IMAGINATION, COGNITION AND PERSONALITY, Vol.

21(2) 159-171, 2001-2002

LOKI AND GRENDEL: IMAGERY THERAPY FOR

TWO CLASSES OF EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS

NICHOLAS E. BRINK, PH.D.

Coburn, Pennsylvania

ABSTRACT

Two causes of emotional disorders are those caused by attitudes or behaviors

inflicted upon the client for which the client needs not to take responsibility
and those caused by some unwise decision made by the client for which the
client needs to take responsibility. A combination is most likely, yet this
distinction influences the style and course of therapy as well portrayed in two
ancient myths. When the problems are caused by torment from outside the
client, therapy is empathetic and the healing process of the death of the
internal torment is portrayed by the story of Beowulf. When the problem is
due to a client’s unwise decisions, therapy is more confrontive and requires
death of the unwise inner part and a rebirth of innocence as illustrated in the
Nordic myth of Loki’s children.

Among the many dimensions of emotional, behavioral, and thought disorders and
the many techniques and styles of psychotherapy, this article examines one
dichotomous distinction in etiology and how this distinction determines the nature
of therapy. One class of cause for emotional, behavioral, and thought disorders are
those causes that come from outside of the client and for which the client does not
need to take responsibility, those attitudes and behaviors inflicted upon the client
in early years by others, generally parents, that cause the client to react in panic,
depression, dissociation, etc. The second class are those unwise decisions the
client makes in his or her life that cause similar torment but for which the client
needs to take responsibility. These decisions may have been made in the client’s
youth, e.g., “I am no longer going to let people hurt me, I am going to fight back,”

159
Ó 2002, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc.
160 / BRINK

or the decisions made later in life, e.g., the decision to have an extramarital affair or
the fall into alcoholism. Though these two classes are sometimes difficult to
separate in therapy, especially when one begins to consider why individuals make
poor decisions, I have found that these two classes of cause of torment require very
different “energies” for the course of therapy and suggest different therapeutic
techniques, hypnotic, imaginal, and otherwise.
This distinction in the etiology of emotional, behavioral, and thought disorders
is made clear in ancient myths [1, 2]. Why examine myths? Myths may be
considered and examined as the dreams of our ancestors [2]. Both dreams and
myths are recognized as journeys through the unconscious mind. Just as dreams
are useful in therapy to understand an individual’s unconscious processes, myths
are useful to understand the unconscious processes in a more global sense.
Two myths, the Old English myth of Beowulf [3, 4] and the Nordic myth of
Loki’s children [1, 5] offer beautiful descriptions of these two courses of therapy.
Two additional myths, the Greek myth of The Twelve Labors of Hercules [6] and
the Irish myth of the Death of Fergus McLeide [7], will be considered briefly
to demonstrate a consistency in differentiating between these two etiologies of
emotional, behavioral, and thought disorders.
First, I will retell the stories of Beowulf and Loki’s Children in skeletal form,
eliminating most of the detail. (Selected details will be presented later as they are
relevant to therapy.) The skeletal outline of the myths will then be used to provide
an outline of the course of therapy for the two classes of etiology, followed by
suggested therapeutic techniques for each.

BEOWULF
Beowolf [4] begins with the infant, Scyld Scefing, abandoned on the shores of
Denmark. Scyld Scefing grows to become the first great king of Denmark. His son,
grandson, and great grandson each become even greater kings. King Hrothgar,
the great grandson, reigns as the most powerful king of all, yet for 12 years of his
reign the monster Grendel attacks each night and kills Hrothgar’s men in the
great hall of the king.
When Beowulf, a great warrior from across the sea, hears of the plight of
Hrothgar, he and his men set sail for Denmark. They arrive unexpectedly and are
welcomed with open arms. The night of their arrival Beowulf lies down naked
in the great hall, pretends he is asleep and waits for Grendel. When Grendel
approaches, Beowulf rises, grabs Grendel’s arm and refuses to let go. After an
intense struggle Grendel pulls away, leaving his arm behind.
The next evening, after a great celebration, Grendel’s mother arrives to seek
revenge and kills one of Hrothgar’s favorite counselors. The next day Beowulf,
his men, and the men of Hrothgar track this she-beast to a monster-infested lake.
Beowulf dives in and spends the greatest part of the day fighting monsters on his
way to the bottom. At the bottom Grendel’s mother finds him and carries him to
 LOKI AND GRENDEL / 161

her cave. There they are locked in equal combat until Beowulf sets his hands on a
special sword with which he is able to sever the she-beast’s head. That night
after returning to the great hall of Hrothgar, Beowulf is given many valued gifts
in celebration of the victory.

