Allegory Analysis from M. Theresa – A Case Study

Abstract

In the following article, I will briefly introduce the method of Allegory Analysis (AA) (Guenther, 2020, 2021, in press) and then outline it in its application to the case study of. The goal of this article is to introduce AA and illustrate it using the particularly illustrative case of Theresa. It will be shown how AA can be a new psychotherapeutic method in the therapist’s toolbox, with which the human psyche in its individual uniqueness can be understood in the clinical context through creative means. Allegories of patients are defined here as complex linguistic constructs of multiple metaphors and as expressions of complex affective perception and experience. In order to understand a human psyche through its allegories, AA proceeds in four steps: (1) picking up and describing the allegories, (2) summarizing them into a so-called allegory poem, (3) interpreting the allegories on the part of the therapist, and (4) participatory interpretation of the allegories with the patient. The present case of Theresa illustrates the application of the AA method in an outpatient psychotherapeutic context and shows how through AA. In Theresa’s case, the client was found to be ideologically guided by values such as autonomy, freedom, honesty, sustainability, charity, and connectedness. Her psychosis represented an autopoietic self-healing attempt to recover these values, which had been inaccessible to her in the antecedent process. The AA showed that Theresa believes that crises in the market economy, interpersonal coexistence, and climate change are at a critical point that threatens the existence of the world and thus her psychological stability. Moreover, in Theresa’s allegories, it is evident that she had managed to use her values and beliefs autopoietically to stabilize her crisis through her coping strategy: externalization through poetic-allegorical language.

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Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-023-09750-7
Abstract
In the following article, I will briey introduce the method of Allegory Analysis
(AA) (Guenther, 2020, 2021, in press) and then outline it in its application to the
case study of. The goal of this article is to introduce AA and illustrate it using the
particularly illustrative case of Theresa. It will be shown how AA can be a new psy-
chotherapeutic method in the therapist’s toolbox, with which the human psyche in
its individual uniqueness can be understood in the clinical context through creative
means. Allegories of patients are dened here as complex linguistic constructs of
multiple metaphors and as expressions of complex aective perception and experi-
ence. In order to understand a human psyche through its allegories, AA proceeds
in four steps: (1) picking up and describing the allegories, (2) summarizing them
into a so-called allegory poem, (3) interpreting the allegories on the part of the
therapist, and (4) participatory interpretation of the allegories with the patient. The
present case of Theresa illustrates the application of the AA method in an outpa-
tient psychotherapeutic context and shows how through AA. In Theresa’s case, the
client was found to be ideologically guided by values such as autonomy, freedom,
honesty, sustainability, charity, and connectedness. Her psychosis represented an
autopoietic self-healing attempt to recover these values, which had been inacces-
sible to her in the antecedent process. The AA showed that Theresa believes that
crises in the market economy, interpersonal coexistence, and climate change are at
a critical point that threatens the existence of the world and thus her psychological
stability. Moreover, in Theresa’s allegories, it is evident that she had managed to
use her values and beliefs autopoietically to stabilize her crisis through her coping
strategy: externalization through poetic-allegorical language.
Accepted: 9 January 2023
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
2023
Allegory Analysis from M. Theresa – A Case Study
Linus Paul FredericGuenther1
The name Theresa is a pseudonym. All generic masculine formulations in this text are not to be
understood as statements about the client, but include all forms of gender identity.
