ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses various aspects of blindness and denial in human experience as reflected in different literary genres. Examining expressions of blindness in the fairy tale genre helps us explore the concrete, somatic, primary dimension of the social mind. Examining a group workshop utilizing a short story in which blindness and denial play a central role helps us explore some abstract, artistic expressions of the foundation matrix of specific group members that are expressed at a more metaphorical level. As both Eastern and Western great myths use blindness as a metaphor for denial and psychological avoidance of truth, it is possible that it has a similar universal meaning which is probably rooted in the social or collective unconscious. Psychotherapy is about opening one's eyes to truth by working through defense mechanisms such as denial and repression. The vignette is taken from a group process with Israeli students studying bibliotherapy.