LOKI’S CHILDREN

The story of Loki [5] begins differently than Beowulf, with the gods of Asgard
living happy lives. But the trickster god, Loki, who is happily married, has an
extramarital affair with an evil giantess with whom he has three monster children:
Jormungand, a sea serpent; Hel, a woman whose upper body is normal but whose
lower body is rotten with decay; and Fenrir, a wolf. Odin, the high god, sees these
monsters in the land of the giants and knows he must do something. He throws
Jormungand into the sea where he belongs, and the serpent proceeds to grow
and grow to such length that he surrounds the world. Odin sends Hel to the
underworld, where she cares for those who have died of illness and old age. He
allows Fenrir to run free in the fields around Asgard, but there the wolf grows
and grows to a gigantic size.
Fearing Fenrir, after two failed attempts at restraining him with chains, the
gods succeed in restraining the wolf on an island out of sight and hearing, using
a magical binding made by the dark elves who live deep within the earth. Yet,
restraining Fenrir requires the sacrifice of the warrior-god Tyr’s hand. With the
great wolf under control, the gods and goddesses are able to cope with all three
of Loki’s monstrous offspring.
However, Loki’s mischief-making is far from over. Balder, a son of Odin, is
loved by everyone and is considered the most sensitive and gentle of the gods.
One night he has a dream that predicts his death. The gods, fearing Balder’s
death, consider all the possible ways he could die and his mother, Frigg, goes on
a journey to obtain from every substance that could kill him a sworn oath that it
will do him no harm. When she returns with these promises everyone rejoices and
begins to celebrate by testing these oaths, throwing every imaginable substance
at Balder who stands unharmed.
Loki is aware of one substance missed by Frigg, mistletoe. He makes a dart of
mistletoe and gives it to Hod, Balder’s blind brother, who throws it at Balder,
killing him. The gods are horrified and after an extensive hunt, Loki is eventually
captured and bound. The binding of Loki is the beginning of three endless winters
and continual strife and starvation for the Norse and their gods. Finally everything
comes to a head. The earth shakes, Fenrir and Loki break loose, Jormungand
crawls out of the sea, and the dead come from Hel, including Balder. The final
battle, Ragnarok, begins. In this fierce battle, Thor and Jormungand kill each
other. Fenrir kills Odin but in turn is killed by one of Odin’s sons. The only
survivors are several children of the gods including Balder—the gentle and
162 / BRINK

sensitive Balder is reborn. Thus, through the cycle of death and rebirth, the rebirth
of innocence is finally complete.