Extended author information available on the last page of the article
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Keywords Allegory Analysis · Psychotherapy · Cultural Psychology ·
Autopoiesis · Meaning-Making · Value-System · Life-Script-Ideology · Coping-
Mechanism
On the Shoulders of Giants - Theoretical Foundation
We live in a zeitgeist in which the transfer of information is increasingly related to
images (through smartphones and social media like Instagram and TicToc.). We live
in a zeitgeist in which people are experiencing a rapid change in values and mores,
in which culture has less and less to do with nation, but is seen as a multiplied tool in
the individual. Therefore, perhaps we live in a zeitgeist where the need for metaphors
and allegories is greater than ever. It seems that in the moment of crisis, people are
drawn to creativity and poetry because they oer a way to deal with uncertainties
in a highly aective situation that cannot be captured by literal words. Poetics in
general is a central element of inquiry in cultural psychology or clinical psychology
(Menzen, 2021). It was theorized that the psychological core of human poetry lies in
its cathartic function (Vygotsky, 1976). Therefore, poetry is a human mean of reduc-
tion of intrapsychic tensions and conicts. Moreover, In this chapter, the method of
allegory analysis (AA) is introduced and exemplied in another chapter: the story
of Theresa using a case study. AA is shown to be an eective method by which
individual highly aective structures of meaning and signicance, schemas or parts,
life-script-ideologies, ambivalences that are poetically constructed by a person in a
moment of personal crisis can be understood psychotherapeutically. In other words,
AA here is an entrance for psychotherapy to enter the (partly poetic) landscape of
the subjective qualities of a personal crisis - the door is metaphors and allegories. In
psychotherapy, apart from art therapy (which can be considered marginalized and
little academicized within classical psychotherapeutic approaches: Menzen 2021) we
rarely try to understand individuals through their poetry. We usually do so only when
a client is an artist (Mota, 2021), perhaps because we think this gives us legitimacy
for why she is artistic. The denition of poetry and art that underlies this study is that
of an expanded concept of art in the tradition of Joseph Beuys’ (1977) social philoso-
phy. Based on the idea that everyone is an artist and therefore can produce art, Beuys
(1977) used this term to refer specically to the creativity of people who together
can produce a “social art” in the form of a social sculpture or form of togetherness
that constitutes our reality. Such a form of social art can be represented, for example,
through poetic means of communication, such as allegories. In this sense, poetic
sentiments are universal to everyone in every society at some point in time, because
metaphorical, or allegorical, language exists in all societies (Tomassello, 2011). Also,
in the sense of Blumenberg (1960), Lacan (1964), and Lako & Johnson (1989), it is
a conditio humana to use poetic metaphors and allegories, since they are constitutive
of a guratively conceived psyche and the only way to express a semiotic wholeness
of a subjective feeling.
In the theory underlying AA, allegory is not only considered as the construction
of meaning and the result of communication. It is the relay of communication, the
image in the imagination, and constitutes abstract interaction (Haverkamp, 2009).
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Therefore, both artistic (gurative, divergent) abstraction and scientic (discursive,
convergent) abstraction must be conated here. In distinction to the term abstract,
by the term concrete is meant an object that is comprehended in its entirety by the
concrete concept. Abstract, on the other hand, refers to a concept that reects not
an object but its property or attitude toward that object (Wood, 2017). At the same
time, abstract objects are internalized concepts that constitute the immediate content
of human thought and feeling: Concepts, judgments, beliefs, life-script-ideologies,
etc.-where the abstract is interpreted as a method of gradual mental division of an
object, developing concepts, forming more general images of reality constructivisti-
cally (Brubaker & Wang, 2015). From this point of view, the abstract is not entirely
disjoint from the concrete. Abstraction as a universal type of scientic knowledge is
used in mathematics, philosophy, aesthetics, cultural studies, art history, and psychol-
ogy (Saarinen, 2008). Allegories are abstract and dynamic in their function for the
human mind. Like any sign, they orient feeling in irreversible time from the experi-
ences of the past to the hypergeneralized assumptions of the future. Thus, they can be
seen as an anagogic ascent to values and a tropological guide to aective normativity
(Valsiner, 2021). Moreover, AA theory cannot avoid some of Lacan’s (1964) psycho-
analytic ideas. The cathartic function, the depth hermeneutic approach, and the theory
of transference (Lacan, 1964) are basic assumptions for AA. Many hermeneutic tech-
niques attempt to gain insight into unconscious belief systems (Sullivan, 1977). AA
can be seen as a hermeneutic means of understanding the allegorical author’s often
pre- or still unconscious life design ideologies, which will be demonstrated later in
the case study of Theresa. Paradigmatic assumptions, which are usually unconscious
belief systems, but dicult for the client and therapist to recognize, can thus be
uncovered. Furthermore, in theory, allegories are inherently semantically ambiguous
(Guenther, 2021; Haverkamp, 2009; Kurz, 1982). The exegesis of an allegory (in
art), allegorizing (in literature), and AA (in psychology) always point to more than
one meaning of the allegory (Blumenberg, 1960; Sullivan, 1977). Another important
theoretical aspect of AA is the shared cultural schemas behind each allegory. What
schemas does a person choose as resources to create her allegory? What concept does
she start from? The answers can tell us much about the motives and ideas behind the
allegory (Sullivan, 1977) and thus about the ideology of the life script. The particu-
lar in an allegory (e.g., an allegory concerning a sun as a metaphor for light) can be
seen here as an example of the general, as a cultural schema (e.g., the light signies
spiritual truth). This is also the essence of poetry: it expresses the particular without
thinking of the general. After grasping the uniqueness, the trained listener or allegory
analyst can see behind the particular the general, the cultural schemes of an era, the
individual psychodynamics (Kurz, 1982, p. 52). Through AA, we examine a person’s
perspective on something through his or her lens of a cultural schema. In summary,
the functions of allegories to be studied are as follows:
1. Orientation from the past (source area) & orientation in the future (target area).
2. Goal-oriented/purposeful - author’s intent and ideology, often unconscious
(life-script-ideologies).
