the battlefield. Back at the royal castle he gave a report to the king about the incident. The king, who was a good monarch, ordered them to go there again, but by daytime and unarmed. He himself accompanied the unit. They arrived at the place of the nightly encounter. The king had the villagers and the hunters of the area gather before him and explained how friends had erroneously mistaken each other for enemies. He pointed out that he saw their very good intention, although initially in misjudgement of the actual situation. A misunderstanding like this was there for being clarified. Whoever wanted to support the common good could contribute to reconciliation here and now. Now the king praised the villagers for having defended the hunters against their assaulters. He praised the hunters for having defended the forest against robbers and poachers. He praised the army for having defended his country against rebels. Most of all he praised the commander of his army for having defended the villagers, the hunters and the army by his cautious withdrawal. After the king’s speech, the hunters, villagers and soldiers asked each other for forgiveness. They pledged to support each other anytime, and to stand for justice and peace in the kingdom as long as they lived. They confirmed this pledge by putting out the fire together.