CONTRASTING BEOWULF AND LOKI

Dreams are explanatory metaphors for the dreamer’s emotional state of mind
[8]. Myths can be interpreted as dreams are interpreted. All emotional aspects of
a myth, as with a dream, can be found within one’s self.
In the story of Beowulf, after four generations, the original trauma is forgotten.
The process of forgetting as found within us is the process of dissociation from
the trauma. In contrast, in the story of Loki, the gods are living in happiness
and Loki is happily married. No trauma from which to dissociate is evident.
In both stories, with little warning, monsters enter the scene. Loki’s three
monster-children are a consequence of his extramarital affair, an act for which
he is responsible. But in Beowulf, Hrothgar does nothing wrong. The locus of
responsibility is a major distinction between these two myths. For us as indi-
viduals, Grendel and his mother represent the torment for which we need not take
responsibility, whereas Loki’s children are the monsters we caused for ourselves
in making unwise decisions and committing unwise acts. With Grendel the source
of our torment is unknown to us, but with Loki’s three offspring we have reason to
understand their cause: the Viking seamen fear Jormungand, thus he represents
our fear; Hel is doing penance in the underworld, thus she is our feeling of guilt
for our wrongdoing; and Fenrir’s growth causes the gods increasing worry, thus he
is our obsessive worry. Again, each of the aspects of the myth is an explanatory
metaphor for the ancient dreamer’s emotional state of mind.
The torment of Grendel, for which we do not see ourselves as being respon-
sible and for which we have no control, causes us to feel totally hopeless.
In order to “kill” or overcome this torment, exceptional inner strength arises
unexpectedly from across the sea as represented by the powerful warrior, Beowulf.
In psychotherapy, the therapist needs to help the client attain such ego strength
to face and overcome his or her torment “naked” or without defensiveness. The
only strength we have known until now has been our defenses. Now we find a
new and unexpected strength within ourselves.
Dealing with the three monster-children of Loki takes a different path. The high
god within ourselves, our inner wisdom, knows from where these monsters come
and knows what needs to be done with them. We are aware that our fear, guilt, and
obsessive worry are caused by our unwise decisions and actions. At this point we
feel unable or unwilling to change our decisions or actions, but we must find ways
to cope with the resultant fear, guilt, and anxiety. Just as the Nordic seamen feared
and respected the sea yet found personal strength in daily facing Jormungand, we
learn to face and find strength in facing our fear. Similarly, when we face the guilt
of making the unwise decision or committing the unwise act, we put ourselves in
the place of doing penance for what we decided or did. Accepting this price we
 LOKI AND GRENDEL / 163

have to pay for what we have done gives us the freedom to continue living without
change in our behaviors or deeds.
The third monster provides a greater challenge. By facing this monster,
Fenrir, openly and making some sacrifice, as represented in the myth by Tyr’s
hand, we can find deep within ourselves new defenses to use to cope with our
growing worry.
What is this deep strength we find within ourselves? Though the chains—our
will power—we use in our attempt to bind Fenrir fail, we eventually find a magical
binding made by the dark elves deep in their cave, our unconscious mind. In the
myth this binding is made from six substances: the sound a cat makes when it
walks, the roots of a mountain, the breath of a fish, the beard of a woman, the sinew
of a bear, and the spittle of a bird. Exploring these six images reveals that each
substance represents a different kind of strength: The “sound a cat makes when it
walks” is the focused, silent strength of stalking; the “roots of a mountain”
signifies the strength of stability, of being unable to be moved; the “breath of a
fish” is the rolling strength seen in the rising of bubbles in water flowing around
all obstacles. The “beard of a woman” is the strength seen in her senior years, as
well illustrated by a comment made by my mother: “At my age, who has a better
right?” The “sinew of a bear” is the common muscular strength but of the most
powerful of animals; and the “spittle of a bird” represents the adhering strength
seen in a mud nest held together with a bird’s saliva. A therapist can help access
our previously untapped resources to restrain our obsessive worry.
These strengths allow us to cope with our obsessive worry, yet they allow us to
avoid dealing with the real issue, the cause of our torment. But these monsters
remain alive. The therapist’s primary task is to keep these monsters alive and not
forgotten, to confront the client’s actions or decisions that have caused torment.
Though Grendel is dead and the children of Loki are restricted, the problems
continue. Grendel’s mother arrives and Loki continues his harassment of the other
gods and goddesses. What seems to be the logical solution is only temporary.
After the victory celebration for Beowulf, Grendel’s mother comes to seek
revenge for her son’s death and kills the king’s favorite advisor. The coming of
Grendel’s mother is devastating. Hrothgar deserves our sympathy and benefits
from our continued emotional support and empathy, but we have not lost every-
thing. We still have new strength and understanding gained through our experi-
ences in overcoming Grendel. This strength allows us to track down the original
source of our torment, the initial trauma, Grendel’s mother. From the viewpoint
of the therapist, this tracking process takes empathy with and understanding of
the client’s emotional pain and its cause.
In contrast, when the source of the problem is obviously of our own making the
process is different. Though we have succeeded in restraining or coping with our
fear, guilt, and obsessive worry, these tormentors are still alive and continue to
haunt us. The trickster within us, Loki, continues to harangue and harass us. Loki
challenges us with regard to our inconsistencies, contradictory values, and beliefs.
164 / BRINK

