Summary: Andy explains how a concept such as depression can be turned into a ‘demon’ through everyday language. He describes the shift from feeling depressed to saying ‘I have depression’, where the experience becomes a thing or person with its own will that seems to attack and ruin a life. Depression is the main example, and anorexia is mentioned as another.
Author: Andrew T. Austin
Andrew T. Austin is a therapist, trainer and author. He qualified as a registered general nurse in 1992, with clinical experience that included accident and emergency (A&E) and neurosurgery, and went on to train in Ericksonian hypnotherapy, NLP (to trainer level) and Provocative Therapy with Frank Farrelly. He developed Integral Eye Movement Therapy Technique (IEMT), formalised as a training in 2008, and Metaphors of Movement. Both are included in The SAGE Encyclopedia of Theory in Counseling and Psychotherapy (2015). He is the author of The Rainbow Machine: Tales from a Neurolinguist's Journal, prefaced and edited by Steve Andreas and published by Real People Press.