3. Expression of an inner ambivalence (voices in the ambiguity of the allegory).
4. Classication in norms and narratives (cultural schemes).
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Furthermore, the basic theoretical assumptions of AA are related to some already
existing concepts from psychotherapy research. The aforementioned concepts of
imagination, repression, and transference coming from psychoanalysis (Ferenczi,
2004; Freud, 1915; Lacan, 1964). Also, the theory that the human psyche or personal-
ity is composed of dierent system components or parts does not originate from AA,
but from systems theory (Brubacher, 2006; Schwartz & Sweezy, 2019). Schemas,
especially in the cultural psychology sense (Guenther, 2021), while more broadly
dened in AA theory, are certainly overlapping with Young, Klosko, and Weishaar’s
(2003) theory of schema therapy. The AA theory of working with ambivalences,
life-script-ideologies, or regression also connects to hypnotherapeutic theories, e.g.,
regarding chair work (Butollo & Hagl, 2003; Paivio & Greenberg, 1995; Reddemann
& Sachsse, 1996).
Allegorically speaking, one could accuse AA of being theoretically old wine in
new wineskins. As the author, I can only agree with this in a complementary way,
showing how it is the composition of established and proven grape varieties that
work harmoniously and are pleasantly drinkable in a new tube in today’s world.
Research Process & Method
First, the research project (plan, process, goals, content and preliminary assumptions)
was discussed with Theresa and described to her in detail. For this purpose, in addi-
tion to the verbal discussion, she was given an information brochure in which the
research project was again described in detail. In a participation declaration, which
was signed by me and her, anonymity protection, participation possibility, purpose
limitation, transparency and dropout possibilities could be recorded. In addition,
Theresa agreed in the participation statement that her sessions with me would be
recorded in writing and on tape in the coming months. Written notes were made by
me in the sessions with the goal of an AA, the allegories mentioned in the session,
as well as the content of the sessions in its key points. This rst empirical research
step, included a total of eight sessions. Subsequently, the case study material with the
AA was analyzed in four steps, as suggested by Günther and Krenn (in press). The
extraction and interpretation of the rst-person poems was omitted here for reasons
of research economy. According to the AA (Günther & Krenn, in press), the AA con-
sists of the four steps:
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Source: Steps of the AA (Günther & Krenn, in press)
Consequently, the content of the meetings was reduced to the essential key points.
For this purpose, both the audio recordings and the written notes of the sessions were
consulted. All allegories mentioned by Theresa were extracted and described in the
DeepL description in their respective context. The structure of the DeepL descrip-
tion is based on the order of the sessions. In order to be as transparent and descrip-
tive as possible in the documentation, Theresa’s original verbatim formulations from
the sessions were quoted for central content. The interpretative aspect of the DeepL
description should be kept as low as possible. In the subsequent second step, these
allegories were then combined into an allegory poem in the order of their occurrence
in the therapy process. In the third hermeneutic step, patterns in the allegory-poem
were explored. Questions were asked such as:
● Do the verses work together or are they related?
● Are there categories, harmonies, dissonances, irritations?
For a better overview, the patterns perceived in this step were color-coded in the
allegory poem. Visualization should help to better understand the patterns and make
the interpretation clearer. According to these patterns, the content of the sessions
was interpreted in the same step. The structure of the allegorical1 is also based on
the sequence of the sessions. In this process, the allegories were also examined in
their context for their source and target domains. “The source area of a metaphor
denotes the experiential space from which the linguistic phrase is fed. The target
domain of a metaphor denotes the phenomenon spoken of.“ (Schmitt et al., 2018,
p. 4). This step made it possible to understand the relational aspect of allegory as a
central part of subjective meaning-making, through which we refer from ourselves
1 Allegoresis is the process of allegorical interpretation (cf. Duden, 2022, https://www.duden.de/rechtsch-
reibung/Allegorese).
