The healing forest metaphor revisited: the seen and "unseen world" of drug use.
There is one world we live in. Its geographical and spatial boundaries tell us this. We see it on maps, we see it on television, and we see it when we walk out of the door. Children, adults, and people of all races and creeds live in this one world. The world we live in is viewed differently by these many individuals. Some see it as hostile, some see it as peaceful, and some go about their daily business and do not see it at all. This is the seen world. The one we can see with our eyes. The seen world is not the only one that exists, however, because there is also another world behind our eyes. When we close our eyes, it is in there. We have an imagination to tell us what it could be like, we have thoughts to tell us what we want it to be like, and we have dreams to tell us what we want it to be. Where is this unseen world? We carry it around with us every nanosecond of every day that we are alive. While we live in the seen world, the unseen world is alive in us. What could the unseen world be like for substance users? This is the topic of the current article.
Gryczynski
Jan
J
Friends Research Institute, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA.
Johnson
Jeannette
J
Coyhis
Don
D
D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D002648:Child; D006694:Holistic Health; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008602:Mental Healing; D019365:Metaphor; D018187:Personal Construct Theory; D012931:Social Environment; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D013695:Temperance / Q000523:psychology