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Two Paradigms to Explore Inner Worlds: Spatial and Fictional Navigation

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Cognitive Psychodynamics as an Integrative Framework in Counselling Psychology and Psychotherapy

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Abstract

Spatial navigation and fictional navigation, two domains in which human beings demonstrate amazing abilities, have a key role in mental life. In this chapter, we specify the elementary processes that underlie mental navigation in space, and then show that navigation in the fictional worlds, but also the dynamics of the inner world as a whole, are largely based on the same type of process. We study some examples of the rich possibilities offered by these two paradigms for clinical work, highlighting the perspectives opened by new technical devices (e.g. virtual reality) to better target therapeutic objectives according to the subjects’ inner world. The spectacular development of clinical tools based on spatial or fictional navigation confirms the interest of an integrative framework as proposed by the cognitive-psychodynamic approach.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See, for example, Plato’s Phaedo 99d, Statesman 300c, Philebus 19c.

  2. 2.

    The embodied cognition framework can be integrated into the broader framework of grounded cognition (Barsalou, 2008), for which symbolic representations rely on iconic/analogical representations to receive content (see Chapter 9, Sect. 2.1).

  3. 3.

    See the example of virtual walks in London, Chapter 9, Sect. 2.1, and the definition of symbolic structures in Chapter 9, Sect. 2.3.

  4. 4.

    Conversely, a mental path that is not taken can become so difficult to practice that it leads nowhere because its symbolic structure is gradually erased, like a Holzweg in the Black Forest (Heidegger 1950/1994; Plagnol, 2004)—such phenomena may be common in Alzheimer’s disease (Delrue & Plagnol, 2017; Plagnol, in press).

  5. 5.

    The compartmentalization we introduced in the previous chapter, concerning the representation of possible worlds, is a case of rigid contextualization. Let us note that our partitions of space are sometimes compartments: if you have always stayed in Europe, it is possible that your mental China functions as a world different from your usual world. (The very rare Latin authors who mention the existence of China (“Seres”) conceived it as a world different from their world.)

  6. 6.

    More targeted work can use the home metaphor and its different dimensions to address the Home ideal and make the link with situations from childhood. The ocean metaphor (Chapter 8, Sect. 3) can also give rise to spatial navigation work.

  7. 7.

    See Chapter 6, Sect. 5.

  8. 8.

    See the case of Miss J in Chapter 8, Sect. 4.

  9. 9.

    Massively multiplayer online role-playing games.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health and Social Sciences, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK

    Tony Ward

  2. Paris 8 University, St. Denis, France

    Arnaud Plagnol

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Ward, T., Plagnol, A. (2019). Two Paradigms to Explore Inner Worlds: Spatial and Fictional Navigation. In: Cognitive Psychodynamics as an Integrative Framework in Counselling Psychology and Psychotherapy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25823-8_10

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