火のある風景描画法を「読む」ためのヒント(Ⅰ) : 火のもつ象徴的意味について

Prior to understanding the inner worlds of clients by using “Fire in Landscape Technique"(ELT)， which the author has developed，we need to clarify various symbolic meanings of“Fire". In this paper，several such meanings are examined by referring to the collected notions of“Fire" in the fields of folklore，cultural anthropology，religion， psychology，and philosophy.
As a result，some historical and universal associations between “Fire" and our inner worlds are revealed. In particular，the following three features，“Bilateral Character of Fire" (e.g.，Sexual drive vs. Aggressive drive in psychoanalysis)，"Fire as the Instrument of Change" and “Fire as the Conversion Agent," are found to reflect our various inner experiences. In addition，these symbolic meanings of “Fire" are found as well in the themes of clients' drawings collected in FLT. Finally，the present paper suggests a useful application of FLT to the field of clinical psychology，more specifically psychological assessment and psychotherapy.