Fiction and the ‘Uncanny Valley’ of Self-Confrontation

Abstract

Contemporary applications of the ancient imperative ‘Know Thyself’ implicitly prescribe confronting one’s ‘self’ or, rather, the ‘other’ in one-self. Methods differ. The Self-Confrontation Method, associated with Dialogical Self Theory, involves eliciting (and rating) clients’ narrative valuations of their life situations (Hermans and Kempen, 1993). In contrast, Jungian psychotherapy explores dreams and other fantasies, such as produced in ‘active imagination’ (Jung, 1958). Whereas both use material generated by the client, bibliotherapy utilizes published literary fiction. Shechtman (1999) identifies two forms. In cognitive bibliotherapy, the therapist suggests literary material, leaving clients to draw from it information, experiences and solutions relevant to their needs. In affective bibliotherapy, clients reconnect to their own feelings and experiences through their identification with the characters, the focus being on the enhancement of experiencing through the ‘richness of human life, characters, situations, difficulties, and problems that the literature presents’ (p. 40).