May the 4th be with you!

May 4, 2023

Written by: Katherine Miner, LCSW 

Yoda [points to a cave opening beneath a large tree] “That place… is strong with the dark side of the Force. A domain of evil it is. In you must go.”

Luke: “What’s in there?”

Yoda: “Only what you take with you.”

If you’ve seen The Empire Strikes Back, you’ll remember this iconic scene where Luke walks into a cave to confront the dark side as part of his training with Yoda. During this trial Luke fights with Darth Vader and defeats him, but when the villain’s mask falls off, he sees his own face, discovering that the darkness that he was confronting was within himself. Storytelling has always been an intrinsic part of the human experience, and we use myths and legends both to communicate the trials of our own lives, and to explore our feelings about them.

Star Wars follows the formula for the hero’s journey, a concept developed by Joseph Campbell that describes a common narrative archetype in myths and legends that encompasses the transformative experience that a hero takes throughout a story. Empire Strikes Back uses a literal cave to explore Campbell’s concept of the inmost cave, a crucial element in the hero’s story arc that is filled with metaphors for self-discovery, overcoming internal conflict, and transformation. For Luke, this experience has led to him having to confront his own internal darkness before he can move forward to tackle the external challenges ahead. The storytelling patterns that Campbell identifies resonate with us in part because of how they reflect aspects of our own human experience. Campbell states “The journey of the hero is about the courage to seek the depths; the image of creative rebirth; the eternal cycle of change within us; the uncanny discovery that the seeker is the mystery which the seeker seeks to know.” While each individual’s story is unique, aspects of this cycle are experienced by all of us in different ways throughout our lifetime, and due to this familiarity, we can empathize with Luke as he discovers for the first-time truths that are hard to reconcile.

This idea of confronting our darker selves is not a new one to psychology. For Carl Jung the phenomenon that Luke experienced would be bringing into awareness his shadow self.

Jung states “Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. If an inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it.” In therapy we have the opportunity to create a supportive space for clients to bring these shadow elements into the conscious mind as they craft their own narrative, being able to find the words to speak where they have been and identify where they are going, a process that is embedded with creativity, resilience, and discovery.

Creative expressions like storytelling allow for a depth of human exploration that is difficult to articulate directly. Stories give entryways to and reference points for a broad range of emotion and experience, providing our societies with a common ground for connection, instilling values, inspiring new ideas and bringing our unconscious understandings into consciousness. Our imagination allows us to envision a future that is different from what we have always known; and stories help inspire us to start the journey, providing a compass to navigate through the darkness. To quote Angus Fletcher, “The magic of story is to take people on a journey that they want to go but haven’t walked before.”

Creative interventions have been gaining more and more traction in the therapeutic arena. Methods such as psychodrama, art therapy, and music therapy have become more commonplace and accepted. Lesser-known interventions such as narrative therapy, expressive writing, and tabletop role playing, among others, also rely heavily on the use of metaphor and literary elements in facilitating the therapeutic process. Storytelling, narratives, and creative expressions are particularly powerful tools when working with children and adults who have experienced trauma. The trauma narrative itself has developed into a critical mechanism for organizing fragmented memories associated with frightening and stressful experiences. Developing this narrative is an anxiety provoking but effective way to increase understanding of how these memories are linked to symptoms of posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and depression. Effective trauma treatments such as Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Written Exposure Therapy, Prolonged Exposure therapy, and, Cognitive Processing Therapy, have utilized the use of narrative as a critical part of the intervention. How our story is told is often just as important as being able to tell it to begin with and in therapy we have the opportunity to adjust unhealthy thinking patterns, look at the story from different perspectives, and reshape how we want to move forward with it into the future.

Notably, Luke’s story would have been very different if he had not worked through the internal conflict he faced and let anger, fear, and hate maintain a foothold into the conclusion of Return of the Jedi. Creativity allows for individuals to create meaning and utilize metaphor and symbolism to process experiences that are difficult to express, especially when one feels they have lost their voice along the way.

More and more we are recognizing that to ignore the creative parts of ourselves is to ignore some of the very things that offer us joy, connection, voice, and self-acceptance. How we can tap into creativity as part of the healing process is limited only by our imagination and it is inspiring to see these elements continue to expand into healing spaces. Creativity is a crucial part of humanity and as such, is a crucial part of healing. More research and interventions utilizing creative methods are needed as we continue to incorporate more of these elements into therapy practice.

References

  1. Campbell, Joseph, and Bill Moyers. The Power of Myth. Anchor, 1991. https://doi.org/10.1604/9780385418867.
  2. Carney J, Robertson C. Five studies evaluating the impact on mental health and mood of recalling, reading, and discussing fiction. PLoS One. 2022 Apr 8;17(4):e0266323. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266323. PMID: 35395034; PMCID: PMC8993009.
  3. Fletcher, Angus. Wonderworks: The 25 Most Powerful Inventions in the History of Literature, 2021.
  4. Angus fletcher trauma and literature -Angus Fletcher: The Healing Power of Narrative | STM Podcast #118 Podcast Interview
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  6. Vermeire, Sabine. Unravelling Trauma and Weaving Resilience with Systemic and Narrative Therapy : Playful Collaborations with Children, Families and Networks. London: Routledge, 2022. Web.
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