Loki is aware of the contradictory way of life of the gods and goddesses who do
battle and love war, yet also love and praise the gentleness of Balder. He causes us
continued pain and grief with the death of Balder. Loki chooses the sacrifice of
Balder because he is the most beloved and innocent, and he most clearly represents
the inconsistencies of the gods. Loki, I suggest, is the psychologist of Asgard.
The therapist can learn from Loki. We need to be continually challenged and
confronted by the therapist to face our unwise decisions and deeds, whether within
ourselves or by the professional from whom we seek help.
Thus, when our problems are caused by trauma for which we are not respon-
sible, the focus of therapy is on empathy and understanding; and when we are
responsible for our own torment, therapy needs to be confrontive and challenging.
Eventually the gods and goddesses are pushed far enough by Loki that they
track him down and restrain him, too, by using the only binding that will hold him,
the entrails of his son. The binding of Loki is the beginning of the end, the
beginning of three endless winters of starvation and misery. At this point we are in
denial, repressing our fear, guilt, and worry, and refusing to face our unwise
decisions and actions. We frequently deny therapy and our therapist’s recom-
mendations. We are frozen in depression and hopelessness. Finally all hell breaks
loose literally: Jormungand comes out of the sea; Hel and the dead come up from
the underworld; and Fenrir and Loki break free from their bonds. Ragnarok, the
final battle begins. Thor and Jormungand kill each other. Fenrir kills Odin, and
in turn, one of Odin’s sons kills Fenrir. Everyone dies except several children
of the gods, including the resurrected Balder. Finally we face and destroy our
unwise decisions and actions and are reborn in innocence and sensitivity.
In contrast, when we are not responsible for that which torments us, we do not
need to die. With our new strength we are able to dive into the monster-infested
lake and swim to the bottom of our unconscious mind to find and uncover our
original trauma—Grendel’s mother—and destroy it. Our strength can be praised
and our victory celebrated.
Loki’s Children [1] and Beowulf [3] are not alone among myths that describe
this dichotomy. Parallel to the myth of Beowulf, the ancient Greek myth of The
Twelve Labors of Hercules [6] describes another journey to overcome externally
arising torment. As Hercules succeeds in completing 12 superhuman tasks, he
is able to overcome the torment caused him by his stepmother, the goddess Hera,
and thus becomes a god in the Greek pantheon.
Likewise, parallel to the myth of Loki’s Children, the Irish myth of The Death of
Fergus McLeide [7] is of the high king Fergus’s torment by the leprechauns. The
insults and mischief of the leprechaun king Iubdan and his poet Esirt elicit
Fergus’s confession that he was unfaithful to the queen. Iubdan’s continued taunts
cause him to be held captive for five years until he offers Fergus a gift of a magical
pair of shoes. These shoes allow Fergus to travel on water and thus to kill a lake
monster that has caused Fergus great torment. That torment was caused when
Fergus was bathing in the lake, and the monster breathed fire on him, distorting
 LOKI AND GRENDEL / 165

Fergus’s head, twisting his mouth round to the back of his head. With these shoes
Fergus enters the final battle with this monster where both Fergus and the monster
die. While dying, Fergus predicts that even a greater king will follow, Fergus mac
Roig. Thus, this journey of personal change begins with the trickster of our
unconscious mind exposing and ridiculing our unwise decisions and incon-
sistencies, then being held captive while we find ways to cope with our torment
and finally face our tormentor in a battle of death and rebirth.

