ABSTRACT
One of the most frequent mistakes of trainees in psychotherapy is to presume that the life of the patient would ®nally become meaningful if only the neurosis received treatment, the psychic bugs extracted, like a rotten tooth. This kind of naivety, which, in theory, ought to abate as the young therapist accumulates experience, is unfortunately found in many an experienced therapist because of the habit of considering all ``ordinary'' neurosis ± the kind we all suffer from ± as a medical condition instead of an existential problem. Most neurotic behaviors are more like an unfortunate addiction to a joyless life than a rotten tooth. Being neurotic is like a bad habit that wastes what life has to offer ± this instant, this body, this love, this destiny. The ordinary neurotic personality is like somebody who possesses a colossal fortune and worries every day when the Dow Jones index goes down a few points. Lives that externally appear rich and adapted in every aspect can hide a neurotic misery that turns out to be a poverty of the imagination. The atrophy of the capacity to ``imagine'' is the breeding ground for all self-in¯icted misery. Inner work, as it reveals the interpreting program running in the background, can modify my life's trajectory. Even a slight variation in the interpretation brings about a psychic shift that can make life more interesting (or more distressing). For the process of interpreting my story, I need words (nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs); I need symbols and metaphors; in other words, I need the complete kit of what is usually referred to as literature or mythology.
