Understanding Intuition Through Narrative and Dream Analysis

1. Narrative TA: • intuition • background images • dreams • guided imagery • metaphors • storytelling Institute for systemic consulting, Wiesloch (Germany) www.isb-w.de

2. Intuition Institute for systemic consulting, Wiesloch (Germany) www.isb-w.de

3. Intuition and TA • The Origins of TA : Intuition and ego-states (Berne’s papers 1949-1962 Paul McCormic ed.) • TA concepts as crystallizations of Berne’s (and others) intuitions • focussed on psychotherapy motivations, biography, limiting life plans, enacting drama (early definition BERNE script = transference drama)

4. Definition of intuition • Berne, Eric 1949 (based on Aristotle) “the way we know something without knowing how we know, and often without knowing in words, what we know”, but we act as if we knew.

5. Evolutionary function of intuition Imagine an ancient human, drinking at a spring, is confronted with a wolf: Is it hungry, strong, aggressive etc? Am I strong, energetic? How far is the next tree? Is it easy to be climbed quickly? Would running or freezing attract the wolf? etc. There is no chance to compute all this rationally, but by intuition, which leads directly to action.

6. Evolution of intuition Is intuition per se selfish? No! Modern science: "Evolution is cooperation!" But person has to be free to use intuition for others. (No taboos or undetected desires!) Is it possible to only refer to others? No! It is ok to tell and live your own story, but in a way also useful to others

7. Broader perspectives • Intuition is judgement about reality (Schmid1991). • Intuition can be qualified or unqualified, can lead or mislead. • Professional intuition must be trained and must become focussed according to what sphere is relevant and for what professional purposes it is needed. • Different professionals should have different masteries in intuition, because they have different spheres of reality to deal with, different roles and different responsibilities.

8. Intuition of the Possible • BERNE's intuitions meant perceptions of represented archaic realities. • JUNG's intuition meant also the anticipation of possible realities: What could be real instead of what is real already? = perception of the potential. • “Realize” means: perceive the possibility and help to make it real.

9. Typology of C.G.Jung thinking intuition of the possible experiencing valuing Institut für systemische Beratung, Wiesloch www.isb-w.de

10. Berne’s limitations to intuition • Taboos = not being allowed to deal with certain aspects of reality • Desires and fears = seduced or blocked or driven by hidden motivations, we do not dare face or admit.

11. More limitations (B. Schmid) 3.Fixations in habits (cultural, professional and organizational) 4. Lack of competence and knowledge 5. Blocking experimental flow (initially not knowing which models and approaches to use) 6. Lack of tuning into each other's spirit 7. Lack of inspiring ideas and creative designs for future realities

12. Intuition  Science Berne: Scientific methods, which offer more security, and intuition, which opens up more options, are the mutual basis for creative action.

13. Background images Institute for systemic consulting, Wiesloch (Germany) www.isb-w.de

14. Dialogue model of communication

15. Lifeplans are influenced by: • nature of the individual • talents and ambitions • equipmentand requests from family • attitudes to life and lifestyles of the milieu in which one was brought up • formative experiences, often represented by key events and inner images

16. Lifeplans and stories • Not primarily scripts, but creative lifeplans • e.g. Fanita English’s lifeplan development: • Compare stories • childhood • adolescence • presence • Fanita: "Berne would have developed in the Jungian direction."

17. Life is meaning Humans are narrative beings. Life is myth, is telling your story. People arealways oriented to what they want to become, telling you somehow, who they want to be or are going to become Empathy for the possible: intuition for the possible future of the other

18. Orientation in life illustrated by inner images: e.g. Train conductor Q: "When you were young, what were your images of what you would do some day, professionally?" A: Train conductor! Q: "What images/scenes are related with this occupation in your mind?" A: 1. "Me and my engine - nobody knows it as I do!" 2. "My colleague and I - two comrades travel around the world!" 3. "So many people, who trust me - I shall guarantee them a safe trip!" 4. "Oriental Express - Many foreign countries. Great Uniform! I personally welcome all VIPs.”

19. Meaningful background images People "adopt"/filter images from their life or from stories, which represent experiences, self-perception or tendencies of the soul. By exploring those images and mirroring in dialogue with others, we get a sense of the personality, the myths and lifestyles, that the soul is interested in and ingredients of life situations, which fit.

20. Meaningful background images for profession and organization • For understanding and creating • meaningful professional situations and one's professional career • 2. Understanding one'sperception of organizational developments and matching those with one's own development • 3. Monitoring, matching and dialoguing on that

21. Exercise: images referring to matching individual and organization • Me past/ Me present/ Me future • Org past/Org present/Org future Me Organization

22. Why work with background images? • Humans are meaning-oriented and mythical! • 2. You can touch the essence of people without intimate information! • 3. Reveals background drifts in processes and relationships. • 4. Very effective in connecting on many levels. • 5. Permits relating to these spheres in a professional world.

23. Dreams, guided imagery, metaphors and storytelling Institute for systemic consulting, Wiesloch (Germany) www.isb-w.de

24. Circus

25. Dreams, metaphors and storytelling • are exempt from the laws of the real world, • are surreal in character, • open up a multi-layered field of meaning and structure • Professionals realize that they can create stories • and metaphors much better and more usefully than • they expect. • This means using traditional ways of teaching. • Indirect suggestions activate creative searches and • solutions.

26. Dealing with dreaming, guided imagery or storytelling as example for dealing with creative realities • the way the dreamer deals with metaphorical occurrences • For example: • for the way he deals with experiences and • dialogues in other contexts. • dialogue using dreams, imagery and stories as modelling for creative dialogue and for building up a “permeable” creative, sensible communication culture

27. Creative dialogues around dreaming • Not dream interpretation in the first place, but dealing with dream experiences and contexts • and creative dialogues. • i.e. exploration and visualization of • what is going on in the dream and • what is going on round about the dream, as well as • the meanings the dreamer gives his dream and • How it resonates in encounters with others.

28. Narrative experimental dialogue • accepted mixture of the dreamer's world of experience and the dialogue partners' worlds of association, • creative experimentation with dream orchestration • and also alternative orchestrations, • unbiased dialog as offers of possible meanings • without resorting to any kind of expert authority, • experimenting with context references = • possible connections between elements of the dream and other life stages.