Babel or Bible? Order, Chaos and Creativity in Psychotherapy

The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning.

Uncertainty is the very condition to impel Man to unfold his powers.

Several years ago an intelligent and troubled friend of mine, I shall call her Carol, then in her mid-twenties, was sent to a psychiatrist because of worsening symptoms of depression. She remembers him as a kind, fatherly man who asked her a comprehensive range of questions to survey her symptoms, life and dilemmas. Before she left, he informed her of his view that her pattern of distress would be ‘best treated by psychotherapy’ and that he would make arrangements accordingly. Carol, although a bright and educated young woman, came from a background largely alien to matters psychological and introspective. Her parents, pragmatic Northerners from an industrial city, represented a culture and way of thinking very different from the psychodynamically sophisticated psychiatrist she encountered; she did not know what psychotherapy was and he, perhaps unwittingly, did not explore this gulf between them. It was several weeks before Carol received a standardised letter from the hospital telling her of an appointment with Dr. L., a psychotherapist, in four months' time.

By the time Carol went to see Dr. L. her most troublesome depressive symptoms had largely subsided, perhaps due to medication she had been prescribed. She was however left with a churning, ineffable chaos inside her which became heightened on the day of her appointment; the fantasy of her imminent meeting with Dr. L. produced an added, tense composite of hope and fear. A long period of waiting in a neon-lit and threadbare waiting area preceded the appearance of Dr. L. ‘Miss Jackson? I am Doctor L. Will you follow me please,’ was Dr. L's sparse greeting. His voice seemed uncompromisingly dry and neutral, Carol thought, as she was led along a corridor and into a small bare room in which there were two easy chairs. Dr. L. closed the door behind them and silently