The Minnesota Model
And
Archetypal Psychology

During World War II, the public insane asylums in the United States lacked therapeutic professionals. At the State Mental Hospital in Willmar, Minnesota, Alcoholics Anonymous was invited to treat the chemically dependent inmates and this instituted a mode of treatment known as the “Minnesota Model” in which:

• The counsellor is a participant in the process rather than a controlling professional therapist.

• The patient's objective is to discover a new perspective on life, a new way of living in this world.

• Neither the patient nor the counselor can predict the path to recovery.
  

• A space is created in which all values and conventions are questioned.
  
  
• The probability of change is greater when dependents share their story with other dependents within a group.

This is the basis of treatment in Vila Serena. The difficulty in the past 25 years has been to maintain the focus of the program on the group and encourage the counselors to act as participants in the therapeutic process, rowing in the same boat, rather than adopting the posture of an authoritative therapeutic professional.

This is difficult because the counselor with the best of intentions has the tendency to accumulate experience, literalize and codify his or her approach into a methodology and assume the posture of a therapist who has the response for each case.

The attached presentation of, “The Winds of Life and Chemical Dependency – An Application of Archetypal Psychology” is an attempt to work with the counselors to maintain their enthusiasm and energy, to keep an open mind and view the group as fascinating and process in flux.

Click here for an English version of this document in Word .doc format. (174kb) (28 pages)

Click here for an English version of this document in Adobe .pdf format. (78kb) (28 Pages)

Also available is a 36 page detailed presentation of, "The Minnesota Model in Brazil" with comments by James Hillman.

Click here for an English version of this document in Word .doc format. (149kb) (36 pages)

Click here for an English version of this document in Adobe .pdf format. (150kb) (36 pages)