ABSTRACT
The story Pinocchio holds for all of us a very important theme, the theme of moving from the experience of brokenness and being fragmented to wholeness and aliveness. This is not only a psychological theme; it's a spiritual theme. It's a theme that holds the imagination, the longings and the desires of humanity. Stories and myths of all cultures from the earliest of times explore the awareness of an essential sense of loss and a longing to return to a place of wholeness and unity within ourselves and in relationship with others; to quote T.S. Eliot, "to return to the place where we started and to know it for the first time." Pinocchio speaks to our longing, not just in adults, but to the organismic longing in children as well.