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Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science
to something else. In addition, the countertransferences I documented in the sessions
were included in the interpretation. In addition, the allegories were carefully exam-
ined for the subcomponents of Theresa’s life-script-ideologies (Guenther, 2021). The
questions listed here served as a guide (Guenther & Krenn, in press):
● What do they think the world should be like?
● What is Theresa’s wish/dream?
● What kind of person does Theresa want to be?
● What does Theresa want to achieve?
● What makes sense in life for Theresa?
All answers or interpretations must always refer to concrete passages or allegories in
the records. At one point, a photograph of a hand drawing of a therapeutic interven-
tion was included for illustrative purposes. The goal of this hermeneutic step was to
uncover Theresa’s life-script-ideology that were only covertly-latent within the study
period. Ultimately, this should result in a deeper understanding of Theresa’s psyche,
and more eective treatment. At the end of the interpretation, the perceived ndings
and results were once again summarized in relation to Theresa’s life-script-ideology
in a summary. In the nal and participatory step, the preliminary AA was presented
to Theresa and discussed with her in further sessions.
Theresa had few comments, but was able to validate the analysis and agreed with
the interpretation. No content was edited in her sense. This participatory validation is
not only essential for ethical reasons, but also an important step to give the participant
the opportunity to be involved in the process of knowledge production. This step
allowed Theresa the opportunity to reject the interpretations and prevent publication
of her AA.
Case Study
In the following section, Theresa is briey introduced as a patient. Here, the sociobio-
graphical data relevant to treatment, the current life situation, her symptomatology
and clinical diagnosis, as well as the therapeutic setting are discussed. The descrip-
tion of her treatment-relevant issues was given in the context (here DeepL descrip-
tion) of the rst sessions, as in the original situation. The 4th and 5th sessions were
selected for the creation of the A-poem and highlighted content description, because
here Theresa presents her themes and conicts particularly pointedly in her allegori-
cal expressions. Also, because at this point a relationship of trust between therapist
and client could already be established. Following the DeepL descriptions, AA pro-
ceeds as above in the four steps, with the hermeneutic part divided as ambivalence
analysis, allegorical analysis (the interpretation of the allegories), and résumé of the
life script ideology. The fourth step, the participatory interpretation with Theresa
was inserted into the hermeneutic chapters for better understanding and separately
marked together with the therapist’s interpretations.
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Content of the Meetings
In the practice appeared Theresa, 22 years, well-groomed, with an open and cordial,
if somewhat restrained appearance. She was very vibratory and could talk about her-
self clearly and openly. Born in a city in Austria, she has a large family there with ve
siblings, parents, aunts, uncles and maternal grandparents, all in close contact. She
is not currently in a relationship, but would like to be. She had moved to Berlin from
Austria in January. She had completed a bachelor’s degree in a creative subject and
now wanted to build a new and independent life in Berlin while looking for a mas-
ter’s position and/or her rst job. She had started a job in Berlin at a startup, which
made her very restless due to many business trips and furthermore turned out to be
contrary to Theresa’s values. She reported that she had slipped into a submanic phase
due to all the work and the wild life in Berlin - many friends from Austria had visited
her last summer to party in Berlin - which had then ended in psychosis. She reported
that she had suered the rst psychotic episode last September 2021, which was fol-
lowed by an inpatient stay in a Berlin clinic for eight weeks, where she had received
an F20.0 diagnosis (paranoid schizophrenia). She reported symptoms related to the
psychosis, such as paranoid anxiety, ego disorder, delusions, and insomnia. In it,
she experienced relational experiences, intrusions, and phonemes, some of which
were even imperative and action-guiding in nature. Currently, she currently describes
symptoms of a mild post-schizophrenic depressive episode, suering from lack of
drive and anhedonia. She had received psychotherapeutic crisis intervention and psy-
chopharmacological therapy in the clinic, but was not suciently stable and there-
fore presented herself to my practice through the mediation of the health insurance
company. We were able to arrange a short-term therapy of eight sessions á 50 min,
which took place from November 9, 2021 to February 8, 2022 at intervals of one to
two weeks. Together with Theresa the following therapy goals could be agreed upon:
– Stabilization in everyday life.
– Overcoming mild depressive symptoms.
– Develop understanding of experiences in psychotic episode.
– Vocational Reorientation.
