The Wizard of Oz in the Land of the Id: A Bibliotherapy Approach
Sherry Reiter
Sherry Reiter, M.A., C.P.T., R.D.T., is a Creative Arts Therapist at Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn, NY. She is also an Adjunct Faculty Member at the New School for Social Research and Hofstra University in New York.
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ABSTRACT: This essay provides a perspective on the use of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a bibliotherapeutic tool in group therapy. An example of theme extraction in a session is provided. Philosophical and theoretical issues are briefly considered.
In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Baum, 1963) we share the adventures of Dorothy and her friends as they "follow the yellow brick road" leading to the Wizard of Oz. Freud might quip that the Wizard of Oz resides in the confusing land of the id, where all of one's desires and fears are enacted. Here the Cowardly Lion will become courageous, the Tin Man will procure a heart, and Dorothy will find the way home to Kansas.
If we examine The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from a Freudian orientation, we could view the cyclone as symbolic of a chaotic journey into the unconscious. It could also be a metaphor of the upheaval which Dorothy must have experienced when her parents died. Dorothy is lonely in her dark surroundings with an aunt and uncle who never smile. Indeed, her only connection to her happy past life is Toto, her dear dog. "It was Toto that made Dorothy laugh, and saved her from growing gray as her other surroundings" (p. 4).
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (original work published 1900) is a book rich with imagery, metaphors and obvious symbolism. Whether utilizing the book, film, or play, the therapist has a resource which is extremely powerful as a catalyst for discussion of one's own inner desires, journeys which have not led to the yellow brick road, trips toward those wizards whom we believed had the magic to meet our needs, and other individual journeys of disillusionment and enchantment.
Before presenting possible techniques which may be effective in a therapy group, an analysis of some of the key elements in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz will be presented.
Analysis
Loneliness and loss of self are integral to all of Baum's main characters. Dorothy has lost her home. The Scarecrow has an emptiness in his head and needs a brain. The Tin Man is empty inside, and needs a heart. The Lion feels inadequate without courage. The loss of sense of self is beautifully captured in symbolism when the Tin Woodman tells his story of how a wicked witch's enchantment causes him to lose his beloved fiancee:
I was chopping away at my best one day, for I was anxious to get the new house and my wife as soon as possible, when the axe slipped all at once and cut off my left leg.... When I began chopping again my axe slipped' and cut off my right leg. Again I went to the tinner and again he made me a leg out of tin. After this, the enchanted ax cut off my arms, one after the other, but not daunted, I had them replaced with tin ones. The wicked witch then made the axe slip and cut off my head and at first I thought that was the end of me . . . I worked harder than ever, but I little knew how cruel my enemy could be. She thought of a new way to kill my love for the munchkin girl, and made my axe slip again, so that it cut right through my body, splitting me into two halves . . . But alas, I now had no heart, so that I lost all my love for the munchkin maiden and did not care whether I married her or not (pp. 46-47).
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This excerpt alone can provide a powerful theme for group discussion. Immediate associations are the castrating female, the witchmother, who has so emasculated her son, that he becomes unable to move (by cutting off his legs), unable to reach (by cutting off his arms), and unable to love (by splitting him in two). Instead of the nurturing mother who relinquished her son to the larger world, the castrating bitch draws his physical strength to herself, leaving him a hollow man.
The symbolism throughout the story is vivid and powerful. Universally understood symbols including birds, fields, mountains and rivers serve as obstacles or helpers in Dorothy's path. The yellow brick road is the delightful metaphor of Dorothy's path leading home.
The story may be seen as a dream, in which imagery, condensation, and displacement play important roles. A Freudian would hypothesize that Dorothy's early loss of parents increased her oedipal guilt, and moved her to forever seek a father figure. This man of rescue is represented by the Wizard, who supposedly is the answer to all of Dorothy's problems.
It is interesting to note that all of Dorothy's companions are male. They are all inadequate, but loving in response to Dorothy's warmth and affection. We see the good mother figures in the good witches of the north and the south, and the wicked witches of the east and the west. We can speculate that the double figures correspond with the two mother and two father figures in Dorothy's past.
Dorothy must conquer the wicked witch and all her bad feelings toward the bad mother who abandoned her, before being able to return home and accept with appreciation the home she has with Auntie Em. It is not accidental that the silver shoes which are taken from the dead body of the witch at the beginning of the story are the instruments through which Dorothy is able to return home. Dorothy's legacy from the past, the love of her mother, will take her into the journey of the future.
