Psychological rites of passage and performance in poetry therapy

Abstract

The arts, when used in a therapeutic setting, facilitate psychological growth. Psyche and symbol interact, and the symbol becomes a guide through the therapeutic process. When poetry or any imaginative literature is the symbolic guide, language becomes the important symbolic system through which images of self, reflected in the poem, come to consciousness. Although the goal for performers of literature may be artistic rather than therapeutic, my research on the psychological process of performers shows that a therapeutic experience often occurs without conscious intent on their part (Rice, 1983). Because language is the medium of poetry and performance, its role in the interaction of psyche and symbol may be examined by looking at the language of the poem, the performer’s dreams, and his/her conscious descriptions of the process as it unfolds. However, many performers do not have a therapeutic experience, or, at least, not with any consistency. Since they constantly interact with poetry, the question arises of what does happen in the interaction of psyche and symbol when a therapeutic experience occurs. It is my hope that the research presented here will address this question and provide implications for the use of poetry in therapy. Poetry therapy and performance share, experientially, the phenomenon of the significant poem-the poem, among many others, which has greater significance because of its impact on psychological awareness. Whether one encounters it in therapy or in performance, the experience of a particular poem often is the turning point in an individual’s consciousness of his/her self and the relationship between that self and the poem. The experience is the recognition of similarities between one’s own inner world and that of another. It often feels like a revelation from on high, as if one is in the presence of a special connectedness that is more than simply new information (Lincoln, 1981, p. x). It is as if one sees the self for the first time because the experience is like a symbolic rebirth. However, the experience is not limited to once only; it may happen several times in one’s life. It cannot be predicted; it comes when it is needed.. What is the need? Why does one poem among many fill that need? I have been interested in these questions as a performer and have seen many similarities between my experience and that of others involved with the performance of a poem, and the use of poetry in the therapeutic setting (Rice, 1983). Even though the performer’s goals are artistic, occasionally he/she will choose a poem and, in the process of preparing the performance, will experience a therapeutic effect. By therapeutic, I do not mean a concept of weeping or other cliches about therapy. I use therapeutic in its deepest psychological sense: a meaningful discovery of self that leads to a psychological rebirth. The interaction with a particular poem, or the performance of it, becomes a rite of passage from one stage of awareness of self to another, with the poem as the facilitator or guide during the process.