Session 1–3 (Nov. 9 - Nov. 30, 2021)
Over the course of the initial sessions, Theresa described how she currently felt like
she was “hanging in the air,“ wanting something to “pop out” for her in Berlin, want-
ing to change jobs, wanting to network. She describes how she still feels very lonely
and isolated at home - not least because of Covid restrictions that make many social
contact opportunities impossible. She had attempted romantic relationships several
times in Berlin, but was always disappointed. She was unable to develop a circle of
friends at work due to the amount of travel and home oce work. In addition, she
describes being very afraid of slipping into a psychotic episode again, which is why
she wants to continue to be in treatment. She very much wishes to be able to build a
stable circle of friends. Social and family is very important to her. She also reports
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that she is currently having a conict with her roommate that is stressing her out a lot.
It was possible to create a genogram with Theresa, which outlined the good family
ties and the large circle of friends in Austria. During psychosis, she described repeat-
edly feeling strong relational feelings with relatives and having “gone back into many
primal needs.“ She also described a transcendence experience in many psychotic
experiences. She had written much of this down during the acute phase and wanted
to bring it with her to the upcoming sessions in order to better understand herself.
Sessions 4–5 (Dec. 7-Dec. 13, 2021)
In these sessions, Theresa brought her handwritten notes. We arranged a setting in
which I sat in my chair slightly oset behind and to the side of Theresa. Theresa sat
facing the window. Thus, as she read and narrated, I could see into her notes with her,
but at the same time was out of her eld of vision. During the narrations, Theresa kept
looking up, letting her gaze wander around the room and out the window, and partly
regressing as she relived the psychotic episode by reciting the record. She had taken
many notes in English and stated that she had also thought a lot in English during
the psychosis because it made her feel more professional in the Berlin start-up scene
which is often international and English based. She also described, “In psychosis it
was like I was a mirror. A mirror of society, but I don’t point it at myself.“.
At rst, much of her delusion seemed to revolve around objective world events
on a subjectively experienced level. For Theresa, “everything was overheated”; the
only thing that helped was “talking, which was like a breeze that washes through the
head. She had often written the word “Weltschmerz” in large letters in the middle of
the DinA4 pages of her notebook. She had felt that she was emulating all the pain
of everyone on earth. Not only that of the living, but that of all the people who had
ever lived. It was a “pain that is in the collective.“ She had experienced herself in
this situation as suering but also as highly gifted, which she reports not entirely
without shame. Another central content of the notes revolved around the conserva-
tion of resources in the sense of energy that is preserved in a circle. The term “cir-
cular economy” recurred several times in the awards. She is energetically in contact
with the whole universe, a superior power, a spirit of the world, which is connected
with all people who lived so far and their stories. She experienced this power as an
allegorical personication of “Mother Theresa”. She then experienced the earth as a
“closed system”. In the same breath, however, she again described the “world pain”
and that “the world is suering from fever, [just] overheated.“ She knows this feeling
of world-weariness from her father.
Sessions 6–8 (Jan. 10-Feb. 8, 2022)
At the beginning of the year and after a longer therapy break between the years due to
vacations and a trip of Theresa to her hometown in Austria to visit her family, the last
three sessions could take place. Theresa reported that she had found a new job and
enrolled in a master’s degree at a Berlin university. In addition, she had found an out-
patient psychotherapy that was paid for by her health insurance and with which she
could well imagine continuing treatment for the next few years. She generally spoke
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of things being “calmer in her head” at present. She was also able to formulate the
following wishes for the future: a stable circle of friends, a dog, her own apartment,
a master’s degree and stability, and health. When I asked Theresa in our last session
how she was currently doing, she said, “Despite a few little goofy things, I’m happy.
I’m good with life that way.“.
The Allegory poem
2I hang in the air
What jumps out.
3In psychosis, it was as if I were a mirror. A mirror of society, but I don’t point
it at myself
everything overheated.
just talking helped, like a breeze that washes through the head.
Circular economy.
Mother Theresa.
Weltschmerz.
closed system.
Weltschmerz.
the world suering from fever, overheated.