SUGGESTED THERAPEUTIC TECHNIQUES

Beowulf
The history of the client leading up to the beginning of therapy is represented in
the first portion of the Beowulf poem. Therapy begins with the arrival of Beowulf.
From the time he arrives on the shore of Denmark until he grabs the arm of
Grendel, Beowulf is involved in a series of transactions first with the men of
Hrothgar, and then with King Hrothgar and Queen Weltherow. Each transaction
involves increased trust, increased ego strength, and decreased defensiveness. For
example, when Beowulf and his men arrive at the door of Hrothgar’s great hall
itself, they lay down their weapons before being invited to enter—an act of
decreased defensiveness. When Beowulf meets the king, the king relates stories of
his friendship with Beowulf s father—an increase in trust. Beowulf also tells
stories of his feats of strength in historic battles—an increase in ego-strength.
The therapist increases trust by being empathetic with the chent’s emotional
pain and suffering. A basic element of hypnosis and trance induction is the
development of the “yes-set” [9], i.e., the therapist paces his or her statements
and reflections to the client such that the client answers, “Yes, that is what I
experience,” or “that is what I want.” The client’s response need not be verbal.
If the therapist’s comments are made with sufficient care, a yes-response can be
assured. Such a “yes-set,” the basis of trance induction and the development of
rapport, affirms the relationship and thus increases trust.
Comments of reassurance that the client made the right decision in choosing to
begin therapy are helpful in creating empathy. The word “reframing” is frequently
found in hypnosis literature. Reframing occurs when a comment made by the
client is turned around or explained in such manner by the therapist that the client
finds a new surprising insight or looks at the situation from a surprisingly different
perspective. Such surprise is also considered trance inducing. One reframe I
frequently use at the beginning of therapy is to suggest to the client, “you can be
thankful or appreciate the emotionally painful symptom because, like physical
pain, the emotional pain is a message to you from your unconscious mind, or a
message from God, that something is wrong, possibly in the way you are thinking.
Once we uncover what that something wrong is, you will greatly appreciate the
pain as a reminder to think differently.” Such reframes add to the client’s trust
and increase rapport.
166 / BRINK

History taking can help to increase empathy and trust and be used to uncover the
client’s mechanisms of defense. Examining the history of how the client has
learned to deal with past life trauma avoids placing blame for the trauma on the
actions of significant others and makes the history more relevant to the present
situation, e.g., does the client usually withdraw and become depressed with
common, everyday trauma of life, or does the client worry obsessively or develop
psychosomatic symptoms, etc.? Does such a reaction pattern to trauma have
anything to do with the client’s current symptoms? What does the client’s reaction
pattern suggest with regard to the use of defense mechanisms? This approach in
therapy opens the door to examining the client’s defense mechanisms and can help
in leading the client to let go of the mechanisms and face the problem directly.
Grabbing onto Grendel’s arm and refusing to let go can be referred to as “facing
one’s tormentor” and is again a powerful hypnotic technique in finding power over
torment by objectifying it. I frequently spend considerable time in helping the
client describe as specifically as possible his or her feelings. I often suggest that the
client give the feeling a color, texture, and temperature.
This detailed, sensory description of the client’s torment can then be used as
an effective affective bridge [10] while using time regression. Hypnotic time
regression will be discussed more fully later in this article, but regression can be
useful to identify the defense mechanisms used by the client, especially when a
suggestion is made to “have your adult self go back and be with the younger self
and with all the wisdom and understanding of your adult self, help the younger self
understand” [11]. So far our usual defenses have been ineffective in coping with
our torment. For success, facing our tormentor needs to be done without hanging
onto our defenses but with our real feelings—Beowulf is naked when he grabs
onto Grendel’s arm.
The celebration of Beowulf s victory over Grendel increases the client’s
ego-strength. Then, however, Grendel’s mother comes into the hall of Hrothgar
and kills one of Hrothgar’s favorite counselors. Our increased ego-strength has
prepared us to face the source of our torment, the original trauma, Grendel’s
mother. When a client asks “Why is this happening to me now,” I frequently offer
another reframe: “Your unconscious mind knows that you now have sufficient
strength to face some deeper issue, strength that you did not possess earlier.”
Beowulf tracking the blood of Grendel’s mother and diving into the monster-
infested lake is the process of searching our unconscious mind and uncovering
memories from which we have dissociated. Uncovery, facilitated by the use of
hypnotic time regression and the affect bridge, is the first step of four in the process
of healing [3, 12].
A client, Jason, was asked to describe in detail his feelings while facing the
torment, his anxiety, and panic. After trance induction, the feeling of a tightness in
his chest and the feeling of being unable to breathe were used as a bridge while he
began going back through time. As he went back through time he was asked to
watch for something that caught his attention. It was added that this something
 LOKI AND GRENDEL / 167

