Ineffective Solutions: The Doctor and Therapist Metaphors

The Arrival of the Doctor and the Superficial Prescription

As the young man cried for help from the bottom of the hole, a doctor passing by looked in, asking him with professional curiosity what was wrong.

After hearing that the problem was being trapped, the doctor, instead of looking for a practical solution, simply took out his prescription pad and wrote him a prescription.

He then threw the prescription into the hole, offering a solution that treated the superficial discomfort but completely ignored the fundamental problem of being trapped.

This action represents all those approaches that seek only to relieve the symptoms of stress, such as anxiety, without ever addressing the true cause that is generating them.

The metaphor teaches us that treating the effect without understanding the cause is a strategy that, although well-intentioned, is completely useless in solving the root problem.

The Futility of the Formula: When Relief Is Not the Way Out

The young man, confused and with the prescription in hand, he couldn't understand what good medicine would do him, since his problem wasn't an illness but physical confinement.

The doctor's recommendation was that if the symptoms of "feeling trapped" continued, he could prescribe an even stronger dose, demonstrating his total disconnection from reality.

This interaction, far from helping him, only served to increase his stress level and anguish even more, as he felt completely misunderstood and without a way out.

The boy realized that a symptom-focused solution would not provide him with the tool he truly needed to escape his difficult situation.

The Therapist's Approach: Analyzing the Hole Instead of Getting Out

Later, a therapist who was walking by approached the hole and, like the doctor, asked the young man what his problem was.

When the boy explained that he was trapped, the therapist knelt down and began asking him questions about how he felt like being inside the cold hole.

Instead of offering a strategy for getting out, the therapist shifted the conversation to the young man's childhood and his relationship with his parents and family.

This situation symbolizes the methodologies that get lost in an endless analysis of the problem, exploring feelings and the past without offering a concrete plan of action.

Although introspection is valuable, it becomes ineffective if it is not oriented towards generating a practical solution that will allow the person to escape from the situation that is afflicting them.

Emotional Exhaustion: Worse Than Before and Still Trapped

After forty minutes of session, the young man was crying on the floor, feeling much worse than before, now carrying the weight of his memories.

Before this interaction, he had only felt stress and fear, but now he was completely overwhelmed by a deep sadness that added to his initial problem of being trapped.

The therapist, at the end of his time, simply left He said goodbye and offered to return in a week if he was still in the hole, leaving him in the same place.

Both the doctor's and the therapist's help failed because they did not understand the young man's primary need: a practical strategy to get out, not an analysis or a palliative.