4Head calmer
Hermeneutics
Sessions 1.-3
The rst three sessions were mainly for relationship building, a resource and problem
analysis, and the formulation of therapy goals. Theresa allegorized her current emo-
tional situation - it would be as if she were “hanging in the air”. If one is hanging in
the air, one has lost the ground under one’s feet, so to speak, feels dependent, usually
neither self-eective nor autonomous, and often also desperate. Theresa seems to
articulate a sense of isolation and loneliness here, which reects her pressure to suf-
fer in relation to her current circumstances. Social contact possibilities were largely
restricted by the state restrictions in the course of Covid-19; she had not been able
to build up a circle of friends in Berlin, was lonely in the home oce, and socially
isolated. In addition, the allegory seems to refer to her sense of insecurity in rela-
tion to the experience of her rst psychotic episode. A feeling of loss of control or
being at the mercy, of dependence on external inuences that she cannot control (like
psychosis). Further, Theresa wants something to “pop out” for her from therapy. If
2 From here: 1–3 session.
3 From here: 4th-5th session.
4 From here: 6th-8th session.
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something can pop out, it must undoubtedly have been previously limited, restrained,
or even imprisoned by something. In any case, “popping out” can be interpreted as
an act of autonomy and desire for freedom. This points to Theresa’s current need to
free herself from dependence and insecurity. This also seems to be in line with the
expressed goals of therapy (stabilization in everyday life, overcoming mild depres-
sive symptomatology, developing understanding for experiences in psychotic epi-
sode, reorientation to a new profession).
Theresa’s ambivalence
Sessions 4.-5
In terms of AA, sessions 4 and 5 turned out to be the most insightful because in many ways
Theresa expressed her psychotic experience and feelings allegorically. In both sessions,
I heard a strong countertransference. In the countertransference, I briey experienced a
kind of horror at rst. I was somewhat horried how a young woman, so level-headed
and reective at that moment, could be so psychotic-manically driven and megalomania-
cal. It could be that my horror was similar to Theresa’s horror, which she felt for herself
in this situation summing up the psychosis. In self-reection, however, I had also felt
very acknowledged by her and had ultimately left the session full of aection. I was
very grateful to Theresa for giving me such a personal insight into her psychotic aect
dynamics, which signied a great deal of (self-)trust on her part for me. This may have
been indicative of Theresa’s feelings toward herself during the session, but also in the
aftermath. By re-exploring and externalizing many psychotic experiences and feelings,
Theresa could have developed a greater trust in herself and consequently more self-accep-
tance. She allowed herself to be more acknowledged - even in her weak and dependent
moments - which in turn allowed her to experience herself as strong, autonomous, and
self-ecacious. In the allegory analysis that follows, the countertransference analysis will
remarkably reect Theresa’s ambivalence. Theresa expressed at the very beginning of the
4th session, “In psychosis it was like I was a mirror. A mirror of society, but I don’t point it
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at myself.“. In the context of frequently expressing her psychotic experiences in English,
this allegory could be interpreted as an attempt to feel professional or self-ecacious.
In some circumstances, as she is at the beginning of her professionalism and wants to
seem more professional than she actually is at the moment. This could be related to the
megalomania experience of a high talent within the psychosis. Here, within her aect
dynamics, something is re-enacted on a subjective micro-level that she perceives in her
start-up environment on an inter-subjective macro-level: People at the beginning of their
careers or in the start-up formation phase of their companies want to seem more profes-
sional than they actually are. Theresa is a mirror: in herself she mirrors the hypocrisy of
HR in Western market capitalism. She also reports it is “all overheated.“ When something
is overheated, it often starts to burn, burst, or vaporize. In either case, the terminology
in the source domain marks a point of change to another state of aggregation - a point
at which the current homeostasis is not established and a cycle is broken due to a rise in
temperature. This allegory marks in the target area the expression of the feeling of mania
in psychosis, which many people with mania experience as hot-headed or runaway. This
feeling is also a subjective mirror, a reference to the societal crisis regarding the world
climate. A crisis that Theresa perceives as threateningly hot and incendiary - in the self, as
in the world. In this regard, the recurring allegory of the “circular economy” is an expres-
sion of a deep personal value of sustainability and closeness to nature, a life-script ideol-
ogy that informs her personal and professional life. The life-script ideology represents
her attempt at a solution in dealing with, an antithesis to mania, overheating and crisis.
