Re: Symptoms and Change

Pete,

You're basically on the right track, but let me add some clarifications. The client does not actually give meaning to a symptom in a conscious, cognitive sense; the meaning is implied in the purpose of the symtom, which is conveniently kept out of consciousness. What drives a client into therapy may be a felt difficulty with a life task, but it may also be the intolerable discomfort of the symptom, or even the pressure of a family member. Understanding one's fictional final goal, is not enough to influence a person to readjust his direction in life. We must also reduce his inferiority feeling, build his courage and confidence, increase his feeling of community, and help him conclude (through Socratic questioning) that a new direction would lead to a happier life. It is difficult to convince a person to give up his symptoms, if there are too many perceieved benefits that are achieved at modest emotional or physical cost.

Significant change takes more than insight; it requires intellectual, emotional, and social risk-taking experiments that slowly build a climate of persistent, creative problem-solving that leads to new successes.

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