Dr. Seuss Bridge

Sometimes in a therapy session an image will come into my mind, often revealing to me a theme or insight to explore with a client. This happened today when I found myself thinking of a picture from a Dr. Seuss book as a client was talking to me.

People who don't have small children might not have much of a frame of reference for this metaphor, although many Dr. Seuss images have entered the popular culture. Laws of gravity and physics exist in a haphazard fashion in the worlds drawn by Dr. Seuss. Houses or even whole cities are held teetering high in the air by the flimsiest of supports. Bridges or elephants rest on a single branch. It's a fanciful world where everything is poised to fall and yet most of the inhabitants are trusting and happy.

Sometimes the logic of the human mind is as winding, tenuous and rickety as a Dr. Seuss bridge. It's very easy to rationalize a decision or course of action without regard to how it violates the laws of nature. Addiction, infidelity and other actions that proceed without regard to likely consequences are like a Dr. Seuss bridge: the flimsiest of support holds up reality until the whole contraption comes crashing down.

Fanciful thinking plays a valuable role in preventing toxic seriousness, but major life decisions are best made on the basis of reality. Since humans are very skilled at self-delusion it's important to have ways of reality testing your assumptions. Sometimes the most important aspect of therapy is the simple grounding of assumptions that comes when two people can talk in a very open, honest, supportive and objective fashion.