might surprise him, a technique that suggests greater dissociation. Jason was
instructed, “When this something catches your attention, stop in time and tell me
what your are experiencing.” Because of the affect bridge, an experience thus
remembered could be considered relevant to Jason’s anxiety and panic. Such an
hypnotic experience may be repeated several times, each time going farther back
through time, until the client experiences an emotional release suggesting that a
significant event has been reached.
When Grendel’s mother finds Beowulf at the bottom of the sea, she carries him
to her cave. An intense battle begins, but the combatants are of equal strength and
equally defended such that each is unable to kill the other. Unlike when Beowulf
grapples with Grendel, he is now wearing his armor and carrying his weapons. We
survived the original trauma because we learned to defend ourselves with this
armor and these weapons, the defenses we have continued to use effectively until
recently and believe we still need. In this battle our old feelings come alive. The
second step in healing is to name these old feelings. At the time of the original
trauma we very likely did not have the language ability to do so. Thus, the therapist
adds to the hypnotic experience the language, “Now let your adult self go back and
be with your younger self and with all the wisdom and understanding of your adult
self, help your younger self find the right words to describe your feelings.” Giving
name to these feelings adds emotional objectivity to the experience, giving the
client greater power over the experience.
While Grendel’s mother and Beowulf continue to battle in the cave at the
bottom of the monster infested lake, Beowulf sets his eyes on a famous sword
forged by the giants. This sword is unable to be lifted by an ordinary man but
Beowulf grabs it and swings it, severing the head of the she-beast. Her blood melts
this sword and only the hilt remains. From this passage of the poem we learn
that Beowulf now has found an effective weapon, a weapon that he did not
have in his armory previously. In the therapy setting, this weapon is some new
understanding that was not present at the time of the original trauma. Helping the
client find the words to describe what he needs provides this new understanding.
Thus, added to the hypnotic experience are the words, “With all the wisdom and
understanding of your adult self, let your adult self go back and be with your
younger self and help your younger self find the right words to describe what
you need” (of the significant other to end the suffering). As adults, we may
have a list of ways we are not going to be like our parents, but the problem is that
this list does not tell us how we are going to be, the alternative ways to be.
Unintentionally, we continue to be like our parents in subtle ways. By defining
what we need in positive terms, we uncover the ways we do want to be. For
example, Jason may say, “I will not get angry like my dad.” But his anger still
comes out in different ways, perhaps in a passive-aggressive manner. Jason
saying, “I need my dad to be gentle and patient,” provides a needed alternative.
I indicate to Jason, “When you ask your dad to be gentle and patient, you are
talking to the dad within you, healing and integrating the role of father within you.
168 / BRINK

Later, when you are healed you may want to talk to your father, but I do not
recommend that you do it until you are healed.”
The fourth step in healing is found after the death of Grendel’s mother. Beowulf
looks around the cave and selects two things to take with him back to the surface of
the lake and back to Hrothgar: the hilt of the sword of the giants and the head of
Grendel, which he also sees in the cave. We need to take something from this
hypnotic experience as a continued reminder to keep us on the path of change. In
therapy the fourth step occurs in therapeutic discussions and/or in journaling. If
clients feel comfortable writing, I suggest that they begin a journal using these four
steps: remembering traumatic incidents in their life, defining the feelings and what
they needed in each incident, and fourth, reporting current life experiences in
which they succeed or fail in being now for others what they needed from their
parents or significant others in the past. This journaling is most effectively done
using a word processor where one can go back and easily add or insert comments
as they are remembered.
As we recognize and record how we have changed, we are each able to celebrate
a great victory.

