GROUP MYTHODRAMATIC EXERCISE "Apple Of Discord"

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

The Judgment of Paris inspired some of the greatest literary works in Western civilization and became one of the favorite subjects in the visual arts. The events that followed his decision were immortalized in three great classical epics: Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid, in the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. In due time, he inspired the ancient Greek story about a “beauty contest” and me to develop a group mytho-dramatic exercise: “The Apple of Discord”, which is based on the idea of a mythos permanently existing at a deep level, which retains its basic, unique patterns and principles.

The mythological exercise "Apple of Discord" is carried out in the form of group work with a heterogeneous gender composition of the participants. The goal is to explore and discover various aspects of your inner myth about the nature of relations between a man and a woman, patterns of behavior and traumatic complexes when interacting with persons of the opposite sex, to reveal unconscious attitudes towards the opposite sex, latent fears and expectations associated with the opposite sex, internal prohibitions; female “well-being” in the situation of “competition” and male in the situation of “choice”; and also to open new energy capillaries in male-female interaction.

This exercise opens the way not only to the content-oriented mode of psychotherapy, but also to the ideas of its processuality. I will very briefly indicate that in the content-oriented mode, the analysis vector of the exercise involves the analysis of the internal "judgment" and "choice" of the tendency Ego, that is, a recognized and preferable pattern, as well as suppressed and non-actualized female energies, an extreme defect, which is an area with completely disturbed communicative the connections between the "styles" of the feminine. The analysis of male "scripts" in contact with the female sex presupposes awareness of one's own laws of choice, as well as the role of the "upper and lower dog" (according to F. Perls).

The presenter reminds the participants of the contents of the "Judgment of Paris". All Olympic gods and goddesses, with the exception of Eris, the goddess of strife, were invited to the wedding of the king of Thessaly Peleus and the beautiful sea nymph Thetis. The offended Eris decided to avenge her neglect. Eris brought discord into the festivities by tossing a golden apple with the inscription "The Most Beautiful" on the banquet table. It rolled across the table, and Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, who were present, immediately demanded it for themselves. Each believed that, in fairness and deservedly, this apple should belong to her. They could not decide among themselves which of them was the most beautiful, so they turned to Zeus to resolve their dispute, which evaded the choice, sending them in the company of Hermes to a handsome young man, the shepherd Paris, who was commanded to be a judge. The goddesses approached the young man, who became the judge of their beauty. Hera, the most powerful of the goddesses, was the first to approach Paris and promised, if he conferred the apple of discord on her, to give him strength and power, to make him king over Asia and Europe; Athena, the goddess of wisdom, approached the second and said that she was ready to give him the glory of victories, the glory of the first between heroes and sages; after Hera and Athena, Aphrodite approached the young man and promised him in exchange for the apple of discord the greatest happiness in love - the possession of Elena, the most charming of all mortal wives, similar to the beauty of Aphrodite herself. Paris did not hesitate to give the apple of discord to Aphrodite.

Then the participants are informed that each man of the group becomes a Paris (apples are handed out to men, I will tell about the importance of a real apple later), whose destiny is to choose the most beautiful one and give her an apple as a symbol of her recognition. The task of women is to get an apple by any available means. After that the presenter gives the command “start” and turns into a silent observer of the action being played out.

When the "judgment is over", that is, the apples are handed over to those who are worthy of them, the participants sit in a circle. Thus, in the circle there are women, in whose hands there are apples and women, whose hands are empty. A real apple in the hands of women immediately gives an understanding of who won the competition, which increases the frustration of those whose hands are empty. Then there is a discussion of the strategies involved, the behaviors and tricks used by women, and what prompted men to make their choice in favor of a particular woman. Conventionally, the women's group is divided into those who got the apple and those who did not get it, the latter in turn are divided into those who tried to get the apple and those who did not "get involved in the battle" at all. It is important to start the discussion with how the exercise was initially perceived in general, what feelings arose during this. How did women feel when they were in a situation of rivalry and men as choosing. How comfortable / uncomfortable this situation is, interesting / uninteresting, relevant / irrelevant for the participants.

The experience of this exercise shows that mainly the female part of the group articulates questions of fear of rivalry, comparing oneself with “more worthy / beautiful / interesting / attractive”, confusion, and shame. At the same time, the variational series of experiences is infinitely diverse, which requires not only, and not so much “discussion”, “narrative”, but focusing on the direct experience of experiencing “here and now”.

At the initial, seemingly unequal position of women and men (if desired, someone may perceive "eternal discrimination against women"), the internal "feelings" of women are, nevertheless, different. Some feel themselves to be "conquerors" of men, while realizing various ways of "conquering": sexual (this style, despite the outward similarity of behavioral acts, is phenomenologically different, in some cases it is the so-called "market scenario" - sexuality as a commodity, a style formed as a result of an introject; in others - "domineering script" - as control over sexuality, archetypally femme fatale), partner, maternal, sisterly, mixed (this style splits into two sub-styles - "integrated" and "trial and error", when a woman does not have a point supports and if one style fails, rushes to another for help), etc. others - "supplicants", the third expect an initiative from a man (a sense of "expectation"); the fourth avoid contact with a man (the feeling of "dying", leaving a man, and not from a situation of rivalry with women, which must be distinguished).

The situation of "court" in men shows motive, feelings, selection criteria (it must be said that the awareness of choices and the observing Ego in men in this exercise is weakened in comparison with women).

Another feature of the “trial” process is associated with the fact that in women it often actualizes the feeling of shame, and in men - the feeling of “guilt”.

It happens when a man stays with an apple, that is, he does not find a woman who, in his opinion, deserves it, which invariably leads to narcissistic problems.

In the process of group work, participants discover in themselves a complex play of unconscious meanings, face their passion and anxiety, love and hate.

Sometimes women talk about the feeling of "guilt" in front of those women who did not get an apple, however, focusing on the fact that any feeling of oneself manifests itself in facial expressions, eyes, posture, gestures, intonation, etc., there is no need to talk about the reality of "guilt", while not only not excluding, but suggesting that such an emotional response may be encountered, however, which has not yet happened.