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This article is a plea for the recognition of poetry as an integral part of any form of therapeutic encounter. Zahner-Roloff formulates poesis as the shaping of a personal epic and simultaneously works from a basic premise that all healing therapies incorporate spoken or sung words, representing attempts to express images of the inner self. He suggests that there has been a trend towards the powerful force of Logos, over-emphasising the value of conscious processes. He uses poetry as the metaphor for the slant truth, the oblique way and the healing word, all indirect expressions of the experience of the self, which cannot be directly known.
He defines three basic principles underlying poetry therapy: orientation, that is, acknowledging the splitting of the inner world from the outer world; compensation, relating it to Jung's self-regulating mechanism of the psyche; and integration, by which he means all aspects of movement within the psyche.
In the final section of the article Zahner-Roloff considers Jung's use of myth as being the archetypal ground of poetic realities. He states the commonly held opinion that Dionysian poetry represents the collective unconscious, and Apollonian poetry the personal, with the Hermetic expression of speech/communication as the critical link between them. He believes that the study of these areas is vital to the process of delineating differing aspects of the psyche.
This is an interesting article, based on the author's stated wish to delve into the concept of pluralities, psychic movements and the origins of poetic imagery. It is a pity that it does not contain more clinical examples, as these would have given it substance. However, it should be of interest to many Jungian analysts. As Zahner-Roloff states, ‘It is therapeutic to sing, listen and perform’, a reflection of the shared base of most therapeutic alliances.