It is significant that Dorothy does not attain her own rescue from the Wizard, who proves to be a humbug. She only goes home when the secret of the silver shoes is revealed to her. She had the means to go home all along, but not the knowledge or necessary experience. She must work through her fear, anger and guilt from wishing to possess her father, and then feeling responsible for her parents' death. Only when she has worked through her unconscious emotional conflicts can she embrace her new substitute parents.
The fact that the Wizard is a phony and incapable of granting the wishes of his visitors, only serves to move Dorothy to do what she previously did not believe she had the power to do. None of Dorothy's companions believed in their own selves. The truth is that the Wizard
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of Oz did not have any magic to empower the travelers; he only confirmed that they had earned those important qualities in the journey down the yellow brick road. An example of the Tin Woodman having a great heart is in evidence toward the beginning of his journey:
Once, indeed, the Tin Woodman stepped upon a beetle that was crawling along the road, and killed the poor thing. This made the Tin Woodman very unhappy, for he was always careful not to hurt any living creature; and as he walked along he wept several tears of sorrow and regret (p. 55).Somehow Freudian theory seems inadequate in explaining Dorothy's behavior. In order to triumph over her circumstances, she must be motivated to change her reality. The yellow brick road may be thought of as the road of challenge, or, as psychiatrist M. Scott Peck (1978) calls it in his bestseller, "The Road Less Traveled." Peck writes about the maturation process in terms of confronting problems and learning to be responsible for one's own actions, as well as learning that certain situations are not one's fault. All of Dorothy's escapades may be seen as a journey of self, in which Dorothy becomes responsible, not only for herself, but for her companions, who in turn become responsible for themselves and the Winkies, the animals of the forest, the Munchkins and the people of Oz, whom the Tin Man, the Lion and the Scarecrow later return to rule. Dorothy seeks a way to return home, which may be symbolic of self-acceptance, or coming to an appreciation of all she is and all she has. She achieves this through hard work and discipline.
Peck defines love as "the will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth . . . Love is a form of work or a form of courage" (p. 120). Perhaps the reason that the character of Dorothy is so appealing is because Dorothy is filled with love and courage. This love is seen in her reciprocal relationships with her companions, and her extension of herself into new and unfamiliar territory as she explores the road leading to Emerald City.
Bruno Bettelheim (1975) in The Uses of Enchantment examines the universal symbolism in fairy tales. He writes: "The school age child should develop consciousness of his personal uniqueness, of his individuality, which means that he can no longer share everything with others; he has to live to some degree by himself and stride out on his own" (p. 164). Many fairy tales direct the child toward the transcending of dependence on his or her parents and reaching the next stage of development, cherishing also the support of peers. In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy's peers are the Lion, the Scarecrow, and the Tin
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Man. Although the child wishes to hold on to the parents beyond the necessary point, she or he needs to learn to trust that someday she or he will master the dangers of the world, even in the exaggerated form in which his or her fears depict them. Ultimately, the child will be enriched by her or his struggle and triumph.
The striving ambition of Dorothy and her companions to persist against obstacles cannot be explained fully by psychoanalytic theory (e.g. tension reduction). Both Bruno Bettelheim and M. Scott Peck stress the importance of encountering one's fears in a courageous, challenging search for truth. Freud was not so dissimilar in philosophy, however, his approach was directed toward examining the past and psychopathology, rather than active involvement in the present and future from a health based perspective.
Theme Extraction in the Bibliotherapy Session
Among the themes which the therapist may choose to use are abandonment, the good and bad mother figure, the seeking of our desires from "false gods" or the reliance upon others to whom individuals may give unrealistic power in their lives. Discussion is likely to lead to an exploration of those personal qualities or values which the individual identifies as priorities in his or her life. The therapist should be prepared to deal with all of these themes, as the client is likely to identify with any or all of these elements.
In group sessions, individual issues begin to surface. They then become accessible for further exploration in private sessions with the primary therapist. For example, when used in a psychiatric hospital's day treatment center, the bibliotherapist attempted to elicit some response from an unusually quiet group member: "How do you feel about our working with this particular story?" Bonnie, a 48-year-old borderline personality with a schizo-affective diagnosis replied, "It kind of bothers me. I know the story backward and forward, like the back of my hand. But knowing it doesn't help me. I'm like Dorothy-I keep trying to get home, but I never seem able to get there."
This powerful statement was later used by the primary therapist in private session. Bonnie was sabotaging her own treatment. Just that week she had gone to an interview to be accepted in a special vocational rehabilitation program, but then alienated the person interviewing her by making hostile remarks. When given the opportunity to complete the application for processing, Bonnie refused to sign the necessary papers. Her intelligence and perceptiveness had not led her
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to action; instead she retained a passive-aggressive stance, creating her own stumbling blocks.