Loki’s Children

The myth of Loki’s children describes the course of change or of therapy when
we are responsible for the unwise decisions or actions that caused the behavioral,
emotional, or thought disorder from which we suffer. It seems that trauma that
occurs through no fault of our own tend to result in emotional or thought disorders,
whereas the trauma resulting from our own decisions and actions are more likely
to cause behavioral disorders such as anger control problems, alcoholism, extra-
marital affairs, problems with procrastination or time management, and problems
with being disorganized. We experience fear, guilt, and obsessive worry with such
problems, but we find ways to cope with these three emotional features. The
person with uncontrollable rage tends to find a sense of strength to overcome the
feelings of fear, just as the Viking seamen found strength in facing Jormungand.
Though the disorganized person who is unable to complete any task on time may
experience guilt, this guilt is likely blamed on others. An individual suffering
this class of disorders is likely to worry obsessively, but this worry also becomes
an excuse for becoming irritable or angry, or for escaping into alcohol or an
extramarital affair.
When a person comes to therapy at this fearful, guilt ridden, and worrying stage
in dealing with the problem, it is often because he or she is being pushed into
therapy by someone else and is not truly ready to take change seriously. The
therapist’s role is to challenge and confront such individuals in an attempt to get
them to face their fear, guilt, and obsessive worry in a more honest and direct way,
to challenge them to take responsibility for their actions or decisions. Being
empathetic with such individuals only supports their tendency to relinquish their
 LOKI AND GRENDEL / 169

responsibility. Thus, from the beginning the therapist plays the role of the trickster
god, Loki, challenging the inconsistencies of the individual.
Clients in this situation are likely to be unreliable in coming for therapy, but they
seem to be reliable in returning to therapy when life becomes difficult. Only when
they “hit rock bottom,” using a phrase from Alcoholics Anonymous, do they begin
therapy seriously. This “rock bottom” may be when their spouse leaves them,
when they lose their job, when they are arrested or get into legal trouble, or a
combination of these. At this stage the therapist needs to continue to challenge and
confront the client. One useful technique is the double chair technique of Gestalt
therapy. Though this technique is useful during the earlier stage of therapy, it
seems to have a greater effect when the client has hit bottom. The double chair
technique begins with assigning to an empty chair in the therapy room the
characteristics of the client that are causing him the problems; for instance, one
chair “is that part of you that explodes in a rage at little things, a part of you that
feels out of control.” We assign to another chair the opposite characteristics, the
client’s “shadow,” or at least a beginning description of the opposite, e.g., “in that
other chair is a mellow, laid-back part of you.” As the therapist helps in developing
the descriptions of these two parts, one important factor is to realize that each
part is neither entirely good nor bad. The mellow, laid-back part of the individual
may be seen as “weak, a part of you that would let others take advantage of
you. The explosive part of you is exciting, strong, and spontaneous. One is sitting
upright with shoulders back, the other has his head bent staring at the floor.”
As these images develop, it is important for the client to realize that it is not a
matter of being exclusively one way or the other, but it is important to learn to
rise above these two possibilities and to be able to choose the most effective
behavior for the moment, to take charge of one’s life.
Such individuals are frequently quite impatient and therapy may again end, but
the seed has been planted. As the lives of these clients continue, they likely find it
more and more difficult to blame others for their problems and become quicker
to take responsibility for their own decisions and actions—their Loki within is
restrained. During this time life seems to be missing something; life seems empty.
They may be are taking responsibility for not drinking, for not having an affair, or
for controlling their anger, but their control over their behavior is by will power,
and who they are or what life is about is still unknown. They have sacrificed a part
of life but they have nothing to fill the emptiness created by the sacrifice. Only
after the “three endless winters” of emptiness are they prepared to face the final
battle, to begin life anew in innocence. Facing this emptiness, or the grief of
sacrifice, helps these individuals gain the necessary strength to survive the final
battle. A useful therapeutic technique to encourage the process of grief is to direct
the individual to write a eulogy of death of part of them, to create some form of
ritual to celebrate this death and to find some symbolic way of remembering or
enshrining it, for example, to “write a poem describing the part of you that is dying
or has died, burn it and put the ashes in a special urn on your book shelf.”
170 / BRINK

A hypnotic technique that is helpful in filling this emptiness is to lead the client
to “remember that special place you had in your youth where you kept special
things, a box, drawer, jewelry box, a coffee can, that special place where you put
what was valuable to you. Think of that special place when it was empty. Think of
the possibilities and opportunities of what you can do with that empty space, let the
excitement of these possibilities and opportunities grow within you, let yourself
begin to dream, and be curious and wondering where these dreams will lead you.
You have the rest of your life ahead of you and these dreams can be fulfilled.”
Beginning with the endless three winters and continuing through the final battle,
Ragnarok, therapy loses much of its confrontive and challenging flavor and
becomes more empathetic and supportive because the client has finally become
honest in his or her attempt to change.