There, “only talking helped, like a breeze that washes through the head.“ This seems to
be another reference to an attempted solution by Theresa to deal with the incendiary situ-
ation: Externalization through language seems to have a cathartic, “ushing through”
eect on her. When something is ushed through, it is usually cleansed of something,
cooled down or extinguished. Here the source area of the allegory is with moving water,
which in the target area points to a psychogenesis process. The value of sustainability and
connectedness could be related to the collectivist-altruistic thoughts of the allegory of
“Mother Theresa” and the experience of being as a closed system, as a cycle. One does
not have to be an experienced therapist to be able to interpret a projective identication
in the connection of Theresa and the allegory of “Mother Theresa”. It seems to represent
a kind of alter ego for her, in which she sees many of her values (charity, family, frugal-
ity, circulatory systems, belief in the world-connecting energies) culminating in a unify-
ing way. The “Weltschmerz”, which she describes again and again, represents a (partly
transgenerationally passed on) dynamic, which according to her own statements she also
knows from her father. In addition, however, there is a lack of demarcation within the ego
disorder of psychosis, which makes her projectively identify with the “fever” of the world
with Mother Theresa as the savior of the world. Through this identication, Theresa knew
again at the moment of psychosis what was right and what was wrong, had an ideal,
felt connected to the world and her familiar people. In this way she was able to protect
herself from further ego disturbances or ego losses (delusions, sensory illusions, orienta-
tion and thinking disorders). In the countertransference I felt joy and excitement during
this description of the allegories towards the end of the 5th session, because the material
presented was so revealing and insightful. The excitement could have been a transference
from Theresa to me, which she felt during the sifting and regression into the past psy-
chotic episode. The joy could also have been a transference Theresa felt in the regressive
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Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science
moment when she felt reconnected to the world and in tune with her inner values via the
identication with Mother Theresa.
Sessions 6.-8
She generally spoke of things being “calmer in her head” at the moment. She was also
able to formulate the following wishes for the future: a stable circle of friends, a dog,
her own apartment, a master’s degree and stability, and health. When I asked Theresa
in our last session how she was currently doing, she said, “Despite a few little goofy
things, I’m happy. I’m good with life that way.“. Theresa’s allegories show that she
had managed to use her coping strategy (externalization through poetic-allegorical
pronunciation) to use her values (sustainability, connectedness to people and nature,
charity) to stabilize her crisis.
Resume
Through AA, it emerged which inner values, symbolized by Mother Theresa, ideo-
logically guide Theresa’s life. Autonomy, freedom, honesty, sustainability, and con-
nectedness are core values for her. These values were massively violated for her in
the months and years preceding the psychosis, which is why the psychosis can also
be interpreted as a desperate attempt to regain them. Further sessions with Theresa in
relation to discussing the AA could go in the direction of values exploration. The AA
revealed that Theresa believes that crises in the market economy, social coexistence,
and climate change are at a critical juncture. Dealing with fears about the future and
a stance in this regard could also become a topic for further sessions. Since autonomy
is so central to her, the development of a more un-attached attitude could also be
addressed in further therapy.
Criticism & Outlook
The case of Theresa points to theories according to which psychological crises, espe-
cially psychotic crises, can be interpreted as a mirror of social crises. In the course of
this, the critical question arises whether the subject or rather his environment is ill.
Can a person not become ill in a world characterized by hypocrisy at work, destruc-
tion of nature by man and social isolation by state measures! Does the demarcation
of mental “normality” and mental illness only serve to enforce social conformity?!
Already in 1960 Thomas Szasz asked these questions in his book “The Mith of
Mental Illness”. They seem more relevant than ever today, as Theresa’s psychotic
experiences reect 21st century crises. Some readers will recall their own psychotic
experiences or those of their patients and nd that the themes of psychotic processing
are recurrently similar to those of Theresa.
Criticizing the AA method in its practical application another core issue, I was pointed
at by a reviewer, was simply the question of the incremental applied value of the paper,
hence its evidence-based validity. Explicitly, the question of economic quality criteria is
raised here. Up to now, there is no evidence showing that AA performs superior to other
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Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science
therapeutic tools. That being said, we would need a comparative quantitative analysis
were AA is not employed vs. it will be employed and how AA-informed therapeutic ses-
sions might lead into incremental insights for the patient himself/herself as well as for the
therapist. However, there are fundamentally assumptions in this critique, diering from
the ideas behind the applicability of the AA. The application of psychotherapeutic tools,
especially in psychodynamic and systemic therapy, with single cases is individual based.
The function and eectivity of qualitative methods depends on the alliance between the
therapist and the client. Therefore, there is no necessary need for quantitative verica-
tion of qualitative methods in psychodynamic-systemic orientated therapy. The added
value and validity of the AA lies in its potential to make subjective sense-making, values
or life-script-ideologies, inner parts, as well as coping strategies conscious by using the
patients poetic language – the element of the psychotherapeutic verbatim speech which
is closest to the Gestalt and thus to the wholeness of the underlying aect that wants to
be expressed.
