The Transformational Power of Storytelling
While myths, as vehicles for conveying wisdom, have been around since the beginning of human history, the therapeutic use of metaphor -- the subtly structured "story with a message" -- is a more recent development.We are storytellers. Perhaps more than anything else, it's what makes us human. Whether it's an archetypal myth, the events of the day on the 11:00 p.m. news, or our own personal lives, stories are the fabric of our existence.In a very literal sense, we are stories. The narrative that is our personal history is the essence of who we are. Long-term memory doesn't fully become operational until we're about 4 years old. As the neuropsychological linking mechanism develops that ties the flow of events together, we begin to experience our life as a story. It is at this moment in time that our sense of self is born.
