ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that surrounded his early experiences, and ends the work in such a way as to encourage him to continue this process as the workshop progresses. He provides the idea of a fantasy parent, a parent figure invented by the child as a protective device. A major challenge for the therapist is to move past the well-established and thought-through cognitive structures into the raw experience out of which were generated Chris's early script decisions. Chris is a man in his midthirties, well-versed in therapeutic theory and practice. He has worked with Richard before and he understands many of his own issues. Chris was the first child of an inadequate mother and father who were "around" but unable or unwilling to accept parental responsibilities; Chris's younger siblings were reared in an orphanage.