Another critical aspect of the AA at this point is that the analysis can only represent a
snapshot within a therapy process. Further insights into Theresa’s psychodynamics could
emerge from the analysis and participatory debriengs, which would be beyond the scope
of this AA, but could certainly be considered for long-term therapy. Moreover, AA is not
a therapeutic approach in itself. It can be seen merely as a supportive method that points
to issues that might be central to further therapy. In this regard, it could be allegorically
described as a new tool in a psychotherapist’s toolbox with which to clarify ambivalences,
coping mechanisms, inner parts/schemas, and values or life script ideologies. Certain
psychotherapeutic “follow-up” tools or intervention methods might be particularly well
suited for treatment after AA has been implemented. Especially those psychotherapeutic
approaches described in the introduction, seem suitable due to their theoretical and practi-
cal anity with AA. For example, the method of inner parts based on Virginia Satir (so-
called parts: Brubacher 2006; Schwartz & Sweezy, 2019), which originates from systems
therapy, is ideal for working with the parts found through AA. Also, through a behavioral
and schema therapeutic intervention according to Young et al., (2003), so-called maladap-
tive schemas and modes could be further explored, worked through, and integrated into
the client’s personality structure. Also, ambivalence that has become conscious from AA
can be further worked through with chair work originating from Gestalt therapy (Butollo
& Hagl, 2003; Paivio & Greenberg, 1995). Imaginative approaches from psychoanaly-
sis (Balint, 2002; Ferenczi, 2004) or hypnotherapy (Reddemann & Sachsse, 1996) to
regression to reect memories from childhood to the development of a life script ideology
elaborated through AA could also be imagined. In general, maladaptive coping strategies
for need satisfaction, negative beliefs from the life script ideology, ambivalences, etc.
could thus be therapeutically resolved.
Methodologically, also in relation to the preceding methodological chapter, it turned
out that in the future another step could be added to the analysis of AA: a closer look at
how a client moves between allegory sequences within the session. A closer look revealed
Theresa jumping between dierent positions within a session in an allegory poem. Here,
further insight into clients’ ambivalence dynamics might emerge.
It was also shown that AA can be applied shortly after the start of a therapeutic treat-
ment. Theresa’s notes and analyses were made within the rst eight sessions. After the
rst three sessions, once a relationship of trust could be established, the allegories became
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Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science
particularly rich. Thus, the rst three steps of AA seem possible at the beginning of psy-
chotherapy after the rst probationary sessions. This makes it possible to apply AA also
in the context of short-term therapies. However, it should be critically noted here that the
4th and last, participatory step of AA, can amount to an intervention within a therapy. This
became especially clear during the debrieng of the 4th and 5th sessions, in which The-
resa’s interpretations of her psyche through her allegories became particularly emphatic.
Should this step be taken at a point in the therapy process where a client is not able to deal
with the interpretations (accept them or reject them) this could possibly even harm the
client. The precautions to be taken as a result should not be underestimated, and AA for
psychotherapy should be used only by professional personnel. In addition, a total of four
to ve sessions should be scheduled for AA after the probationary sessions have ended.
Author contribution Guenther, L. P. F. (in press). Allegory Analysis. A Methodological Framework For A
Tool For Psychology. In M. A. Campil (Ed.). Organic metaphors in theoretical models of social sciences
(14). Springer.
Guenther, L. P. F. (in press). Allegory Analysis: The Story of Isepal - A Case Study Example. In M. A.
Campill (Ed.). Organic metaphors in theoretical models of social sciences (14). Springer.
Guenther, L. P. F. & Krenn, V. (in press). Allegory Analysis - from Cultural- to Clinical Psychology. In J.
Jacobi & A. Walsh (Ed.). Advances in Cultural Psychology (53).
Guenther (2021). Feelings of Quarantine - Allegories for the Lock Down. In J. Valsiner (Ed.). Culture &
Psychology, 3(1), 1–19.
Guenther (2020). Homo Allegoris: How art perception and allegory analysis reveal the life script ideology.
In P. Marsico (Ed.). Human arenas, 3, 1–16.
Funding No funding has been applied for the present work.
Declarations
Competing Interests There are no competing interests with this research.
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Authors and Aliations
Linus Paul FredericGuenther1
Linus Paul Frederic Guenther
linus.guenther@posteo.de
1 Sigmund-Freud-University Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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