Questions for the therapist to pursue included, "What does going home mean?" "What do you have to gain by staying on the road?" When Bonnie explored this, she admitted feeling comfortable with her road companions at the day treatment program. However, she had never experienced true success in the outside world, and her fears overwhelmed her. Failure was comfortable because it was a well known companion.
When participants were asked to write down their favorite character, their responses expressed a great deal about their own conflicts. One young man, who felt abandoned by his parents, said his favorite character was Toto the dog. When asked why, he explained, "Because Toto was her only ever-faithful companion who never left Dorothy's side despite all her troubles. Even when life was at its worst, in the cyclone, that little dog stayed by her."
As a warm-up to the session, it may be helpful to explore the core qualities or "character essences" which group members perceive in examining the personalities in the story. The group analysis was as follows:
| Character | Core Quality |
| Dorothy | naive, adventurous, loyal, courageous |
| Toto | loyal, frisky |
| Lion | cowardly, friendly |
| Tin Man | sensitive, heartless |
| Scarecrow | intelligent, brainless |
| Wizard | phony, humbug |
| Wicked Witches | evil |
| Glinda | good, motherly |
Participants were asked to write their own name and a list of qualities or one word to describe what they believed to be at the core of their being. Their responses and feelings are invaluable indicators of self-perception, attitude, values, and self-esteem. For example, Jay, a depressed 65-year-old widower, described his core quality as insensitivity. Feedback from the group helped Jay to realize that he was perceived by group members as being particularly helpful, kind and perceptive. Jay responded that he was trying to make up for all the years of insensitivity to his wife; now that she was gone, he realized that he had often treated her with coldness and lack of responsiveness. His guilt played a major role in his depression. Like the heartless Tin Man, he was only now starting to exercise and acknowledge his own sensitivity.
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Participants were asked which character they felt closest to. Strong identifications were immediate. "I'm like the Lion," said a young man with paranoid ideation. "I'm scared of being with people-scared of being alone . . . scared of everything. Some people may be afraid of me because I seem so tough, but I feel more like a mouse than a Lion." In another exercise, participants were asked to complete the following sentence, "I could be happy if I only had ______." The following dialogue took place on the locked ward of a psychiatric hospital.
Sharon: I could be happy if I only had enlightenment.
Therapist: What do you mean by enlightenment?
Sharon: You wouldn't understand.
Therapist: If I asked you what character you feel most like from the Wizard of Oz, what would you say?
Sharon: I feel there is a terrible black mark on me. I am like the Wicked Witch of the East.
Therapist: Do you really think you are evil?
Sharon: I'm not sure. But why otherwise would I be suffering? If I only had the Buddahead, then I could rise above my circumstances.
Therapist: Perhaps you can.
Sharon: But it's too distracting here on the ward. I have to do my chanting or I will be lost. You know how to chant, don't you? (closing her eyes) NOMYORENGYOHO ....
Therapist: Is the chanting the only magic, the only answer to your anxiety?
Sharon: Oh, I see what you're getting at. Do you mean it might be like the Wizard of Oz-just a lot of humbug?
Therapist: I believe there is a magic. But it's inside you all along.
Sharon: (irritated) Of course. But that's why I chant. Obviously you can't understand that.
After much discussion and resistance, this patient was able to begin to explore with the therapist the issues of guilt, fear of rejection, and goodness and evil with which she was preoccupied.
Conclusion
These bibliotherapy approaches offer the practitioner many ways to explore dreams, values, and paths that their patients choose in the journey of self-exploration. Perhaps it is necessary to lose one's way in order to fully appreciate Dorothy's conclusion: "There's no place like home." Each of us must strive to overcome obstacles in our path by actively working to make changes in our lives.
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It is not accidental that The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has become one of the most popular and beloved stories of all time. Don't we all know the fear of abandonment in Dorothy's experience? Are there not times that we all wish we were smarter or braver or more noble of heart? In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz we not only realize our own inadequacies. We combine our knowledge with striving to reach an ideal.
References
Allport, Gordon, W. (1955). Becoming: Basic consideration for a psychology of personality New Haven: Yale University Press.
Baum, F.L. (1963). The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. New York: Ballantine Books (original work published 1900).
Bettelheim, B. (1975). The uses of enchantment: The meaning and importance of fairy tales. New York: Vintage Books.
Maslow, A. (1986). Toward a psychology of being New Jersey: D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc.
Mischel, W. (1971). Introduction to personality New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Peck, M.S. (1978). The road less traveled: A new psychology of love, traditional values and spiritual growth. New York: Simon and Schuster.
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