AN EMPATHIC ANALYSIS. BETWEEN FICTION AND ENCOURAGEMENT

Abstract

Fiction and encouragement are two terms of the adlerian psychotherapeutic model. The term fiction refers to the mind theory and it is a conjecture working at two different levels: a superficial one concerning the clinical-phenomenal appearence of the symptom and behaviour, and a deeper one concerning the creative Self and the psychodinamic of the life style which everybody unconsciously constructs as own way to read, to understand and to interact with the world. According to the adlerian model, the concept of fiction has to be extended also to an epistemological level, i.e. to a metalevel which regards to all psychological theories on psychic apparatus, illness and cure. The term encouragement refers to the tecnique of the analysis and to the counter-trasference general movement; it denotes the “quantum” of the pleasant vital energy that a good analysis has to supply the patient in order to improve his confidence and his courage of living. The concept of encouragement is close to empathy, an ancient concept which recently has received new theoretical impulse thanks to the discovery of the “mirror neurons”. The psychoterapy with two children is the occasion to discuss about these themes from an adlerian point of view