CONCLUSION
A dichotomy in the etiology of behavioral, emotional, and thought disorders
suggests two different paths in providing therapy for clients with these disorders.
The cause of some behavioral, emotional, and thought disorders may be found
in the client’s early life experiences in which case the client needs not take
responsibility for the trauma. The trauma may be severe, such as physical and
sexual abuse or much more subtle, such as a father’s sigh of frustration or
disapproval for the little accidents typical of a child. The process of uncovering
and healing such trauma requires empathy and understanding on the part of the
therapist. The course of this therapy is well described in the ancient English
myth of Beowulf.
On the other hand, the cause of some behavioral, emotional, and thought
disorders may be found in the unwise decisions and actions of an individual and
the individual’s need to take responsibility for the consequences. The course of
therapy in this class of problems requires a very different energy or attitude in
therapy. The therapist needs to be confrontive and challenging. This challenging
and confrontive therapy is well described in the ancient Nordic myth of Loki’s
Children.
This distinction in the cause of behavioral, emotional, and thought disorders
is not always clear. While working with an individual who made some unwise
decision or committed some unwise act, the question may be asked, “Why did he
or she do it?” Tracking down the cause may quickly change the course of therapy
to uncovering some early childhood trauma. Such a change in the course of
therapy may be appropriate, or it may be a mistake because it can give the client an
excuse for his or her actions and thus the client may relinquish responsibility. In
the overall course of therapy, issues change revealing some issues for which the
client needs to take responsibility and some for which the client needs to be freed
from responsibility. Effective therapy requires an awareness of these two courses
and the ability to flow back and forth between the two when appropriate. Such
 LOKI AND GRENDEL / 171

archetypal patterns as those presented in these myths may be useful maps for the
therapist as he or she continually seeks the appropriate response to the client’s
unfolding story.

REFERENCES
1. N. E. Brink, Loki’s Children: A Mythical Understanding of Hypnosis in the Process of
Change, Hypnos: Swedish Journal of Hypnosis in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic
Medicine, 22:3, pp. 154-158, 1995.
2. N. E. Brink, Understanding the Imagery of Myth Through Hypnosis, Hypnos:
Swedish Journal of Hypnosis in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medincine, 22:3,
pp. 154-158, 1994.
3. N. E. Brink, Grendel and His Mother: Healing the Trauma of Childhood Through
Dreams, Imagery, and Hypnosis, Baywood, Amityville, New York, 2002.
4. D. Wright, Beowulf, Penguin, New York, 1957.
5. S. Sturluson, The Prose Edda, J. I. Young (trans.), University of California Press,
Berkeley, California, 1984.
6. R. Graves, The Twelve Labors of Hercules, The Greek Myths, Vol. II, Penguin, New
York, pp. 84-157, 1990.
7. T. C. Cross and C. H. Slover, The Death of Fergus McLeide, Ancient Irish Tales,
Barnes & Noble Books, New York, pp. 471-487, 1996.
8. E. Hartmann, Dreams and Nighmares: The New Theory on the Origin and Meaning
of Dreams, Plenum, New York, 1998.
9. M. H. Erickson, E. L. Rossi, and S. I. Rossi, Hypnotic Realities, Irvington, New York,
1976.
10. J. G. Watkins, The Affect Bridge, International Journal of Clinical and Experimental
Hypnosis, 19:1, pp. 21-27, 1971.
11. E. A. Barnett, Analytical Hypnotherapy: Principles and Practice, Junica, Kingston,
Ontario, Canada, 1981.
12. N. E. Brink, Going Beyond Anger in Dealing with Abuse, Proceedings of the 14th
International Congress of Hypnosis, San Diego, California, 1997.

Direct reprint requests to:

Nicholas E. Brink, Ph.D.
125 Weaver Avenue
P.O. Box 94
Coburn, PA 16832
e-mail: nbrink@imaginalmind.com