{"id":3287,"date":"2021-01-16T21:00:06","date_gmt":"2021-01-16T21:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/?p=3287"},"modified":"2020-02-11T18:45:31","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T18:45:31","slug":"story-dying-at-the-age-of-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/16\/3287\/","title":{"rendered":"Dying at the Age of 26"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The case study \u201cDying at the Age of 26\u201d illustrates how compulsive ideas can be modelled in such a way as to eliminate what previously made them so worrying. This follows a cartoon approach; a problem symbol is visualised and metaphorically transformed without reference to any real-life contexts until it becomes a solution symbol. The result is reinforced by a final suggestive question which implies that the answer will be a solution. This procedure merely defuses the substance of the compulsive idea rather than challenging it or taking it away from the client. If the problem recurs at the age of 92, the patient can turn back the figures to 26 or double a figure so that she imagines dying at the age of 292 or 929… The method is also suitable for words imagined in writing, whose letters can be rotated, replaced and altered (\u201cmad\u201d can be changed to \u201csad\u201d, for example).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have a problem,\u201d a friend once said to me. \u201cI\u2019ve somehow got this idea into my head that I\u2019m going to die at the age of 26. That\u2019s not all that long away. I know it\u2019s stupid, but I can\u2019t get rid of the idea, and it frightens me. What can I do about it?\u201d \u201cCreate a mental image of the number 26 and examine it very closely,\u201d I answered. \u201cNow swap the figures around. What do you see?\u201d \u201cThe number 62,\u201d said my friend. \u201cExactly. Now rotate the six by 180\u00ba and stand it on its head. What do you see now?\u201d \u201cThe number 92.\u201d \u201cSo when do you expect to die?\u201d \u201cAt the age of 92.\u201d \u201cIs that ok?\u201d \u201cDefinitely,\u201d said my friend, who was free of the problem from then on. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The case study \u201cDying at the Age of 26\u201d illustrates how compulsive ideas can be modelled in such a way as to eliminate what previously made them so worrying. This follows a cartoon approach; a problem symbol is visualised and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3287"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3646,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287\/revisions\/3646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}