ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how metaphoric objects can be used in therapy to: enter into families shared myths, transmit messages that transcend the literal contents of a family's narrative and bring to light missing elements of the essential plot, and introduce new or previously fragmented information which can lead to new or revised family myths and accompanying interactional behaviors. The term family myth refers to a series of fairly well-integrated beliefs shared by all family members, concerning each other and their mutual position in the family life, beliefs that go unchallenged by everyone involved in spite of the distortions which they may conspicuously imply. The metaphoric object in therapy does not lead suddenly to an interpretive key to reality which the whole family can grasp at once, but represents a continual stimulus for reading the constantly changing aspects of their reality, and is a potential bearer of new information.
